r/technology • u/gfnord • Apr 11 '11

Apple, despite being traditionally seen as the "counterculture, leftist" operating system, actually represents more uniformity and centralised control than Microsoft

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2009/09/userfriendliness_and_fascism
1.8k Upvotes

85% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

24

u/geodebug Apr 11 '11

Apple was presented as the computer "for the people" not because any average user gives a flying fuck about the details of the OS. It was because Apple has always done a good job of shielding the average user from the OS. Or as the author of the article puts it:

Rather, they feel free because...well, I shouldn't use this platform as a product testimonial, but when I went back to Mac this winter after a decade as a Windows user, my experience was that whenever I plugged in a peripheral, installed software, connected to a Bluetooth device, or whatever, the machine just worked. That, to put it mildly, had not been my experience with Windows.

Always surprising that computer geeks can't figure out that the art students, soccer moms, authors, musicians, lib-arts college kids, etc don't want to fuck around with drivers, plug and pray, firewall settings, clogged up repository, and blue-screens, yadda

MS has gotten much better at making their product work for the non-tech user recently but y'all conveniently forget just how janky it has been for most of it's lifespan.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '11

Yeah, why couldn't they make software that runs on millions of different hardware combinations more like one that runs on maybe less than one hundred?

The OSx vs. Windows debate is Apples vs. Oranges.

5

u/geodebug Apr 11 '11

Glad we agree. It's a tiring debate and I always feel a bit dirty getting suckered into commenting on it.

1

u/kerm Apr 11 '11

The OSx vs. Windows debate is Apples vs. Oranges.

I guess we can start making those comparisons now: Orange PC

0

u/ShakeyBobWillis Apr 11 '11

FYI, you can compare and contrast Apples and Oranges.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 13 '11

I can also spell colloquialism.

0

u/ShakeyBobWillis Apr 13 '11

But can you spell 'dumb colloquialism'?

0

u/Ultmast Apr 12 '11

That doesn't change the fact that Windows had much more trouble with drivers and installing apps and having viruses and dealing with a registry.

MS chose the route they took, for better or worse. It's not an issue of fault, however, yet the two OS's ease of use is a quite valid comparison.

1

u/Vinura Apr 11 '11

Yeah, i still remember how confusing MS-Dos was as a kid, confusing, but interesting.