Mac Haters - Why so vicious?

I was browsing youtube the other day and came across one of my favorite mac commercials, and noticed everyone slamming macs in the comments. It seems that some people troll the internet looking for places to slam them. But where does this extreme hatred come from? Maybe they aren't a gamers dream machine, but to most people that means nothing. They are without question more stable on the whole. I pointed out that with over 1700 known viruses on the wild list, none are for macs. If you seach F-secure there are 24 hits, all either MS Word macro viruses, or hoaxes. The security difference is not even anything you can dispute. It is night and day. Regarding stability, I pointed out that OSX is based on the Unix core, and that unix runs our phone system, the internet, the most powerful super computers, etc. (can you imagine the internet running on microsoft? uggh.) I watch the science channel quite a bit and can't help but notice that the folks planning planetary missions are using apples. Most of the content out there whether music or video had apples used in its creation. With all of this in mind how can you not respect the mac? I don't hate windows, it has a few uses, and if you like that, then great. But why all the hate towards something with such a great resume? I got one response saying something like "if you know how to build a pc...bla...bla..bla.." I pointed out that I have been building PCs since the MS DOS days, and have built MS networks up through 2000 server, so I don't buy into that BS. I just don't know what motivates the haters.

There's plenty of hatred toward Windows and Microsoft to, don't rise to it, those sorts of people can stay where they are........

Also remember that a ton of people on youtube are stupid have never used a Mac before.

And Microsoft made a bit of propaganda also...

There's a lot of hatred on both sides, but it pretty much comes from people who are ignorant, immature, short-sighted, have some kind of emotional/social disorder, and way too much time on their hands to make such videos. We should pity them and the little, hateful, world they live in.

Probably for the same reason people don't use the search box at the top of the forum and found out that this topic has already been started about 1000 times

fleurya said:

There's a lot of hatred on both sides, but it pretty much comes from people who are ignorant, immature, short-sighted, have some kind of emotional/social disorder, and way too much time on their hands to make such videos. We should pity them and the little, hateful, world they live in.

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Proof both sides have "haters":
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68965

eh, I can deal with the jokes either way as long as people don't actually take them seriously.

Your right man. i posted something about Mac haters when I was mad the other day. (http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68238)

But there's just something about youtube. you could watch the simplest video and see that 90% are complete idiots. People just like to leave angry, profane comments for no reason at all trying to appear smarter then everyone else. I'm often outraged at some of these losers.

But as for Mac haters, check out a few of the comments on the thread above. A lot of people had some good views and ideas on mac haters

Probably the same reason there are about a million ignorant "anti microsoft" posts everywhere else, including many of them in this here forum itself.

Certainly as far as UK people go, a lot of it is human nature to put down others who hold differing opinions. The Climate Change debate sparks similar attitudes - in my experience people even act similarly over the type of cars others drive, their interests and all sorts. It's not just a Mac/PC thing at all.

shoelessone said:

Probably the same reason there are about a million ignorant "anti microsoft" posts everywhere else, including many of them in this here forum itself.

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I agree with that statement with a few caveats.

You will find that most Mac users still use Windows on a daily basis, but that most Windows users have never touched a Mac. While there is a lot of "anti" sentiment on both sides, which group is likely to be able to make a better case based on personal experience?

Much of the "Anti-Mac" sentiment comes from anecdotal evidence (A friend of mine has a Mac and it's a POS. Macs are toys, can't play any games, too expensive...) where much of the "Anti-Windows" sentiment comes from personal experience (I'm tired of viruses, XP crashes daily, Vista sucks, I hate Dell, Bill Gates is Satan...). to be sure there is ignorance from both, but one is ignorance with experience, the other is ignorance with lack of experience.

Lastly, both companies bring some of it on themselves. Apple with their smug "better than you" attitude, their obsession of controlling every aspect of the user experience and simple to use Apps is bound to turn many folks off. The fact that you can't hand build your own Mac drives many folks nuts. MS with their track record for shoddy software, apparent lack of care about the end user and long standing security issues is equally as bad. The fact that many Windows problems are not even Windows problems but are in fact poorly built or implemented hardware or shoddy non-MS software doesn't seem to matter, people still blame MS.

Word.

baggss said:

I agree with that statement with a few caveats.

You will find that most Mac users still use Windows on a daily basis, but that most Windows users have never touched a Mac. While there is a lot of "anti" sentiment on both sides, which group is likely to be able to make a better case based on personal experience?

Much of the "Anti-Mac" sentiment comes from anecdotal evidence (A friend of mine has a Mac and it's a POS. Macs are toys, can't play any games, too expensive...) where much of the "Anti-Windows" sentiment comes from personal experience (I'm tired of viruses, XP crashes daily, Vista sucks, I hate Dell, Bill Gates is Satan...). to be sure there is ignorance from both, but one is ignorance with experience, the other is ignorance with lack of experience.

Lastly, both companies bring some of it on themselves. Apple with their smug "better than you" attitude, their obsession of controlling every aspect of the user experience and simple to use Apps is bound to turn many folks off. The fact that you can't hand build your own Mac drives many folks nuts. MS with their track record for shoddy software, apparent lack of care about the end user and long standing security issues is equally as bad. The fact that many Windows problems are not even Windows problems but are in fact poorly built or implemented hardware or shoddy non-MS software doesn't seem to matter, people still blame MS.

