“I had a chance to ponder my revenge just the other day as I watched the remains of my laptop being wheeled out of the house and over to The Computer Guy (whose telephone number is now on our home phone’s ‘speed dial’), taking another hopeless journey to try and raise my hard drive from the dead, an entire year of my writing sucked into the void,” Cindy McManus writes for The Hingham Journal. “I had just spent most of my Saturday dutifully ridding the household PC’s of spyware, adware, Trojans, pop-ups, key loggers, etc., etc., etc.”
I spent all day Sunday carefully choosing updates to the operating system, holding my breath each time I gingerly hit the “restart” button, praying that the cure I was about to introduce wasn’t worse than the disease.
It almost worked. The final update beckoned me to “restart to complete the installation.” I did. It didn’t. Instead of the cheerful chimes of a happy operating system booting up for another day’s work, I got insteada little message box telling me a key component of my operating system was no more. Ditto for all the stuff on my laptop.
I’d cry, but this has happened so many times on so many different computers that I am no longer surprised. I have resigned myself to my fate, my karma the same as that of everybody else with a PC: We will lose everything, no matter what we do, no matter how careful we are, no matter what plans we make. It’s just the way things are.
By this time you the reader are probably wondering why, after all the aggravation, all the viruses, all the lost words, I haven’t just gone out and replaced my PC with a reliable Apple computer.
I don’t have much of a defense other than a weak “But Everyone Else Has Windows”-which in reality is a lot more significant of an excuse than it sounds because it is likely the number one reason that millions of other fed up PC users haven’t dialed up Steve Jobs and begged for a Power Book of their very own.
The fact of the matter is that everything runs on Windows. My employer requires my work to be produced using Windows. The cash registers at the local Stop and Shop useWindows to tally up my grocery order. My bank runs through a server that pays my bills and accepts my deposits using Windows.
We can’t change because everyone else uses it. If everyone else has it, we have to have it because if we don’t, doing work or conducting business becomes almost impossible. If everyone uses it, other software companies see no value in writing software for anything else because there is no money to be made from doing so. And if there is no software alternative we will continue to use good ol’ buggy, bloated, error-filled Microsoft products (and here is where we come full circle) because everyone else does.
But this latest incident, the latest in a never-ending string of insults (just ask The Computer Guy) has done me in. There comes a time when you have to look into the mirror and ask yourself just why you seem to so enjoy the endless abuse. Today that day came for me.
As I said, my job requires a PC but (with apologies to my employer) when it comes to any stuff that matters I won’t be using it.And although The Computer Guy has worked his usual magic (he has promised to rescue the draft of my not-so-great American Novel along with most of the other documents on my dead hard drive) I’ll likely soon be using my Windows laptop as a doorstop.
Bye-Bye Bill.
Cindy McManus (whose next laptop will most assuredly be a Mac) is a freelance writer. She lives in Hingham. If she ever gets her PC running again you can reach her via email at cindymcmanus@gmail.com
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’d probably be able to actually hear to sound of millions of eyes popping open simultaneously if we weren’t always listening to our iPods. And “everything” doesn’t run on Windows; things like iMovie, iPhoto, Keynote, Pages, iChat, GarageBand, Final Cut, iDVD, Safari, Mail, iCal, etc., etc., etc.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Orlando Sentinel writer dumps Windows for Mac and writes ‘God bless Apple’ – January 16, 2005
Mac users should not buy Microsoft software – May 16, 2003
Another one has seen the light.
have this guy ever heard of “backup”?
Uhhhh, I think it’s actualy a chick.
Third post!
This is fun.
Actually it’s a chica.
“guy?”” I thought the writer’s name was “Cindy”.
I always have several backups, but have yet ever to lose any data on my Macs for over 10 years, unlike my previous windoze stuff.
Well, I won’t bash Cindy–you have to feel sorry for her. I suppose I’m a tad sexist–I’m not sure I’d feel the same way if a guy wrote that. I’d probably just call him ignorant.
What’s sad, though, is the attitude. Since the cash registers at the local Stop ‘n’ Shop use Windows, she has to or she won’t be able to shop there? Her bank uses Windows, so she suddenly won’t be able to bank there? I know my on-line banking works fine without Windows–I don’t even have to use Internet Explorer!
The other sad part is the “everybody uses it so nobody develops software for it.” Uh…Does “nobody” include IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Intuit, Adobe, and Symantec? (ie, some of the top software companies in America) Does “nobody” include the other thousands of companies who develop software for the Mac?
And of the things that aren’t developed on the Mac, most of it has to do with external hardware. So, yes, the same Windows computer you use in your house can also run a milling machine. This is handy if you are planning on writing about building precision instruments. For the other 99% of the world, there’s not much need.
What a twit. Even though her laptop was “taking another hopeless journey to try and raise my hard drive from the dead”, it appears that she never learned from her mistakes. Perhaps after the first time, she would’ve seen the light and backed up her data.
A backup is recommended before “updates to the operating system” as she did even for the Mac.
While her suffering is related to Windows, her choosing to not back up her data is her own fault.
If she doesn’t back up the data on her new Mac, she’ll run a risk of total data loss again. Probably the first time she sends it to AppleCare for repair.
