Well, this post seems to intrigue many people… XD
it’s true that computers suck… just one problem… if they suck, then does that mean the people who rely too much on computer suck more?
I don’t mean to raise this question all of the sudden, just sprang out of my mind. 
'Cuz in our place, people are getting more ‘computer-dependent’…
couture: the business of designing, making, and selling fashionable custom-made women’s clothing.
Please tell me that I’m not the only guy who had to go look that up. 
Great topic excellent synopsis.
“If you truly believe you need to pick a mobile phone that “says something” about your personality, don’t bother. You don’t have a personality.”
I chose my clothes based on two things:
why not my phone, or my car, or my screwdriver? does that make me a personality-less marketing victim drone?
I use both for different things and havea a love hate relationship with them both. So kudos for your article - good point well made, maybe just be a little less judgemental about people’s personal choices.
BTW Smug Mac zelots get everyone’s back up - and the new mac advertising is obnoxious. I’m not surprised by anti-mac reactions and the debate re-flaming. Wouln’t be surprised if Jobs did it on purpose. He’s a cleaver guy!
no matter how much my pc and mac suck individually, niether on their own or combined will they clean my carpets…
As others have said, kudos on this piece… Your RSS feed is the one I can count on the one I’m most interested in.
Agree on all points - I use Macs WinPCs Ubuntu linux - All are indeed tools. And indeed, using any of them at any point in time for any task can suck. Just realize, it’s not the hardware that sucks - It’s usually the $99 OS or the $49 app. If we want $500 machines incl. all the software we intend to use, this is what we get. Being around since computers were $5000 apps $499, I recognize the trade-off of quality testing vs. flash functionality. The market makes it choices (you being the market:) and lives with these consequences.
Lower prices, less testing, more flash, etc. had massively broadened the market base myriad of choices. Everyone should make theirs based on the pluses minuses every single choice in life has.
Thanks again for a good read.
Chris
Brendan Dowling: “Regarding couture, the word couture implies clothing (couture means sewing) that is custom-made by hand for a particular person. No mass produced consumer products can be couture. That being said, one device can be more fashionable than others.”
While, as David H. pointed out, that may be the strict definition of the word “couture”, in general useage the term “haute couture” is used to mean “high fashion” and not “high sewing” or “high women’s clothing”. As such, it’s used to reference high fashion men’s clothing, shoes, handbags, and so forth, and therefore can be used in the context Jeff used.
One of the things Petzold complains about in his post is having to pay for MacOS release upgrades (which he compares to Windows Service Packs). While I can understand this argument from the Windows side since they haven’t been hit up for an upgrade in 6 years, but I can honestly say I’ve gotten my $250 worth out of the last two MacOS releases-- the features added have been subtle and not “in my face”, but I’ve learned to incorporate them into my daily usage over time (i.e. Expose, Spotlight). And my aging Powerbook has actually run FASTER with each release.
Compare that to Windows, which often has features that feel like they were an afterthought, and your computer is pretty much guaranteed to run slower.
That said, my Powerbook’s battery won’t last longer than an hour anymore, and I get a mysterious “no route to host” on random servers that nobody seems to have a solution for. So it ain’t all roses on this side of the fence either.
The debate is getting ever more moot with OS virtualisation. You can run OS X, XP, Vista and Linux on any Intel platform whether Mac or PC based then so it’s possible to just pick and choose in real time whichever is most suitable for the task in hand.
[Writing this on a MacBook Pro (nice screen) running RDP on XP in a Parallels VM (better client than Mac version) connected to my work Dell desktop (well it’s work)] running XP.
The problem with the Mac vs. PC debate is its not about the technical merits of the OSs at all, but about people’s insecurities.
PC people put down macs because they’re not familiar with the interface and the software has weird names like Safari, i-this and i-that. Having spent several years getting up to a functional level with Windows, they afraid to have to go back to square one again.
Mac people (who put down PCs) are insecure because their market share is so much smaller than (they think) Macs deserve. This leads to grandiose thinking. If the world doesn’t accept the Macintosh, then the world is wrong.
Once you eliminate emotional insecurities from the debate and discuss the technical merits, most of the acrimony disappears. You realize that both OSs have been steadily improving (i.e., now they suck less) and also more like each other. Eventually, we should attain a state where it won’t matter which operating system you use, since they are all equally capable and easy to use.
