I’ve Given Up Arguing with Windows Users
I realized last night that I no longer feel the need to argue with people over the Mac’s superiority. This was a rather startling realization I assure you, because over the years I’ve had basically the same conversation with the same type of person several hundred times. Only last night I didn’t. Maybe I’m getting older. Maybe I don’t have the energy I used to. Maybe…but I think it is something bigger than that. I’ve come to the conclusion that given enough time, any sufficiently intelligent person will choose Apple’s products over the competition.
And they will do so without someone having to “prove” that the Mac is better. And it isn’t a result of advertising either. People aren’t choosing Macs because of all the great commercials (well, not solely because of the commercials). And they aren’t choosing them because hardcore Mac users are trying to get them to see the light. They are buying them because they are steadily noticing that the smartest, most productive people they know, all use Macs. And eventually that point hits home and they begin to wonder what they are missing out on.
Now, if you bought your first Mac within the last 3 years then I’m afraid you have no idea what I’m talking about. Sorry, but this is directed at the old-timers. The group that was using Macs back when it wasn’t cool. Back when there was no iPod. Back when Microsoft really did look invincible. Yeah, all the way back then. And it sucked back then, let me tell you. It sucked because you were using this great machine and everyone you knew was using Windows. What’s more, they hated using Windows. Well, they still hate using Windows, but it was worse back then. Either way, most Mac users really and truly couldn’t figure the average Windows user out. Here were people that could complain all night about how much they hated their computer, but would then turn around and steadfastly refuse to listen to someone who absolutely loved their machine. Friends, family, spouses, the closer they were to you the more it hurt to see them use such horrid machines. And yet there was little you could do about it. People were just convinced that Windows was the only “real” operating system out there. It would infuriate me to no end to hear someone call my Mac a “Fisher Price” computer. Thankfully those days are behind us.
So, let me get back to that conversation I no longer need to have. I was talking with someone who really felt that his Windows machine gave him a superb computing experience. “Well, it would have been perfect except…” and then he proceeded to list what is wrong with his machine. Other than that, it would be perfect. He then criticized the Mac he has been forced to work with. Maybe he assumed that would goad me into a debate. Maybe he really wanted to argue. But as I said, I don’t have the energy for that kind of thing anymore. So I let him go. I let him say his piece and when he was done I calmly informed him that the only reason he thought that way was because he didn’t know any better. And that eventually he would stop being stupid and realize what so many other people have realized. Until then I wished him the best with his current situation.
Clearly that wasn’t the response he was expecting. And yet, I find myself taking this approach more and more. When people complain about their machines I just nod and don’t offer any advice but instead quietly mention that I never really have those problems. I can’t tell you how much easier my life got when I started telling all my friends and family that I don’t fix Windows machines anymore. It took awhile for it to completely sink in, but after a while the calls and emails stopped. The trick, I found, was to calmly tell them that I can’t help them because I don’t run Windows anymore and I don’t get those problems on my Mac. Yes, it is a bit smug I grant you, but it works.
So this is my official stance now. Anytime someone complains about Windows, or bashes the Mac, I just reply that if they are smart enough one day they too will own a Mac. Is it perhaps reinforcing the notion that Mac users are arrogant? Probably. But that doesn’t make it any less true.
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What a self-important, arrogant jackass.
“They are buying them because they are steadily noticing that the smartest, most productive people they know, all use Macs.”
So I guess the thousands upon thousands of businesses that run Windows exclusively are all stocked full of idiots, make no money and contribute nothing to the world. People like you are an embarrassment to other Mac users.
Let me ask you this: Why does it matter? If people want to use Windows, what difference does that make to you?
Granted, if your parents are bugging you every week to help them fix some Windows virus, you have a valid reason to try and steer them toward a Mac, because it directly affects you. But if there is no direct impact on you, what the hell difference does it make what platform people use?
This is eerily similar to the homosexuality argument. Ultra-conservatives seem to believe that what other people do in the privacy of their own homes somehow affects their own lives.
Get over yourself. I’m glad you’ve stopped torturing your “friends” with your ridiculous insults. You might even find they spend more time with you now that you treat them like actual human beings instead of belittling their existence.
Everyone, please lets keep the comment civil, no personal attacks.
Thanks
Before even clicking the link from MacSurfer, I knew immediately it was a James Stoup article just by reading the title and noting that it was written for AppleMatters. James, do you not understand how insulting you come across here? If that’s the attitude you had regarding the computers others use, that would explain why you’ve had so many arguments with other people. People can tell when you are condescending to them, and they don’t react kindly to that.
Everyone, please lets keep the comment civil, no personal attacks.
The ARTICLE is an uncivil personal attack, Hadley.
Wow….
Not much to say that hasn’t already been said. The unsupported anger-level in this article is amazing.
