Why are Mac users almost "cult-ish"?

[Grimace]

My friend (also a Mac user) asked me this, and I didn't really have a good answer. Do Windows users have similar boards to MacRumors? To Windows users piece together shipments of 20,000 7inX7in boxes and assume new X product? Maybe the devoted just frequent this board - but it seems that everyone who is a Mac user is a "die-hard" Mac user.

Why do YOU think Mac users are so ridiculously devoted??
or, why are YOU devoted?

[enclave]

My friend (also a Mac user) asked me this, and I didn't really have a good answer. Do Windows users have similar boards to MacRumors? To Windows users piece together shipments of 20,000 7inX7in boxes and assume new X product? Maybe the devoted just frequent this board - but it seems that everyone who is a Mac user is a "die-hard" Mac user.

Why do YOU think Mac users are so ridiculously devoted??
or, why are YOU devoted?

One word, community.

Mac users are friendly and helpful, we love the product because it just WORKS.

[JesseJames]

Ohhhhhm, ohhhhhm, ohhhhhm. Must worship Mac. Must worship Apple. Ohhhhm.






Apple just makes great products that a lot of people are enthusiastic about.
Some - not all - can take their enthusiasm a little bit too far.
As with anything.
Personally, I think Wintel machines aren't all that bad. But if I had the a preference I'd go for a Mac because it just "feels" better. You know?
It's like the difference you feel between a cheap suit bought off the clearance rack and a tailor-cut suit made just for you.

[superbovine]

http://www.landsnail.com/apple/local/design/conclusion.html

[JRam]

I think the reason I see a lot is that you have to actively choose to be a mac user. Its a lot easier when people are going out to buy a windows machine, the majority of stores only sell windows machines and the amount of mac stores and resellers is a lot less. If you want to get a mac you first have to find a store thatll sell them, then you have to pick the model you want, yadayada. For the average computer user I think that its too much work and requires too much decisions to be made on something they arent comfortable with. And even though mac has the reputation of being more user friendly than most, if you go to mac theres still this sense of being the ''lone wolf'' because if something goes wrong, then you better be able to fix it yourself because all the people around you are probably going to have windows boxes.

Its a hell of a lot easier to go out and buy a windows box, hell they are practically falling on top of ya, but if you want a mac, ya gotta go looking.

JRam

[BornAgainMac]

Microsoft does their own rumor site at www.microsoft.com. Longhorn, SQL Server 2003 (Yuck or something), Visual Studio 2003 .NET, Midtown Madness III, Xbox 2, Microsoft Music Store, etc.

Well, it's time to pray to my G5.

[matthew24]

My zeal for Apple has a lot to do with the experience I had with M$. M$ is an abusing monopoly which tries to the destroy every open standard there is.

Apple allows the user to control his own computer, with M$ you are being controlled, security is a mess and keeping your OS in an good condition is something like mission impossible. Apple has proved that owning a computer can be a worry-free experience, and this needs to be proclaimed, otherwise there will allways be the danger that the M$ bulldozer will crush every free mind.

[quagmire]

It is not ridiculous that we are devoted to the mac. I switched 7 months ago. When I was a windows user I just treated my pc like crap(well it was crap). When I got powerbook. I started to bow down to it. I gave it baths(taking a damp cloth and cleaning aluminum). The screen only has one dead pixel :( . But, it seems to be stuck because it goes away sometimes :) . I baby my 12" powerbook. When I put it back down on a desk I go into slow motion and slowly lower it and put it on the desk. Panther was awesome. I fell in love with it. To bad we can't marry computers :p.

[MisterMe]

My friend (also a Mac user) asked me this, and I didn't really have a good answer. Do Windows users have similar boards to MacRumors? To Windows users piece together shipments of 20,000 7inX7in boxes and assume new X product? Maybe the devoted just frequent this board - but it seems that everyone who is a Mac user is a "die-hard" Mac user.

Why do YOU think Mac users are so ridiculously devoted??
or, why are YOU devoted?There are sites devoted to Windows and groups who worship Bill Gates as the great and all powerful Oz. However, most Windows users are hourly workers who are paid to use their computers. Even the vast majority of salaried workers who use Windows are required to use it and are paid to do so. There is also a large group of Windows users who get paid to help other workers use Windows. To these people, Windows is work, like pouring concrete, waiting tables, or teaching unruly children. But, to these people Windows are computers and computers are Windows. To them, if the Mac is a computer, then the Mac is Windows at high prices and fewer applicatons and nothing deserving of anyone's loyalty. For a user to willingly pay high Apple prices and to actually enjoy using its products is surely a sign of madness.

[superbovine]

Microsoft does their own rumor site at www.microsoft.com. Longhorn, SQL Server 2003 (Yuck or something), Visual Studio 2003 .NET, Midtown Madness III, Xbox 2, Microsoft Music Store, etc.

