Breaking the Stereotype: The Truth About Being a Mac User

[Dagenais]

I'm a Mac user, but is this what others think of us?

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2002/20020712l.gif

 

[wasteofo2]

Nah, I use windows and I see mac users more like this:

http://www.imageshack.us/files2/macuser.jpg

 

[dduardo]

 

[ShawnD]

That first cartoon is not depicting all Mac users, just Mac zealots.
Mac zealots are that snobby. They use the cost of their computer as some sort of status symbol.

http://myfiles.dyndns.org/media/Apple_Switch_Parody_DivX.avi
warning: video has a few swears in it

 

[Dagenais]

Yes, like the way they compare it to a $50,000 BMW, or $200,000 Ferrari.

I see they way too much.

 

[Pergatory]

I view Mac users like AOL users. They tend to be rather clueless and generally over-opinionated on a subject which they have no expertise. A great deal of the Mac users I've met hate PC's with a passion, and have never even tried using one.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/1999/19990428l.jpg

 

[russ_watters]

Apple's fraudulent advertising doesn't help any.

 

[Monique]

I don't know WHAT people see in Macs, anytime I sit behind one there is trouble:

If I want to download a PDF I have to save it first, where it randomly puts it somewhere on the HD without asking, I spend 15 min looking for the file, open it, try to print it: not enough memory :S or it prints it but two pages on a single face.. I try to change it but there is no option in the printer menu to do anything..

Or how about all the websites I can't open because it doesn't recognize buttons on the screen :S Internet Explorer is a disaster, Netscape a little less worse, but most websites are not compatible with that :S I've never gotten ftp to work on it either..

Why is there no left button on the mouse? Why is there no page up or page down button? Why is the mouse ROUND?!

The most annoying thing is when you finally gather all the necessary data from the net and you try to plug it into an online analyzer tool.. and it turns out that the tool is not active on a mac.. Hotmail doesn't work, studentmail doesn't work, don't have a zip disk, forgot my memory key, time for some coffee [zz)]

The only cool thing about macs is that you can plug in memory keys right into the keyboard and don't have to mess around with USB ports at the back of computers, which are secured against theft in public places, a slight movement sets of an alarm on those things

 

[Monique]

That much I can give mac users: they must have steal nerves, endless patience and genuine ingenuity to work on those machines

 

[Pergatory]

Originally posted by russ_watters
Apple's fraudulent advertising doesn't help any.

Fraudulent advertising? Don't know about that... the only advertising I've seen for Apple merely emphasizes the colors it is available in. I've never seen Apple make any claims as to their hardware being capable of actually doing anything.

Monique - Perhaps you're right, maybe that's the appeal of a Mac! They feel special for using it because using it is like solving a puzzle. I'm waiting for MacOS X-2! Did you hear about the hidden cheat codes?

 

[ShawnD]

I only know of 1 thing Apple has said that was knowingly wrong;
"The Power Mac G5 is the world's fastest personal computer and the first with a 64-bit processor"
AMD announced the Opteron (64-bit processor) on April 22, 2003. That is 2 months before Apple announced the G5. amd press release

Monique, I too have had that memory problem with essentially every program I have ever run on a Mac. In a physics class, we were trying to run a program that would calculate instantaneous x and y velocities and plot a graph in realtime based on how much force and what angle a ball was thrown. If any value higher than about 10000N was entered for force, the program would crap out before finishing the graph because it didn't have enough memory.

A weird thing I noticed about Macs is that they crash funny. Windows 98 will crash if you are doing something. If you leave the computer alone, it will not a crash. With a Mac on the other hand, it will crash when you are starting the computer. That little box with the bomb and the "restart" button appear while the computer is booting. It also appears when you try to shut off the computer.

The only cool thing about macs is that you can plug in memory keys right into the keyboard and don't have to mess around with USB ports at the back of computers

Most PCs have USB slots on the front of them. All of the computers in my house have a USB slot in the front (oldest PC is a P2).

 

[Monique]

Originally posted by ShawnD
Most PCs have USB slots on the front of them. All of the computers in my house have a USB slot in the front (oldest PC is a P2).

Let's put it in another way: I don't know of any Mac where there isn't a keyboard USB. On the other hand, there are still lots of PCs around with all their ports hidden in the back behind a lot of wires :)

 

[russ_watters]

Originally posted by Pergatory
Fraudulent advertising? Don't know about that... the only advertising I've seen for Apple merely emphasizes the colors it is available in. I've never seen Apple make any claims as to their hardware being capable of actually doing anything.

They had a bunch last year that were pulled by the British (I think) version of the FCC because they made bogus speed claims. Apple doctored benchmarks to make their pc's appear faster. It was more than the usual Photoshop-is-the-only-relevant-test shtick they used to do. Heck, the tests are probably still linkable from their website.

