I’ve worked in IT for year as a network administrator, web developer, college instructor, technical support and so on and so forth. I was reared on PC’s but have used Macs on many occasions. I really don’t find them any easier, more secure, more colourful or more intuitive than PC’s. Sure, back in the days of DOS and Windows 3.11 perhaps a Mac was easier for novice users to get used to but these days it’s all the same, the only difference being that a PC start menu launches from the bottom left and the Macs drops from the top left.

The ads are insulting and I’m really surprised that they’ve been around this long. Almost everyone I know is sick of them due to oversaturation and the condescending nature of them. I’m really hoping that some new ads are on their way out and that they drop this campaign in favour of one that shows me some of the cool software on the Mac like Ilife, GarageBand and Imovie.

(I’m a video editor and I shoot travel documentaries. I was recently in the market for a new laptop and had considered using a dual boot system with a power Mac. I needed a 17 inch monitor. The Mac would have been almost exactly twice the price as my PC cost me for the same power. I can live without Garageband for that kind of money.)

I find these ads insulting, smug, arrogant, and demeaning. The background “nursery school” music essentially tells the
viewer “This ad targets adults who think like children”.
As I write this, the latest pathetic ad is now playing as Justin Long is in this slick suit while John Hodgman is “depreciating” on the floor.

Most of the time, I feel sorry for Hodgman and want to smack
Long but in this one Long clearly had too much to drink
before this ad segment was shot. He looks a little more tentative when he says “there’s plenty of work out there for both of us”. With eyes very dilated I am wondering how many lines of coke he did earlier that morning.

I am no huge Microsoft devotee either however I have never been
hit with a virus because I (like most with common sense) have all of the checks in place including anti-virus software and a firewall.

Just like Billy Mays screaming about Oxy-Clean, if there are enough morons who fall for this type of advertising and Apple makes money off the increased sales to this segment of the marketplace, I suppose more power to them.

But a lesson for Mr. Jobs — Learn from the disastrous Fram “pay me now or pay me later” campaign in the 1980′s — if you antagonize or insult your future customer base, you will not make many sales unless you can find a steady supply of morons who fall for it!

The commercials would have you believe that the younger guy is the intelligent, free-spirit who acts smug to the older guy. When, in reality, the younger guy has a small fraction of the options and an operating system that has to use a translater (rosetta) to run legacy software. The real picture here is the older guy flying in a jet while the younger guy is dragging a sack of rocks across an empty desert.

I have to admit that the OSX is very pretty, but that’s it. The important task management functionality takes a back seat to rendering (alpha blending) screen elements which (for me) is wrong. Make sure the hammer is built solid before you put lipstick on it.

Apple has never innovated anything. The guys at Xerox are the true innovators. Apple reworked Xerox’s creation and called it their own. Microsoft built their GUI from the ground up based on the GUI concept that Xerox developed. Microsoft has done much more to extend this idea with their innovations in the underpinnings of the operating system like pre-emptive multi tasking, open architecture and compatibility. Apple has always been too concerned with the aesthetic. Most people don’t get their ‘jollies’ by admiring the user interface all day, most people want their tasks done as quickly and accurately as possible. People with lives don’t salivate all over their computers.

Lastly, the free market is the only real objective gauge at a products’ success. Ipods have 70% of the music player market. They don’t have that market share because they suck, they are great. Those same principals apply to everything (yes, including computers). Mac users can cry all they want about their 3% market share and Steve Jobs can take a million shots at Windows, but it won’t make a difference. The proof is in our daily buying decisions, you can buy a mac or a windows computer, nobody is forcing anybody’s hand. So, what this ends up being is a religious discussion instead of a factual one. Just remember, these ads use childish tactics and all but 3% of us are smarter than that.

A tool is a tool. I don’t care whether it’s a chainsaw, software or a computer – 9/10 of all problems are operator errors. Granted, there may be some correlation between price and quality.

Someone once said to me: when making a purchase, you generally have 3 options: fast, cheap and light. Pick 2. I don’t find many things in life that don’t conform to that saying, frankly. And computers are no different.

but getting back to your general assessment that somehow designers realize that ONLY macs are OK for their work: poppycock.

As has been said many times, vunerability to a virus, attacks, etc are more related to open ports and services on your machine, regardless of platform. Firewalls prevent problems, but only if enabled. Admin passwords are the most powerful protection you can have.

There may be something to be said that the mac system is based on open-source software that has been heavily scrutized for vunerabilities – but the biggest single advantage that hackers have to the windows platform is the idiot operating it. That, and that there are SO MANY MORE of those idiots.

not an idiot your platform = safe computer