iDon't
I just ordered a new laptop.My old laptop died about six months ago and I’ve been trying to get by, in one of those misguided glorifications of Doing Without. Who needs a laptop! I can amuse myself without being online! That sort of thing. But I’ve been writing less, and when I write less I flip out more. I’ve been shoddy about returning emails. I haven’t been taking photos. And I’ve been spending inappropriate amounts of time on my work computer taking care of personal business. And blogging.
So about a month ago I started the Big Purchase legwork, which for me generally involves a huge amount of research followed by complete paralysis.
My secret mission, when I began, was to buy a Mac. I’ve used Macs in past jobs and liked them fine, but my personal machine has always been a pc. My Mac friends are so devoted, so brimming with Mac love. I began an ambitious campaign to understand the rightness of Mac. I was looking to be won over.
I started on the Apple website. It was friendly, of course. But it wasn’t advertising the things I was looking for. I’m not actually interested in making home movies, for example, which seems to be the most emphasized point of every single page of features. And I’ve never found organizing my photos or music particularly daunting. In fact the repeated message that “If you know iTunes, you know Mac” kind of put me off. I don’t really like the overpriced, disposable iPod equipment, or the way iTunes are just for iPods, or how the whole thing feels like a smiling, user-friendly parasite in your computer.
And the other thing I found on the Apple website was prices. Specifically, prices higher than what I was hoping to pay. Prices hundreds of dollars more than those for pcs with comparable insides. I assumed there must be values that I didn’t know about. So I went to the Apple Store.
Lo! The Apple Store, it is a glorious place. The design of the store itself is beautiful, and then it’s filled with all the glittering products. Plus the young, hip, slightly flirtatious staff, attentive but not in a creepy way. The guy who helped me out indulged all of my questions with confident understanding. But then I said, My hesitation is that it seems I could get a comparable Dell for several hundred dollars less, and he said, Oh, do you work for Dell?
So I turned to my Mac friends. What makes it worth this extra money? And they said: It won’t crash the way pcs do. It won’t get viruses.
Fair enough. But my last Dell laptop chugged away daily for five years, only crashed if I tried to run twelve programs at once, and never gave me a blue screen of death until the bitter end. At this some of the Mac cult got pretty superior. Like, If you don’t just implicitly understand why a Mac is better, you don’t really deserve one anyway.
Lastly I spent some time on YouTube playing the Mac vs. PC commercials. They were so hilarious I watched about thirty in a row, because I’d never seen these before. Which I guess was the final indication that even though I live in Portland and own thick-rimmed eyeglasses, I’m just not the hip guy on the right.
So I got another Dell. I’m going to use it for approximately three years, run Word and Photoshop, play music and store photos and surf the internet. I don’t want any more reasons to sit in front of a screen than I can already think up on my own, and I certainly don’t want to start confusing my life with iLife. I think my new little Dell will be just what I need. And it’s green.
posted by tortaluga @ 4:04 PM
4 Comments:
In 14 months, can I guest-write the "iToldYouSo" blog?
ilove the pc vs. apple commercials. it makes me want to buy an apple...in that way that we think those hip guys are so cool, so cute, and oh wouldn't they be so interesting. then you find out they are exclusive and self-absorbed in that itunes, ipod, imac kinda way.
i'm for pc. i'm for dorky guys.
what dell did you get?? i'm looking.
-tal
Mac operating systems were designed for the USER. PCs still are designed for the engineer; most of the original baggage remains in Windows.
When my 7 year old dell laptop, that poor thing that I took on 1000+ miles of rutted gravel and fire roads, nursed through grad school, fed 3 new batteries and 2 hard drives finally tossed off life support and died for the last time in September, I was ready.
I started on apples, then upgraded to macs, and was forced onto pcs back when they weren't as reliable as they are today, back when the blue screen of almost death showed up weekly instead of once a year...
And at some point, after using both systems simultaneously for 15 years or so, I bought that dell laptop because 1) 33% Corporate discount and 2) cheaper by a lot and 3) I have enough friends who actually put the things together (still) to call if I really need the help.
Those 3 reasons were why I bought a PC again; but I still prefer to USE a mac, even though I'm driving the sensible car with the engine I have to kick every so often just to keep it going.
Use a PC, be a martyr. it's a lifestyle choice.
I would buy another PC just to avoid that twirling rainbow of a wait icon. although, admittedely I love macs. they are FUN!
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