Pilot error happens even on a Mac

I just read "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" which is a tirade against Macs. It actually amazed me that someone who appears to be a serious computer user could end up with so much misinformation.

I've worked in a couple of companies that were almost all Windows.  I had the advantage of having used the Mac OS for years so figuring out how to fit in was only a slight pain. Then again the issues that I dealt with were way beyond the relatively trivial issues that seem to have confounded Mr. Bodine.

In my last job, I wrote a piece called "Heterogenous Apple nirvana, well almost."  The troubles I had to solve there were not massive but mostly revolved around network printing and software availability.

In this day and age with so many services moving to the web, I actually find it a little amusing that someone can't survive on a Mac or for that matter a Linux box.  I wrote this in a post, "Making a computer decision."

I've accepted the fact that there are plenty Windows users out there who are just as productive on their Windows boxes as I am on my Mac.  Yet I have been using Apple computers for over 24 years so changing now isn't worth the hassle to me.  Yes I can get work done on Linux or Windows, but am I as productive?

In a word, the answer is "no."  That's why I stay

Yet most tech savvy people should be able to switch platforms without the problems that Mr. Bodine ran into when he got a Mac.

I will admit very few people get their work done on a computer without a little help from their friends.  Maybe switching to a new platform requires finding some new computer friends, but that isn't very hard to do. Almost every place has a Mac users group.

I'm little suspicious of the following statement.

"the HP printer, which I had purchased on the recommendation of an Apple Store, would work about 50 percent of the time with the Mac." 

My HP, Epson, and Brother printers all work very well with my Macs. So if the HP printer doesn't work, why would that be Apple's issue instead of HP's?

The idea that you have to switch platforms because you can't delete files directly from Word is also somewhat bizarre. 

There are lots of simple answers to most of the problems of Mr. Bodine, he just didn't seem to be able to find them.  Doing a screen capture is very easy on a Mac as is replacing the single button mouse with a wheeled one.  I'm writing this post on Mac using Firefox with Typepad, and I have full access to the same tools that I do on my Windows box. I'll admit Safari doesn't work, but Firefox most certainly does.

I feel sorry that Mr. Bodine didn't get the information he needed to make his Mac experience a pleasant experience.  Most of that information isn't in hiding and is readily available if you talk to Mac users.  That just didn't seem to happen.

In the end that may be one of the biggest challenges to Apple expanding its market share.  Good Mac support currently comes from Mac users.  Most PC users are also used to asking their friends when they have problems.  Finding a Mac user to ask when you face a problem can be a challenge depending on where you live.

Yet part of me thinks that Apple really needs to step up to the plate and create a support environment where the likes of Mr. Bodine don't get so frustrated that they throw their Macs out.  It's not like Apple doesn't have the money to hire plenty of people to make certain that new Mac users get their questions answered. 

Then again doing that might be hard for Apple which has always believed its computers are so easy to use that they need little human explanation.

Comments

[Adam]

I couldn't resist, but I had to send him an email letting him know some of the clearly factual errors in his article. I stayed away from the mac nazi approach, but made it clear he was spreading incorrect information.

The one that really got me is where he says "Doing a simple screen capture was an immense chore. On a PC you just press Alt and tap PrtScr. With the Mac I had to download and launch special programs to accomplish this simple task."

Last time I checked Command-Option-3 took a screen shot and saved it to the desktop, no extra software needed. While on Windows, PrtScn simply saved it to the clipboard, and then you had to paste it in an image editing program, and then save the resulting file.

[pauldwaite]

> "part of me thinks that Apple really needs to step up to the plate and create a support environment where the likes of Mr. Bodine don't get so frustrated that they throw their Macs out."

A little switcher's cheat sheet might have helped this guy. If Appple's focusing on converting Windows users, it does need to give as much help as possible.

These things are available on the internet, but if they were in the box, it'd be even easier.

[TomB]

"I've accepted the fact that there are plenty Windows users out there who are just as productive on their Windows boxes as I am on my Mac."

Perhaps, but I bet every one of those people would be MORE productive if they "switched" (after a break-in period).

"The idea that you have to switch platforms because you can't delete files directly from Word is also somewhat bizarre. "

That one was just bizarre. That would be a dangerous BUG to be able to do that, IMHO; not a "feature".

I believe the lawyer dude is a troll who was FORCED to use a Mac by someone and got a bad attitude because of that.

[Jim]

Apple would have a hard time providing a lot of help to users like Mr. Bodine.

In response to that kind of need, a former Apple Store keyholder started this service, which is affordable.

http://chicago.ondecktech.com/

[Eric]

"Yet part of me thinks that Apple really needs to step up to the plate and create a support environment where the likes of Mr. Bodine don't get so frustrated that they throw their Macs out."

Here's my idea on how to accomplish this while at the same time emboldening apple pundits and showing new mac users how helpful and encouraging mac users can be:

Observation #1: New mac users (which was me 1 year ago) will reach for the help menu when they are perplexed. This was almost necessary to learn how to do a new task in Windows, so they are pre-trained to do this.