I do enjoy the backlash from MS users no matter how poor the thought process.
I hope she writes another article when she has had some experience with Macs and finds out just how little she really needed Windows, for example, using MS Office on Macs for those things her unreasonable boss insists on. She will probably then feel even worse that she waited so long to switch.
This post brought to you by the word “running” as in Windows users are running in circles, not getting anywhere.
I wrote my post first then read through the others before posting. Amazing how Mac Minds think alike! Anyway here is what I wrote BEFORE reading the other posts:
Wait til she finds out that OS X is super compatible and that probably everything she has to do can be done on a Mac. She is really gonna regret the wasted years. But at least she will have come in out of the rain and can start enjoying computing from today.
Someone should teach this chick about backing up though.
magic word “she”
I love this story! I want to read more of those!
BTW, MDN, it would be really cool if you followed up on Cindy McManus for a while and see what she writes after she gets her Mac.
A. [We can’t change because everyone else uses it. If everyone else has it, we have to have it because if we don’t, doing work or conducting business becomes almost impossible.]
B. [you the reader are probably wondering why, after all the aggravation, all the viruses, all the lost words…]
A satisfies B.
Circular Logic.
–
My Magic Word is : Fear. (How Apropos.
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Her employer requires Windows? Wha? She must mean she needs to submit her tories in Word format, which you can easily do using Word for Mac or Appleworks.
And I’ve never heard of a Bank Machine that ran Windows.
If your bank uses Windows as its OS on a mission-critical application, RUN, do not walk, to another bank with all of your money in tow! I’ve worked at many banks, and although more and more of them are adopting Windows as the ATM OS (few choices in the marketplace), none that I’ve worked at are dumb enough to entrust a core banking application to a computer running Microsoft’s slopware.
Backup? Backup? b_llsh_t! Her files will likely be recovered. It is the pain of the constant, continuous, unabated, never ending hassle and frustration which has finally forced her to say ENOUGH, I AM NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANY LONGER.
I have been using a Mac daily sinced 1988 ( starting with mac IIcx). I have never lost a file, I have never had a hard disk crash. I have never had to reinstall the system. I have had to call Apple maybe 3 times. I have never had to call anyone else. I had one scare in 1989 but was able to recoover ON MY OWN with NO help from any tech guru. I have never (officially – using backup software) backed up. I DO make duplicates of important files. Never had to resort to these archives. I am not trying to tempt the gods here but it is important to point out the contrast between a Mac user and a PC user. Because this is what we have been trying to say all along!
My bank required Internet Exploder, so I closed the account after switching most of my business to a more compatible bank. I’ll be handing over the co-branded credit card next as I no longer use it.
On another note: I just updated to 10.3.7 with the combo updater without any precautions. It went sweet.
And I have only lost data (partial) on one crash four years ago — an Exploder-related crash.
I’m sorry, but that is the stupidist damn thing I’ve ever heard. Target-Mart takes my money without asking which computer I use, and I bank daily online. Ever heard of .RTF .PDF and .DOC files? They work on both. BTW, data gets lost on Macs, and anyone on any system, backs up the stuff they really need.
I’m glad she’s switching, but I hope she doesn’t tell anyone or they’ll think all Mac users are dumber than a bag of doorknobs.
I’m loving this. Keep writing.
Welcome to the Light, Cindy. Unfortunately I have had some of the inherent problems associated in dealing with anything that utilizes electricity and magnetism and I have lost the occasional files (although, now that I think about it they were on a SNAP server which isn’t very Mac friendly) and I’ve had two harddrives go bad on my production machine at my design office. But, with regular Retrospect back-ups, I’m ecstatic that that’s the only issues I’ve really encountered. I used to format my PC every 6 months out of habit to keep the evils at bay. I’m so glad I’ve finally switched my home computer to a Mac which I’ve been using for 10 years at various offices and schools. It’s like getting rid of a bad roommate by donating that PC to the Goodwill. Good Riddance!
Thanks!
And thanks to all who wrote. I have received more emails than I could ever possibly reply to (most from here) so I will just say “thanks” to all of you, for all the offers of help, the encouragement, the congrats, etc.
I have a feeling I’m going to like living in Mac Land–even if I still have to visit the Vile Village of Gatesville for my regular writing gig.
And no I don’t back up. Well at least not for my writing.
I think it’s part of the masochistic ethos that is being a Windows user. You just assume that none of the precautions you take will really matter, so why bother. Sad, isn’t it?
Yeah, I am REALLY looking forward to making the switch.
Cheers!
Cindy M
Cindy:
Why oh why do you think you still need to visit the “Vile Village of Gatesville for [your] regular writing gig”??
I use a PowerBook and MS Office at an office made up almost entirely of Windows users, and there is almost never a problem sharing files.
Cindy, great article and comments immediately above. I take the same risks by not backing up. However, I do keep an external drive tethered to my mac and will drag really important files over just in case. The same could be done with an iPod or flash drive. Occassionally I will copy the contents of really important folders or burn them to CD. Also, with the Mac it is really easy to make a disk image and keep that as a back up.
The Mac community is often compared to a religious cult. Funny. Seems like PC users do most of the praying.