I Hate My Mac

[cdd]

Guess I also hate Windows zealots... yes you again cdd and I guess aeonsouce for posting two opinions which are as old and hoary as the "Macs are virus free" one and passing them off as original thought.

Macs have nice ideas, but I'm more familiar with the Windows interface. Given that I've spent the majority of my life learning how it works, I'm not in a great hurry to abandon that huge investment into some different OS which I don't think is much better, as well as presenting numerous disadvantages.

HOWEVER the sad truth is that I am in fact a mac user at heart. I go to great lengths NOT to customise my Windows installation with unnecessary non-Microsoft apps and I like having Internet Explorer and Outlook and Media Player as default applications, and am envious of mac desktops which have every application looking identical.

[Nini]

Sorry to hear that Mark! Windows can certainly suffer from its fair share of problems but there always seems to be a solution out there somewhere. Even if it's not that logical. But this one seems to have stumped you. Strange.

It's certainly got me and doesn't seem all that common so next is to create a new account and see if it's the same in that. I'm almost certain it's a .plist issue now so this should at least confirm or deny if something got corrupted. If not it'll be a Archive and Install which is none too big a deal, it's just the moving stuff over part afterwards which can be annoying.

I like Gavin

I like Ison.

But does anyone like Nini?

Macs have nice ideas, but I'm more familiar with the Windows interface. Given that I've spent the majority of my life learning how it works, I'm not in a great hurry to abandon that huge investment into some different OS which I don't think is much better, as well as presenting numerous disadvantages.

HOWEVER the sad truth is that I am in fact a mac user at heart. I go to great lengths NOT to customise my Windows installation with unnecessary non-Microsoft apps and I like having Internet Explorer and Outlook and Media Player as default applications, and am envious of mac desktops which have every application looking identical.

Hm, don't know what to say except that every OS (including any flavour of Linux) has something that others will not. No OS is the full thing, none ever shall be but to be happy that you can look objectively at another OS and see parts you like... Heck, even I like bits of Linux.

[all new Phil]

*not impressed* with all this talk of mac users being twats! I bought mine purely because it looked pretty and I absolutely love it because it does everything I want it to do nice and quickly. I switch it on and I can be online within seconds, I can make pretty looking documents in iWork, and unlike every PC I've ever used, it hasn't become slower as time has gone by.

I don't hate Windows, in fact I quite like it. I think that the people who are even more annoying than the people who bum off to Apple (and I wouldn't say I'm in that category to be honest) are those who completely hate it and think that anyone who dares to prefer it is somehow smug and stupid.

[lukey]

I've never been interested in the Cult of Mac myself, but fair enough to those who actually think it works for them. There are too many reasons holding me back from even considering switching (other than the cost and being a cantankerous twat who is deeply threatened by change) like being a dev who primarily targets Windows/Xbox, and actually thinking that MS have been doing some Good Things dev-wise lately.

But there's a few things that strike me about the Mac vs. PC argument itself - Gavin suggested that overtly installing software is more logical than dropping it onto the desktop. That's something which usually crops up - comparisons of everyday tasks (do you still drop DVDs onto the Trash to eject them? I haven't properly used a Mac since trying to break one of my friend's Performa's in the mid-90s)to try show up which is the most intuitive, and I just don't think it's a...relevant thing to discuss.

As far as UX goes, Macs and PCs are really just representing barely distinguishable sides of the same paradigm, and the whole desktop metaphor is so abstract as to really render all of these little idiosyncracies as equally unimportant, especially in the context of 'switching'. It's why I've always thought the Switch campaigns are a bit destined to fail. Maybe the people using Windows don't love Windows, or maybe they're not hugely proud of being a Windows user, but they just get on with bemoaning Windows spontaneously restarting because they forgot to dismiss the Windows Update restart timer, that second of unresponsiveness as the UAC prompt pops up, and it randomly deciding to forget how to sort folder views, in exchange for being able to tap into a masssssive ubiquitous ecosystem of software.

My point is really that it doesn't actually matter to us which aspect of which OS seems more intuitive or otherwise superficially 'better' because I don't use Windows for its ease of use so much as it's what I know, and long-time Mac users will have the same implicit loyalty. In terms of attracting newbies to the Mac camp, that almost seems like a more viable market for Apple to chase, but then they crap all over their faces with the price point.

[James H]

I like Gavin

I like Ison.

I still like Ike.

[Alexia]

I like Gavin

I like Ison.

I still like Ike.

I like, therefore iMac.