Why do PC/Windows people take pro-Mac posts as personal insults...

[blunderboy]

...and vice versa? (And I can't forget Linux.)

I don't take it as a personal insult if someone prefers Windows. I will, however, take it as an insult if someone tells me that I made a 'stupid' choice for using something with which I am very happy, because 'Macs are always worse than PCs' or whatever.

I have noticed, though, a lot of Mac users who take it as a personal insult that others don't care much for the Mac OS ('if you've used Mac OS X for more than X amount of time, you'll like it way better than Windows'), as well as Windows people who get rather defensive if someone mentions that they dislike Windows. Yes, I've tried Windows 7. No, I don't like it. That doesn't mean that I dislike people who use Windows. I have friends with OS preferences all over the spectrum. BOTH sides of the debate—yes, that means us, too, fellow Mac people—tend to see this as a sort of religious debate between a majority religion and a minority, but growing, school of belief. People refuse to accept that others can have different cosmological perceptions (or in this case, computing perceptions). Just replace 'Macs don't have right click' with 'Jews can't eat pork' or 'Windows has so many problems' with 'Christianity is full of crazy bigots' or something similar. (Or, for that matter, 'Linux has so many distros' and 'Christianity has so many competing denominations'.)

Truth is, there IS no 'God's own OS', despite what the Mac/Windows/Linux zealots say. It comes down to what YOU want, since YOU'RE going to be the one using it.

 

[rhett7660]

...and vice versa? (And I can't forget Linux.)

I don't take it as a personal insult if someone prefers Windows. I will, however, take it as an insult if someone tells me that I made a 'stupid' choice for using something with which I am very happy, because 'Macs are always worse than PCs' or whatever.

I have noticed, though, a lot of Mac users who take it as a personal insult that others don't care much for the Mac OS ('if you've used Mac OS X for more than X amount of time, you'll like it way better than Windows'), as well as Windows people who get rather defensive if someone mentions that they dislike Windows. Yes, I've tried Windows 7. No, I don't like it. That doesn't mean that I dislike people who use Windows. I have friends with OS preferences all over the spectrum. BOTH sides of the debate—yes, that means us, too, fellow Mac people—tend to see this as a sort of religious debate between a majority religion and a minority, but growing, school of belief. People refuse to accept that others can have different cosmological perceptions (or in this case, computing perceptions). Just replace 'Macs don't have right click' with 'Jews can't eat pork' or 'Windows has so many problems' with 'Christianity is full of crazy bigots' or something similar. (Or, for that matter, 'Linux has so many distros' and 'Christianity has so many competing denominations'.)

Truth is, there IS no 'God's own OS', despite what the Mac/Windows/Linux zealots say. It comes down to what YOU want, since YOU'RE going to be the one using it.

I think it is more the way some people stat there preference. The word Fanboy is thrown around way to much and is primarily used as a personnel insult to people on the boards.

 

[Mike225]

I realize people have different tastes in OS's, what I dont like is people always bashing MSFT or their users as well. This site is especially poor for those kind of users. I suspect most are just 16 year olds who got their first Mac and think theyre cool now.

 

[Hellhammer]

People just want to defend their choices and opinions. This is an endless war, just like X360 vs PS3. There will always be chaos if an argument is based on personal opinions

“The difficult part in an argument is not to defend one's opinion, but rather to know it” - Andre Maurois

 

[blunderboy]

I can't stand the constant 'ZOMG FANBOIIIII!!111' stuff, myself. I'm an Apple fan, but I'm not a fanboy; I'll use a competitor's product if I have a compelling reason to. I have two SanDisk MP3 players which I use fairly often, because navigating through songs is easier than it is with my iPod Shuffle. (The iPod is sturdier, and has better support for playlists. It's a tradeoff, which is why I have both.)

I don't like the constant bashing of Microsoft users, myself. I do criticise the company, but I really don't care if individual people want to use Windows. There are enterprise users who need to use it for whatever reason. Gamers. People who just feel more comfortable in the Windows environment than the Mac OS.

 

[Danxqz]

I started using computers in about 1985. I asked a friend who was into it about Apple. He had a TRS 80 (we are talking the dark age here ) and he said he didn't know much about them except that the people who had them loved them and they were supposed to be 'intuitive.' The word intuitive sold me. I know that was the style for me.

I bought a 512Ke, loved it and my next 5 or so computers were Macs. This was back in the day when PC's used DOS and MS had no GUI.

Finally around the Me, XP era I went PC; in part because I wanted to build my own machine. Just to see what that was like. I knew and know nothing about computers, but even a moron can put one together.