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*nod nod*

"How come my new off the wall brand video card doesn't work. Windows is crap."

"Why won't stupid Window's recognize this scanner?"

I hear stuff like that a lot.

MS isn't responsible for the drivers for the crappy equipment you buy trying to save a buck. They're kind enough to put enough time in to have drivers for tons and tons of hardware, but they could go kamakaze and just say. MS is no longer creating or including drivers in any OS's we create. This will be the Hardware companies.

Canon users were quite angry at vista since for the first several (3-4) there were no drivers for Canon DLSR's. Everyone was blaming Vista. Canon is a GINORMOUS (just add to the dictionary, so it's officially a word) company and no doubt had development copies of Vista. It's all on them for taking that long to get anything out for their own hardware. But everyone was angry at MS.

schweb said:

Probably for the same reason people don't use the search box at the top of the forum and found out that this topic has already been started about 1000 times

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First to the mod, I think my question is a bit different. I am not asking why people hate macs or mac users, so much as I am asking why it is so vicious (see thread title). Not liking something for rational reasons is fine, and several here have pointed out a few shortcomings when it comes to the mac, and windows. I just don't understand why they are so angry.

As someone eluded to above, many of these folks may be "troubled". And I guess youtube is a magnet that draws in all types, but especially the mentally challenged.

If one doesn't care for the mac, fine. But they are SO emotional about it, and was just looking for thoughts on that part of the question mainly.

Do they feel cheated? Too proud to admit that maybe the majority of the herd is traveling the wrong direction? Does it hurt that much?

Phoenix Scanner said:

First to the mod, I think my question is a bit different. I am not asking why people hate macs or mac users, so much as I am asking why it is so vicious (see thread title). Not liking something for rational reasons is fine, and several here have pointed out a few shortcomings when it comes to the mac, and windows. I just don't understand why they are so angry.

As someone eluded to above, many of these folks may be "troubled". And I guess youtube is a magnet that draws in all types, but especially the mentally challenged.

If one doesn't care for the mac, fine. But they are SO emotional about it, and was just looking for thoughts on that part of the question mainly.

Do they feel cheated? Too proud to admit that maybe the majority of the herd is traveling the wrong direction? Does it hurt that much?

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How long have you owned a mac and been on mac forums? There are Mac users that are the exact same way.

And there's even accusations in your post:

"Do they feel cheated? Too proud to admit that maybe the majority of the herd is traveling the wrong direction? Does it hurt that much?"

No to be offensive, but it's sounds like you're doing a little of what you describe.

And it's kind of like broken auto complaints or anything else. There's millions and millions of Windows users out there. You're only getting a minority. Most of the people could care less and go on about their daily lives.

I use Windows, I like Vista. I have a Dell 17" Inspiron, an old dell desktop that's a file serve, a 15" MBP and my next purchase will either be a 17" MBP or a mac pro.

I just get offended at the equal number of Mac users that bash Windows. I mean, if it's truly that terrible, why is there boot camp and parallels?

Village Idiot said:

if it's truly that terrible, why is there boot camp and parallels?

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As a safety net for all of you pansy Windows users who are afraid.....

That was a joke by the way....well the "pansy" part was....

baggss said:

As a safety net for all of you pansy Windows users who are afraid.....

That was a joke by the way....well the "pansy" part was....

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One word: gamers.

It's kinda funny that Mac haters refer to Macs as toy, but one of their #1 complaints is that they don't run games. Ironic.

fleurya said:

One word: gamers.

It's kinda funny that Mac haters refer to Macs as toy, but one of their #1 complaints is that they don't run games. Ironic.

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It's alot more than games my friend. There's alot of software that is just not available, and probably never will be, for Mac. I find myself at home starting up Parallels multiple times a week for some reason.

Another reason is that anyone who is seriously into Web or other new media design is not doing their job if they don't use Windows to ensure their material functions or renders correctly on Windows or in Internet Explorer. Sure you can be a "standards" purist, but that is not what businesses care about. What matters most to them is that it works.

Phoenix Scanner said:

First to the mod, I think my question is a bit different. I am not asking why people hate macs or mac users, so much as I am asking why it is so vicious (see thread title). Not liking something for rational reasons is fine, and several here have pointed out a few shortcomings when it comes to the mac, and windows. I just don't understand why they are so angry.

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We can disagree on this, but IMHO (and those of all the people who left me positive rep for my post) this is really no different and could have been part of an existing thread, like the one that was actually started the very same day.

As someone eluded to above, many of these folks may be "troubled". And I guess youtube is a magnet that draws in all types, but especially the mentally challenged.

If one doesn't care for the mac, fine. But they are SO emotional about it, and was just looking for thoughts on that part of the question mainly.

Do they feel cheated? Too proud to admit that maybe the majority of the herd is traveling the wrong direction? Does it hurt that much?

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To be honest, you seem to have just as much of an axe to grind and a "viciousness" to your post as the Windows users you are trying to understand. I agree with Village Idiot on this one.