The Cult of Apple

Steve Jobs is dead, and that's unfortunate from a human standpoint. But I don't get all this fuss over how he and his company supposedly changed technology.

I bought my first computer in 1986. Right now I'm on my 9th computer, which runs
Windows 7. All my life, I've been a DOS/Windows user. I’ve never owned an Apple anything. Nor a Mac, nor anything beginning with an i.

Once, I used a computer running an Apple operating system. It was at Kinko's. I didn't realize it was running Apple (or Mac, or whatever they call their OS) until it CRASHED, and I had to call the clerk for help.

That's right. The Apple OS is so similar to Windows, I didn't even notice I was running Apple rather than Windows. And Apple CRASHES, same as Windows.

(Or rather, same as Windows used to crash. Windows 98 crashed a lot. I've not had crashes with Windows XP or Windows 7.)

Back in the 1990s, I'd read that Apple had about 5% of the OS market share. Windows had the rest (excepting maybe 1% for "others" like Linux and OS/Warp 2). Apple users urged me to switch to Apple. They spoke with religious hysteria. I got the impression they were afraid that Apple might soon go bust, so they wanted to entice other people into buying Apple, to bolster the company's market share.





Apple users have long sounded cultish to me. I've built a dozen or so websites from scratch, using Windows-based Netscape Composer, and then later, Dreamweaver. I've written all my books and scripts on Windows-based software (first WordStar for DOS, then Movie Magic Screenwriter and Open Office). I listen to MP3s on a Sansa Fuse (not iPod) player. My cell phone was Verizon, until I canceled due to their inaccurate billing.

Apple products are, I'm sure, no better than the rest. They just cost more, and have glitzier marketing.

That's the secret of Apple. Glitzy marketing, so as to create a sort of personality cult around the product. Yes, they've run some great ads. But like most ads, they're about image, not reality.

If Apple users were truly the anti-corporate/radical individualists they posture as, they'd switch to Linux.

Windows for the masses. Linux for the rebels. Apple for the poseurs.

-- Thomas M. Sipos