OSNews

We know that Macs are more expensive. We know that the hardware costs more than comparably performant hardware from name brand Windows suppliers. The percentage varies, but between 1.5 and 2 times. We also know that the OS is more expensive because you have to buy every service pack at the rate of $100 a throw.

So, if we just consider the costs of acquisition and keeping the system up to date with the manufacturer's recommendations, the costs of Apple systems is going to be at least double that of a Windows system, and often more.

We know that Apple uses the same basic hardware all other suppliers use, graphics cards, disks, opticals, memory, psus. They have not historically been any more or any less reliable than machines from other suppliers, though they have retained their resale value better.

As the debate goes on, we've found something out about the Mac user base and their motivations and general level from their postings. Here is a typical example: "I think PC wanks are just frustrated because their machines are now considered commodity items, while the Mac retains its aura of super high-tech coolness". Yes, for you it does. For the rest of us, it is rapidly acquiring an aura of utter weirdness, largely due to postings like this. Other postings have asserted, in defiance of the evidence, that the hardware is different and better, or that Macs in fact are priced the same as comparably performant PCs. Others are simply abusive. Others explain their passion in terms of consumer image and lifestyle considerations.

Now, are the Macs worth their premium? The only rational argument one finds (lifestyle and image not falling in this category) is that the cost of virus and spyware protection and the aggravation it involves justifies the premium. You have to sympathize with this argument. Some premium over Windows is certainly justified. Those of us who use Linux cannot deny that it too demands a premium, maybe justified in the same way, but of time rather than money.

However, the disturbing thing about the Mac user base is that they are not content, here and elsewhere, with the quite rational argument that although Macs cost more, security considerations make them worth the price. Rather, we find a kind of hysterical denial of the facts of the case. The problem is, this obscures the real merits and deficiencies of the platform. The level of abuse and misrepresentation makes just reading this stuff terribly tedious.

I used to be a Mac user. It was once a perfectly rational decision based on paying a premium for ease of use and, in the days of Win 3.x, for stability. But I find myself reading these postings and saying, like many others must, never again. I don't want to be in this company, nor do I want to be in the company of a corporation that panders to and profits from this sort of thing. It is really dangerous for a corporation to allow itself to be turned into a cult. It really limits who it can appeal to. If you like, its the opposite side of the quote above, and its a reaction of, these guys are really really weird. If your customer base starts to get perceived by the mass market as weird, and if at the same time, they get ever more fanatical about the idiocy of the mass choice and the merits of theirs, you are in deep trouble. If you like, they are getting too expensive, Macs, but not only financially.

Well, my own conclusion is to stop reading all this stuff. Probably OSNews would do better not to post any more of it. It cannot be good for the site to turn into a forum which is regularly drowned out by a chorus of cultists. And, whether this is what the Apple enthusiasts have in mind or not, I am now further away from buying a Macac than I have ever been, and moving further with every post like this I read... Figure it out, is this good for Apple? I can't see how.