War of Words

This Week's Topic- Macs

Macs seem to be everywhere these days, from iPods in your ears,
to iBooks at Starbucks, to quirky ads on TV. Heavily marketed to
the younger generation, the company’s brand revels in the image of

cool.

But are the computers themselves actually worth the hype, or are
they all style and no substance? Our panel debates.

     
       
           
      
   
    
    
    
 
   
  
 
    
  
   
   
   
   
    
  
    
  
   

Against, by Aimee Ouelette

H. my name is Aimee and I’m
a PC. You might é surprised to
. 4 learn that—after all, I’m in a nerdy
-¢@> publishing program, I wear thick-
rimmed hipster glasses, and I own at
least one pair of skinny jeans (they
look awful on me). So why don’t I
have those telltale white earbud cords
creeping out of my hoodie? Why, when
I received a Macbook as a present after
graduation, did I install “Bootcamp”
right away, so that I could run
Windows on it?

It’s because, first and foremost,
I’m a fan of functionality, and the fact
is PCs are cheaper, easier to customize,
and more universal than Macs. Sure,
Apple products are stylish. They are
glossy, and come in cool colours, and
their commercials have catchy songs in
them. But my Samsung P2 has the same
functionality as an iPod Touch, but with

For, by Luke Simcoe

i... I know all those Mac ads
have overstayed their welcome, but
there’s a lot more to Apple Computers
than Justin Long’s witty quips, Vans
slip-ons, and hipster sweaters.

Founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs,
Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, the
company has been at the leading edge
of the computer world for over 30 years.
Only Jobs remains, but his innovative
business philosophy and _ penchant
for unique aesthetics has resulted in
a customer base that has an unusual
degree of loyalty to the Apple brand.

It’s easy to see why. Apple is a
company of firsts: the first personal
computer, the first laptop, the first
portable digital music player, the first
online music store (which was also
the first digital reseller to eliminate
intrusive Digital Rights Management
technology), and the list goes on. In
fact, the new MacBook Air is the first
full-size notebook to come without
a CD drive, effectively sounding the

no irritating proprietary software—and
costs hundreds of dollars less.

And don’t even get me started on
virus protection—the only reason PCs
are more likely to get viruses is that the
people who make viruses don’t care
about Mac users because Mac users are
such a small demographic. Creating a
virus for Macs would be like pulling off
a large-scale terrorist attack on the post
office of a small town. Sure, you could
do it, but why?

The number one reason I like my
PC is that it’s completely utilitarian and
unpretentious. Sure, it’s ugly—that’s
why it’s in the computer room, and not
on display in my china cabinet. My
vacuum is ugly too, but it works. The
best part is that my PC doesn’t have to
be ugly. I just haven’t chosen to make it
pretty. If I want to spend some money
to buy a flat monitor or blinky lights for
my PC tower, I am perfectly free to do

Macs are where It’s at

beginning of the end for the compact
disc.

In contrast, Microsoft, Apple’s
nemesis, is possessed of a completely
different business philosophy. Bill Gates
plays Xbox games in his office while
waiting for Steve Jobs to revolutionize
the industry, and then he just follows
along once a trend is established.
Remember the Zune?

And let’s not forget that Apple
productslookdamngood.Thecompany’s
minimalist approach to the design of
their products perfectly matches our
generation’s aesthetic preferences. Sure,
it’s shallow, but Apple’s product line is
the digital equivalent of a well-tailored,
well-matching suit.

Looks and philosophy aside, there’s
plenty of practical reasons to side with
Apple. While the Mac operating system
does resemble Windows (truthfully,
Windows actually resembles the Mac
OS, as Bill Gates simply ripped off
Apple’s program code and modified
it to run on a diversity of hardware),

Computers don’t need to be hip

so. Want to customize the look of your
Apple product? Ha! Good luck. My
Macbook is already very pretty, yes,
but if I want to change the look of it in
any way, I’m pretty much relegated to
slapping on some Hello Kitty stickers
and calling it a day.

Macs don’t come with many
options. Apple (and Apple users) are
so smug and self-satisfied with their
“superior product” that they don’t feel
the need to customize in any way. I think
this is a bit fascist. If I’m paying obscene
amounts of money for a computer that I
could get cheaper someone else, I should
at least be able to do what I want with
it. Mac products, however, are all about
the proprietary software, the restricting
of options, and the dumbing down of
user interfaces, all to make sure their
products are super easy to use for the
lowest common denominator. Sorry, the
laziest common denominator. Or should

the interface is far more intuitive, and
the company’s attention to detail is
incredible. It takes a bit of time, but
once you’re familiar with the various
shortcuts and periphery programs,
working in the Mac environment is
faster and more fun. Macs are also less
prone to glitches, spyware and viruses.
My own MacBook is over a year old,
and I seldom get the error messages and
frozen programs that I associate with
Windows, and I don’t even use an anti-
virus program.

The Mac OS is also Unix-based,
and while that may mean absolutely
nothing to you, it’s a fact that Unix
operating systems are less taxing on
computer hardware than other OS types.
In plain English, this means that most
Macs have a longer life expectancy
than PCs.

Years ago, Apple computers did
suffer from software compatibility
problems, but nowadays such issues
are a thing of the past. More and more
software companies are clueing in to
the fact that Apple’s stock is on the rise
(literally and figuratively), and some,
most notably Adobe, actually design
their software with the Mac OS in

   
 

I say richest?

In the (admittedly hilarious) Mac
vs PC commercials, PC is always
portrayed as the boring lame dude
who dreams about spreadsheets. The
irony here is that in real life, the guy
who plays the PC, John Hodgman,
is a hilarious, intelligent, and quirky
comedian and author. ‘You may
have seen him on The Daily. Show.
The guy who plays the Mac is some
hipster nobody who knows zilch about
computers. You may have seen him
in... Mac commercials.

When I use my PC, I don’t have
to worry about what statement I’m
making, or whether I’m conforming
to some kind of irritating cookie-
cutter “individualism,” because the
PC doesn’t say anything. It’s not a
computer masquerading as a lamp, or
as fine art, or as a “lifestyle” choice.
It’s whatever I want it to be, which
means it’s a highly functional box
that lets me do lots of stuff quickly,
cheaply, and without hassle.

mind.

Once considered prohibitively
expensive, Apple’s prices have also
been getting steadily better. The
consumer line of MacBook laptops are
actually cheaper than comparable PCs,
and the new Apple Time Capsule, a
combination of a 500 GB external hard-
drive and a state of the art Wireless base
station, is a steal for $329.

Computers, and the trend towards
manufactured obsolescence, are an
environmental catastrophe, and the only
place where Apple doesn’t exceed their
competition is in their environmental
policies. Truthfully, Apple’s
environmental stance is comparable to
other companies, but you’d expect that
such an innovative company would also
be a leader in green issues as well.

So sure, maybe they’re aimed
at pretentious hipsters, but Apple
computers are still a superior product.
And when you think about it, defining
yourself by the kind of computer you
use is no more or less ridiculous than
wearing overpriced designer jeans,
driving a tricked-out car or having an
unnecessarily obscure taste in music.

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