3 ms·

Flawed article but it is a real problem. The more you love something, the angrier you get when others refuse to love it the same as you. (see political parties

Flawed article but it is a real problem. The more you love something, the angrier you get when others refuse to love it the same as you. (see political parties, religion, etc...) Being a PC guy myself, I would love to buy my parents Apple products. For years I hated Apple despite never having tried a single Apple product. I just HATED Apple, i didn't know why. Until one day I just ordered a mac off ebay and got it in my home. After trying it out I realized something shocking. I don't hate Apple at all, It's the fans that I can't stand. Up until then I was avoiding Apple because I was afraid I'd fall in love with Apple products and turn into a cult member like others I had seen. The Fanboy's arguments were always subtly insulting, condescending, seperationist, and reeked of elitism. If I used a PC I wasn't "up" to their level in creativity or intelligence. (I grew up around a lot of Apple Fanboys, and Nintendo fanboys too) Long story short I kept the mac for months and used it every day but it just wasn't my thing, for my specific usage it wasn't anything better or more stable than what I had with my PC, I resold it. But one day I think I'll buy my parents a mac. That way I can sleep at night knowing they won't accidentally download an email attachment and brick the thing. And its easier for them to manage. I'm well knowledged in my PC so those benefits don't do anything for me.

rch 15y ago
In my view, Apple's image (to the extent that it is positive) has always depended more on product quality than the support of internet denizens. Unfortunately, I would also assert that overall product quality has been neglected as of late. This month I had to return a high end Mac Pro (purchased due to a 'use it or loose it' budget dilemma) because the firmware does not fully support the current OS. There was a window of time when this sort of thing didn't happen to Apple, but my experience indicates that the party is officially over. This is not to say that Apple won't make piles of cash making fashion pieces for well-heeled consumers, but I do expect influential Apple advocates will move on once (or if) a credible alternative surfaces. Whether the fans linger on or not is ultimately irrelevant.
- batista 15y ago
  Unfortunately, I would also assert that overall product quality has been neglected as of late. Because you had a Mac Pro with a faulty firmware for the latest OS? Whole stacks of iBook G3s had to be returned (some of them again and again) because of faulty logic boards. The Cube had overheating problems. The batteries of a few Powerbook lines where problematic and had to be recalled. G5 Mac Pro's had leaking liquid cooling and fan problems. Powerbooks had problems with their DVD writers. Early MacBook Pros also had problems with their fans. You can find tons of similar events from 1999 to 2012. Lots of older Apple machines had problems that needed a firmware update to fix, from graphic glitches to what have you. They don't imply that "overall product quality has been neglected as of late". Just that, in every company and in every product line, there are to be some problems in some models, some machines or even whole runs. Nothing is perfect, and nothing was perfect before. I cannot even enumerate how many times I had problems with faulty Wintel PCs. What happened is you just had some Mac computer that didn't have a problem before whereas your new one has a non-yet-updated by Apple firmware. A very little empirical evidence for any claim regarding overall QA. Gee, Apple in 2011 made what's perhaps the world's best laptop, the MBA 13" (touted as so by many Mac and PC review sites and magazines).
ugh 15y ago
Where do you find those people? I don’t know any of those.
- ChrisNorstrom 15y ago
  They're all over the place online, and there are quite a few of them walking around offline. It's interesting because online, they only act that way on sites with a huge number of other fanboys that have their support and can back them up. I clicked a link to a site talking about how Microsoft was going to discontinue the Zune and the comments were like a warzone. Anyone that liked their Zune more than their iPod got a lovely little "enjoy your viruses on your piece of shit unstable computer" reply as well as "have fun crashing". No joke. It got bad. When we mentioned to them they were acting like cult members, it flew right over their head. Some Hipsters are like this. Although I would have expected them to be using an obscure unknown flavor of linux that you "wouldn't know about". Designers too. Just last week there was a link to a designer listing all the things you need to know about designs or something. "Mac is better" was on the list. And underneath it, nothing to back her up on her argument other than a "they just are" type description. My old science teacher was one of them. She was the only one in highschool with ALL macs in her lab room. She was very "vocal" about their superiority. You can also meet them in computer stores like Best Buy. Sometimes, hilariously, they lurk in the shadows waiting for an unsuspecting computer buyer to ask an employee "should I get a mac or pc?" They jump out to correct the employee if needed and steer the conversation towards Mac superiority. Sometimes, they ARE the employees. Hang around the Apple isle at Best Buy, you might be able to spot a few. (lol, I'm talking about this like we're on a safari) It's interesting the type minority group that Apple attracts. The "I'm insecure so I have to have more than you" type. It's only a tiny percent of Apple's fans but they are the loudest. Most apple fans are nice, normal people. I've noticed that when PC guys convert to apple they are never like this. They simply state the reasons why they did it or "it just works for me". Whereas Apple fanatics that were always Apple fanatics go crazy with the "Windows crashes so much" and "there's viruses on it all the time". It's like listening to a Christian Extremist talking about Athiesm. It's the devil to them.