Well, it's time to pray to my G5.

hahha...

the xbox 2 development kit is running on a modified NT kernel running on G5's. makes prayer kinda ironic. http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14407

[5300cs]

Design: Apple puts a lot of thought into its machine design, especially notebooks. Watch & Listen to Johnathan Ive talk sometimes, it makes a lot of sense. I love their designs, from the OS, all the way to the hardware.

some persecution: I got a lot of flak when I first bought a Mac, all of it from windows users. 1 of them in particular who would call me and talk about my sh**y Mac, then ask all kinds of questions about winXP.
So naturally I tried to find other Mac users to hang out with. It's been an uphill battle, but rewarding and I'm never going back to the windows world. (The Linux community wasn't very nice to me either, but that's another story.)

And it Just Works :)

[musicpyrite]

Why are Mac users almost "cult-ish"?

Why do I act so cultish?

uuuhhhhh....ummmm..... idk, something to do?


oh, and because I know that every aspect of Apple is better than M$.

[neoelectronaut]

The reason I act cult-ish is because I know that the Mac is better than Windows, and i want to let others know that.

[oldschool]

I'm actually in a real religious cult...so that would explain why i act like that.

[goodtimes5]

uniqueness in a microsoft world

[jackc]

It's not only because we appreciate the quality and beauty of Macs, but also because Mac users are in a very small minority, and as anyone can tell you, most Wintel users are ignorant or (to put it charitably) uninformed about Macs. If Macs had 20% market share, I think there would be much less of a "cult."

[jtgotsjets]

we're just a smaller community, which makes it easier to band together.

it helps that macs have always seemed more personal than a personal computer. i've rarely heard of someone naming a pc, but i have plenty of friends that name their macs.

and macs work so much better, their user base is happier and friendlier and more conducive to making friends.

[Savage Henry]

It's not only because we appreciate the quality and beauty of Macs, but also because Mac users are in a very small minority, and as anyone can tell you, most Wintel users are ignorant or (to put it charitably) uninformed about Macs. If Macs had 20% market share, I think there would be much less of a "cult."


I think that at the point of 20% share it would break out into factions, the reactionary dynamics of which would undermine the original Mac ethos. .. but then again, maybe not.

There is that short movie iBrotha (http://www.ibrotha.co.uk/) which humorises the cult metaphore of the Mac while at the same time paying homage to Rodney Lain.

[Krizoitz]

What people have said are good indications of why we all like macs, but I have one thing to add, i think our "persecution" by arrogant and obnoxious and sometimes just mis-informed PC users helps this. When you are constantly harrassed about your computer choice, especially when its a choice you make rather than just going with the mainstream you get defensive? Why because its a natural reaction to critcism, especially the kind you get in regards to being a Mac user. When you are called stupid just because you use a different computer without any logical (or at best fallaciously logical) reasoning behind it you want to stand up for yourself. Given that Apple tends to appeal to people who are willing to not just go along with the majority, we are less likely to just give in and change. You tease a dog a little bit it can ignore you, but you constantly tease it and it starts to fight back, then you start blamming the dog for being agressive. I think the same is true about PC users and Mac users. Alot of times you are harrassed because you use a Mac, so you get sick of it and start fighting back, then they accuse you of being a zealot (another attack). Just about anytime I am harrassed now I ask them why its so dumb to use a Mac, then when they start saying the usual things (Macs are more expensive, no software, more people use PC's) I start breaking down their arguments. Either through counter examples, the first two, or taking their argument and replacing it with a similar situation (Just because a majority of people in the world do something one way does that make it better/right). Soon they either realize that they have no good reason, or they devolve into, "well Macs are just dumb" at which point you tell them to go away.

[iMeowbot]

Do Windows users have similar boards to MacRumors? To Windows users piece together shipments of 20,000 7inX7in boxes and assume new X product?
Sure, the same things happen but not in quite the same way. The overclocking and gaming crowds do get just as stoked over leaks about new processors, boards, video chipsets, software and so on. A big difference is that the watching is scattered among the activities of multiple vendors, while in the Mac community most of the interesting developments are channeled through a single company.
Maybe the devoted just frequent this board - but it seems that everyone who is a Mac user is a "die-hard" Mac user.
You do have to remember that over the past several years, the platform did go through a period where the available offerings were weak enough that only die-hard fanatics would have stayed around. While the audience is (very) slowly rebounding, the fanatics are still the core constituency.
Why do YOU think Mac users are so ridiculously devoted??
or, why are YOU devoted?
I moved away from the platform in the '90s when suckage took over, and didn't look back until they started making cool toys again.

[belair]

Winblows owns the world.
Us mac people run it.
Thanks to our great macs.
:)

[Sharewaredemon]

There is an ad campain in Canada about smoking where in the commercial it shows two guys who are smoking in their kitchen and talking about smoking. (they look like "rippers" but i'm not sure if everyone will understand that) There is one where they talk about how they don't understand how people who don't smoke meet people. One sas: "So I was hanging out in the designated smoking area and this guy walked up and he looked like a total jerk but then he asked me for a cigarette I was like woah man you smoke, and he turned out to be really cool."

