KEY POINTS:
In lots of ways I shouldn't comment on PCs at all. In fact, I've only used a PC three times in my life - a terminal in the library. Be that as it may be, there are a couple of instances I feel should be related.
A guy I used to work with was a PC user and professed to not understand the Mac platform, and the Mac culture even less. Fair enough - he worked in sales and PCs seem to dominate sales departments even in companies that otherwise use Macs. (This is changing - FindTech blogs has released info showing Macs result in one third less problems in business environments in an attempt to figure out what's the better return on investment.)
Anyway, this sales bloke bought an iPod, and duly downloaded iTunes for PC. For three weeks he kept rushing about excitedly proclaiming I "had to see this!" brandishing his iPod. Despite knowing I had used Apple stuff for nearly two decades, he'd demonstrate the click wheel, the amount of songs he had, the playlists ...
He'd even drag me back to his cubicle to show me iTunes on his PC. "Isn't it amazing?" he'd say. "Look at the interface. Look what it's done with my music! All the albums are there and everything. Look at this equaliser - it just syncs up with my iPod when I plug it in." He rubbed his forehead in wonderment. "I keep looking for harder ways to do things."
Recently a teenage friend bought a new laptop. Well, that's not strictly true. His birthday was coming up, he'd saved some money and with the bit more he was hoping to get for his birthday, he planned on buying a new laptop for his university studies. Of course, I tried to sell him on the virtues of the Mac.
Anyway, his birthday duly came round and voila - there was a new laptop, supplied by his parents as an unexpected gift. A PC. It had enough RAM, was portable, had the latest Intel chips the same those in a Mac ... it was butt-ugly and clunky-looking, but yeah. It was a new laptop.
A scant three weeks later, and I heard him talking about paying someone to put all his files in the right places. My daughter - same age, and proud owner of a MacBook - was beside herself. "What a waste of money! Why aren't they in the right places anyway? Why can't you do it yourself?"
Indeed.
