Switcher poser
Reader Toby provides a link to a report by Joe Hutsko on MSNBC entitled “A Mac user switches to Vista”.
Hutsko lays it on thick, leading off with a stern warning to Mac zealots: DO NOT BRING YOUR EVIL HERE!
Joe, the Macalope knows the Swamp Thing, he’s worked with the Swamp Thing.
You’re no Swamp Thing.
With a lead-in like this with its over-the-top protestations about having “mad Mac street cred, yo” while damning Mac fanatics and begging them to “just give Vista a chance”, one would understandably suspect this was the return of Microsoft’s previously outed faux switcher campaign, but wait for the pathetic punch line.
Hutsko’s piece is really just a fairly even-handed account of one person’s view of both operating systems and as such it suffers from the fact that he makes no attempt to look beyond his personal experience in the time he used Vista. So it’s already not very useful before Hutsko pulls the rug out from under the whole thing.
But I really miss that peaceful, Zen-like quiet I felt with my Mac when I’d wake it up or put it instantly to sleep. For me, it just works right, without really having to think about it.
So I decided to switch again. From Vista, back to the Mac — to the brand new, white MacBook on which I told this story.
What?! Joe, you didn’t switch. You got paid to write an article about using Vista and then went right back to using the Mac!
And what is up with your verb tense in those two paragraphs? You “miss” the Mac that you’re writing on? Wha-huh?
If we can’t write to you to lambast Windows, can we write to you to lambast your use of lame writing tricks and confusing conjugation?
Hm. Maybe re-name the story “A Mac user tries Vista, and prefers the Mac.”
“On a news site I read a story about a new Mac program called Parallels, which lets you run Windows XP (or Vista) in a window, or in full screen mode, while still running as a Mac.”
You read about an important piece of software that has been out for several months? On a news site? I thought you were a technology reporter?
More shenanigans: I just watched Pogue turn a Newshour interview about Vista into an OS X love-in. Hee hee hee…
Paul, you’re not the Paul Waite of the Hipster PDA Shuffle video, are you?
Because that was a stroke of genius.
@ Paul
I prefer: “Fickle-jackass writer wastes everyone’s time.”
forget incorrect tense in the last paragraph, his spelling and grammar throughout the whole piece are atrocious
While OS X has a built in spell checker, it doesn’t have a grammar check worth a damn. Perhaps he should have used that Word 2007 he was talking about…
Lazy bastard can’t get anyone to proof read. Isn’t that what editors are for?
I was going to send this to you, but you beat me to it. I love it: he doesn’t even switch!
I was in the big mall near my work here in Vienna, Austria yesterday. There was a special tradeshow style booth set up for the Vista introduction (just across from the 1,000 Euro waterbeds booth). It was a frickin’ ghost town: nothing there but a few polo shirt wearing sales guys. I commented to my coworkers that were this the launch of leopard, there’d be a line out the door. THey didn’t believe me, so I’ve been sending them links all day of people camping out for Mac stuff!
Also, I am circling the weak members of the herd. I have isolated one guy and today gave him a tour of my Powerbook. He got all swoony on me. I think he’ll turn soon.
His story looks like one more attempt to get hits for a website by inciting the Mac community. When will we stop feeding these guys’ egos?
For a guy who goes to great lengths to tell us he’s a reporter (“It’s called reporting.”), there sure are a lot of errors in this story – in grammar, accuracy and just plain being misleading. I tried to read with an open mind (despite the fact this is on a MS-sponsored news site), but I just had to stop at page two.
Someone explain to me why the author felt a plug for Zune neceassary in a Vista review?
Someone explain to me how he can claim, “I don’t subscribe to a certain technology or gadget for my own day to day use.” then at the end he explains how much he likes his MacBook.
Someone please…PLEASE…explain to me how GraphicConverter is a substitue for iPhoto. Please explain this to me, because it seems to me the author has no idea what this program does, yet he writes about it with “authority.”
“And then it hit me, the reason why I switched from Mac to Windows Vista. Because it is new.”
No, you switched because you wanted to be paid to write a story.
What an ass.
And what is up with your verb tense in those two paragraphs? You “miss” the Mac that you’re writing on? Wha-huh?
I got the impression that he missed his 12″ PowerBook, not the new MacBook he purchased (that he wrote the article on…)
I glad the Macalope calls it on both sides of the aisle.
Ridicule Hutsko if you like, however his is clearly a tale of the Apple prodigal son. Such odd behavior is has already been illuminated upon in the Book of Jobs:
“…Lo I say unto you my Faithful, there may come a time when one of you will desert me. He shall be led astray into the darkness and his judgment shall be blinded by vicissitude. Novelty, however, may not always embody progress, simplification or improvement and he shall discover he hath gained nothing yet become lost and despondent. And as he wanders aimlessly in the darkness, in his most desperate hour, I shall a light onto him shine so that he may find his way home to me. And he shall not suffer distance from Apple nor want of intuitiveness or ease-of-use again for I have delivered him from the shadows…”
Jobs 18:29-34
We should be celebrating Hutsko’s return! For once he was lost but now has been delivered back into the Light of Apple. Hurray!
@ Scotty
Your devotion is well commended. Your name and good works are spoken highly of in the halls of the Church of Apple as of late. We encourage you to continue your missionary in bringing the Light of Apple to the misguided.
@Church of Apple
My ashtray in the darkness means I’ve always got ashes on the carpet. 🙁
*sigh* A couple of folks have sent me links to that article … along with tongue-clicking noises and “see! told you folks would switch to VIsta” The problem is that none of them have gotten past the first sentence (or even the headline). Thus, even though Hutsko may go back to his Mac in the end, it still winds up looking like a win for Vista. Grrrr… 😛