4 ms·

> I was under the impression that this is an Apple culture thing? It's alleged that if you wear a competitor's brand on Nike Campus, you'll be politely asked to

> I was under the impression that this is an Apple culture thing? It's alleged that if you wear a competitor's brand on Nike Campus, you'll be politely asked to leave (or forced to buy a new pair of shoes while they burn yours). what is Apple's culture's take on this? At just about every company there is some level of expectation that you'll use the company's products and not the competitors. It's true that there is a line some where between expecting employees to "back the company" and expecting a cultist devotion to everything they do. However, not using products that you yourself work on is really bizarre. That's the type of thing that happens in enterprises where you work on projects you are assigned to, not ones you have an interest in. I wouldn't think that's how it works at Facebook.

npsimons 13y ago
FWIW, when I did my onsite interview with Google a few years back, I saw a pretty good mix of Apple and other brands (both laptop and phone wise). Didn't see a whole lot of tablets, but this was before they really took off. Maybe some companies are just less draconian and more forward thinking than others? Any company that told me I couldn't use a certain product or brand, no matter what it was, wouldn't have me as an employee for long.
- MatthewPhillips 13y ago
  Did you see people using Bing?
  - npsimons 13y ago
    You mean people use Bing? Joking aside, I didn't really get much of a chance to see a lot of screens (whiteboards, and all that), not to mention that this may have been before Bing. I mostly noticed in quick glances I would see someone sitting with a laptop with the Apple logo on the back, next to someone with a Thinkpad, for example; it seemed fairly random, with no single brand being dominant. Not to mention that since I didn't get a close look at a lot of screens, I didn't see whether they were running OSX or something else. A healthy dose of dogfooding can go a long ways, I strongly believe; but checking out the competition to see where you stand is also never a bad idea, not to mention that trying out different technologies is just part of being professional. Moderation in all things and all that.
    - MatthewPhillips 13y ago
      My point is that there is a big difference between using a competitor of one of your ancillary products and using a competitor of your core product. And there's also a big difference from using a competitor to a product that you yourself work on. I'm betting if you go to the ChromeOS division you'll see fewer Macs than elsewhere in the company.
- w1ntermute 13y ago
  Apple as a company draws a level of devotion from its users that Google cannot even come close to matching. There just aren't that many Google fanboys, and they're not very likely to be working at Apple (many are likely at Google). But there's no way that all the Apple fanbois could get a job in Cupertino, there are just so many of them, particularly in the Valley. So there are plenty of them who end up at Google and continue to use their iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Just walk around any coffee shop or conference in the Valley. Almost everyone will be using an iPhone. You will very rarely see an Android phone. And pretty much everyone will have a MacBook, of course. In fact, I have gotten comments from people who have specifically noticed that I own no Apple products, because they find it so strange.
  - npsimons 13y ago
    Just walk around any coffee shop or conference in the Valley. Almost everyone will be using an iPhone. You will very rarely see an Android phone. And pretty much everyone will have a MacBook, of course. This saddens me: so many hacker types accepting locked down platforms. As with many things in Silly Valley, I suspect it may have more to do with faddishness and hipsterism than anything else. Conferences I've been to (yes, in the valley), have been a pretty mixed bag, and tech enclaves I've known are also fairly light on the Apple product placements.
FireBeyond 13y ago
Right - I used to work at Microsoft and, despite numerous memes on Slashdot, and even here, there was no "rule" about competitor products. In my department, we had people working on MacBooks, whose company phone was an iPhone, whose default browser was Firefox, or Chrome. There -was- a heavy dog food culture, and I think that was definitely a good thing.

npsimons 13y ago

FWIW, when I did my onsite interview with Google a few years back, I saw a pretty good mix of Apple and other brands (both laptop and phone wise). Didn't see a whole lot of tablets, but this was before they really took off. Maybe some companies are just less draconian and more forward thinking than others? Any company that told me I couldn't use a certain product or brand, no matter what it was, wouldn't have me as an employee for long.

MatthewPhillips 13y ago
Did you see people using Bing?
- npsimons 13y ago
  You mean people use Bing? Joking aside, I didn't really get much of a chance to see a lot of screens (whiteboards, and all that), not to mention that this may have been before Bing. I mostly noticed in quick glances I would see someone sitting with a laptop with the Apple logo on the back, next to someone with a Thinkpad, for example; it seemed fairly random, with no single brand being dominant. Not to mention that since I didn't get a close look at a lot of screens, I didn't see whether they were running OSX or something else. A healthy dose of dogfooding can go a long ways, I strongly believe; but checking out the competition to see where you stand is also never a bad idea, not to mention that trying out different technologies is just part of being professional. Moderation in all things and all that.
  - MatthewPhillips 13y ago
    My point is that there is a big difference between using a competitor of one of your ancillary products and using a competitor of your core product. And there's also a big difference from using a competitor to a product that you yourself work on. I'm betting if you go to the ChromeOS division you'll see fewer Macs than elsewhere in the company.
w1ntermute 13y ago
Apple as a company draws a level of devotion from its users that Google cannot even come close to matching. There just aren't that many Google fanboys, and they're not very likely to be working at Apple (many are likely at Google). But there's no way that all the Apple fanbois could get a job in Cupertino, there are just so many of them, particularly in the Valley. So there are plenty of them who end up at Google and continue to use their iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Just walk around any coffee shop or conference in the Valley. Almost everyone will be using an iPhone. You will very rarely see an Android phone. And pretty much everyone will have a MacBook, of course. In fact, I have gotten comments from people who have specifically noticed that I own no Apple products, because they find it so strange.
- npsimons 13y ago
  Just walk around any coffee shop or conference in the Valley. Almost everyone will be using an iPhone. You will very rarely see an Android phone. And pretty much everyone will have a MacBook, of course. This saddens me: so many hacker types accepting locked down platforms. As with many things in Silly Valley, I suspect it may have more to do with faddishness and hipsterism than anything else. Conferences I've been to (yes, in the valley), have been a pretty mixed bag, and tech enclaves I've known are also fairly light on the Apple product placements.

FireBeyond 13y ago

Right - I used to work at Microsoft and, despite numerous memes on Slashdot, and even here, there was no "rule" about competitor products. In my department, we had people working on MacBooks, whose company phone was an iPhone, whose default browser was Firefox, or Chrome. There -was- a heavy dog food culture, and I think that was definitely a good thing.