I call this state “Nirvana”.
…stop talking about your screwdriver, and
show us what you’ve created with it.
I create screwdrivers.
It’s always best for rational people to use the right tool for a given job. At the same time, don’t forget that sales and marketing is anything but rational. This is because consumers are by and large anything but rational. So to claim computers aren’t couture is to irrationally declare oneself rational in defiance of reality. They simply are. Windows people have the macho thing going. Mac people have the elegance thing going. It’s all so very tiresome and pathetic, but if you want to understand the market, you have to deal with it anyway. I recommend smiling, quiet acceptance coupled with playing to each market segment’s gratuitous identity crisis.
Jeff, you are so on the money. Great post, great blog.
All things are real.
I happen to like my PowerBook because I enjoy bashing on source code until it works on my platform of choice. OS X does this very well.
Of course, my decision to actually buy the thing was strongly influenced by the fact that the PowerBook G4 12" is aesthetically pleasing in a way that, say, a Sony Vaio isn’t. Why do I think this? I don’t think it’s because of any sort of rational consideration.
I do think many Mac fanboys need a bucket of cold water poured on them. “Industrial-strength UNIX security” is pretty damned funny, for instance; it’s like someone who has survived multiple gunshot wounds claiming to be “Bulletproof”. (Hey, wait a minute…)
In the strange, almost real Utopia that exists only in my head, each OS family plays to its strengths. Windows is a modular mass of self-describing binary components that can be configured to create a reasonable working environment for large numbers of users, Mac OS X is a playground for semi-experimental user interface and user experience development, and Linux and BSD are where ideas are taken from academic papers and turned into more or less production-grade implementations.
I really can’t see the point of this writing.
This sucks. That sucks. No, they both suck, but we all use them, so there’s no point in arguing… blah-blah-blah…
You wrote an article about arguing to tell everybody you don’t care about arguing?
No, I wrote it to illustrate that people are wasting their passion on tools; they should be passionate about what they’re creating with these tools. That’s what really matters. That’s what I want to hear about. That is what motivates people.
In other words, a giant clockwork robot is much more interesting than the screwdriver I used to put it together. I would hope.
For example, if John “daringfireball” Gruber spent a fraction of the time he spends obsessively responding to every public criticism of the Mac on, y’know, creating something cool (and writing about it, obviously), he’d influence a lot more people.
Also, one comment on some of the excellent points raised earlier.
It’s true that for many (most?) users, computers aren’t used as tools for creating content. They’re used to semi-passively browse and display content. In that case, the couture distinction matters. There’s nothing to talk about beyond that. They haven’t created anything!
But in a Web 2.0 world of “user generated content”, I hope that computers do become tools for people to create things and express themselves. I’d hate to see computers become just another passive television-like window that we peer through, staring forlornly at a more interesting world than our own.
Jeff: My favorite topic that will never ever die: curly braces – where do they belong? This argument is hilarious because the opposing sides have practically nothing to base their arguments on. Just pure conflict that will never be resolved.
Not just computers - applies to most manmade objects (mobile phones, MP3 players, cars, …) - why do we settle for crap products? Because we’re too cheap to be willing to pay for nice ones, I guess, or to wait for them.
Great post. I loved this in your comments though: “Real geeks can drive multiple OSs - just like real drivers can drive stick and automatic. ;)”
Amen!
(BTW, I forgive Gruber for his “xxx is a jackass” posts, because, well, they’re just so well-written :o) )
“That’s the other problem with the Mac vs. PC debate: it completely misses the point. Computers aren’t couture, they’re screwdrivers. Your screwdriver rocks, and our screwdriver sucks. So what? They’re screwdrivers.”
But Robertson screws and screwdrivers are so superior to Phillips screws and screwdrivers. Seriously, why does anyone use philips anymore? Bunch of sadists!
And for anyone khow doesn’t know, Roberston Screws are the ones with a square hole that your screwdriver won’t slip out of. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robertson_screw
A parody ad I’d like to see:
“Hi, I’m a Mac.”
“And I’m a Mac Classic.”
And then we watch those two lock heads in heated debate.