[psmith2.0]

Very clear-cut and honest, and he certainly makes good points.

http://ptech.wsj.com/ptech.html

Never seen an article coming at it from that point of view before, so it was nice to read. Much as I hate to cop to it, I realize Macs aren't for everyone.

But it just so happens that the type of user he mentions - casual consumers, interested in home video, digital music and photography, surfing, chatting, videoconferencing, etc. - are indeed the very things the Mac excels at, so I think he's still talking to most people and, in a roundabout way, saying "look at the Mac" IF you're not one of the following (which many people aren't).

Good read. I like his stuff, along with David Pogue.

I don't have much to add, but wanted to share since it impacts many of us here.

[DMBand0026]

You're right paul, it's a very fair article with some great points. And as much as we praise the Mac for being worlds ahead of anything that is Windows/Intel/AMD/ect. Admittedly, the Mac isn't for everyone. I believe that most people would be much better off with a Mac, but not everyone.

Without question, the Macintosh is a better computer than anything else out there. But that doesn't mean that it works for everyone. I know Walt will continue to encourage people to switch, and I hope that the people that can, will. They'll see how much better life can be.

[johnq]

But you don't see people saying "16x9 HD plasma screens aren't for you, because all you own are VHS tapes and your favorite TV shows are 4x3 and not in HD."

Okay, so PC users have legacy equipment and habits, that's hardly a reason for them to deny themselves a more pleasurable experience.

My advocacy is more hardlined. Get the Mac, use both for a month until you gain proficiency and get comfortable in the Mac, then shitcan that PC or at least relegate it to the occasional use, keeping it powered off otherwise.

Anything other than that keeps people in the "I can put up with it some more" mindset and they get too paralyzed with fear to ever change to Mac or anything else.

[BenRoethig]

I look at it this way, the operating system is for everyone; Apple's hardware selection is not. The PowerMac, iMac, and Mac Mini may look cool, but that coolness comes at the price of practicality. ATX boxes may be huge, ugly, etc, but they are practical.

[Chinney]

I actually don’t think all that much of the article. The article is self-contradictory in that it starts with a reference to the author’s recent positive reviews of the Mac – which he says that he continues to “stand by” – but then spends most of the rest of its time slagging Apple. This is compounded by the fact that this slagging is not fair on a lot of points.

My biggest problem is that Mossberg leaves the impression that the only real advantage to the Mac is resistance to spyware and viruses. I’m no frothing Apple fan-boy – I know that in the Wintel vs Apple debate, each side can point to pros and cons. But to suggest that only real “pro” in Apple’s favour, for most people, is resistance to spyware and viruses does not tell the whole story. I work regularly on both Apple and Wintel and I can think of other Apple pros – many of which are recited on these forums every week. I am not saying that there are not cons as well, but if you emphasize just one of the pros you are not being ‘fair and balanced’.

As for Mossberg’s slagging – the “cons” – I think that a lot of them miss the mark or overstate the case:

Resistance to learning new things - learning curve: Fair enough, most everyone has some resistance to learning new things. To suggest Apple should just be off the table for this reason is unfair. New things come along – we learn them. Even in the Wintel world, it is not expected that people will remain stuck in Windows 98. Further, the learning curve on OS X is not steep, especially for basic computing and is balanced, I would argue, by overall ease of use and maintenance after the initial learning period.

One button mouse: He overstates the case. It took me all of a day to get use to hitting Ctrl-click. Some people prefer the one-button mouse. And for those who don’t, you can easily buy two-button mice at reasonable prices that work just fine on the Apple OS. Sure it costs a bit extra, but even people buying Dell and HP are upgrading the cheapo mice that come with their initial system: I know that we had to.

Having to buy new software: True, but even Windows users will generally end-up buying new software – and that costs money too, including, of course MS Office for Windows. Also a good bit of useful and easy-to-use software comes packaged with the Mac.

Specialized business, technical, or custom software: Fair enough if you have the need to run specialized programs compatible with a Windows work environment. I agree with this point and have run into the problem myself. However, check first, because some specialized programs are available on both. Other, non-Windows compatible options are generally available for those whom compatibility is not needed.

Corporate IT staff who won’t maintain your Apple home computer: This is very true. But it overstates the problem. While they are running around trying to ‘fix’ their Wintel computers and networks, you home Apple is likely to be running fine. Indeed, this is the very reason I bought an Apple for home. I was tired of bringing in my home Wintel computer for them to ‘fix’.

Remote networking on to office network I agree that there can be problem, but he misstates the nature of the problem. The real problem is not lack of capability of the Apple side, but an unwillingness of the corporate IT people to make even a small effort, even when there is a capability and it just requires a few setting changes on their part. That’s been my experience. But he is right in that you can expect no cooperation at all from the corporate IT people.

Loving MS Outlook And Outlook is the only functional mail program in the world? MS Outlook is actually part of the problem in the Windows environment.


I could go on with most of the other points that he makes. He either misstates or overstates the case. Neither fair nor balanced in my view.

[SledgeHammer]

He certainly has some points, but the article is far from nuanced, and when it comes to issues like preference of computer platform, nuance is precisely what is important. That said, the only thing that really bothered me about the article was this paragraph (emphasis mine):

The Mac is as good as Windows at these core tasks, and in many cases better. Still, you certainly shouldn't consider switching to the Mac if you are happy with Windows and you aren't much affected by viruses and spyware.

To me it sounds like, "If you aren't being totally screwed doing what you're doing, you should never ever even think of trying anything new." It's just kind of a stupid statement to make. It's that word "certainly" that really bothers me, I think...

[Brad]

Heh. Funny you should point out that key word "certainly." I was actually feeling nit-picky about that and another line... but now it looks like he's edited in a correction. How odd. I know it was there when I first read the article...

Anyway, on a lighter note, courtesy Joy of Tech:

[Carlos Net]

Ah, dammit, I wanted to link that.

[SonOfSylvanus]

Originally Posted by Brad Heh. Funny you should point out that key word "certainly." I was actually feeling nit-picky about that...

Ditto.

[HHogan]

Just in time for that comic, this article comes out.

[mama's left eye]

Too bad I didn't read this article before I bought my parents a mac mini. Would have saved myself a few bucks... Guess I should have got them an emachine.

[HHogan]

Had a funny chat with a friend today:

Bob says: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21326 V-K says: Microsoft is shit Bob says: "admits that the only way to be sure that you have killed a kernel rootkit is to completely erase an infected hard drive and reinstall the operating system from scratch." V-K says: LOL V-K says: losers Bob says: and yet you bash their competition that has no virus made for it yet, nor spyware V-K says: cause it sucks so bad V-K says: nobody even wants to bother to make virus or spyware for it V-K says: cause no sucka would use it

20 minutes later:

Bob says: http://babes.entertainment.ign.com/a.../558529p1.html V-K says: cant open anything...ad aware is scanning Bob says: LOL

[alcimedes]

cripes. no wonder i'm going insane at work with all this crap going on.