rch 15y ago

In my view, Apple's image (to the extent that it is positive) has always depended more on product quality than the support of internet denizens. Unfortunately, I would also assert that overall product quality has been neglected as of late. This month I had to return a high end Mac Pro (purchased due to a 'use it or loose it' budget dilemma) because the firmware does not fully support the current OS. There was a window of time when this sort of thing didn't happen to Apple, but my experience indicates that the party is officially over. This is not to say that Apple won't make piles of cash making fashion pieces for well-heeled consumers, but I do expect influential Apple advocates will move on once (or if) a credible alternative surfaces. Whether the fans linger on or not is ultimately irrelevant.

batista 15y ago
Unfortunately, I would also assert that overall product quality has been neglected as of late. Because you had a Mac Pro with a faulty firmware for the latest OS? Whole stacks of iBook G3s had to be returned (some of them again and again) because of faulty logic boards. The Cube had overheating problems. The batteries of a few Powerbook lines where problematic and had to be recalled. G5 Mac Pro's had leaking liquid cooling and fan problems. Powerbooks had problems with their DVD writers. Early MacBook Pros also had problems with their fans. You can find tons of similar events from 1999 to 2012. Lots of older Apple machines had problems that needed a firmware update to fix, from graphic glitches to what have you. They don't imply that "overall product quality has been neglected as of late". Just that, in every company and in every product line, there are to be some problems in some models, some machines or even whole runs. Nothing is perfect, and nothing was perfect before. I cannot even enumerate how many times I had problems with faulty Wintel PCs. What happened is you just had some Mac computer that didn't have a problem before whereas your new one has a non-yet-updated by Apple firmware. A very little empirical evidence for any claim regarding overall QA. Gee, Apple in 2011 made what's perhaps the world's best laptop, the MBA 13" (touted as so by many Mac and PC review sites and magazines).

ugh 15y ago

Where do you find those people? I don’t know any of those.

ChrisNorstrom 15y ago
They're all over the place online, and there are quite a few of them walking around offline. It's interesting because online, they only act that way on sites with a huge number of other fanboys that have their support and can back them up. I clicked a link to a site talking about how Microsoft was going to discontinue the Zune and the comments were like a warzone. Anyone that liked their Zune more than their iPod got a lovely little "enjoy your viruses on your piece of shit unstable computer" reply as well as "have fun crashing". No joke. It got bad. When we mentioned to them they were acting like cult members, it flew right over their head. Some Hipsters are like this. Although I would have expected them to be using an obscure unknown flavor of linux that you "wouldn't know about". Designers too. Just last week there was a link to a designer listing all the things you need to know about designs or something. "Mac is better" was on the list. And underneath it, nothing to back her up on her argument other than a "they just are" type description. My old science teacher was one of them. She was the only one in highschool with ALL macs in her lab room. She was very "vocal" about their superiority. You can also meet them in computer stores like Best Buy. Sometimes, hilariously, they lurk in the shadows waiting for an unsuspecting computer buyer to ask an employee "should I get a mac or pc?" They jump out to correct the employee if needed and steer the conversation towards Mac superiority. Sometimes, they ARE the employees. Hang around the Apple isle at Best Buy, you might be able to spot a few. (lol, I'm talking about this like we're on a safari) It's interesting the type minority group that Apple attracts. The "I'm insecure so I have to have more than you" type. It's only a tiny percent of Apple's fans but they are the loudest. Most apple fans are nice, normal people. I've noticed that when PC guys convert to apple they are never like this. They simply state the reasons why they did it or "it just works for me". Whereas Apple fanatics that were always Apple fanatics go crazy with the "Windows crashes so much" and "there's viruses on it all the time". It's like listening to a Christian Extremist talking about Athiesm. It's the devil to them.