Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!stjhmc!p12.f56.n114.z1.fidonet.org!Chris.Gehlker
From: Chris.Gehlker@p12.f56.n114.z1.fidonet.org (Chris Gehlker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Low cost Mac's ?
Message-ID: <25909.26E2384A@stjhmc.fidonet.org>
Date: 3 Sep 90 10:31:58 GMT
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In article14775@wpi.wpi.edu
macman@wpi.wpi.edu (Chris Silverberg) quotes me as follows:
> >The typical person who asks me about what kind of computer that they should
 
> >buy will use the thing about two hours a week for light word processing and
 
> >ballancing their checkbook.
> > The primary advantage of the Mac, the consistent user interface across 
> >applications, will be totally lost on them because they will only get one
or
> >two applications.

and replys:

> That's the difference between people who use Macs and PCs. A PC user WILL
> only use one or two programs because it takes too damn long to figure each
> program out. The trouble they'll put up with will make them put the PC in
> a dark corner of their house only to be used when it HAS to be.

> Mac users generally start out with few programs, and expand because it's
> SO easy. The Mac is still the only computer that can easily take someone
> who is afraid of a computer, and make them into an evangelist.

Chris, I realize that that's the conventional wisdom but it ignores the market
 
research that's been published as well as what I cmy wife's company, and the local MUG.  The fact that Apple keeps marketing the
 
Mac as a computer for people who are afraid of computers shouldn't blind us
to the fact that Mac are entry computer for almost nobody.  I'm always amused
at the arguements that my coworker, Cliff, gets into.  He's still in the first
 
stage of Mac addiction, which seems to last about 4 years, where he feels the
need to defend his preference in computers and gets into countless water 
cooler
arguements with the DOS heads.  He's also still the foremost DOS jock around
and spends a lot of time with the DOS heads helping them get their systems to
work.  I've sorta recovered from the first phase of Mac fanaticism so when 
someone
starts telling me about the advantages of their PC I just say: "I'm sure 
you're
right that your PC is a better machine but I'm too stupid to use DOS."  This
does keep me out of arguements but it hasn't saved me at all from being asked
to help these same folks with their DOS machines and applications.

I suspect that if you'll look around, you'll discover that the same folks who
are most adamant about how DOS keeps people from being productive would, if
forced to it, be the most productive DOSers.  I further suspect that you have
the direction of causality reversed.  People don't run lots of applications
because the consistent UI on the Mac makes it easy so much as people who need
lots of applications demand the consistent UI that the Mac provides.

 

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