Incompatible
For Mac and PC users, the battle lines are drawn, and a new operating system may fan the flames
Coke vs. Pepsi.
Leno vs. Letterman.
Macintosh vs. Windows.
Across the great divide of culture and commerce stand consumers slavishly loyal to one brand or the other.
Absolutists they are not, necessarily. Does a Coke drinker ever sip a Pepsi? Sure, occasionally. Do Jay fans check out Dave sometimes? Of course. And if you've followed GM's earnings reports lately, you know how conflicted its customers are these days as gas prices soar and SUV sales tank.
Still, the firewall between Apple enthusiasts and
There are Mac guys (and gals), and there are PC people. One camp might be graphics-crazy, the other price-conscious. But most choose one system and stick with it -- to the point that Mac fans are often likened to religious cultists, whereas Windows-philes, who outnumber Mac-ies nearly 10 to 1, have made Bill Gates the richest man on the planet.
It's hardly a fair fight, given the numbers. But the battle for users' hearts, minds, and screens rages on, with the latest skirmish promising to be among the most bare-knuckled ever.
''It's basically the Yankees versus the Red Sox," says Peter Stearns, a Worcester graphics designer and longtime Mac loyalist who is thinking about switching to Windows -- or going over to ''the dark side," as he puts it.
Which team does Apple represent in Stearns's paradigm? That would be the Yankees, he says, because Mac products are ''expensive and over the top. They're almost taking advantage of their elite status." And Stearns likes them.
Then there's Andy Rathbone, author of ''Windows for Dummies" (10 million copies sold) and diehard PC-er, who ventures the opinion that Microsoft is getting nervous, really nervous, about maintaining its market dominance. The reason? Millions of Windows customers may be tempted to take a bite out of the Apple, so to speak, which could trigger a mass exit-from-Eden thing.
''Perhaps because Windows has gotten so out of date, people are taking a second look to see what they're missing," Rathbone says by telephone from San Diego. ''That and rooting for the underdog, which Apple definitely is."
Not unlike the pitching-poor Yankees this season, come to think of it.
Driving this conversation from websites to water coolers is Apple's recent introduction of its new Tiger operating system (no relation to the golfer), which tech-heads and industry analysts are hailing as the slickest, most user-friendly computer program yet. Tiger's bells and whistles are many, including a desktop search feature that allows users to surf for files, applications, and e-mail from one location; an enhanced Web browser; mini-applications, known as Widgets, that multitask with a single mouse click; and an Automator program that rapidly does many functions only done manually on a standard PC.
Coupled with the runaway success of its iPod portable music player, Apple is riding high, while Microsoft is more than a year away, at least, from retooling Windows. In the computing world, that's like waiting for Conan O'Brien to take over the ''Tonight" show in 2009 and bury Letterman in the ratings, if Letterman's not in assisted living by then.
Rathbone says: ''The old joke is that Microsoft copies what Apple does and releases it two years later. And that's partly valid."
Plenty of computer users have a foot in both worlds. Ike Eichhorn, a former Bostonian now running a Minnesota real-estate company, uses a PC at his office but passionately loves the Mac he keeps at home.
''Tiger/Mac is the Range Rover," he enthuses, ''while Windows is the Chevy." As a Mac-ie, though, Eichhorn says he felt ''out in the wilderness forever" until Mac roared back into the public eye on the strength of the iPod's popularity and now Tiger.
''It's finally getting its due," Eichhorn avers. ''I've never had a virus on my Mac. At the office, our IT person has all he can do to keep viruses out. In the past two years, I've probably converted 30 to 40 people to Macs."
Karen Voght, founder and president of Wellness Inc., a Brookline company that develops literacy and exercise programs for young children, has long straddled the Windows-Mac fence, too. She admits the frustration is making her ''bipolar."
''The technology pulls you in all directions," says Voght, who runs Windows on her own PC but frequently works with illustrators, which requires her to interface with their Mac-driven programs.
''The issue for me is file transfer, and that's frankly why I'm most intrigued by Tiger," she says. If not for the cost involved, Voght adds, she probably would have converted to Mac long ago.
No need to persuade Annie Sanguinetti, though. A recent Pepperdine University grad, Sanguinetti now works as a jockey at Suffolk Downs racetrack. Having grown up in Silicon Valley, down the street from Apple headquarters, she's a lifetime Mac-ie and hopes to have Tiger up and running on her PowerBook G4 laptop later this month.
''I've never read a computer manual, and I've never called tech support," she boasts. ''Their machines are simple to use and cool to look at."
Her boyfriend owns a
Why you want a Mac
1. Software for dummies -- like you?
2. Light years ahead in graphics.
3. Viruses? Spyware? Spam? iThink not.
4. Industrial eye candy (''the intersection of art and technology" -- Steve Jobs).
5. Automatic cult membership with each purchase.
Why you want Windows
1. Costs less than a lakeside vacation home.
2. Your IT staff has actually used it.
3. Games, games, and more games.
4. Bill Gates gives billions to charity.
5. They know where you live -- and your children, too.
Joseph P. Kahn can be reached at jkahn@globe.com.