I've always had a Mac loyalty, in part because I thought the GUI was stolen from Mac by MS. But for the last 5 or so years I've only used PC's. Vista, and now Win 7 seem so 'Mac-like' to me + I mainly used text files in business and....

BUT, now, I've ordered an iMac; just an i3 21.5". But they are too, too gorgeous not to try. They're all just tools. Which tool suits the job best? Which one feels best in the hand? And even, 'which one just looks best?'

Anyway, I'm back to Mac, although I will still be using Win 7 in a desk top, HP 17" laptop, and a little Acer netbook.

Mac/PC wars are tribal. They're like religious wars. They are for the immature and those with religious type personalities. It's silly, but I understand it. I was a Mac fanatic. Now I'm an atheist.

 

[blunderboy]

I started using computers in about 1985. I asked a friend who was into it about Apple. He had a TRS 80 (we are talking the dark age here ) and he said he didn't know much about them except that the people who had them loved them and they were supposed to be 'intuitive.' The word intuitive sold me. I know that was the style for me.

I bought a 512Ke, loved it and my next 5 or so computers were Macs. This was back in the day when PC's used DOS and MS had no GUI.

Finally around the Me, XP era I went PC; in part because I wanted to build my own machine. Just to see what that was like. I knew and know nothing about computers, but even a moron can put one together.

I've always had a Mac loyalty, in part because I thought the GUI was stolen from Mac by MS. But for the last 5 or so years I've only used PC's. Vista, and now Win 7 seem so 'Mac-like' to me + I mainly used text files in business and....

BUT, now, I've ordered an iMac; just an i3 21.5". But they are too, too gorgeous not to try. They're all just tools. Which tool suits the job best? Which one feels best in the hand? And even, 'which one just looks best?'

Anyway, I'm back to Mac, although I will still be using Win 7 in a desk top, HP 17" laptop, and a little Acer netbook.

Mac/PC wars are tribal. They're like religious wars. They are for the immature and those with religious type personalities. It's silly, but I understand it. I was a Mac fanatic. Now I'm an atheist.

Agreed. I don't have anything against competing products if they do what I want them to do. For instance, netbooks seem pretty convenient, and are better for typing and writing documents than iPads are, as awesome as they look. At this point, Windows doesn't offer anything that would compel me to do more than run it in a virtual machine if I absolutely had to use it. Doesn't mean that Windows is 'bad for everyone'.

 

[0098386]

Also: why vice versa?

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Because an OS fanboi believes that "his" views are superior, ergo "your" views inferior by default.

If you're called inferior, aren't you going to want to fight back?

 

[steve2112]

Because, instead of something simple such as "I like Macs", with Mac fans, you often get comments such as: "ANDROID IS DEAD. WINDOWS IS DEAD". And in many cases, they actually believe it despite the fact that Windows has 90% of the desktop market, and Android has caught/surpassed (depending on who you believe) iPhone sales. Let's face it, over the years, Apple has attracted some really over the top fans. "Cult of Mac" isn't just a cute phrase.

In my experience, Windows "fanboys" often aren't necessarily huge fans of Windows, they just enjoy bashing other OSes. Hardcore gamers are especially bad about this, since other OSes don't run games like Windows does.

 

[djellison]

Windoze. Micro$soft. A combination of childish phrases like that, plus complete lies and pathetic superlatives. I don't think people take pro Mac stuff as an insult. They take the lies aimed at Microsoft as insults.

I use both. I like both. But I can't stand it when people lie about one or the other, or don't demand the quality from Apple that the price tag dictates we should have. That hypocrisy of allowing Apple to drop the ball, repeatedly, yet criticising Microsoft for doing the same. Defending stuff that's just plain wrong, but because it's Apple....oh - it's MUST be right.

Threads like this - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/990618/ constraints that are explicitly of Apple's making - but Adobe getting flamed for it. Indeed, the anti Flash mentality - simply because Steve Jobs says so. It's utterly utterly repulsive

There are some Apple fans in this place who are utterly utterly intolerable. There is nothing that Apple can do wrong, there is no justified criticism they won't ignore. It's pathetic. It's very very very annoying. And it's a major problem with the Apple brand in general - I know people who genuinely, refuse to use Mac's because of their experience of Mac users. I was one myself for many many years - I read so many lies, things I personally directly new to be lies, written by Mac people, that my opinion ( and I know others have or had it as well ) was basically ' Well - if they're lying so much about the platform I'm quite happy using now, I can not possibly trust their opinion regarding Mac'.

