Take the No Windows-Booting Pledge
Mac users have a lot of strange habits. We are known to have rituals when we unpack our latest machines. We will argue passionatelyabout the virtue of one menu bar item (over whether even using menu bar items is mac like) over another for hours on end. And yes, we will even create websites dedicated to discussing the minutia of the Apple experience.
But perhaps the biggest way that we define ourselves is in what we are not (Beeblebrox, affectionally, is not included in this generalization). We are not Windows users. Adamantly NOT. Everything that Windows represents, bloat-ware, an inconsistent user experience, an unrefined UI is what we Mac users are not.
Which is why the latest obsession to hit the Mac community is one that I find so odd. That being booting Windows natively. I am writing this from a brand new MacBook Pro (just got it today, in fact). It, so far, appears to be a beautiful machine. The screen is bright as heck, the processor is zippy. OS X runs beautifully within its dual core Intel framework.
And yet so many people out there want to boot Windows on this machine? Why oh why, I ask. I can understand, even respect the hackers who want to do it out there to see if it can be done. But the fact that this seems to be so popular (there are sites, wikis, forums dedicated to just this one task) seems to me to bode ill for the Mac experience.
If OS X is so darn freakin’ good why do people want Windows on their Mac. Buy a Dell, at least its ugliness will match the ugliness of Windows. Virtual PC was already enough of a weird thing, but booting Windows on a Mac? Sacrilege, I say.
Sure, I can hear already all the good responses. Like there is the real estate program I want to be able to run that is Windows only, or, look at all the cool games on Windows. But these arguments will lead to a further undermining of the Mac platform. Developers will just think, hey, if a Mac person wants it they can just dual-boot so screw the Mac platform. Not good.
So, everyone out there who is reading this I want you to take the Apple Matters pledge of allegiance to the Mac platform. Pledge that you won’t even think about trying to dual-boot your mac, now and forever. Amen.
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Hey, I guess I know the exact reason why some Mac users are against booting Windows:
Now Macs ARE PCs! Officially! Who would have thought..
And Mac users are supposed to hate PCs, right?
I’d call them more of a computing experience provider than a hardware manufacturer.
That made me throw up in my mouth a little.
Gotta get used to it.
I can’t think of a reason why I’d want to boot into Windows. I have an Intel Mac - and several PowerPC Macs. They all run MacOS X (recently moved and got rid of my older Macs that only run classic MacOS).
I wouldn’t pay the money to buy a copy of Windows. Someday when they get a version of WINE (DarWINE for Intel?) or something like that, I might be willing to run some Windows software on my Mac, but not if I have to give any money to Microsoft.
You guys are so depressing: “Macs have become PCs!”, “Live with it”, “Apple are just clone makers now”, “Since boot camp, I now use Windows 15% of the time on my Mac, and counting”.
Of everything on this page, e:leaf‘s comments makes the most sense to me.
But in response to comments trying to point out that OS market share wouldn’t grow because of this, because new users will still be purchasing copies of Windows; well a copy of OS X comes with every Mac as well.
Think about it this way: if every computer user bought a new Mac plus a copy of Windows to run on it, the ownership market share would be 50/50. So usage market share would just depend on the overall percentage of each individual’s balance of OS use.
Think about it this way: if every computer user bought a new Mac plus a copy of Windows to run on it, the ownership market share would be 50/50.
Under those circumstances, the marketshare would actually be 100/100, not 50/50, with Mac+Windows purchasers filling in the remaining 5% or so of marketshare that Microsoft doesn’t yet have (while, yes, bumping Apple’s up to 100%).
But let’s assume for one crazy moment that this isn’t going to happen and that marketshare moves a couple of percentage points. Apple’s gains are more or less offset by Windows’s gains and the effect, as I said before, is “pretty much nil.”
For one thing, Microsoft makes more money from OEM sales than they do pre-installs.
Actually, you’re confusing the terms, Beeblebrox. OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer. OEM installs are the pre-installs that come with the computer (as well as the install people buy if they’re building their own computer). That is contrasted with retail sales—which is the full price boxed versions you see at the retail stores.
My bad. Thanks for the correction.
Screw the pledge, I wanted to play Counterstrike and I’m not about to give another dime to Dell - having just given them a boatload of money at this time last year for two crap computers that didn’t last more than 3 months each. I loathe Windows but find it useful for a few odd tasks here and there that Virtual PC ran adequately.
The idea that if I want to play a game or two should justify my buying a Dell, an Xbox 360, whatever - well, that’s just stupid. Why? I can play the best of the PC world on a Mac now (whereas I could only play about 60% of the best games before on it if I waited nearly a year for them to be released). There’s no sense in that arguement. PC’s have great games, and if given the opportunity to play them - hey why not? I’ve been running dualboot XP/Mac for 3 days and that’s been about it. I ran Internet Explorer once to get a patch and was quickly reminded of why I left Windows in the first place… But these Intel mac’s boot so fast (at least the iMac does, I dont have a MacBook just yet) that I can kill Windows and be back typing in Pages in a matter of a few seconds. Life is good. This whole experience has more clearly defined for me what each OS is good for.
Sorry, but this is just stupid. For us that live in the real world and are forced to use certain windows apps, why should we be forced to have both a PC and a Mac when there is now a way to do away with the PC?
It will not undermine the Mac platform. As someone else said elsewhere “Consumers don’t compete for developers. It’s the other way around”.
As long as Mac users want Mac software there will be mac software. As I elaborate more about on my blog: http://eriksrantsandraves.blogspot.com/2006/04/finally-windows-officially-supported.html
I n+1 the consensus.
hey #4:
“HalfLife2 is boring. Quake is boring. Doom is boring. Halo is boring. Gamers are degenerates.”
What you mean to say is:
“I dont like games”.
Fine, so DONT DUAL BOOT THEN. However, for *MANY* people, the ability to play the latest games is a huge boon. (Despite your generalisation that such people are all ‘degenerates’).
PS #4:
“Intaligo Productions Games”
From your website. You degenerate, you.
This is just too stupid. If we think using Windows makes us “dirty” in any way we might as well believe masturbation makes us blind. productivity loyality above brand loyalty/worship!
Please take the anti-pledge here:
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=62669
I pledge to remind myself daily that no matter how much money I spend and how often I spend it, owning a plastic box will never make me one bit smarter, prettier, richer, cooler, hipper or somehow better than other people who have spent money on a different hunk of plastic which is hurtling towards obsolescence just as quickly as mine.
I pledge to remind myself that apple itself has broken more pledges over the years to its customers than any comercial electronics company in history.
I pledge to remind myself that being a member of the Steve Jobs sycophantic/apologist society helps no one except his banker. And Bill.
Friends: It’s just a computer. If you are relying on it to affirm your self worth you are pathetic suckers. And if you are a pathetic sucker, does my pal Stevie have a marketing campaign just for you!
Now can we get back to actually using computers for that which they were designed. Hint: It ISN’T kool kidz merit badges.
It’s amazing we eek out 04% at all.