They used to claim the G4 was a supercomputer - using an old, obsolete definition.

I only know of 1 thing Apple has said that was knowingly wrong; "The Power Mac G5 is the world's fastest personal computer and the first with a 64-bit processor"
AMD announced the Opteron (64-bit processor) on April 22, 2003.

Intel's 64 bit Itanium has been out for like 3 years.

 

[Dagenais]

Apple's fraudulent advertising doesn't help any.

The "Switch" campaign was pretty successful. Many people have come out with videos on the internet mocking them though, I gave an example on another thread in this forum.

The "Fastest PC" for the G5 commercial was actually banned from UK, it was so far-fetched.

The iPod commercial in which they used Eminem's song, got Apple a lawsuit.

If I want to download a PDF I have to save it first, where it randomly puts it somewhere on the HD without asking, I spend 15 min looking for the file, open it, try to print it: not enough memory :S or it prints it but two pages on a single face.. I try to change it but there is no option in the printer menu to do anything..

Not for me.

I click it, it downloads, adobe reader automatically opens and the document displays.


Try using Safari if you're using Mac OS X.




The thing that bothers me is everything on a Mac costs $$$. Now, in order to get the newest browser, you have to purchase the newest OS. Apple also took the iLife downloads away, now you have to pay for them. Apple knows the crowd of zealots they have lack common sense, and that's why they were able to charge $10,000USD on their 20th anniversary computer.

Yes, that's right, $10,000. If you thought that Macs were overpriced before knowing this...well, you had no idea.

http://tam.axon.net/ .

That thing is worth more than a small car.

And Mac users say Microsoft products are overpriced?

 

[ShawnD]

Originally posted by Dagenais
Apple knows the crowd of zealots they have lack common sense, and that's why they were able to charge $10,000USD on their 20th anniversary computer.

Yes, that's right, $10,000. If you thought that Macs were overpriced before knowing this...well, you had no idea.

OMG! I can't believe that.

 

[Dagenais]

There were actually people crazy enough to buy it too.

Talk about being taken advantage of.

The link I provided is a place for the Mac 20th Anniversary owners to talk.

http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/tam.shtml

It was "discounted" to $7,599 since they couldn't sell enough.

Gee, I wonder why...

 

[ShawnD]

That computer's not even that good. A friend of mine bought a P2 in 97 for $2000 (CDN) and it destroys that mac in almost every way.

introduced May 1997 at $7,499, discontinued
requires Mac OS 7.6.1 through 9.1 (requires special version of Mac OS 8)
CPU: 250 MHz PPC 603e
bus: 50 MHz
CPU performance: 237, MacBench 4
RAM: 32 MB (expandable to 128 MB, accepts two 168-pin 5V 60ns or faster EDO or FPM DIMMs)
VRAM: 2 MB VRAM
Video: 12.1" 800 x 600 at 8- or 16-bits, ATI 3D RAGE II chip set
L2 cache: 256 KB, expandable to 1 MB
hard drive: 2 GB IDE drive
CD-ROM: 4x
PCI slots: 1 7" slot
1 Comm Slot II, filled with 33.6kbps GeoPort modem
ADB ports: 1
DIN-8 GeoPorts: 2
DB-25 SCSI connector on back of computer
upgrade path: none
dimensions (HxWxD): 17.25"x16.5"x10.0" (43.8x41.9x25.4 cm)
weight: 14.9 lbs. (6.8 kg)

My friend's P2 came with 64mb of ram compared to 32, 4mb vram compared to 2mb, 512L2 cache compared to 256, 6gb hdd compared to 2gb, 8x cd compared to 4x, 4 PCI slots compared to 1. The P2 was a 350mhz which is probably about the same speed, Macs have always been fairly efficient in terms of mhz.

 

[motai]

Ahhh that $10k computer even looks crappy. It looks like one of those really old Apple II's you see every now and then. It looks so warped and unnatural. And judging by its 250 mHz processor, it probably can't pump out the DxDiag DirectX 3.0 cube (which is a very basic example of rudimentary 3d imagery). Anyways, anyone who wants to play 3d games should not use LCD monitors unless it has a very high refresh rate, else it will blurrrr.

32 meg ram? HA! 2 GB HD! 4x CD-ROM??! *looks at TAM's message board* There are THREE fans in this thing? Why in the world would it need that? There are even reports on those message boards of the thing igniting itself from the cd drive on startup!

This thing seems so outdated, and twice as ugly.

 

[Dagenais]

This thing seems so outdated, and twice as ugly.

It is outdated.

 

[Jaramide]

Misspost, please ignore

 

[Artman]

Originally posted by Dagenais
I'm a Mac user ...

Hey, you spelled "loser" wrong.

Sorry, couldn't resist.