1 month ago
Leopard - The World's Most Advanced Operating System. Pffft!
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Sunday, October 26, 2008
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If you haven't been living under a rock for the past few years with your eyes closed, ears plugged and brain switched off, you would be well aware of the insanity that is the media. Any moderately educated human being will be able to tell you what marketing is about. It's a necessary evil though, I'm not shunning it. I'm an engineering undergraduate and without those bastards no one cares what we invent. But there's a certain point where over exaggerations and mild brainwashing turn into ignorant hysteria and the sensationalisms suddenly become a whole lot more worrying.
So what has ticked me off this time? Yep you guessed it again. Apple.
I hate Apple. I'll say it again. I hate Apple. I don't hate Macs. I hate Apple. What's the difference I hear you ask? Well I love chairs. That doesn't mean I love IKEA. Let's narrow this down a little more. Maybe I don't hate Apple. I hate their marketing really.
We've all seen the "I'm a Mac" attack ads which in my opinion were pretty funny the first time around. But the persistently nagging "I'm better than you" image soon pissed me off. It brought about a stupid stereotype, the PC user was some lame and boring business guy in denial, and the Mac user was a cool and laid back guy quite pleased with himself. I do admit, If their point was Windows is far more professional than Mac OS X they would have a point. That doesn't make either OS suck more or less than the other. It just show's their direction.
Windows has always failed to stoop to an attack level and never responded to the "I'm a Mac" campaign. Until recently that is. The "I've been made into a stereotype" campaign hit us hard. It had so many mixed opinions it made comments on YouTube seem civilised.
Mac whores horded in their millions to denounce the advertising and dismiss it as a complete failure. Millions of Windows users suddenly saw some sense of belonging to these new ads. But what I saw behind all of this was the more professional image Microsoft portrayed. They never attacked back.
But back to the title of this article. On the Apple website I saw "The Most Advanced Operating System. Ever". I was at work when I came across this (while using a Mac I might add), and I just had to smile. Apple marketing at its best. They tell you what to believe. The sad thing is, heaps of people go with it.
Honestly I have no real philosophical hatred of Mac OS X, as a Mac fanboy or girl would have with a Windows. But why would you go as far as to claim that Mac OS X is the best operating system?
As even a Neanderthal could tell you, "best" is a subjective word. The very power of the word itself is in that it renders what ever sentence it is contained in an opinion. So sure, marketing is allowed to tell you they believe Mac OS X is the best. That's fine. If people believe it, that's just stupid. When someone tells me "my girlfriend is the best". I don't immediately believe she is better than mine, or anyone else's. And neither does that mean he's wrong. It just means, relative to himself, his girlfriend is the best.
But they never used the word "best". They said "Most Advanced".
Everyone knows Apple's marketing is brilliant. It's brainwashing skills are second only to fundamentalist cults and religions. They start the hype, they burn the image killers, they shun the non Apple fanatics. There is nothing more I hate than hypocrisies and ignorance. And my team here follows suit. That's why we all so coincidentally hate Apple's marketing. But let me tell you (or remind you) what their biggest going point is. That is, what they so strongly believe makes their operating system, the Macintosh OS X system the most advanced operating system this 4.6 billion year old planet has ever witnessed to exist.
Ok lets ignore Linux here for a second (sorry Tam!). But Windows and Mac OS X are the two largest competing operating systems. Windows has over a billion users and 90% of market share. Mac makes up 7% and it's been growing pretty fast lately. But being able to run more than one operating system on a single computer sounds incredible, even impossible.
No. It's not. It's called dual boot. Any piece of hardware that calls itself a computer can do it. Mac machines only just caught up! But somehow marketing made it new. Somehow they made it cool.
Let's look at this carefully. With a Mac you can use Windows and Mac. With a PC you can't use Mac.
Gee, I wonder what the average person would choose.
Damn PCs suck! They can't run Mac OS X! Not even through a virtual machine. I'm going to switch!
Oh.
Did I forget to mention?
It's actually illegal. Yes illegal. To install Mac OS X on anything but Mac hardware.
I'll guide your thought processes here.
Oh so Apple forbids you to use Mac on a Windows machine.
But you can use Windows on a Mac machine.
So therefore the Mac is far more advanced.
Wow.
Now off the spear tip of the argument and onto the real stuff. From my experience and years of learning and understanding, currently working as a Software Engineering intern and studying Info Comm Tech engineering, having used all three major (Mac, Win, Lin) operating systems for a very long time. I will tell you. The best operating system. Is not Mac. It's not even Windows. It's Linux.
Linux runs on nearly everything. God damn it, they put Linux on Xboxes and PS3s and it's used as servers everywhere. Its free. When I say "free" I'm not just talking money-wise. You can do what ever you want with it.
I don't use Linux as much as Windows. And personally I prefer Windows out of all three. But that's personal choice.
Dude seriously. Macs don’t even have Blue Ray, no NTFS support, damn if I had the time to write a list I'd have finished the USB Panic Button hack by now! I refuse to believe an operating system that is meant to work on a about 6 different configurations of hardware is more advanced than an operating system that is built to allow the buyer to choose his or her own hardware and costs.
There's one good reason people like Macs over PCs. And that's unity and integration. And I'll give them that. The Windows operating system is designed for all kinds of machines, which is where Blue Screens almost always come from (driver or hardware screw ups). Macs rarely have that since they can thoroughly test their insanely limited hardware choices. That's what people don't realise. The Mac and PC debate is flawed.
When you say Mac. You are talking about the operating system as well as the machine itself. Windows is just the operating system, the hardware is nothing to do with it. Microsoft didn’t design the keyboard your using right now (unless it’s a Microsoft one obviously). Windows didn't design the screen your looking at either, nor did it design the DVD drive your watching your movies on.
Some people like the integration Mac offers. And that is not at all a bad thing. However I hate such restrictions. Which is why I will never switch. I also hate the marketing department enough to hate their products. We're people not lemurs.
In conclusion I think Apple is pure evil. Out to squeeze every bit of money off you more than Microsoft could ever. Making it illegal to use Mac OS X is ridiculous. Mac is not better because Windows runs on it. Windows is better in that sense that it allows you to use it on a Mac. Because of this whole ignorance I officially recommend getting a hackint0sh immediately. I will personally install mine within the month.
Frankly if Windows ever told me that crap. "It's the most advanced operating system in the world", I'd hang my head in embarrassment.
On a side note:
I won't kid you but they tried to make me get an iPod the same way those bible carrying penguins tried to make me believe in a God.
Their argument was "that small feeling inside that questions you, questions your lack of belief in God, is reason enough to believe in Him," which parallels "everyone has an iPod, you see it on TV, it's advertised everywhere, even though you hate iPods and Apple to death, you have this tingling sensation inside, that's your curiosity. You know you want it." My answer to the Jehovah's Witness - "no that's my curiosity. It's my questioning. Which is why I am atheist. All humans are born with it. Even you." My answer to the Apple fangirl - "sorry, I'm an atheist."