Too many people using computers today are ignorant. I might be bold enough to suggest that fewer are more ignorant than the Apple and Microsoft evangelists. For them a holy war is brewing between which operating system is better. A futile war that leaves the largely apathetic users lost in the shuffle, so to speak.
Of course, I’m talking about the Apple “Mac and PC” campaign. If you haven’t seen it, you probably don’t use a computer, watch television, and avoid society all together. It’s everywhere all the time. Some would say it’s genius; with the Mac guy and PC guy and their witty banter. They’re almost lovable together, and you walk away feeling that the PC guy is just a mixed-up buffoon. Sadly however, it’s a terrible campaign and does a great job of distorting the truth… as pretty much all advertising attempts to do.
The real problem is that the campaign plays on this brewing holy war, and it has spilled over its heresy into the collective-consciousness. Debates across the Internet are focused on it. Mac vs PC; Apple vs. Everyone Else That Sucks. It’s led to businesses believing that “cross-platform” means supporting both Windows and OS X operating systems. It’s generated a landslide of believers who’ve false and un-ending confidence in a brand rather than reality. The problem needs to be addressed.
The Month of Apple Bugs has more than proven that OS X is not a panacea operating system of infallible security. The way Apple handled the situation proves they care more about the brand than the product. Kudos to their engineers for pumping out all those patches so fast… but man, there were so many of them! Why weren’t they discovered and patched by Apple’s own internal teams in the first place? Why did it take a team of upset researchers to point out the flaws in Apple’s flagship OS?
The reality is, OS X and Apple computers suck as much as any other computer and operating system.
I for one, cannot stand their keyboard layout. And about a dozen other things. But that’s me — an avid Linux user. The little un-noticed speck in the background of the Mac and PC commercials.