The reptilian Apple fan

I cannot figure out what it is about Apple that attracts a small minority of nasty folks who bristle at any suggestion that Apple might not be perfect.  I wrote a pretty mild-mannered post yesterday, A paradigm shift that Apple needs.

Last night as we got in from our long drive back to the coast, there were a couple of comments waiting for me.  One was a perfectly reasonable thought which may or may not be right.  The other was a nasty personal attack.

I have a number of blogs and write something close to ten times as much in my other Internet spaces as I do in Applepeels.  I have even said some nasty things about Volvo, Magtag, Circuit City and other organizations.  Yet I have never been personally attacked in one of my other blogs.

I certainly welcome intelligent debate. I thought the strategy that Zonbu PC is taking is something well worth considering.  In fact I ordered one yesterday, and I will be writing about it once I get it.

Recently I was hit with another Apple crazy attack.  There was enough vulgar language in the first few words to get me to hit the spam button.  That attack was prompted because I bought a Vista laptop. There were some compelling reasons for me to do so since I am a Realtor® in a state which only has PC based forms.

When I say something negative about Linux, I do not get beat up by Linux crazies.  I have a long history of questioning Windows but not one single nasty comment from a Window's user.  Even my post, The Liberal Mac and the Conservative PC, did not bring out the nut cases.

I have come to the conclusion (as some others have) that the worst part about using a Mac is that you might have to associate with some crazies. 

Most Mac users are great people, the crazies are a tiny but anonying percentage and as I said in my recent post...

I am always looking for some more Mac users to positively impact the demographics of the county.

I even wrote a post about wanting more Mac users here on the coast. I find Mac users very creative and usually nice people to know.

Still there is something very reptilian about Mac lunatics.  There is no room in their minds for any positive thoughts about someone who has strayed from the one path of enlightenment, Apple.

For them it is attack or be attacked.

Surely there must be better targets than me. I have a number of Macs, I mostly enjoy using them, but they are not perfect.  Sometimes I say really nice things about Apple and their products.

I have three Windows boxes which while they aren't as much fun, get the job done.  I have never said that the Windows world is better than the Apple world, though these crazies have me thinking the thought.

One of those Windows machine is a Linux/Windows laptop which at least lets me play with Linux and know what I am talking about when I write about it. 

Ubuntu Linux has become an operating system for me which needs very little effort once it is installed.  It just seems to work, but I have never told people to throw their Macs away and buy Linux.  I even wrote a post, The Curse of Suse Linux.

Vista certainly is not a perfect operating system, but the annoying automatic updates have fixed what I consider the most serious problem which was wireless networking. 

I am still not ready to write a comparison between Vista and Mac OS X since what I do on the different platforms is either so different that it is hard to compare or so browser oriented that there is little difference.

I think most users who work on multiple platforms will agree with me in saying that mostly the Mac is a better platform if you can live with the limited and more expensive hardware choices that you get from Apple.

Secondly I would say even at the risk of more nasty-grams that Windows Vista & XP despite their warts are capable operating systems.  We have to admit that aside from servers, Microsoft stuff runs most of the businesses in the world.

Finally if you don't need a lot of sophisticated media management and if browsing and email are your main uses, you'll likely be very happy with a pre-configured Linux box.

Given my choice and lots of money, I would likely chose to just walk on the beach, not worry about real estate, and have a couple of brand new shiny Macs around, maybe even one of the quad processor beasties.

Having said all that, I just want the Mac crazies to know that none of their idiotic comments will ever see the light of day and that I report all of their comments to Typepad as spam.

I used to pass them around to my ex-Apple friends for a laugh, but now I do not even completely read them. I just hit the spam button in Typepad, and the comment disappears.

I write because I enjoy it, and no reptilian Apple fanatic is going to take the pleasure out of it for me.

Comments

[Paul Greatbatch]

I think they're really just Windoze Reptiles passing themselves off as Apple Reptiles. :)

[Ian Betteridge]

One answer is to make it a stated policy to simply delete any anonymous comments. These guys are *always* anonymous, in my experience - they never have blogs of their own, and they simply show up and pile on anyone who criticizes Apple.

In fact, some of them will pile on if you praise Apple without sufficient zeal. I recently posted something praising the iPhone and Apple, and pointing out that one of the key factors which prevents Microsoft getting close is its reliance on third party hardware makers. This means that innovative features which Microsoft wants to push (like Tablet PC or SideShow in Vista) rarely make it, as they're too expensive for the commodity PC market.

This wasn't good enough for a couple of the zealots, who promptly piled on and attacked me for not thinking that everything MS does is evil - ignoring the fact that point of the post was to praise Apple!

[Nick]

That's a shame, David. I don't know what people have to do that.

But I have to admit that there is a side to this phenomenon that amuses me. When someone talks up Apple or a Linux distro too much on a news site or in a blog post, or disagrees over-vehemently with someone who has genuine criticism of such, people immediately label the writer as a "fanboy". By contrast, if someone talks up Windows too much, people immediately accuse that writer of being on the take, of being a shill.