In short - many Mac users give other people many many excuses to hate them.

 

[awmazz]

...and vice versa? (And I can't forget Linux.)

I've never used Linux myself, but I can imagine they feel the same way as I did for so many years using a minority Mac OS that suited me perfectly. Just don't care what the majority do or use.

Juvenile words like 'fanboi' are just that, and relegate any opinion to the irrelevant nyah-nyah category not even worth bothering about.

What *does" bother me is the amount of people (on this forum) who come across as stridently anti-Mac or anti-Apple/Jobs and/or want to convince Mac users that Windows/Android/etc is just as good or so much better. I just can't understand it. Do people go on Linux forums to go on about everything they hate about Linux and how Android is so much better? Deride those users who support and defend Linux against this opinion as cultish fanboys?

I can understand being on a Linux forum because you like Linux. That's the whole purpose of it. But the other way around? I would never go on a Linux forum to praise OSX instead. Even if all the Linux users on the forum were bagging OSX. What do I care? That's just pointless and weird.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Threads like this - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/990618/ constraints that are explicitly of Apple's making - but Adobe getting flamed for it. Indeed, the anti Flash mentality - simply because Steve Jobs says so. It's utterly utterly repulsive

That pissed me off so much!

...and I deleted everything else I had typed to prevent this from turning into a flame war...

 

[yg17]

Windoze. Micro$soft. A combination of childish phrases like that, plus complete lies and pathetic superlatives. I don't think people take pro Mac stuff as an insult. They take the lies aimed at Microsoft as insults.

I use both. I like both. But I can't stand it when people lie about one or the other, or don't demand the quality from Apple that the price tag dictates we should have. That hypocrisy of allowing Apple to drop the ball, repeatedly, yet criticising Microsoft for doing the same. Defending stuff that's just plain wrong, but because it's Apple....oh - it's MUST be right.

Threads like this - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/990618/ constraints that are explicitly of Apple's making - but Adobe getting flamed for it. Indeed, the anti Flash mentality - simply because Steve Jobs says so. It's utterly utterly repulsive

There are some Apple fans in this place who are utterly utterly intolerable. There is nothing that Apple can do wrong, there is no justified criticism they won't ignore. It's pathetic. It's very very very annoying. And it's a major problem with the Apple brand in general - I know people who genuinely, refuse to use Mac's because of their experience of Mac users. I was one myself for many many years - I read so many lies, things I personally directly new to be lies, written by Mac people, that my opinion ( and I know others have or had it as well ) was basically ' Well - if they're lying so much about the platform I'm quite happy using now, I can not possibly trust their opinion regarding Mac'.

In short - many Mac users give other people many many excuses to hate them.

Couldn't have said it any better myself. The "Apple can do no wrong" crowd are repulsive and are the reason Mac users get such a bad name.

 

[blunderboy]

What *does" bother me is the amount of people (on this forum) who come across as stridently anti-Mac or anti-Apple/Jobs and/or want to convince Mac users that Windows/Android/etc is just as good or so much better. I just can't understand it. Do people go on Linux forums to go on about everything they hate about Linux and how Android is so much better? Deride those users who support and defend Linux against this opinion as cultish fanboys?

I can't understand it, either. I'd like to be able to visit a Mac forum and not have people go on and on about how Windows PCs are better. I don't join the Windows 7 forums and talk about how the Mac is so much better than Windows and why they all need to switch. I'd rather not have to feel that I have to go on the defensive because I discuss my favourite computing platform on a forum that's ostensibly about that platform.

Couldn't have said it any better myself. The "Apple can do no wrong" crowd are repulsive and are the reason Mac users get such a bad name.

Yeah, I'm not too fond of the 'Apple can do no wrong' crowd myself. While I do think that Apple generally makes sound decisions, I do think there are places in which they've erred.

 

[patrick0brien]

Because people don't want to learn the choices they have made were the wrong ones. The reaction is simply a defense mechanism.

The intensity of the reaction increases with the financial cost of making the choice.

 

[djellison]

I can't understand it, either. I'd like to be able to visit a Mac forum and not have people go on and on about how Windows PCs are better.

I don't think that's what you get here. What you get is people responding to the lies about Windows. It's not an attacking thing - it's defensive.

For example - in the past 24 hrs, I've been accused of taking money from Microsoft for pushing their products, and of lying about where I work.

