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One Of The Reasons The PC Remains More Popular Than The Mac Wintel-based machines sell more than Mac-based machines. We all know this of course, but there is one reason that is seldom considered when we ask ourselves why. We tend to focus on the idea that Windows sucks. Typical complaints are:
Most of all, despite being the most profitable software company in the known universe and having an army of engineers that outnumbers the force involved in the D-Day landing1, Microsoft still has not managed to make Windows anywhere near as elegant as the Mac! Then why do so many people buy Wintel machines? This question has been explored by many within the Mac punditocracy, including myself, throughout the years, and the answers are many and varied. However, there is one unexplored aspect of Wintel machines that appeals to a fairly large group of individuals, and the reality is that the Mac can simply NOT compete in this one area. You see, the PC serves the same role in many American lives that a Chevrolet, Ford, or GM car used to serve. Once upon a time in America, starting in the 1950's, many American males2 would spend much of their time working on their cars. Not necessarily fixing them mind you, but certainly working on them. It was something to do and a cure for idle hands. It was something to create. It was something to fiddle with. Some of these car owners would make their cars really fast. Others might spend hours polishing and waxing their cars until you could see yourself3. Still other might focus on their upholstery, their sound system (starting in the 70's), restoring an old model, or even making some kind of custom hot rod. Some even needed to fix things that had broken. The list is as varied as are people, but the point is that they were fiddling. They were "messin' around" with their cars. Americans loved their cars. Starting in the 1980's two things happened that are somewhat intertwined. The first is that cars became more complicated. They started requiring more specialized knowledge. This was ironically due in part to computer enhancements, as well as other disparate factors such as stricter emissions laws. Have you looked at your car's engine lately? If it was built anytime after about 1986, chances are that it has more hose than a L'eggs convention. What do you do with all those damn things anyway? That was a question that many American men started asking themselves. It used to be that it was easy to understand how a car worked as long as you put the time into "working" on them. With the advent of these more complicated models, it began to take a lot more to know how to fix one's car and driveway mechanics began to find that working on their cars just didn't cut it anymore. At the same time, computers were reaching a larger part of the mainstream populace and hardware was becoming a bit more standardized. Before you know it, Boom! Parts become available for people to fix their own PCs, and eventually, even to build them from scratch! A new generation of American men had something to fiddle with. Many of these same people may well have spent their Saturday afternoons working on their cars if they had been born 10 or 20 years earlier. Some of this new generation of computer users wanted to make fast computers. Some of them focus on adding as many peripherals as they can. Some of them just enjoy putting together the best computer they can, from scratch. Most of them simply want something to fiddle with. Sound familiar? Hey, Windows has crapped out? No problem, I can reinstall it this Saturday! That new scanner won't work? Heck, I'll have to spend hours figuring out where the conflict lies! SATURDAY WOULD BE PERFECT! Sure, they may grumble and bitch about how long it took. However, if you get right down to it, it is the SAME kind of grumbling that men used to do when talking about how long it took to figure out that it was nothing more than a "damned clogged fuel filter" that was keeping their El Camino from starting all along!4 But the Mac and most Mac users aren't that way. Macs work. Most of the time, at least. Sure, you can tweak your Mac out. You can spend your Saturday afternoons pulling out all the unneeded files that accumulate in your System Folder5, but most Mac users care more about getting work (or play) done than they do about how their Mac works. That's part of the entire Macintosh concept in the first place! We don't want to fiddle, we want to work! Also, there is no hood to look under on a Mac. The System Folder is more like a well-organized trunk than a "hood." DOS, the BIOS, and the Registry on the Windows side are much more analogous to an "under the hood" concept than anything on the Mac. ResEdit is somewhat analogous, but not to the degree that Wintel users get with their experience. To make matters worse, ResEdit more closely resembles that complicated engine with all the hoses instead of the relatively clean and primitive DOS interface. Until you can go to the local computer parts store and pick up your Mac motherboard, a handy PowerPC processor, and your choice of video cards, the Mac could never fill those PC user's needs. If Apple were to cooperate with IBM's CHRP motherboard initiative, that could change. But since Apple cooperating with IBM on this is as likely as Bill Gates admitting that he doesn't know the difference between innovation and theft, today's driveway mechanics are likely to stick with Wintel. Is this a bad thing? Maybe not. I would rather have my Mac that works than the ability to peak under the hood. My guess is that most of the people reading this column and buying Macs feel the same way. 1 Not really, but the imagery makes my point. 2 Please note that this column refers repeatedly to American males. This is not intended to suggest that women or other nationalities are not interested in cars, so do NOT bother to send me letters along those lines. While it is a stereotype, it is a stereotype based on reality that many American males used to spend their Saturdays and other spare time working on their cars. 3 I remember a friend of mine who was extremely proud of the 7" reflection in his paint job. This was a measured by placing a ruler against the car and seeing how much of the ruler could be seen in its reflection. He was proud. 4 I think that this relates to a primal part of humankind, especially men, that makes us want to relive the hunt by talking about it. By reliving the hunt, I am referring to the need to go over events in our lives, action by action, sometimes with the very people who were there with us in the first place. 5 I have another friend who complains that his current System Folder (MacOS 8.6 on a Blue & White) is 230 MBs now. You can imagine how tense my 441 MB System Folder makes him. He keeps his as lean as humanly possible, while I have some stuff left over from when I first bought my computer 2 years ago (PowerCenter Pro). It's survived at least 5 system upgrades and a couple of hard drive transfers. Go figure. Your comments and hate mail can be sent to [email protected]. |