This suggests to me that people believe, probably correctly, that Apple (and some Linux vendors) frequently do give people what they want. People get pleased enough by that, love the products enough, to "love" those companies. No one is ever suspected of *loving* Microsoft or its products. It's quite telling.

However, I wish some people would moderate their feelings about Apple a little. The products are very good, and Apple does seem to take a positive delight in giving people what they want. (And equally, as Job said recently, they won't ship substandard cut-price stuff, because they just couldn't do it.) But, as we know, they're not perfect, and there are plenty of legitimate criticisms to be made of their products.

I long ago thought about a policy of taking no anonymous comments. The challenge is that I do get a few Apple employee comments, and there is no way that they can be anything other than anonymous.

I have even had some of them leave comments and then ask me to take them off because they think that Apple can figure out who they are by what they have said.

Most of the Apple folks send me emails but I hate to shut out any of the commentary from those in the mother ship seeking a forum even if it happens rarely.

[jsk]

You should see the Apple Discussion Boards. It's ten times worse there. The offense that causes such nastiness? Asking for help in the help forums. It's gotten so nasty, I don't even go there anymore when I have a problem.

It's really getting sad.

[zaxzan]

I totally agree with you that some of the ultra Applelytes are profoundly hardcore and do more harm than good, but they only represent a small number of the Apple user install base, whereas most Apple users are unknowingly excellent at evangelism marketing, and do so politely and enthusiastically.

Drawing parallels between Apple and this pathetic fundamental core with entities like Volvo, Magtag or Circuit City is a tad redundant, while I am sure there are many proud owners of Volvos or Magtags, these companies have a multiplicity of competitors and antagonists, while Apple only has one, Microsoft. "It's all about the OS."

Dell, who seem to have fallen by the wayside of late, get dumped on because of their previous CEO suggested shutting Apple down.
The ultra Applelyte reserves his/her vitriol for the all the rogue hustlers "journalists"/Bloggers who propagate untruths and disseminate their spurious material daily.
To name some of the main reprobates, in no specific order -George Ou, John Dvorak, Rob Enderle, Mike Elgan, Paul Thurrott, Scott Moritz, Jim Cramer, Troy Wolverton, Brett Arends, Oliver Rist, Michal Dzierza, Kim Taylor Bennett, Rory Cellan-Jones, Kevin Poulsen, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Mary Jo Foley, Daniel Lyons, Bill Thompson.
These people, for whatever (un)principled reason, thrive on baiting and antagonizing, this ensures endless hits for their websites, vacuously validating their fanboys and sucking in the antithetical fanboys, therefore producing a continuous revenue, all too easy. Yellow journalism at its best, advocacy journalism at its worst. It is very difficult to find objective journalism.

I included (B. Thompson, who, as you would know, was a hack at the "Groiniad" (the Guardian newspaper is by no means a champion of Apple) and now peddles his malaise at the BBC, who are as equally antipathetic to Apple.

Sorry to ramble, trying to watch a movie at the same time.

On a side note, I liked your "view from the mountain" blog and your photographs, I note from your Flickr site EXIF data, that you use a Nikon .... now, there is a whole new world of fanboys/girls - Nikon v Cannon, that gets ugly often.

After my 35mm Pentax Z1, I was stuck on a little digital compact Cannon, only recently have I acquired my first digital SLR, Pentax K10D, as I have a lot of Pentax glass.
Blatant flog here >>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotonchop/

zaxzan

[Groundmac]

I remember some years ago having HUGE fights with, what I now call Apple Zealots, on a discussion forum. They were writing 'amen brother!' and "Steve is our saviour!" Leading me to point out that this isn't religion, its just a computer! Geez!

[Jules]

Dear David,
These crazies, their craziness in fact, is just an essential black spot to human life and history. For me, just in my view, this is generated by a severe lack of general culture.
Critical thinking is not familiar to cultureless people. They read (if they read at all) only what they call "their ideas", and deny the rest as it is out of "their" reality. They just blame what they do not understand.
I wouldn't go so far to say "I love my Mac" but i really like it, and i also like my HP WinXp Laptop and my Clonic Ubuntu Laptop. Each and every one has its flaws but i like them all.
The only sure thing for me about computers is that i will never sacrify my life for any of them. For me, people are much more important than Operating Systems.
That is the reason that moves me to read your Applepeels.
Thank You so much for your salty perspective on Apple

[megaphone]

When someone critiques Apple, you’re not just critiquing a computer, or a company. You’re taking a shot at the bigger picture. To the more ardent fan, Apple is a fashion. A brand. An event. A lifestyle. This is simply the way Steve wants the company to be perceived. In that respect, since he came back, the marketing of the reality distortion field has really been quite brilliant and a key to Apples success. The RDF also helps disguise those occasional dud products and practises the company rolls out, which like it or not, they do.

For me, there’s a lot about the whole Apple ‘experience’ I like and things I don’t like. I’ve posted comments on other websites and have been flamed as well. It’s a pity these guys spit and bristle up with the attitude because Apples an interesting company to discuss until all common sense goes out the window. But the reality is you’re someone that has worked within the company – chances are they haven’t. This already validates your comments and all you’re doing is offering what I find a different and interesting perspective.