do i brave the screaming hordes?

[This was written while all this was still just a document on my hard drive.]

I’m thinking that I should start posting these thoughts. But then I see the response that this guy got:
Ten Reasons Why I Hate My Macbook Pro.

Seriously, check out those comments. What a pack of arseholes… and this is the community I’m supposed to approach for help? Not likely.

The author notes in Ten Reasons Why I Love My Macbook Pro that he got Denial of Service attacks for daring to post his opinions.

I really hope that sort of person is a minority amongst mac users.

Here’s a thing. When someone says they dislike a feature of OSX, they are invariably howled down for “ignorance”. You know what? That’s not how it works! I want “maximise” to maximise the window. Don’t tell me about mac apps having palettes instead of sidebars, don’t tell me “you don’t need to maximise”, don’t tell me it’s a different paradigm and I have to shift to it.

I like to maximise. I like to click a button and have the window expand to fill the entire available space; and also block out everything else. This is how I work. You can work however the hell you want, but I like maximised windows. It’s a considered preference.

For balance, I will say something nice: I originally hated the thing where you have to quit the application, rather than having it close automatically with the last window. Over time, I’ve actually become used to that one. See? I am quite willing to adopt features that I actually like ;)

Macheads regularly tell me I’m wrong for wanting to maximise windows. Sorry, but if say “I don’t like this”, you don’t get to say “you’re wrong” – you can not tell me how I feel or what to like. That’s ludicrous.

I can accept “that’s just how OSX works”, so long as people can then accept that I don’t like it. I’m not saying OSX has to be modified to my whim, just that I’m allowed to think and want whatever the hell I like.

Next up, someone will jump in and tell me “oh it’s easy to maximise, you just have to learn some simple Applescript”. Excuse me? I have to learn Applescript? Turn that around for a second, imagine if you had to learn a script language to achieve simple interface functions in Windows. You’d be scathing, wouldn’t you? :)

So anyway, maybe I’ll post these thoughts. Maybe not. I’m not really sure. One the one hand it would probably be cathartic. Plus I was asked to do this.

On the other hand, life’s too short to suffer flames and DoS attacks at the hands of crazed macheads.

OK, this has to be said…

It’s a nice machine. It looks nice, the hardware is nice. The keyboard feels nice. The magnetised power plug is nice. The brightness controls are nice.

But it gets damn hot, and it makes an irritating squealing noise. I expected it to come with an integrated 56k modem (that’s still reasonable, especially in Australia).

The touch pad regularly stops responding. You have to twirl your finger around waiting for it to notice you again. Over the course of a day (say at a conference) you will eventually notice the extra friction. Seriously. It’s unpleasant.

In other words, the machine has problems. I’m willing to say so. By saying so I am not claiming that PCs don’t have problems. I’m not claiming PC superiority. But none of these points will crack through the shield of blind faith and rage that rabid macheads hide behind.

Not all macheads are crazy, I shouldn’t give that impression since it’s not fair. But there are a lot of crazed macheads. Screaming hordes of them. You can see for yourself by daring to express an opinion about macs which is not glowingly positive. You don’t even have to be negative, neutrality will get you yelled at.

The crazies aside, things which are still really common:

• Unshakeable belief that Macs literally never crash and anyone who claims they do is lying and a moron.
• Unshakeable belief that OSX is perfect and has no irritating aspects whatsoever.
• Unshakeable belief that no transitioning user could ever have legitimate problems – instead, all transitioning users are morons.

OSX is different from Windows, I get that. OSX has some features I like and some features I hate. But macheads just don’t seem to be able to cope with that. You have to love the mac, otherwise you’re an idiot who simply doesn’t understand the mac.

So anyway, I guess I’ll post these thoughts. I’ll batten down the hatches expecting hate mail. I may end up closing comments or deleting this blog. I guess we’ll just see.