I’m usually not big on writing rebuttals to ill-advised, poorly-written, ignorant rants. I figure I’ll let other people have their say and let others duke it out around the blogosphere or in comment threads or forums.  Sometimes I’ll show Pilky an article and he’ll write the rebuttal for the both of us! But on occasion there is that one rant that really irritates me. Like, eyelash-in-my-eye irritating. Like, as irritating as iTunes 7 is ugly. Tonight I ran across one such rant.

The rant in question is “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree,” an editorial on law.com by Larry Bodine. It’s your typical “I was suckered into trying this product that everyone said was great but it really blows!” piece, complete with misinformation and inaccuracies being spewed because the writer didn’t want to to a little research or use a little thing called “the Help menu.”

Mr. Bodine bought a “Mac G5,” which I assume is a PowerMac G5. His complaints range from it being slow to unintuitive. Let’s dig in.

The first thing that tipped me off was Mr. Bodine’s dislike for the single-button mouse (which confiuses me, since by the time he bought his Mac--May 2006-- the multi-button, scrollball-equipped Mighty Mouse came standard with Mac desktops, unless he bought a refurbished machine or something):

I pretended that I liked the one button mouse. I quickly started using click + command keys (and other keyboard shortcuts). I really missed the little scrolling wheel in the center of the mouse.

I am using a two-button Logitech scrollwheel mouse with my iBook as I write this. OK, I can let this one slide, though. It’s easy to see where he would get the misconception that the Mighty Mouse--if it was included--is a single-button mouse, or the idea that there aren’t any other Mac mice out there considering that for years and years PC mice (e.g. PS/2 mice) were not Mac compatible. A little research would have shown him that any USB mouse would work on a Mac. A little exploring in System Preferences would have enlightened him to the fact that the Mighty Mouse (if that’s what his machine came with) has more than one button. Regardless, I can see where he got this from.

I can also let go his gripes about formatting glitches when going between the Mac and Windows versions of Office. I’ve heard about these from both Mac users and recent switchers I’ve worked with, so I don’t think that he’s making this one up. The most irritating misconceptions, though, were yet to come:

Doing a simple screen capture was an immense chore. On a PC you just press Alt and tap PrtScr. With the Mac I had to download and launch special programs to accomplish this simple task.

Most of our readers probably know the powerful three-fingered slalute--no, not that three-fingered salute--of command-shift-3 and the OS X utility Grab. Either one would have done the job fine. A quick search for “screen capture” in Mac Help would have answered his question.

As jaw-dropping-inducing as this may have been, it doesn’t comnpare to this next gem:

For me the killer was the Web browser. Safari simply cannot read Flash. It is, quite simply, a second-rate browser.

Um. Last I checked, Flash sites like Homestar Runner work fine in Safari. In fact, I’m pretty sure that the Flash plug-in comes built into OS X. I also don’t know how Safari is “a second-rate browser.” Second-rate to what? It has tabs, a modern rendering engine, RSS support, a pop-up blocker, and so forth, kind of like two other modern browsers: IE 7 and Firefox.

Anyway, I could go on to do an extensive point-by-point rebuttal, but I won’t. I am not in the business of making others looks like complete and utter idiots, after all. I’m sure Mr. Bodine is a smart guy and all. But from what I gather in his piece, he made the same mistake that many people make when they switch to the Mac: they expect the Mac to work just like Windows. Yes, Windows and Mac OS X share many of the same features and concepts, but the two have just enough differences to throw people off. You can’t shift platforms and carry on with business-as-usual. You need to go beyond just buying a “for Dummies” book and really adapt to the Mac. In the words of the wise Yoda, “You must unlearn what you have learned.”

Then there was a comment he made in a follow-up post to his blog. Oh dear.

These Mac zealots are unusually defensive.  They are just realizing that they have bought orphan technology. Macs are the Betamax of the 21st Century.  And it’s not just me who find Macs less appealing.  Apple holds only 4.8 percent of the U.S. market share, according to the July 2006 issue of MacWorld magazine.  In other words, 95 out of 100 computer buyers don’t buy an Apple computer.  There must be a reason, yes?

Bad move, Mr. Bodine. Hell hath no fury like a Mac user scorned. And Hell hath never seen a fury like a Mac user scorned by inaccuracies. With a little fact-checking, Mr. Bodine would have found out that Apple’s Mac sales are on the rise. I don’t think any Mac user will argue with the fact that the Mac isn’t the most popular platform, but the Mac is not an orphan technology. Orphan technologies don’t survive for over 20 years. Orphan technologies don’t see rising sales (error number one). Error number two: equating raw market share numbers with superiority. Yes, Windows has its advantages over Mac OS X. Yes, the entire PC world has its advantages over the Mac sphere. Both the Mac and the Windows PC can be great solutions for people, depending on their wants and needs. But since when does a better product dominate the market 100% of the time? Never! Hello, Mr. Logical Fallacy!

I can let his Mac issues slide. I can deal with the fact that not everyone is going to fall in love with the Mac. No big deal. But I can’t let him off the hook for reporting inaccuracies, not from someone who writes for a professional publication. He should not be reporting inaccuracies about his experiences with a Mac as evidence for the Mac’s inferiority. Where’s the fact checking? Where’s the research? As I mentioned before, a number of the misconceptions he had about the Mac he could have straightened out with a little research online or through Mac Help. The “orphan technology” comment in his follow-up blog post is easily refuted with little things I like to call facts. Of course Mac users are going to be livid! I always laugh when people write inaccuracies about the Mac and are surprised when a barrage of complaints come their way. Maybe if you got the facts straight you wouldn’t get all the angry emails! Maybe some people would actually agree with you!

This isn’t a bad computing experience.  This isn’t over-defensive Mac users needlessly attacking someone who disagrees with their viewpoint. This is just bad journalism.

Related reading

MacDevCenter: Larry doesn’t like his Mac
Call Me Fishmeal. (Wil Shipley’s blog): Flame: My birthday present to me
The Shape of Days: A consultant who lies? Well shut my mouth.