Mac vs. PC

As has been said recently in The Toronto Star's online magazine,"The ongoing feud between PC and Mac users can be downright vitriolic. Macs have been described as amped-up Fisher-Price toys for the computer illiterate and insufferable snobs... PC users meanwhile, are mocked for being neanderthals who like reading computer manuals in their spare time and fear change."

I am a PC user because the programs that I use for archaeology, including MicroSurvey, AutoCAD, and GIS, run on PC platforms and the emulation required of a Mac to run these programs is inefficient: the programs were designed for PC's and like to run on PC's. Also, we as a family are invested in the PC world, with all the peripherals that work only on PC's, not Macs, and to double up or change from one to the other would be prohibitively expensive. If something stops working on one of our machines, we have several choices of manufacturers' parts, and such competition keeps parts cheap - far cheaper than Mac parts. Finally, we often can repair our machines ourselves rather than relying solely on Mac technicians, and we have a far greater variety of programs from which to choose.

It seems that at hunch.com, where people are advised as to what to buy based on their responses to a series of questions, 76,000 Hunch user responses to the question 'Am I a Mac person or a PC person?' in 2009 revealed some extraordinary stereotypes of the Mac and PC user.

Apparently, "Mac users want to be perceived as "different" and "unique," and trend toward independent films, specialized comedians and design-centric magazines. They describe themselves as verbal, conceptual and risk-takers, and have a distinct esthetic, be it in bold colours, retro-design or highly stylized art. PC people, meanwhile, think of themselves as team players and favour the practical over the theoretical. They enjoy sports, want to be entertained and fall in line with mainstream opinion. PC people describe themselves as numbers-oriented, factual, steady, and hard workers. Mac users find humour in TV shows like The Office, while PC users are more likely to watch Everybody Loves Raymond. Mac users would opt for the Mini Cooper while PC users are more likely to choose a truck or Dodge Charger. Mac users trend to magazines like Wallpaper and Harper's, while PC users read Sports Illustrated and Reader's Digest."

Yikes. One might assume that 76,000 people represent a solid enough sample, and that the conclusions above represent reliably what are Mac and what are PC users. However, while I don't want to speak for anyone else, I for one do not seem to accord to either one. On the pro side, I seem to be a Mac User because I like independent films, am verbal and conceptual, find humour in TV shows like The Office, would love to own a Mini Cooper, and read the magazine Harper's. But I am also a PC user in that I enjoy sports and want to be entertained, and I think of myself as a team player, factual, steady, and a hard worker.

On the con side, apparently I am not a Mac user because I don't desire to be perceived as "different" and "unique," have little interest in design-centric magazines, don't like to take risks, and don't have a distinct esthetic. However, nor am I a PC user, as I don't necessarily favour the practical over the theoretical, and rarely, it seems, fall in line with mainstream opinion. Further, I am more 'word' than 'numbers' oriented, and I downright loath TV shows like Everybody Loves Raymond. I think trucks used for leisure purposes are wasteful, as are Dodge Chargers, and I only read Sports Illustrated or Reader's Digest when there is nothing else in the dentist's office.

Perhaps you feel it too. I constantly feel the pull to side with one 'world' over the other, and yet I see good things in Macs, and good things in PC's. I have that sinking feeling that I am being manipulated by marketeers to form one opinion over another. It seems similar to the time Coke changed its recipe: people subsequently marched on the streets, Coke changed the recipe back to 'Classic', and consumers then bought more Coke than they had ever done previously. People seemed to think that they had taken on a big corporation and won, while the Board of Directors at Coke smugly informed their shareholders of a huge jump in market share.

Furthermore, it is all illusory. A Mac is a machine and an operating system with one brand name, while PC's are represented by a collection of different brand name computers that use the same operating system. There really is no single entity of a 'PC' out there: similar to Sherlock Holmes with his evil adversary Dr. Moriarty, Apple has created for the Mac a monolithic, evil 'PC'.

Soon Mac will present another commercial contrasting a hip, unassuming, confident Mac against a nervous, geeky, incompetent PC. The Mac is David, the PC a lumbering, stupid Goliath. People seem to love these commercials, and happily buy into the illusion, so much so that Mac is gaining ground: the PC world now has only 90% of the world market share. The Mac marketers are wondrously capable puppeteers.

And yes, because I react against all things Mac whenever I see one of their commercials, I realize that I am dancing like a puppet on a string, behaving exactly as the marketers predicted I would do: acknowledging a line in the sand between a Mac and a PC. Every time, I choose 'Classic' over 'New' Coke. Sigh.