Switching To Mac is a Waste of Time: My Response

I was originally gonna post this on the following page:

http://www.businesspundit.com/50226711/switching_to_mac_is_a_waste_of_time.php

But, the page isn't taking submissions any more, so I'm gonna waste some bandwidth, pixels, and Blogger disk space and post it here

My Response to "Switching To Mac is a Waste of Time"

I can't believe I'm gonna take the time to do this. It's too bad that the "Mac Nazis" as you call them have apparently been a bit too rabid in calling you out, but let's be honest here- your blog post is dumb.

First you state about Macs that "they don't offer any advantages over a PC." Then you later point out that "There are some benefits, like iMovie and a few other programs not available for PC." Well which is it Einstein? Do they offer no advantages or do they have some benefits? It's one or the other, you can't have both conditions. That dorky logical contradiction should be enough to show what a clueless writer you are and just how badly composed and even more poorly thought out your blog post is. I should stop right here, but just for the sake of amusement, let's examine a few more of your moronic ramblings.

Let's look at this nice claim, "they aren't intuitive at all." Hmmm. Nothing about the Mac is intuitive? Didn't anyone ever tell you about exercising caution with absolute statements? I'm guessing you've never heard the amusing old maxim, 'never say never?'

See, there's plenty of intuitive things about a Mac, as there are plenty of intuitive things about other OSes. And, some things that seem intuitive when you're used to one OS can seem counterintuitive when you're using a less familiar OS. But, stupid as you obviously are, making a point like this was apparently beyond you. All you could come up with was, "they aren't intuitive at all." Again, this should be enough to just stop but, unfortunately, you've managed to pack quite a lot of idiocy into one short little blog post. So, I feel inclined to just keep flogging this dead dog.

Let's see... you then go on and make this really brilliant observation, "Everything is graphics driven and Apple seems to want to avoid using text whenever possible." I'm tempted to remind you again about absolute statements, but I feel like I'd be wasting even more time and effort than I already am.

There're two problems with your statement. The first is that everything on a mac is not graphics driven and Apple doesn't go to great lengths to avoid text. Did you fire up the Terminal? If you had, you might have noticed that it's completely text driven. Did you try the Activity Monitor? It's also very textual. Did you open any Help screens? Yes, most of them contain screen shots but they also all contain textual descriptions of those screen shots along with written descriptions of how to accomplish certain tasks. Drop down menus? Text. In fact, Apple has bucked the trend of some other OSes by not littering their drop down menus with distracting, irritating, tiny little 8x8 pixel icons.

So, not only do we see that your claim is false, now we can examine the stupidity of it. Ever wonder why international signs contain a prominent picture and may or may not include text in several different languages displayed underneath in a less prominent fashion? The reason they are that way is because most of the time if you can communicate something graphically, without text, it's usually more effective. So, where ever Apple might have gone out of their way to avoid text, there's probably a good reason for it. Keep in mind, and this will be hard for you, I'm not saying that they have actually done this, what I am saying is that if they have, there's probably a damn good reason for it.

Had enough? Well, unfortunately, there's still more dunce material in your post that needs addressed.

I really like this, "People also talk about all the cool widgets for Macs, but I've used those through Konfabulator on Windows since before Yahoo bought the company, so I don't really see them as all that impressive." Your logic here is kinda like sayin, 'I've already seen the Grand Canyon, so for the rest of you, just let me tell you that it's really not impressive or even worth the trip.' Sorry, but that's beyond dumbass thinking.

Also, there's the problem that there are over 3,000 Dashboard Widgets. Are we to believe that you used them all and that we can take your word for it that among those 3,000 widgets there aren't any worth getting excited about or that are cool or impressive? Keep in mind that this isn't even a Konfabulator versus Dashboard issue, this is you dismissing the wealth of cool little Dashboard widgets based on doofus logic. Quite frankly, I can name some really kick ass Dashboard widgets, (and for some of them there are probably Konfabulator widgets that do the same thing and that's cool for Windows users). There are some for OS X that take advantage of Apple's strict standardization of their hardware & software and those are even cooler. Now, I don't know if the same kind exist for Konfabulator, but I'm not dissing Konfabulator here- just defending Dashboard. You're just wrong about Dashboard- it's cool and the fact that it is integrated with the OS is a definite advantage of Mac OS X. You being jaded by having used a similar tool on Windows is irrelevant.

Oh my god. I can't believe I've wasted this many words showing you just how stupid your blog entry is! However, I think you've earned it. Sadly, there are at least 2 other things that need addressed.

One is this, "I haven't had a Windows virus in 5 years." I would say, this- You're either lying, running a really crappy virus scanner, not keeping the virus definitions up to date, or you kept your notebook off of the internet.

Why would I make this claim? Because 2002 & 2003 were in the last 5 years and they were particularly bad years for Windows viruses. I know because I was administrating several hundred PCs spread over 6 locations at that time and even though we were running an enterprise virus scanner on all of our workstations, with almost daily definitions updates being pushed out, we still got hit hard with things like variants of blaster and sobig. Back then, the antivirus companies were always one step behind the virus makers and Microsoft had failed to adequately patch Windows against some gaping security holes. So, you're probably either lying, weren't actively using the internet, or you had a virus and didn't know it. Based on how stupid your blog entry is, I'm guessing odds are 50/50 between the 'lying' choice and the 'had a virus and didn't know it' scenario.

The second (and last) thing I'm gonna waste my time addressing is this, "Macs aren't bad, they just aren't any better than PCs."

Oh, I see, "Macs aren't bad." They're just:

• "all bells and whistles"
• "aren't intuitive at all"
• and contain the "the single worst design decision anyone has ever made"
• additionally, Windows, Unix, & Linux are all easier to use
• oh, and you "didn't gain anything by going to a Mac" (except iMovie and a few programs you found that weren't available for Windows)
  

What. You're making my head hurt. You're a f#$%ing idiot. (Sorry didn't want to be one of the Mac Nazis who failed to f-bomb you). Seriously, look in the mirror and repeat these words, "I - am - an - idiot."

Now, before you start feeling too bad about it, try and remember I'm not saying that you're an incurable idiot, but you are an idiot. I would say go back and try again, but not until you've take an intro to logic course and passed with at least a 'C' grade. Stick with Windows; OS X is obviously far too logical for you. It's a 'pearls before swine' kinda thing.