Guardian Unlimited (Brilliantly) Strikes Back at UK’s Mac vs. PC Ads
posted Monday, February 5th, 2007 by Andy GoreCharlie Brooker of Guardian Unlimited, we’ve never met. In fact, I’ve never read your work before today. But, mate, next time I’m in the U.K. I want to buy you a pint. Your “I Hate Macs” column is an absolutely brilliant summation of what’s wrong with those Mac versus PC commercials.
I just want you to know many of us Mac users are terribly embarrassed by Apple’s current promotional strategy, and don’t appreciate being portrayed as arrogant “poseurs,” anymore than you obviously appreciate being portrayed as a pompous, bumbling git. So, thanks for demonstrating what’s wrong with the approach so eloquently, and for appreciating as I do that winning a debate by demeaning your opponent is an empty victory at best.
To read Charlie’s “I hate Macs” column, click here.
February 6th, 2007 at 2:24 am
Gates certainly has no sense of humor about these ads … but this tech writer seems to have rediscovered his.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/11104
February 10th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
His opening may be good, but once he gets into the “I hate Mac” routine he’s trite, ridiculous and utterly wrong…and he is merely saying the same things Windows drones have been spouting for well over a decade.
He believes Macs are somehow toys because they are easier to use and understand. I notice he never states he has EVER used one and still prefers Windows. Macs never were toys, never will be.
And if he is so hot on how many games are on and come out first for Windows, how does he dare call the Mac a toy? We should just call Windows a mildly competent gaming platform and leave it at that. About that he could be right.
His assertion about Macs being “glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults” is more than absurd. But when he goes on to say they are “for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work,” could be cogent except for that fact that the commen thread through virtually every PC magazine’s reviews of Mac are that THey Just Work…which indicates his vaunted PCs don’t!
Indeed, his attitude is still all the more wrong because as pieces of nearly equivilant hardware, using the same chips as PCs and Intel designed boards, they have been shown to run “his” operating system generally faster, better and more stably than his beloved PCs.
His “because it’s easy it’s worthless” line of reasoning is just mindless, bigoted nonsense such as Mac users have always had to deal with. If he LIKES things to be hard, good for him, but don’t get on a soapbox and tell me I should value inept design and bungled technologies too!
February 11th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
I could be wrong on this, but I think his entire diatribe was meant to be ironic. Aka, he was giving us Mac fans an example of what it feels like to be (in his mind) unfairly maligned. So, I guess if it pisses someone off, it’s effective… as far as it goes.