As long as we’re covering flame wars

You want to read a rant? A really great rant? Steve Gilliard is your man. Compared to Steve, Lewis Black is Mr. Rogers.

Steve is angry at Mac fanatics who insist that replacing your Windows PC with a Mac will solve all your problems. I’ve put the excerpt from Steve’s rant in the extended portion of this post, which means you’ll have to click once if you want to read his words and the rest of my remarks. If you’re offended by earthy language, don’t click. Me, I use some of those words on a daily basis, and they seem particularly appropriate here. (This isn’t basic cable, folks.)

Now, I own a Mac, but the problem with many Mac owners is that they live in a state of blissful ignorance and their missionary work grows annoying over time. Some Mac users know a lot about machines, but the loudest ones don’t. Their solution is always “get a Mac” when they really need to shut the fuck up. Windows has some specific, minor problems, which can be solved by minor tweaking. Not by buying a new machine.

I am far from impressed when someone, who actively avoids buying a machine they have to work with, tell me that if I buy a Mac, I won’t have any technical problems. That merely confirms that they don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about. My friends did tech repair for Macs in the 1990’s and trust me, Macs crash like other computers.

I wouldn’t wipe my ass with an iMac. I can build a better machine in my sleep. I know I’ve repaired some in that state. Now, the iBook/Powerbook is a different story, but they’re still overpriced. The problem with the iMac is simple: style over function. For what you pay, it’s no bargain. And when it’s outdated, you’re not upgrading. Apple sucks money from the ignorant and the compliant. They don’t want people to understand what’s inside their machines and you just have to trust them. Sure, you can do some configuring, but not enough to make a difference.

Read the rest of the rant here. And be sure to read the comments.

I have friends and relatives who own Macs. And guess what? Their machines occasionally crash. Their software stops working on regular occasions. They need a shelf full of books to understand how to use their computer properly. Their hardware does funky things every once in a while. If they install too many add-ons, the whole system slows down and programs start to behave in strange ways. They have to worry about security issues, too. Not as many as a Windows PC, but still more than zero. And if the Mac OS ever becomes as popular as Windows, you can bet that bad guys will come up with a boatload of spyware and viruses to attack Mac users.

Windows XP is a damn good operating system with a few noteworthy flaws. If you know what you’re doing, you can steer around those flaws pretty easily. The folks who subscribe to the “magic bullet” theory of computing (Get a Mac. Get Firefox. Get Linux. Compile your own kernel code. Do xyz and all your problems will vanish) are missing the point. Personal computers are inherently complex, multi-purpose devices. It doesn’t matter whether you use Linux, the Mac OS, or Windows XP — the more you know, the more you can take control of that box and let it help you do great things. The less you know, the more likely it is that the box on your desktop will make your life miserable.

OK, flame away.