Scoop’s Views

The Mac vs. PC ads that ran on national TV for months, then took a short break just prior to the launch of Mac’s Leopard OS update, are back on the air — and ad nauseam at that.

While the argument about Mac-vs.-PC is one of those school yard arguments for elementary school students, the real differences between the machines have really disappeared over the past 10 years or so.

From mid-1989 through 1996 or so, I was one of many who used a Mac as a primary work machine, primarily because it was the platform for desktop publishing. The primary debate back then, at least is most circles I associated — publishing, graphics, and design, as well as academic — the debates were more about using Aldus (now Adobe) PageMaker, QuarkXPress, and a handful of other, mediocre programs for “the serious publisher,” as the boxes often read.

The lesser known programs, while decent for crude, down-and-dirty “desktop publishing,” such as community newsletters, could work, the big boys, such as Time, USA Today, and many local newspapers, were jumping to full pagination.

Even back then, I am sorry to say, there were the childish Mac-vs-PC debates, but the people pushing a specific platform were always left speechless when you challenged them about ways to accomplish specific tasks on a given platform.

The PC folks always shut up when you said, “How do I produce high-end graphics and typesetting for publication using a PC, while having the final product still look every bit as good as the original font, and just as good as the material generated using a Mac?”

To silence the Mac crowd, all you had to ask was, “How do you do SQL or database work?” Back then, there was no option on a Mac to handle serious database work. This was back in the days of glorious System 6 and System 7.

When I went freelance, I needed to run Microsoft Access, at a minimum, but also needed to use FoxPro on occasion, so back to the PC I went. I never had an alliance to any type of computer, just as long as the machine worked when, and in the manner, that I needed it to work. Using a poor man’s database, Microsoft Excel on the Mac, was not a viable option for me. I needed real database capabilities, and the Mac simply wasn’t up to task. Then again, it wasn’t designed for that kind of use. The PC, on the other hand, was designed for office use, not graphical applications, at least back then.

Having gone from a TRS-80 as a “starter” computer for me — well, it was the only game around, pretty much — then to a Commodore VIC-20, Commodore 64, a 186 PC running MS-DOS, then to a 286 running Windows 3.1 and later 3.11 for Workgroups, and then to a Mac, and later back to a PC.

Since my last shift back to a PC, in 1996 or 1997, I have purchased at least six PCs. It’s time to look for a new one, just because my latest one, a Dell Dimension 8300 (I spec’d it out to the max when I ordered it, then kicked it up a little more over the past few years), is starting to show its age — and signs of hard use.

Today, though, the argument isn’t about which machine is better or what the machine can do, but more about individual preference.

What can a Mac do that a PC can’t do? Don’t toss out the laughable argument that “it’s more secure” and try adding, “When’s the last time someone got a virus on a Mac?” It’s because the PC — the Windows operating system, more specifically — is the dominant platform, that hackers take the time to write a virus to attack Microsoft Office running on Windows XP, or take the time to write a virus to break into a different part of Windows.

If Mac was the dominant platform, the tables would be turned. It would be PC users laughing, saying, “No one wants to waste time hacking us because we’re just 11 percent of the market.” We would also be laughing at the iSheep, saying, “Why do you insist on buying proprietary machines and proprietary operating systems? We want open source!”

That’s what it comes down to: where can you make a name for yourself, fastest, in the hacking community? By doing something malicious quickly that’s going to hit the majority of all computer users. Now, though, if Mac were, by some sudden stroke of fate, to become the dominant platform, I am willing to bet you a dollar to a donut that hackers overtake the Mac platform within days of it becoming the dominant platform. Now, though, in reality, the likelihood of that happening is nil to none, so any argument or discussion of that point would be, at best, strictly academic — until the Mac dweeb gets up and starts talking about his new operating system.

Is Apple being honest with users?

I’ve seen a few reviews in industry magazines saying the latest Mac update introduced a bunch of changes for Mac users. While I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the articles, I have no doubt they are truthful in what they say. For instance, Mac users now get the same popup dialog box asking for permission that the Mac dweeb knocks the PC old fart about when Vista was released. What’s up with that? If the Mac is so secure, why is Apple suddenly locking down user activity? Oops, maybe everything wasn’t “user activity,” but rather something less than honorable happening on the system.

It seems some of the Mac users, who are finding out about this “elevated permissions level” only after the upgrade are surprised. These iSheep are finding they have the exact same thing that Vista has, and that they’ve been laughing about for about 10 months. Now the pie is in their face it seems.

At the end of the day, comparing my PC against any Mac, I am confident I can do anything the Mac user can do, just as well. The only difference is the platform. If someone wants to try to launch a “my Mac is better than your PC” argument with me, they really need to finish sixth grade, move on through high school, and once they’ve used computers, in the real world, come talk with me.

Speaking of finishing high school and working in the real world, look at the latest Mac ad. Are the Mac ads becoming more and more childish as they continue, or is it that I simply have less and less tolerance for some ad agency’s lack of creativity? Check out the latest Mac ad here.

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