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As a Mac user, I’m in a definite minority. I still rock OS X, and I’m pretty happy with that. Why haven’t I switched to Windows? Plenty of reasons, not least of which being that I’m just too smart to switch to Windows. That’s right, I’m too smart for Windows.
Tell me something: Is that the stupidest fucking thing you’ve ever read? Because I’m pretty sure it’s the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever typed. Nonetheless, this highly-dugg Gizmodo article, and believe me when I say I use the word “article” loosely, begins thus:
There are over a dozen people working at our fair Gizmodo, but as a Windows user, I’m in a definite minority. I still rock XP, and I’m pretty happy with that. Why haven’t I switched to Macs? Plenty of reasons, not least of which being that I’m just too smart to switch to a Mac. That’s right, I’m too smart for Macs.
Let’s ignore the obvious mismatch between XP being software and Macs being hardware and look at this oh-so-smart user’s reasons for not making the switch. And yeah, I’m typing this as an OS X user on a Macbook, but this isn’t a defense of Apple, it’s a look at how fucking stupid this Apple vs Microsoft thing has gotten.
The author’s opening argument is that he’s used Windows all of his life, and that Macs didn’t come into their own until 2001, by which time it was “too late”. Fair point, perhaps. But thousands, perhaps even millions, have bought Macs and switched completely to OS X since 2001, and I don’t hear many complaints from them.
Next point, summed up:
Apple takes pride in hiding everything under the rug and keeping it out of your hands to not let you mess it up. I don’t need kid gloves.
If you think you can’t dig into OS X’s underbelly and fuck things up if you really want, you are, as they say, doin it rong. Or, more likely, you just haven’t used a Mac for any appreciable length of time. OS X is built on Unix. Getting your hands dirty is only a command-space “Terminal” away. This nonsense is oft-quoted as a reason for not switching to OS X, and it’s one of the most baseless.
Furthermore, beyond the OS itself, I hate the cult of personality that surrounds Steve Jobs.
And here we see what is absolutely the most stupid line in the whole thing. Who gives a fuck about Bill Gates, or Steve Jobs, or Jonathan Ive, or Steve Ballmer, or anyone else. They don’t come with your computer, they don’t care what computer you use, you will never speak directly to either Jobs or Gates, and they have absolutely no bearing on your computing life outside of the fact that they work for the company that made your computer. I don’t favour one brand of television over another, or one brand of router over another, or one brand of coffee maker over another, because of the CEO of the company that made it. I repeat: who in their right mind gives a fuck? More importantly, what sort of person uses that as a reason not to use one piece of software over another? Not a very smart one.
Macs are too hip. Oh, look at me! I do graphic design! I wear women’s jeans and hang out in coffee shops! I’m a DJ! Well good for you. My computer is not a fashion statement. It’s a computer.
He got something right, at least. A computer is not a fashion statement. But again: who gives a fuck? I might be giving stupid people a little too much credit here, but I seriously don’t think there are many valuable members of society using Macs purely because they look pretty. It takes a special sort of person to use appearance as a priority factor when buying a computer. It takes an even more special person to pick the ugly girl over the pretty girl just because they don’t want to seem like a sheep, always picking the pretty girl. Didn’t your Mother ever teach you that it’s about more than looks?
Despite the absolute ridiculousness of some of these arguments, they are at least arguments. They may not be smart arguments, but they are valid arguments. But then it all breaks down with the closing paragraph.
But really, when it comes down to it, the main reason I still use Windows is this: I’m stubborn and lazy.
Is any comment here even necessary? If the only reason you’re using one OS over another is because you’re lazy, then you have no right, and no reason, to write an article about it. You’re wasting everyone’s time, and needlessly fueling an already ugly argument.
Now, I’m a Mac user, and I’m sure that if your intellect is on a level with the guy that wrote this, you’re going to immediately run to the “biased fanboy” rebuttal. And perhaps that’s true. But when defending my choice to use Apple software over Microsoft hardware, my argument will never include: I’m too smart to use a Mac, OS X coddles you too much, I hate Steve Jobs’ cult status, I’m not trying to make a fashion statement, I’m stubborn and lazy. When it’s summed up like that, can you see how stupid it sounds? The only valid point is OS X coddling you, and that’s demonstrably a non-point.
Congratulations, Adam Frucci, you have absolutely nothing compelling to add to the Windows vs OS X debate, and you’re a tool.
By the way, the article has 4,295 diggs, and only 3 votes on Reddit (after 10 days). If I were the kind of person that compared the group-mentalities of these two websites, I’d say those figures sounded just right.
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