> > Try this for scary: A Macintosh user at a friend's workplace
> > hadn't yet worked out that you can launch applications by double-clicking
> > on them. They went through the "file, open" proceedure every time. This
> > person had been using a Mac for some time. Scary, isn't it?
>
> I think this is an example of an EXTREMELY stupid Mac user. I run a small
Being the friend refered to above... I must agree with you here :)
This was something which caught me by suprise while doing support for
something else.
> However having said that I don't think Mac users are relevant to this
> discussion. Not because I think they're unimportant, but because Mac users
> live in their own world, literally. They have their own hardware, their own
> filesystems, their own interfaces (appletalk and their bus architecture) and
> their own online services, which is very poorly subscribed to. My experience
<cough> <choke!> <splutter..>
Sorry, but I am rather inclined to disagree with you here. In my opinion,
Mac user are just as relevent to this discussion as any other group of
computer users. While I appreciate the fact that you don't seem to
condemn Mac users for their choice of operating system (note: not
machine), I think you are overestimating the extent to which they are
isolated from "mainstream" computing. The differences you have mentioned
here are all platform oriented ones and are relatively independent of the
uses to which the computer is being put, namely using the internet and
newbies online.
> has been that Mac users use their computers as a tool to get work done, not
> as a recreation machine. The lacking variety ov Mac games and educational
> software is proof of this.
While I admit I tend to find this something of the case for more Mac
users than PC users, I have trouble seeing most unix based computers (a
large portion of the internet) as being used more frequently as
recreation machines than Macs; witness the popularity of the Macintosh as
a home computer against that of Sun workstations :)
Also, I am firmly of the opinion that Mac users represent just as much a
cross-section of people as do PC users, although in slightly different
proportions, admittedly.
> Because of these reasons, (IMHO) if Mac users ever made it onto the Net in large
> quantities, their discussions would be localised to Mac issues. I can't see
Hate (love? ;) to be the bringer of bad news, but Mac users make up a
sizeable proportion of those using the internet and other online
services. While I don't have the figures in front of me, I read recently
in Computer Week magazine that something like 38% of web hits are made
by people on macs (don't quote me on this, but the number sounds good. I
will check it tommorrow at work and happily withdraw this claim if I am
wrong :) Suffice it to say that mac users are already on the internet
"in large quantities".
> Mac users interested is issues affecting the wider internet community, as they
> are more proffesionals, not recreationalists.
Huh? Are you saying here that the internet is purely a recreational forum?
Are you suggesting that Mac users do not have lives away from their work
and macintosh related issues? Do you believe that professional
contributions are not a part of the internet? Are you implying that they
have little to contribute to the "wider internet community"?
Note: I use the quotes intentionally as I am interested in your
definition of the "wider internet community" if it does not contain
people who use Macs and professional business people? (Ignoring the huge
generalisation that most Mac users are professional business people.)
If not, then who does it contain? Recreational PC users? Unix buffs? Please
tell.
In all, I am confused by your post which first sites technical
platform issues as being a reason that Macintosh users "live in their"
own world and have little [interest in/value to contribute to] the
internet community, and then writes them off as being too professional (I
assume this mean centered on macintosh related issues) to have beneficial
input to the internet.
> This post is very IMHO, and I would welcome any thoughts.
Likewise, all I post is my own opinion, and am also interested in further
comments.
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This message is brought to you by number e
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Darren Orr
aka Belafon
belafon@nospam.ftoomsh.progsoc.uts.edu.au
http://www.progsoc.uts.EDU.AU/~belafon/
Ph: 015 663499
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