<title>By: Navelgazer</title>
<link>http://www.metafilter.com/103674/Juju-Apple-Voodoo-Apple#3707289</link>
<description>I'm a Mac user, fairly observant, though not orthodox. My mother called me earlier this week, and she is in the process of converting. After decades of feeling no connection with her computational side, her epiphany began two Christmases ago when my father gave her an iPhone. This was an OS which truly meant something to her, something she could understand and which improved her life. She now sees her old PC as a false solution and is getting fully invested in a MacBook, excited for the possibilities of her new life in Apple.
And all of this is actually true, flavorful or not.
When I lived in Brooklyn 5 or 6 years ago, I was still working on a PC, and hated it. My roommate put an Apple sticker on the door to our apartment. I heartily agreed with this decision, and vowed to switch to Macs as soon as I could. My Macbook has lasted me for four years, and while it's showing some signs of near-constant usage over that period, it still gives me almost no problems. My old PC was essentially non-functional in 2.5 years, a fact which led every programmer friend I had to try their hand at fixing it, to no avail.
So, in my experience, Macs just work much better. When I bought mine, I had to meet a bunch of specs outlined my Georgetown Law, and the Mac was also the cheaper option as well. I love the operating system. I have many, many rational reasons to be a Mac user.
But the religious aspect is part of it as well. With computers so very, very central to daily life now (in previous recent generations, it may have been one's car, but now it is my computer which is an extension of my being) Mac-vs-PC has a shitload of identity qualities. More than that, there are sacrifices. You need to devote yourself to mac peripherals and patches. Your selection of games is severely limited. Etc. But instead of those aspect hitting the brain as things which are a pain in the ass about using a Mac, they instead make one feel like a member of an oppressed, but more enlightened minority.
The symbols and aesthetics, the cavalcade of seemingly miraculous new products, the charismatic leader, it all points to a feeling of church-like devotion. And I have it. I also have the rational reasons, though. They're both there. But either way (and I'm sure y'all could present many counter-examples) I personally don't know anyone who's gone Mac and then gone back.
We just don't do that in our faith.</description>
<guid isPermaLink="false">comment:www.metafilter.com,2011:site.103674-3707289</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 19 May 2011 17:44:10 -0800</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Navelgazer</dc:creator>