Undercover Geek: Apple vs PC

Written by Charles Ash
Monday, 03 October 2011 17:46

Western culture and history, the apple seems to have earned itself a significantly elevated status above other fruit, with many English idioms replete with this particular fruit’s dominance. Just take the Christian story of creation, where a fruit was used as the plot device in what happened between Adam and Eve. Even while no mention is made of the actual type of fruit used, most people have come to substitute that incipient fruit as being the ultimate “bad apple”, as it were.

In the English language, apples have unrivalled antidotal properties. As the saying goes, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”, and when it comes to looks and favour, it is the ultimate compliment to be considered “the apple of somebody’s eye”. And just to reinforce the iconic association this fruit has with epochal human endeavour, it was not a banana, pear or orange that fell on a young Isaac Newton while he was slacking off in the orchard, but an apple that landed on his noggin and ushered humanity into an era of gravitational constants and scientific enlightenment.

So it is perhaps unsurprising that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak chose the name Apple for their visionary computer company. The brand name brings together all the complex associations this fruit can conjure up in our collective imaginations. To some, Apple is the epitome of technological brilliance, unwavering innovation and exquisite styling... To others it is an evil empire whose rise to prominence after a turbulent 1990s has Tolkien-esque overtones of it perhaps being the one technological company “to rule them all”.

Since Apple’s birth in the late 70s, the company has unwittingly driven a wedge through humanity and created two distinct camps, Apple Mac users and PC users... To upset the apple cart, I’ll have you know that although I am neither, I think I dislike Apple more. Mac users are characterised by their small numbers, deluded sense of self-importance, towering egos, self-confessed liberalism, alleged open-mindedness, penchant for vegetarianism and a desire to be considered as compelling, cool, unique individuals. PC users on the other hand, despite being lumped into a category whose abbreviation denotes “politically correct”, are stereotyped by the Apple hype-machine to be plain, unadventurous, herd-like creatures of habit who for the most part do not “know any better”. The irony of the Apple user’s desire to be different, unique, exceptional and cool is lost on the Apple Mac crowd as, unlike PCs, every Apple computer, iPhone, iPad and iPod is exactly the same as all the others. Yep, they’re unique individuals alright... just like everybody else.

Perhaps in the early years there was substance to the technological cold war between Mac and PC users. Back then there were significant differences in technologies and software run on Mac and PC. Today, however, everything that the Apple Mac uses, from hardware to software, is all created by the same companies that create PC equipment, so the once-sharp, shiny esoteric glint in the Apple armour is reduced to a blur.

These days an Apple computer is very much a PC in designer clothing. Apples now have Intel processors (not Power PC chips like they used to), and there’s even a version of Microsoft Office available for Mac. So, save for the infernal and utterly annoying one-button mouse that Apple insists on, Macs have very much in common with their PC counterparts. The ultimate betrayal to the more puritanical and separatist Apple fans must surely be the availability of software that will actually let you run Windows 7/Linux on a virtual machine on your Apple Mac.

I can’t help but feel sorry for people who try to live a “cool” life through their indulgent choice of computer equipment. Renowned technologist Jaron Lanier was right when he said, “We are not our devices and we shouldn’t let them define us. We should define them.” Still, living on the African continent, where we require cheap, effective solutions to rapidly alleviate the abysmal techno-literacy levels of our population, I find that Apple’s overly stylised, overly priced business model to be the wrong fit for Africa’s immediate needs.

When deciding what to buy – Mac or PC? – your decision should ultimately not be based on the hardware, the software or the warm fuzzy feeling you get when you use your choice of equipment. It should be based on how your equipment enhances the quality of your output and improves your performance. If that is not clear, you might perhaps benefit from a switch... no matter what side of the great techno divide you’re on.