Just because I was correcting people who were lying about Windows. And despite, repeatedly, me saying that I use both OS's every day and that I am essentially OS ambivalent. I have a UBMB, an old retired MBP, an XP netbook and a diy i7 workstation at home, as well as an iPad, a DroidX, and a retired iPhone 3GS, and a dual Xeon PC workstation and UBMBP at work. Yet, because I correct someone who's writing pure lies about Windows, I'm a Micro$haft FANBOI WINDOZE DRONELOL!!!1!! It's demonstrably untrue.

Why do PC/Windows people take Pro-Mac comments as personal insults? Because usually - they ARE personal insults.

I think that's a problem.

 

[blunderboy]

I don't think that's what you get here. What you get is people responding to the lies about Windows. It's not an attacking thing - it's defensive.

For example - in the past 24 hrs, I've been accused of taking money from Microsoft for pushing their products, and of lying about where I work.

Just because I was correcting people who were lying about Windows. And despite, repeatedly, me saying that I use both OS's every day and that I am essentially OS ambivalent. I have a UBMB, an old retired MBP, an XP netbook and a diy i7 workstation at home, as well as an iPad, a DroidX, and a retired iPhone 3GS, and a dual Xeon PC workstation and UBMBP at work. Yet, because I correct someone who's writing pure lies about Windows, I'm a Micro$haft FANBOI WINDOZE DRONELOL!!!1!! It's demonstrably untrue.

Why do PC/Windows people take Pro-Mac comments as personal insults? Because usually - they ARE personal insults.

I think that's a problem.

Yeah, I think it's stupid to accuse people of being Microsoft shills or anything like that. I do think that a lot of these people do have legitimate gripes with Windows, and people who don't have the same problems with it might perceive it as not being true. On the other hand, I'm tired of people popping up on threads about MacBooks or something and going 'you know, you could've gotten a Dell with SUPER COOL SPECS and WINDOWS 7 IS SO MUCH BETTER'...yeah. Give me a break. If I'd wanted a Dell, I would've got a Dell. You can apply that to the phone threads, too, and replace 'Dell' (or any other PC maker) with 'Android'.

 

[Hellhammer]

I don't think that's what you get here. What you get is people responding to the lies about Windows. It's not an attacking thing - it's defensive.

For example - in the past 24 hrs, I've been accused of taking money from Microsoft for pushing their products, and of lying about where I work.

Just because I was correcting people who were lying about Windows. And despite, repeatedly, me saying that I use both OS's every day and that I am essentially OS ambivalent. I have a UBMB, an old retired MBP, an XP netbook and a diy i7 workstation at home, as well as an iPad, a DroidX, and a retired iPhone 3GS, and a dual Xeon PC workstation and UBMBP at work. Yet, because I correct someone who's writing pure lies about Windows, I'm a Micro$haft FANBOI WINDOZE DRONELOL!!!1!! It's demonstrably untrue.

Why do PC/Windows people take Pro-Mac comments as personal insults? Because usually - they ARE personal insults.

I think that's a problem.

Usually, if you try to defend PC or Windows by any means, you're going to get flamed, even if you were right. It's sad but it is how this works. It doesn't happen always, depends on the thread.

I stopped arguing with those people because it's endless and this is a Mac forum so you will see biased views and you don't have time to correct everyone. If I was you, just ignore them unless you want to pick a fight In the PC forums I follow, it's the same thing. People laughing about Macs and their prices etc but again, it won't be anything else but a fight if I start to defend Macs so I just flow with the mainstream and keep the discussion on topic. You come to a certain forum for a reason. I would go to a PC forum if I needed PC help but I come to Mac forum if I want Mac help.

I understand what you mean, it's extremely silly that people can't accept the facts but basically, we all have a biased view in some degree. None of us is 100% unbiased. An Apple forum will of course be biased. Both have their pros and cons and in the end, it's just a personal preference. Nobody should have a right to judge your personal opinion or preference.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Windoze. Micro$soft. A combination of childish phrases like that, plus complete lies and pathetic superlatives. I don't think people take pro Mac stuff as an insult. They take the lies aimed at Microsoft as insults.

I use both. I like both. But I can't stand it when people lie about one or the other, or don't demand the quality from Apple that the price tag dictates we should have. That hypocrisy of allowing Apple to drop the ball, repeatedly, yet criticising Microsoft for doing the same. Defending stuff that's just plain wrong, but because it's Apple....oh - it's MUST be right.

