Imagine Windows users cheering

No one forces someone else to buy Windows PCs. This buying decision is voluntary.

technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

Imagine Windows users cheering

Jan. 2, 2010

By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2010, Al Fasoldt
Originally published as a blog item April 20, 2007

   I spoke to the local Mac user group last night. One of the evening's entertainments was a look at the latest Apple commercials, the ones with the "PC guy" and the "Mac guy." At the end of each commercial, the crowd at the Syracuse Mac User Group cheered, laughed and clapped.
   What's so unusual about this? Nothing much, if you've never suffered through a PC user group meeting. I have nothing against PC users, and indeed I have nothing against PC user groups or their meetings. But "suffer through" is an apt description.
   "I have a question. Can I run two antivirus programs at the same time?"
   "I've been getting DLL errors each time I boot up. Is there something I can do besides reinstall Windows from scratch?"
   "My kids get on the computer and do all this instant message stuff. They downloaded some sort of spyware. I can't find any way to get rid of it. What can I do?"
   Imagine a meeting where PC users laughed, cheered, applauded.
   This sorry state, in which the users of Apple's Macs are a happy bunch and the users of PCs beholden to Apple's main competitor, Microsoft, are a sorry bunch, is not Microsoft's fault, as much as you might wish to blame the maker of Windows.
   No one forces someone else to buy Windows PCs. This buying decision is voluntary.
   It's also ignorant, I'll agree. But it's voluntary. People choose to buy Windows. They choose to buy into the Windows culture. Corporations choose to buy Windows. They choose the Windows culture.
   No wonder folks who own Windows don't gather into a room and cheer. And no wonder folks who own Macs do.