Observation #2: Mac users who can help new mac users love to do so. The vast majority are finatic about helping apple increase their market share through new users.

Observation #4: Mac users love to buy additional mac stuff. Offering them a discount coupon to the apple store helps encourage them to buy more stuff from apple, and become even more excited about apple products.

Solution:
In the help viewer app, when someone has been aimlessly navigating to different help topics, it should recognize that they are being unsuccessful in finding help.

At that point, it offers to let them ask a mac user annonymously for help. This launches ichat (or an ichat like interface within help viewer) and connects them to a mac user who has volunteered to help other mac users with the application they were searching for help in.

The helpful mac user can specify that they don't know the answer to this person's question, at which point it goes to another volunteer mac user. If they do know the answer, they talk with the confused user and help them through the process. Once the conversation is complete, the used-to-be-confused mac user marks it as 'helpful' or 'not helpful'.

When they mark 'helpful', the volunteer mac helper gets some additional helping points (which could be integrated into the help points system on apple forums). Once you get a certain ammount of help points, you can get coupons for 15% off apple products, etc.

I for one, would love being able to simply log into ichat and then get periodic offers to help a fledgeling mac user. Can I hope for it in Leopard?

[Chuck]

Given the number of factual errors in Mr. Bodine's article and the apparent lack of general computing knowledge he exhibits, I am having a hard time buying that this article is little more than troll fodder. He is in the business of marketing and his primary clientele are lawyers. I can't believe that someone who services those in the legal profession could be so loose with his facts.

If this was not an article meant to inflame the Mac loyal and generate traffic to his own web site, I can only assume that this cavalier attitude toward factual information must extend to other aspects of his consulting business and his clients should show caution when depending on him for information.

Either way, I think his posting to his business blog was a gross miscalculation and may cost him some credibility.

[Jon T]

Larry Bodine is an idiot.

Try and subscribe to his newsletter on his "marketing services" website and you get a 'page not found' message.

I took pleasure informing him so no doubt he's anxiously fixing it!

[engrish]

"I believe the lawyer dude is a troll who was FORCED to use a Mac by someone and got a bad attitude because of that."

The Mac community is starting to sound like a bunch of conspiracy theorists. Nobody forced him, he purchased a Mac last year and explained the switch on his blog.

http://pm.typepad.com/professional_marketing_bl/2005/07/iys_a_cold_day_.html

[Juanxer]

So the guy didn't learn about the secret key combo for screen capture. Surely he's an idiot, isn't he?

Isn't it paradoxical that the old Classics and LCs shipped with an interactive Finder guide plus a full featured manual while nowadays OS X, this most modern operating system and multimedia juggler, comes rather nude with a most irritating and inutile help system? Where is the videocourse or the Macromedia training system? Where is the frakking full colour fully featured COMPLETE manual?

A colleague of mine has just been handed a PowerBook on, and I know all his Windows experience is not going to be helpful at all, so it is up to me to teach him all the GUI subtleties and then how to navigate the Mac experience, versiontracker.com and all the usual suspects included. It gets tiresome, and I'd rather Apple kills some trees sometimes (or iMovies the whole thing and does a decent video guide for newbies) than Mac wisdom being something resembling oral tradition.

Sorry for the rant, but even a video tape recorder comes with better manuals than a Mac. And one of the most applauded new t-shirts in the Spanish computing community is the one with the legend "No! I won't help you repair your PC!" (see http://www.ropafriki.com/galeria/imagenes/46.jpg ). After more than a decade of playing helpline, I concur :D

[Steven Philips]

Troll or not, I have a very difficult time thinking that there was at the least extremely poor judgement shown by the attorney. His issues were for the most part not that difficult and gives the impression that he didn't try or is just having a tantrum. Neither speaks well for his professional position.
That said, "Juanxer" (and others) have nailed it. It is EMBARRASSING hw little documentation comes with a Mac!
Even a little effort to provide a few basics and advice for switchers along with what could be in effect just a "Table of Contents to the computers systems and capabilities. It would show you WHAT was available and then give very basic information about it and point you to the help system or "outside sources". Robin Williams books etc. (or Pogue)
Yes, the information might already be somewhere in the system, but trying to use "help" for every little common action is ridiculous.
Also making the initial 30 day phone help more inviting and rewarding would help, too. (And boy, would a good system for this get praised in the media!) Maybe a button push for "New User Questions" with people with "teaching" skills as opposed to purely tech skills?

[RB]

Normally I just lurk but this was too much for me. Could he not use the finder "help" and merely type in "screen shot"? Try it and see how many answers come up. His protestations are pathetic for someone of his education. Would you ever want this man perusing/advising with your legal questions? 'Nuff said.

[Juanxer]

That's my main beef with OS X' help system: instead of it being a well structured hyperlinked manual, as most Windows apps provide, it produces searchs as soon as you go one or two layers deep into any item, which is not the way to solve our problems at all. Also, it is too slow to start up.