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The End of my Macbook Pro Experiment
wraith808:
tomos: yes, style over substance! I think you may be right, at least to some degree. It also may be true that Macs actually were "easier to use" somehow, in the past, but as Windows has evolved to be easier and more hand-holding, and OS X has evolved to have more features (overall), perhaps they've converged more than not.
It reminds me of the classic and still-repeated "Macs are better for artists" BS which only ever had a logical basis nearly 2 decades ago when Macs had more creative-oriented software and better graphics capability (hardware-wise and OS-support-wise) than Windows. There was a period of maybe 5 years where those differences were really true and clearly evident, and another 5 years or so of decline where the differences were rapidly diminishing, but there were still some advantages for artists and creatives of being on a Mac. That period ended at least 10 years ago though, and PCs have been as good as - or often better than - Macs at doing graphics and other creative tasks since then. Yet so many people *still* to this day will repeat the "Macs are better for artists" BS.
The Mac's main remaining advantage at this point is reputation, the *idea* that it's easier to use. We all know how the placebo effect works, right? And confirmation bias? And over-justification? All of these logical failings are factors in the ongoing success of the Mac desktop platform, in my opinion. Which probably boils down largely to good marketing and product positioning.
- Oshyan
-JavaJones (June 08, 2015, 12:57 PM)
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Everything boils down to marketing and positioning, in all honesty. From relationships with people to relationships with ... everything else. It also boils down to what do they think about me, and what can I make them think about me. Which is the mac's great selling point. They hired true designers for their products long before most other computer companies ever thought that they needed to. Rather than just engineers, they managed every part of the process... even to the point of managing your final interaction with it.
As far as the style... that's one thing I'm finding out again. I like good bags. Especially to carry my laptop around in. And lots of them. So why is it so hard to find a nice bag that fits a PC laptop? The widescreen is less than an inch difference... but it might as well be a mile.
*sigh*
TaoPhoenix:
The Mac's main remaining advantage at this point is reputation, the *idea* that it's easier to use. We all know how the placebo effect works, right? And confirmation bias? And over-justification? All of these logical failings are factors in the ongoing success of the Mac desktop platform, in my opinion. Which probably boils down largely to good marketing and product positioning.
-JavaJones (June 08, 2015, 12:57 PM)
--- End quote ---
As the endlessly quotable Randall Munroe of xkcd has pointed out, over-using "placebo effects" has it own problems!
If I were to have had the energy and motivation (and a subjunctive mood?), I would have made a few charts of the top 25 commands on *three* OS's - Windows, Mac, and a couple variants of Linux.
Linux gets all fancy because it's essentially the only one that separates "the Kernel" from the "User Interface". Neither Windows or Mac OS X does that. So it's essentially new OS'es every time, and I keep saying MS must have some nasty trademarks on it that prevent the Linux guys from just creating a duplicate Right Click menu.
So, going back to this thing, OS X isn't all that "easier to use" - Remember how Win XP refuses to die - so the same "arguments" have to apply and back in 2004 that was all about security, not ease of use.
Innuendo:
The Mac's main remaining advantage at this point is reputation, the *idea* that it's easier to use.-JavaJones (June 08, 2015, 12:57 PM)
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Well, technically the Mac *is* easier to use by virtue of the fact that OS X software usually has one-third the options and settings of something comparable on Windows so therefore, there being less to learn makes it easier to use.
wraith808:
The Mac's main remaining advantage at this point is reputation, the *idea* that it's easier to use.-JavaJones (June 08, 2015, 12:57 PM)
--- End quote ---
Well, technically the Mac *is* easier to use by virtue of the fact that OS X software usually has one-third the options and settings of something comparable on Windows so therefore, there being less to learn makes it easier to use.
-Innuendo (June 08, 2015, 06:54 PM)
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Nope. That's fallacy. After having tried to get into it as my *only* laptop for 4 years, it's decidedly *not* easier to use.
Carol Haynes:
Intrigued by the "Apple make better hardware" at the top of this thread? They use motherboards from Foxconn just like many PCs - as I understand it they are pretty much identical and quality. They use standard graphics cards (usually a generation or two behind window), standard intel cpu, RAM and hard disks and SSDs
Apart from the white box with an apple on it what is so much better than a bog standard Windows laptop?
For the price you should get gold plated keys !!!
Given the number of people using Mac these days I get about the same proportion of Mac users phoning up and saying "my Mac is very slow" as I do Windows users. In 7 years I have only had one person phone me and say can you help - I use Linux.
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