I love Macs but hate the Mac cult
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Of course, “hate” is such a strong word. Which is why it’s so appropriate in this case.
I have two Macs (an iMac and a Mac mini) and a dilapidated Windows laptop that is on the verge of being replaced with a Macbook Pro. I use both platforms all the time, sometimes simultaneously. OS X is a great operating system. I’ve been using Vista for awhile now and like it as well. Both do just about the same things about as well as the other.
So how to explain the brainwashed cult following for a product that is marginally better and marginally more expensive than the competition? Is it the small marketshare? Could be, but they are equally cultish about the iPod, which dominates the mp3 player market. And Apple isn’t exactly some smallish corner shop; it’s a multi-billion dollar corporation.
I don’t think it’s loyalty. I don’t think it’s simple preference. I don’t even think it’s religious-like devotion. The closest parallel I can find is political partisanship. Partisanship causes us to become outraged at our opponent’s behavior and dismissive at our own side’s similar behavior. We look for tiny minor differences to explain away our hypocrisy, but ultimately we are judging the same action by two different standards. It causes us to see our side’s every move and action as glorious, innovative, and good, while the other side’s actions are evil, manipulative, and illogical. Like defending Apple’s monopoly and anti-competitive practices while attacking Microsoft, like accusing every other company in the world of ripping off Apple, even when they release a product before Apple does, and defending Apple whenever Apple copies or rips off someone else.
The difference between politics and Apple-partisanship is that there is no actual opponent reacting from the other side. In politics, there are Democrats and Republicans (if you’re American). In tech, there is only the Apple cult, and virtually no Windows equivalent. You could point to a few anti-Apple fanatics, but I suspect that these people are mostly just reacting to the Apple cult itself. As Mac cultists are fond of pointing out, there are no Windows fanatics.
Apple makes great products, especially their hardware. But so do a lot of companies. In my opinion, the weirdly emotional commitment that some Mac users have to this company is ultimately a detriment, to both the user base and the company itself. Luckily, Apple has, for the most part, not let their supremely uncritical base allow them to become complacent. But I know more than a few people who would consider Macs but are turned off by the cult. And I can’t blame them for that.