I was talking with someone who really felt that his Windows machine gave him a superb computing experience. “Well, it would have been perfect except…” and then he proceeded to list what is wrong with his machine.
This kind of willfull ignorance of reality really gets to me. Anyone who says their chosen platform is perfect is a liar.
The whole “Macs just work” arguement isn’t really supported by my experiences. They work fine most of the time, but then again so does Windows. And when they crash its atleast as frustrating (actually Windows recovers more elegantly in my experience).
The problem is that when you repeat something enough, people take it as a fact. I’ve seen people (who I know for a fact have never used Macs) waxing eloquent on OSX’s stability.
Simo66, while I agree with you completely, for the most part it’s a moot point which one is better.
Even if we concede that a BMW is better than a Corolla, it does not make it okay for the BMW owner to look down his nose at Corolla drivers, calling them “stupid” for driving a car that isn’t as good as his.
Just imagine: “I’ve given up arguing with Corolla drivers. They just don’t know any better. Eventually they will stop being stupid and realize what so many BMW drivers like me have realized.”
That guy would be rightfully called out for the super schmuck that he is. And if that’s how James feels about those around him, then those are his demons to wrestle (provided he has the slightest bit of guilt about his attitude, which I doubt), but it’s very telling to me that he thinks he can write this kind of article believing somehow or other that he is among other like-minded super schmucks.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my mac. My point was just that they both have their strengths.
Sorry bout the double post, but I realized the point that I just had to make about 3 seconds after I clicked submit.
I imagine James submitted this article expecting to stir up a firestorm, but also expecting the majority of the Mac userbase to back him up. Which, given our track record, is pretty understandable.
Had he toned down the article just a tad, say by arguing “Macs are awesome/Windows sucks” instead of “Windows sucks, and you suck for being dumb enough to use it” he’d probably be getting “Rock on James!” messages.
You know what I find the most harrowing about this article? That after the whole Malcor affair, Applematters was oft portrayed as objective and fair individuals, and many distanced them from the typical zealotry garbage that permeates most Mac blogs…so I added them to my feedlist. Come to find out, they are just as piss poor as everyone else!
Why can’t we just get fair analysis and coverage without the condescension? Sure some punditry every now and again is alright…but the above article is just plain garbage. Why I am forced to sift through vitriol like the above, or Gruber’s unsolicited liberalism just to get some Mac news is infuriating.
Cut the shit, and give it to me straight.
And Hadley, you want to talk about personal attacks, how would you perceive the above to be? I am a relatively recent convert into the Mac world, am I one of the imbeciles that James is referring to? How self-righteously indignant. Applematters has “Stouped” to a new low.
Which, given our track record, is pretty understandable.
Granted, but that’s a BAD thing. An article meant to appeal to base elitist superiority because of a plastic box of metal parts is a piece of shit article.
If he wanted to cause a firestorm by being a douche bag, why not just defend torture or illegal wire-tapping?
Had he toned down the article just a tad, say by arguing “Macs are awesome/Windows sucks” instead of “Windows sucks, and you suck for being dumb enough to use it” he’d probably be getting “Rock on James!” messages.
Sure, but that wasn’t really the point of his article. To him, it’s a given that Macs are better. This was his need to let everyone know that using a Mac actually makes him a better person than everyone else. Oh, and that he openly insults his friends with his elitist bullshit over a brand name, like those guys who look down on those around them based on the clothes they wear or the car they drive, and that he’s tired of arguing with those who don’t wear the same clothes as him.
On October 2, 2007, an article was posted in which its author wrote this:
The article in which this quote appears was written for AppleMatters by Steven Leigh. It was titled Eight Reasons Windows Users Don’t Switch. That quote comes from the final bullet item labeled “Mac Users”.
And just two months later, James R. Stoup rather effectively demonstrates that final point made by Leigh.
Let people make up their own minds. If they’re happy, they’re happy. My parents use a four year old hand-built PC which I assembled. It does what they want. It cost about £100 less than a Mac Mini. They’re happy. My Quad G5 has been a life saver, and paid for itself about three times over now, even if it was three grand.
On the other hand, back in 2000, a custom PC with Windows 2000 for £800 shat all over the OS 9 G3s in the studio that employed me, and the even designers were jealous!
This gets like those miserable fundamentalists standing outside gay weddings with placards saying ‘You’re going to burn in Hell’—don’t ruin someone else’s experience, just sit back and be smug in the knowledge that you’re right and they’re wrong.
(Oh, and I in no way am endorsing what those fundamentalists say on their placards!)
Can I just throw in here how heartened I am that the comments now run 29-to-1 against James’ attitude? With Macglee being the unsurprising dissenter.
Somehow that makes me feel better.