Threads like this - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/990618/ constraints that are explicitly of Apple's making - but Adobe getting flamed for it. Indeed, the anti Flash mentality - simply because Steve Jobs says so. It's utterly utterly repulsive

There are some Apple fans in this place who are utterly utterly intolerable. There is nothing that Apple can do wrong, there is no justified criticism they won't ignore. It's pathetic. It's very very very annoying. And it's a major problem with the Apple brand in general - I know people who genuinely, refuse to use Mac's because of their experience of Mac users. I was one myself for many many years - I read so many lies, things I personally directly new to be lies, written by Mac people, that my opinion ( and I know others have or had it as well ) was basically ' Well - if they're lying so much about the platform I'm quite happy using now, I can not possibly trust their opinion regarding Mac'.

In short - many Mac users give other people many many excuses to hate them.

Very well said.

I think a post pulled from that thread by our resident biggest apple fan *LTD* has a great way to high lights a common though about apple fan and why Apple die hards give make users a reason to hate.

You can just forget about Apple and Adobe being cooperative with each other. Not going to happen. Either support Apple's position or be perpetually dissatisfied.

that bold part seems to be pretty common amount die hards. They will repeat and agree with what ever apple says.
I can think of cases were before the switch to Intel up until the day SJ announced it the setiment was "Intel Sucks, IBM PPC rule" 5 mins after wards. "Intel rule, IMP PPC sucks"
Or when HP started putting iTunes on their computer HP is great and best PC out there. When that was ended HP when back to be hated.

 

[KnightWRX]

Apple's position and their decisions don't piss me off as much as the fans do. Seriously, as much as I love OS X, I'm starting to hate the community around it. It's arrogant and self-indulgent. Either you're with them and Apple 100% or you're a "lol fandroid, paid shill, troll, you don't even own a Mac".

I bought an iPhone even though I wasn't 100% with Apple on some of their decisions regarding the platform and even though I know it's not the best phone out there. But it works well and integrates well with my Mac, and even though the App Store policies suck, I wouldn't buy porn apps and I can always get my Flash fix on my Macbook.

But the fans is starting to make me hate the hardware/software. The constant insult to my intelligence in their comments is really starting to drown out all the positive of the phone. "iPhone is #1, Apple is best!" when the stats posted everywhere show this is a blatant lie. "Apple knows best, Flash sucks" when it's working very well on WebOS, Blackberry, Android and Windows Mobile... "HTML5 is the future" when even Google, the biggest HTML5 backer, knows it is THE FUTURE, as in it's not ready yet, it will be eventually.

 

[blunderboy]

Yeah, I don't think Apple always makes the best decisions, either. Maybe Adobe and Apple could've worked out a way to have a lightweight version of Flash running on iOS. Perhaps Apple could've included a Blu-Ray option in the Mac Pros, at the very least. Considering people's complaints about those 2 things, yes, those things probably should be added.

 

[rhett7660]

Apple's position and their decisions don't piss me off as much as the fans do. Seriously, as much as I love OS X, I'm starting to hate the community around it. It's arrogant and self-indulgent. Either you're with them and Apple 100% or you're a "lol fandroid, paid shill, troll, you don't even own a Mac".

I bought an iPhone even though I wasn't 100% with Apple on some of their decisions regarding the platform and even though I know it's not the best phone out there. But it works well and integrates well with my Mac, and even though the App Store policies suck, I wouldn't buy porn apps and I can always get my Flash fix on my Macbook.

But the fans is starting to make me hate the hardware/software. The constant insult to my intelligence in their comments is really starting to drown out all the positive of the phone. "iPhone is #1, Apple is best!" when the stats posted everywhere show this is a blatant lie. "Apple knows best, Flash sucks" when it's working very well on WebOS, Blackberry, Android and Windows Mobile... "HTML5 is the future" when even Google, the biggest HTML5 backer, knows it is THE FUTURE, as in it's not ready yet, it will be eventually.

This can be said about any forum that is based on a product or brand. I have met plenty of Android and Windows fans who are just as rabid as Apple fans.

 

[djellison]

This can be said about any forum that is based on a product or brand. I have met plenty of Android and Windows fans who are just as rabid as Apple fans.

In my experience - that's just not true. There is a special level of obsession and bias reserved for the mac fanatic.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

In my experience - that's just not true. There is a special level of obsession and bias reserved for the mac fanatic.

I agree with that.

Of the fanboy/girl groups out there
Apple, Android, Windows linux ect.
I find the Apple fanboys to be the most clueless when it comes to computers in general. They tend to just spit out what ever apple says and can not think for them selves.

There is a reason why they are known to attend the Church of Apple and consider Steve Jobs their god. No other group has manage to pull that off. Apple fans have earned their reputation as brainless Zombies.