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02/06/2007: "Mac Users"

This is a fantastic little rant about Mac users triggered by the recent Mitchell and Webb ad campaign.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2006031,00.html

"I hate Macs. I have always hated Macs. I hate people who use Macs. I even hate people who don't use Macs but sometimes wish they did. Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui."

You could, in my opinion substitute "Windows XP" into the paragraph above without too much difficulty, especially the Fisher-Price bit, but I did find the article most entertaining as a rant for the sake of having a rant.

However it slightly falls over when he tries to draw a wider conclusion:

"Ultimately the campaign's biggest flaw is that it perpetuates the notion that consumers somehow "define themselves" with the technology they choose. If you truly believe you need to pick a mobile phone that "says something" about your personality, don't bother. You don't have a personality. A mental illness, maybe - but not a personality."

Hmm, poor example. Almost all mobile phone advertising I've seen has been based on how your phone "defines" you and what it says about your personality. And as far as I can tell it seems to have worked for the phone companies.

For the record, I've probably used a Mac about once, so I'm not going to actually wade into this one, beyond saying that my next machine will 99% certain be a PC running linux, and the hell with the whole debate.