Mac Myths

Isn’t it annoying when you have to use an old crappy Mac? Aren’t they pieces of crap? Well, old Macs are indeed pretty low-quality. But people often see these old Macs and think all Macs are crap. Here are some common things that people believe about Macs.

They crash or freeze a lot.

False. The old Mac operating system that freezes a lot has been discontinued and hasn’t been updated in about three or four years. A much stabler, better, Unix-based system (Mac OS X) has been around since 2001, but many schools are too poor to upgrade their old Macs in order to use it, and some older Macs can’t run it anyway.

They’re weird and round and different colors.

False. You’re thinking of the original iMac, which was released in 1998 and was discontinued years ago. To see what a real iMac looks like, check out apple.com/imac. Other Macs include the Mac Pro, MacBook and MacBook Pro (those last two are laptops), and the $599 Mac mini.

Mac mice are stupid because they only have one button and they look like hockey pucks.

False. Macs are now shipping with Apple’s new Mighty Mouse, a great optical mouse that offers two-button functionality and has an awesome (in my opinion) 360-degree scroll wheel. And if you want even more buttons, it’s always been easy to find cool optical or cordless mice anyway, from companies like Logitech or Kensington. As for the hockey puck thing, those mice—possibly Apple’s worst invention ever—came with the original iMac and have been discontinued as well.

You can’t do anything on a Mac.

False. There are plenty of cool programs available for Mac OS X just like for Windows. Although there isn’t as much software available for OS X as there is for Windows (notably, the selection of games is fairly pitiful on a Mac, though many well-known titles, such as The Sims 2, World of Warcraft, and Halo, do indeed have Mac versions), since Macs now come with Intel chips, they can run Windows and Windows applications too, for those times you need an app that just isn’t available for the Mac. Using software like Parallels Workstation and Apple’s Boot Camp, you can enjoy all the programs that you’d otherwise miss if you switched from Windows, along with a host of Mac-only apps.

That’s all I can think of for now. Just try and remember that the Macs you see at school, or perhaps even around your house, are usually eight or nine years old. PCs that old often don’t seem too top-of-the-line, either. Apple recently got their act together here in the 21st century; anything before that isn’t nearly as good as what they can make today. If you don’t think Apple can make a good product, just look at the iPod; it seems to be doing okay, no?

Back to my homepage