Well i was thinking of making a movie like that, except about macs. "I don't know how people who don't use macs meet each other. Cause like, I was hanging out at the apple store useing an iMac and this guy walked up to me, and he looked like a total loser but then he asked me if I could help him with is laptop problem."

Hmmmm, needs work.

[matthew24]

-The passion for our Macs is is a direct result of our excellent user-experience in contrast to most of our experiences with Wintel boxes. Our admiration is just logic.
-What bugs me about most PC users is that they 'choose' for Wintel because they just follow the masses (my neighbour is a lemming, so I will be a lemming). As a result we have to put up with PC's in our neighbourhood way too much. So we try to escape and try to find out where our Mac-mates are hanging out. We are in the same boat, surrounded by sharks. ;)

[Koree]

Our computers are sexier. ^^ its true! Well thats only one of the many many reasons.

Well be mac user and be proud, very proud of it,

[Grimace]

For me, OS9 was the reason I hated Apple. When a friend gave me a test-drive on his OSX Powerbook, I started drooling (he had Applecare :p ) In order of importance:

1. Interface
2.. No Viruses
3. Sexiness

[abhishekit]

Well, the fact that most Mac users find Macs so much superior to all other available options in all the areas, that it automatically develops into a 'cult' following.

cheers

[7on]

The Mac users during the "Dark Ages" were cultist. But then again, I'm sure there are cultist for every product. Mac users are just a little more out there, kinda the same way regular car drivers look at those who drive electric cars. Those with gas cars wonder why people buy electric cars, and the same is with Windows users wondering why people buy Macs.

Mac users are seen as "cultish" because the PC side sees them that way. "If you're not using what we're using, you're weird and therefore labeled as a cult" kinda attitude.

[rueyeet]

I don't know that I'd classify myself as "cultish" about the Mac. I started reading Mac websites because I was jumping into a new computer platform that I knew nothing about, and for someone who used to write custom autoexec.bat and config.sys files back in the Windows 3.11 days and had been network admin/tech support, knowing nothing about my system was not an option.

I stayed because I like the Mac and the community, and because I like to keep up with technology, especially on my adopted platform.

If there's emotion involved, it's because my Mac is a pleasure to use. :)

[rendezvouscp]

I've grown up using a Mac, so now I obviously still use a Mac. Why? Well, I have always loved that it's a small community. I never liked that there were so many different choices on the Windows side. It's almost like clutter. Using a Mac is enjoyable too, because it's better, prettier, faster, and more usable. Mac people seem to be more informed, and less biased. Some PC users just leave there thoughts on Apple to: I don't really like Apple. Their computers are slow. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that the Mac world is overall just better. Community, OS, hardware, etc. So, I love Macs, and will use a PC as less as possible.
–Chase

[brap]

They're cool. They work. They let me get my work done without fuss. Hell, even OS9 was really cool IMHO... I still miss being able to roll up windows!

So everyone seems to hate Apple computers, often quite passionately so. So you have to be the mirror image of that to try and get any kind of point across - thus you sound rather... zealous, sometimes.

I have to say though, I've become a lot less so since I got this aluminium pile of ******. My iBooks have been like my children, this is more a bastard. The irony is, all the PC users I've shown love it, and I absolutely hate it...

[oingoboingo]

They're cool. They work. They let me get my work done without fuss. Hell, even OS9 was really cool IMHO... I still miss being able to roll up windows!

So everyone seems to hate Apple computers, often quite passionately so. So you have to be the mirror image of that to try and get any kind of point across - thus you sound rather... zealous, sometimes.

I have to say though, I've become a lot less so since I got this aluminium pile of ******. My iBooks have been like my children, this is more a bastard. The irony is, all the PC users I've shown love it, and I absolutely hate it...

What's the problem with your 12" AlBook? I've had a Rev B and a Rev C, and I thought both of them were great...

[5300cs]

For me, OS9 was the reason I hated Apple...

Really? I've liked all the versions of MacOS I've used. I switched because I wanted to use OS X, but the version that came with my iBook was 10.0.4 (at the time) which was unuseable. Because of that, I went to using OS 9 which I really liked.

I'm also a big collector of Apple goods like watches, t-shirts, posters, pens, etc. Apple has cool collectibles and a very interesting history, much more than any wintel related company I've heard of. That's one of the draws for me.

[brap]

What's the problem with your 12" AlBook? I've had a Rev B and a Rev C, and I thought both of them were great...
Everything is wrong with it.

I guess I just miss all the quirks which made the iBook great. Sure this is fast, but it's bland, and totally without personality. I'll post a review later on and compare the two... (save hijacking a thread). So far I think I'll be selling up and buying an 800 or 1Ghz G4 I can hack around.

[oingoboingo]

Everything is wrong with it.

I guess I just miss all the quirks which made the iBook great. Sure this is fast, but it's bland, and totally without personality. I'll post a review later on and compare the two... (save hijacking a thread). So far I think I'll be selling up and buying an 800 or 1Ghz G4 I can hack around.

Should be an interesting review. Can you PM me when you post it? Apart from 'personality' issues with it, have you run into any manufacturing defects?