News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

September 29, 2006

internet

State of OS X: alive and well

Posted Sep. 29, ’06, 1:25 PM PT by Scott Silverman
Category | Internet

200609291625A very inflammatory article on Apple Matters poses the following question: if you were stranded on an island and could take either a PC with an internet connection or a Mac with no internet, which would you take? Expecting you to answer that you’d take the PC, the author proceeds to say that this choice proves the operating system “doesn’t matter anymore,” that the “internet is the operating system.”

Frankly, I think this is one of the silliest arguments I have heard since I started writing at MacUser. While the internet is most certainly a huge part of any operating system now-a-days, it is by no means synonymous. The operating system is how you connect to the internet. It is the interface by which the internet proves useful. Without the polished, useful, and pleasant interface of applications like Apple Mail, iChat, iTunes, iPhoto, and iWeb, the internet would not be nearly as useful (or pleasant) as it is.

To pull an example from my life, I will tell you that I used to be a Windows XP user. Comparing my times using the internet then with my times using the internet now (running OS X) is like night and day. Mac OS makes the internet a much more valuable resource. I can use it to sync my address book, calendar, bookmarks, & files, to publish my own website full of photos, to download the latest news stories from an RSS feed, to publish blogs to MacUser, to hold 4-way video chats, to get instant stock, weather, and sports updates via Dashboard…need I go on? The bottom line is none of these things are nearly as functional in Windows. Some of them don’t even exist outside the Mac OS environment. As it turns out, the Operating System is far from dead. In fact, it’s they very thing that gives the internet its life.

As for which I’d choose, the PC with internet or the Mac without? I’d choose the PC. Then I’d navigate promptly to Apple.com, have a Mac FedEx-ed to my island, plug the internet connection into my Mac, and cast the PC out to sea where it belongs.


7 Comments

MacSeven said:

The comparison they make is kind of like asking a college guy if he would choose drinking a soda while watching a wet T-Shirt contest, or to drink a beer in the mens room.

To say that this means College guys now prefer soda over beer wouldn't quite tell the whole story.

Randy at http://www.MacSeven.com

September 29, 2006 2:17 PM
Domenico Bettinelli said:

The question at Apple Matters is a fallacious set up. All that the question proves is that the Internet is the killer app.

If I need to create a spreadsheet, I'll take the PC with Microsoft Excel over the Mac without a spreadsheet program installed.

The premise is just so silly I'm surprised they posted it.

September 29, 2006 2:40 PM
Pat Nakajima Author Profile Page said:

I believe the next article on Apple Matters will pose the question: if you could have a Ferrari with no gasoline or a lawn mower WITH gasoline, what would you choose?

They would then declare "the vehicle doesn't matter anymore."

Good old logic. Or total lack thereof.

September 29, 2006 2:43 PM
Lesly said:

I would choose the pc... connect to the internet... go to googe earth... search for my location... and then ask to save me...

all that within 5 minutes before it crashes.

Back home I'll use my mac.


Interesting idea:

What if pc users must choose between a pc without internet connection and a mac with internet connection? They probably know what to chose (the latter one) but the question is... what will they use back home? ;)

September 29, 2006 2:53 PM
MacSeven said:

You know they didn't ask the question about a Mac with an internet connection, and a PC with an internet connection, because if they did, the PC would have to come with an antivirus definition subscription!

Randy at http://www.MacSeven.com

September 29, 2006 9:21 PM
Erik Haugan said:

Despite the fallacious premise of the question, some of the answers that have been posted here do raise another point of interest.

How easily would a person who has spent years learning all the little tricks and shortcuts for Windows switch to the Mac?

I've recently been working in a company with a heterogeneous environment.
While I'd love to be able to put Macs on the desks of the Windows users, I recognise that the ingrained habits will prove challenging to overcome.

When a habitual Windows user is put in front of a Mac, they will often be puzzled by the different look.

My impression is that for many Windows users to be persuaded to use the Mac, they would need considerable patient coaching.

It's not because the Mac OS is vastly different to Windows. Instead, I think it's more to do with the Windows users never looking beyond the appearance of the GUI. They don't think about the principles behind it.

In my opinion, anyone who looks at the principles behind any aspect of Windows and the Mac, will end up seeing far more similarities than differences.

September 30, 2006 10:52 AM
Chris said:

Is it just me or is anyone else getting just a lil pissed off with dumb articles that use french words to make the writer sound more inteligent?

December 13, 2006 2:58 AM

Leave a comment

 



Visit other IDG sites: