Seen in the Toronto Star: "Mac vs. PC: the digital divide"
R. Wood
rw at ncf.ca
Sun Feb 21 16:53:56 UTC 2010
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Allegedly, on Sat, Feb 20, 2010 at 06:29:49PM -0500, Daniel Robitaille stated:
> http://www.thestar.com/living/article/766513--mac-vs-pc-the-digital-divide
>
> but the interesting bit from that article is that it contains quotes
> from David Patrick, co-owner of the Linux Caffe in Toronto about that
> PC vs Mac "debate" in local coffee shops. But not once Linux is
> presented as an alternative to the other two. It just felt weird
> considering the name of that coffee place.
>
> Daniel
Wow. Can I undo reading that article? ;-) I felt like I was reading a
text version of a Mac commercial.
IMHO the author got almost everything completely wrong. In no
particular order:
- - As others have noted, the article title is misleading because it
conflates the hardware and OS levels. Of course this is taken from a
Mac commercial, so this is originally a carefully considered aspect of
Mac marketing/advertising. The title should really be OSX vs.
Windows, but by using "PC", the Mac marketing droids create a 'Mac vs.
everybody else' perception (and also a 'everybody else = windows'
perception).
- - Another poster mentions IRC logs where the fellow who runs Linux Caffe
in TO complains that he was interviewed for 2 hours, trying to inject
a linux component into the story (duh - that *is* the story if you ask
me), but the only time 'linux' gets a mention is when the 'Linux
Caffe' itself is mentioned (twice in the article). But many who read
this article won't even know that Linux is an alternative OS to
OSX/Windows.
- - The author swallows the Mac marketing hype/commercial in all its
stereotypical glory/stupidity, and then writes an article that does
little but amplify all of it. PC users = foo, Mac users = bar, blah
blah blah. I wonder if he received a cheque from Mac Marketing for
his efforts?
- - The author completely misses, or ignores, the 'there is a
*non-proprietary*, free and open source *alternative* OS called linux'
story. Nothing is accomplished but perpetuating status quo
perceptions.
Ultimately it reminded me of the old 'Coke vs. Pepsi' commercials where
you have a marketing campaign designed to persuade the uncritical viewer
that 'my sugar-water is way better than your sugar-water!'. But in the
end, all you get to quench your thirst is sugar-water, or in this case,
another proprietary, corporate-owned OS. Well, if you like being
'pwned' by corporations and their ilk, have we got a deal for you :p
Thanks, Vivian, you empty-headed Mac fanboi, for yet another article
that completely misses the point.
(This email was typed entirely on a Thinkpad running the free as in
freedom Linux operating system, using the Vim text editor, and using no
Microsoft or Apple software :P )
My $0.02,
Raymond
- --
"Be Nice, or Leave - By Order of the Management"
(Sign above door, Black Sheep Inn, Wakefield)
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