PC users vs. Mac users
Many of you have PC's, know PC users, work with PC's, and talk with PC users.
Just out of curiosity, can you guesstimate what percentage of them compared with Mac users, talk about upcoming iterations of PC operating systems, PC applications, and PC hardware?
How many do you know who discuss PC's ad nauseam, plead for new PC's, dream about new PC's, and, in short, agonize over new iterations?
In my twenty eight years of using computers, I have NEVER heard even one PC user pine for the next generation of PC's. I have heard PC users talk how they DREAD the next OS or wish for current OS's to be less buggy but they don't seem to be looking forward to new PC's.
Is my experience with PC users, including myself, unique?
You know where I'm going with this. What is it that compels Mac users to be so vociferous about their old, current, and potential computers?
The college where I teach boasts of thousands of PC's but only a handful of labs have Mac's. At the college, I know only six teachers and IT people who use Mac's; however, you would think they are the majority because they are so loud in their 'feelings' about Mac's. I am one of them.
This aspect of almost Mac worship includes old hands and switchers. I can understand the switchers who "come out of the darkness into the light", but Mac veterans, who may not have used PC's, seem to be just as dedicated.
I'd appreciate some thoughts from you.
Just out of curiosity, can you guesstimate what percentage of them compared with Mac users, talk about upcoming iterations of PC operating systems, PC applications, and PC hardware?
How many do you know who discuss PC's ad nauseam, plead for new PC's, dream about new PC's, and, in short, agonize over new iterations?
In my twenty eight years of using computers, I have NEVER heard even one PC user pine for the next generation of PC's. I have heard PC users talk how they DREAD the next OS or wish for current OS's to be less buggy but they don't seem to be looking forward to new PC's.
Is my experience with PC users, including myself, unique?
You know where I'm going with this. What is it that compels Mac users to be so vociferous about their old, current, and potential computers?
The college where I teach boasts of thousands of PC's but only a handful of labs have Mac's. At the college, I know only six teachers and IT people who use Mac's; however, you would think they are the majority because they are so loud in their 'feelings' about Mac's. I am one of them.
This aspect of almost Mac worship includes old hands and switchers. I can understand the switchers who "come out of the darkness into the light", but Mac veterans, who may not have used PC's, seem to be just as dedicated.
I'd appreciate some thoughts from you.
Comments
I'm currently on my fourth Mac and I'll use them as long as Apple exists. Not because I'm blind to Apple's quirks (or where they lack), but because they just work for me and I enjoy them. I use a PC at work but I can't say I really enjoy it. Nobody in my family really is a Mac user, although I converted my wife, but that wasn't hard since she's not a technical person. She does laugh at me when I talk in disdain about PCs and "mocks" my "rebel" status. My parents would love to have one, but a few years back my father went for PC because it gave him what he needed at that time, but now things are different. My extended family doesn't care that I use them, but don't seem interested in using them themselves. That's mostly because of anti-Mac FUD. Only a few people at work use them.
Apple users are different. We make a choice to be different and not mainstream, but we also need to accept the way Apple does things to a certain extent. In someways we are better off and in others not so much, but I'm pretty sure that I'd not have used Macs if I hadn't learned on them back in 1995. Hope this helps.
Is my experience with PC users, including myself, unique?
No I see it a lot too. I think it's because Macs generally don't satisfy the end user's needs. When we were on PPC, the prices were high and the spec was low so we were always needing an upgrade just to get by but they took so long while PC users were coasting along with steady upgrades that were enough for people.
At the same time we were always needing a Windows app here or there so we were always waiting for some better compatibility.
Then OS X came and we all needed upgrades, both hardware and software. Then just a few years later came the Intel switch and new hardware and software again.
The prices are still high because of Apple's design choices and we're still slower than we could be so the need for more is still there - more choice mainly. I think this is where Apple will have longevity where other PC companies don't because they don't give us what we want. If they do then we don't need anything else.
PC users get great deals continuously whereas we get an ok deal on an update when the model of computer we use gets a refresh then it's nothing for 6 months or more. The only computer users that probably won't be dissatisfied at the moment are the Macbook pro users.
I suspect that in 5 years, the interest will fade when Apple don't have the ability to cripple their machines any more. Maybe even Linux will be mature enough and have enough commercial support or virtualization is at a point where OS vendors are irrelevant. I don't like to say it but I truly believe Apple will die with Steve Jobs.
When computers can be built so small that you can fit your desktop-capable Ram, a CPU, mobo, 100GB+ flash drive into something the size of a pocket device, computers will just be modules that slot into displays and Apple products will lose their appeal.
Haha nice
I didn't choose to use a Mac just to be some sort of rebel (contrary to what one of my PC-loving friends claims). I just like it better. I don't dislike Windows terribly, but it didn't give me the same nice experience as the Mac OS does.
Anyway, I think that being in the minority, having only one (highly unique) company to focus on, and having what we consider to be a superior product is what makes us so obsessed.
PCs, on the other hand, are everywhere. They're not "exotic," because everyone has one, or has at least used one. The exotic flavor to the Mac is what catches us all, I think.