Catshanghai

I want to be a Mac user, but I also like open standards and the whole cult of Apple phenomenon has troubled me on many occasions. This may account for the contradictory remarks that I make about Apples and Macs, which I am fully aware of. My objections have often been more cultural than technological and I enjoy being mischievous towards people who impute spiritual qualities on an expensive box of wires.

On one hand, I am very open to the benefits of Macs.

Macs provide a lower barrier to entry for media and content production in terms of students and staff making videos, podcasts and music. For example, the Western Academy of Beijing has year 4 students producing
media projects that are showcased on their blogs.

Macs have faster workflows for media projects. Firewire is available on all Macs to upload video files. They can be easily edited in Imovie and burnt to DVD or uploaded to an Ipod or the Internet. Windows has good software to handle such projects, but my experience progress is slowed by having to use multiple applications and converting from one file format to another.

Macintosh computers are interoperable with Windows network infrastructure. Systems integration is still not trivial, but data is
being shared and organised more and more through web based intranets and extranets such as digital portfolio systems, social networking services and virtual learning environments. Word processing, slideshow, image and media files can be used in both Mac and Windows systems. The Smartboards can be run with both PCs and Macs. New Macs have Intel processors inside that allow them to run Windows using Parallels or Base Camp as long as they have at least 1 gb of RAM.

Mac Books are becomingly more competitively priced especially at entry level. Proprietary cables and peripherals can be very expensive, but generic alternatives can be used to reduce these costs in many cases. It is argued that Windows machines have a lower cost over the lifetime of the machine, but that does not take into account value for money. If we empower all our teachers and students to become podcasters, designers and movie directors then we get much better value for money compared with spending less money on equipment that is rarely used.

Yet, I still don’t like it when Mac users lecture Windows diehards for being wrong, stupid, tasteless, too poor or stubborn to buy into this niche.

I find it amusing and bemusing in equal measure how this ongoing Mac versus PC debate rages on when they are both a big part of each other’s ecosystems. Who is Apple’s biggest earner? It is Windows users who have Ipods. Who is the biggest supplier of software for Mac OSX? It is Windows who develop Office for them.

I don’t like the smug religious fervour that exudes some Mac users deluding themselves that they are the high priests of cool. My wife has much more taste than Steve Jobs could ever imagine and she hates computers. Steve Jobs is too cheap to change his turtleneck. A Mac is just a computer running apps so people can get things done more easily. Mac OS has an edge, because they don’t have to write drivers for an infinite number of hardware configurations.

I would still buy a Mac tomorrow to run Mac OS, Windows and Linux together. I expect it would work better.