February 15th, 2008
Hey readers, are Mac people still smug,and Windows folks still Neanderthals?
Chris Pirillo- who has managed to perfect the oft-contrary arts of thinking fast and thinking deeply, is out with his list of 50 Reasons To Switch From Windows To Mac OSX
I’d like to start a conversation informed by Pirillo’s Reason #11:
The Apple community has been infiltrated by enough people who aren’t smug. You’re not better than me just because you run another OS or support another vendor, nor are you any less of a geek. Not every Windows user is a neanderthal, although some of their dated arguments would make them out to be. I think that most consumers are caught up in the idea that you NEED Windows for everything at home. You don’t.
OK, let us track through this one.
Plays through stereotypes, portrayed in theatrical exaggerations in the Mac Vs. PC adds.
Mac, fast-brained, hip, Thai-restaurant frequenting, not-so-sharped-dressed person with brains and, well, cajones.
Windows user: conformist. Not a risk-taker. Follows the crowd.
But when Pirillo imparts the observations that he does, I have to wonder whether he has a point.
My 3.4 cents: the stereotypes still have some enduring relevancy.
But what do you think?
Namely, has cross-pollenization between the two camps increasingly rendered these stereotypes irrelevant?
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
