Being something of a country boy I’ve never had much use for fancy stuff. Fancy makes a great hick word for things that cost more than they should because of their fad premium or people who prefer such things. Apple products are just too fancy. There are definitely people technical enough to make an argument for the fancy machines. I’ve heard them flat out admit that they just like fancy stuff. Fair enough. What I most often hear though are falacious comparisons between a 2x to 3x more expensive fancy box and an ancient Dell. I’m torn when a techie type speaks such nonsense. Is it savvy marketing that propogates the illogical loyalty? The type that causes even the technical minded to defy reason? As I mentioned earlier, fair enough if you just like fancy things. Or, if the Mac user is like my friend who says he just knows the Mac shortcuts, well more power to you, but for a techie to stoop to marketing slogans to defend their purchases it’s just shameful.

Let me set the record straight on the Mac vs. PC fallacy. Here at V-Tek we have several Dell M1710 laptops from 5 years ago. They are still treating us great and capable of running all consumer OSes, including OSX, and that fast! They have higher native resolution than the 2011 iMacs, and even have fancy lighting that of course we turn off. Are we due to upgrade? Probably so, but in the last 5 years how many fancy Macs have turned yellow and croaked? Not only par but probably sub par. As a matter of opinion I will include my thought (shared by many) that Vista was bad. However Windows 7 is stable, secure, and powerful for the average user. For the non-windows developer, if you don’t know Ubuntu you really are missing something.

In summary, there are good reasons and bad reasons to own any type of product. Even if you think it’s “cute” that’s your choice. Just save your superiority complex. I’ve worked for months on OSX and don’t even mind it, what I mind are the bogus comparisons. If you have extra money to spend get the higher spec PC and it WILL outperform a Mac in the same price range. If you just want it to look good, well beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. I just happen to find the price tag to be a big part of pretty.

I was raised with the words of wisdom: “beauty is only skin deep” and believe it or not that’s right there in the Bible too. If you can’t trust the Bible, what can you trust? “Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain…” (Proverbs 31). It’s not just true of people, but of technical gadgets too.