Hi, I'm a Mac ... and, I'm Sorry

(An attempt at a short blog.)

I once got into an argument with my uncle (nothing very heated, mind you) about a recent ad campaign by the vacuum company Dyson. At the end of the advert, the founder of the company said, "I just think things ought to work properly" or something like that. My uncle said it sounded arrogant, I countered that it just stated facts.

Following the rather ... oh lets face it, bad Seinfeld advertisement series released by Microsoft; the company and their ad firm have decided to try and resurect the PC from its bad image by showing that millions of people around the world (some ninety-five percent of the human population that owns a computer) runs Microsoft. This overlooks a couple of central themes. First, it is an all too blatant appeal to popularity fallacy. Second, it ignores that PCs have been getting bad marks for crashes, viruses, and generally just "not working properly."

This is not the hardware's fault on the whole (though I have owned a Dell that only gets to be plugged in from time to time). Most PCs have very similar components and do virtually the same thing. However, the modern PC has a major design flaw: its operating system. It isn't that the Window's operating system is flawed or bad or anything like that. These things can be fixed. It is that it is so inherently flawed, bad, and problematic; and that no one at Microsoft thinks that instead of fixing their deservedly tarnished image, they ought to try and fix their products.

In this Microsoft typifies corporate arrogance. They feel that instead of working to make things better, they should not be challenged. Instead of fixing what is the problem, they decide instead to try and "fix" how the problem is perceived.

My friends, I do not have the best job and I am not a graphics designer or scientist; but I do have an amazing computer that has lasted me longer than any computer I have ever owned. It is coming up on four years since I purchased one of my best investments. My last virus was over four years ago (on my Dell), my last hardware fix was over four years ago (on my Dell), the last time I had to restart my computer because of a blue screen of death was ... well you get the picture. My parents have a computer from longer ago than mine. My dad bought a computer recently and it shows no signs of slowing down. This is because all of these computers are Apples.

When people ask me what kind of computer they should buy, my answer is simple, buy a Mac. It doesn't crash, it doesn't get viruses, and it runs as fast years down the line as the day you got it out of the box. To me the choice is obvious. (Ironically it is also obvious to the ad company that runs Microsoft's campaign, for they too, you see ... run the Mac computer.)

Hello, I'm a Mac, and I'm sorry.



P.S. - If you have time and are interested you can also download Linux. It is free, but it is harder to use. Oh yeah, unlike Windows it won't crash, get viruses, etc. Odd how many operating systems out there don't mess up on an hourly basis.

P.P.S. - Yes, that is the blue screen of death leading into my blog post. Lest we get lulled into a false sense of security and happiness by all those "happy" Window's Users, let us not forget what we are "really" dealing with. (Other options were the Mac and PC guys, a video of Windows messing up whenever Bill Gates unveils something, or the MCP from Tron.)