Seen in the Toronto Star: "Mac vs. PC: the digital divide"

[R. Wood]

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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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