They sometimes say that the best salesperson believes their own pitch, so maybe it is true that when Steve Jobs first touted the Mac as a computing appliance, he believed it too. Alas, the first time a Mac crashed, the famed “reality distortion field” was breeched. Everything went downhill from there.
For me, the most dreadful dose of reality happened when I finally moved my Mac universe from office to home, and installed a brand new system. Fifteen minutes later, the computer crashed. A few days later, it was infected by a virus. Yes, there have been Mac viruses over the years, and anyone who takes the statements that imply otherwise in those Mac Versus PC ads too literally may one day face an unfortunate reality check.
Indeed, despite the impression Apple wants to convey that the Mac “just works,” it’s seldom true in the real world.
In fact, I’m quite convinced that it’ll be years before personal computers reach the point of simplicity and reliability that you can just set and forget them. Of course, I can hear some of you complain now, that your Macs work just beautifully. You do all the chores you want, and nothing bad ever happens, and I’m inclined to believe that is true most of the time.
Story continued in this week’s Tech Night Owl Newsletter. [1]