a few words from a USA Today writer..............
Getting to know Mac addicts
"You Are A God."
Even the most humble technology columnist has to linger a few blissful moments on that absolutely unsolicited remark, which was delivered to me via e-mail one day last week. In fact, the entire week was rather blissful, by e-mail standards.
Almost 300 readers wrote in expressing various levels of worshipfulness.
What, you may ask, could possibly evoke such adoration?
Just the mere act of writing a column praising the ease of use of Macintosh computers.
That may seem strange to anyone who isn't intimately familiar with what is perhaps the longest-running battle on the microcomputer landscape. I am referring, of course, to the Armageddon-style conflict between the geeks who use the computer operating system developed by Microsoft as opposed to one developed by Apple.
(Would-be e-mail writers please take note: I do not use the term "geek" as a pejorative. It's just a shorter way, really, of saying "computer aficionados." Trust me on that.)
Normal (i.e., non-geek) people might wonder what the fuss is about. They also might wonder what an operating system is. For the record, an operating system is the thing that makes your computer crash.
What I wrote last week was that an Apple computer seems to crash less often and is easier to use than one running Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system -- at least in a home environment -- a conclusion based on observations of my 5-year-old daughter, Hannah, who has been playing around with a Power Mac 6500 for several months.
The column struck a responsive chord among Mac users, particularly those with kids.
"I also have a five-year-old daughter and, after being shown the basic point-and-click skills necessary, she could navigate the Mac desktop purely through intuition," wrote Steve Kloves.
The note from Brian Gibson was typical: "Kudos for stepping back and just telling it like it is in a 'real world' way. Sometimes the best illustrations -- your daughter's comments -- are the simplest and most profound."
Hannah even got a prospective job offer. "If your daughter is bright enough to pick a Mac, we should expect to see her working here someday," said George J. Papanicolaou, who said he works at a molecular biology lab involved in genetic research. (Sorry, George, Hannah has her heart set on being an artist.)
The adoring batch of e-mail I got was perhaps most notable because of the infamous reputation that Mac users have for "flaming" -- stuffing electronic mailboxes of critics with hundreds of negative, hot-tempered messages.
Oddly enough, the only negative, hot-tempered response to my column last week was from the pro-Microsoft side of Armageddon.
"Using a 5-year-old to evaluate an operating system has got to be the silliest idea I've ever heard," said someone who identified him/herself only as Sam. "If you look at key (operating system) features, Win95 wins hands down."
Other Windows users insisted that their machines crash less than Macs. Some complained that it was unfair of me to compare a Microsoft-based 83-MHz Pentium with a 250-MHz Apple, even though the specs for the games that Hannah plays fit well within both configurations.
"Apple is DEAD," Marty Baade said flatly. "It just doesn't know enough to lie down."
The quarreling didn't come as a surprise. What came as a surprise was that a few Mac users shed their armor long enough to grant that Windows PCs are not worthless pieces of techno-junk, that both operating systems have their strong points.
"I fight the battle every day that a hammer isn't always the best tool for a job and neither is a PC," wrote Dennis Little, who described himself as a veteran programmer. "Each computer -- like each tool -- has its appropriate uses and it seems you've found one of the best reasons for considering a Mac as a reasonable computer."
Amen.
In fact, it's in the basic interest of Windows users for Apple to survive and prosper, if for no other reason than to provide some healthy competition for Microsoft.
Maybe the upcoming Windows 98 would have been released in '95 -- or sooner -- if Apple had been more of a commercial threat. Like Netscape is in the browser wars.
Or does anyone reckon that moneygrubbing Redmond would have cranked out the new Internet Explorer 4.0, and given it away for free, if Netscape's Navigator wasn't such a popular hit?
But let's get back to the point of this column. That is, being called "a god."
Now it's true that my boss doesn't seem to be very impressed.
But there are some other people I'd really like to share that e-mail with. A certain parochial school nun, for example, who at times was rather quick to reach for her paddle. Let me see now, where can I find her e-mail address...
By Sam Vincent Meddis, USA TODAY
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