Dvorak finally uses a Mac: recommends Mac to friends and neighbors
Thursday, July 26, 2007 - 12:40 AM EST "Oh horrors. Dvorak is using a Mac," John Dvorak writes for PC Magazine. "An iMac (with a second screen so I [don't] look like a complete schlub). Hey, I figured since I'm known for ragging on the Mac all the time, I may as well speak from some experience, right? It's been a couple of months now, so I thought I'd report what I think about the platform from a user's perspective—specifically, from a PC user's perspective."MacDailyNews Take: In other words, for decades prior, Dvorak spoke of Mac with no experience.
"First of all, the machine is not half bad. It's very quiet, and it performs as well as the PC on general office applications. Generally speaking, the interface is slicker than the PC's, and you get the sense that the computer isn't about to start acting weird because of some virus, spyware, or endless Firefox loading procedure going on in the background and killing all the cycles of the computer," Dvorak writes.
MacDailyNews Take: "Not half bad?" That's the understatement of the year so far. Here are just a few reviews of Apple's iMac:
• Mossberg’s fall computer buyer’s guide: Apple iMac the best consumer desktop computer on the market - October 26, 2006
• Orlando Sentinel: Apple’s 24-inch iMac versatile, seamless, makes working with multimedia a breeze - October 15, 2006
• Computeractive review: Apple iMac 24-inch Intel Core 2 Duo (5 out of 5 stars) - September 20, 2006
• Crave at CNET: Apple’s gorgeous 24-inch iMac should tempt you to switch - September 07, 2006
• Fortune: Apple improves what were already two of best computers on planet with iMac, MacBook Pro - March 14, 2006
• Apple iMac the finest, most reliable, stable, elegant and intuitive personal computer available - February 14, 2006
• InfoWorld: Apple perfects the desktop personal computer with new iMac Core Duo - January 25, 2006
Dvorak continues, "Other than that, I cannot see much of a difference between the Mac and PC."
MacDailyNews Take: John's abject myopia is wholly unsurprising. "The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a 'mouse.' There is no evidence that people want to use these things." - John C. Dvorak, Feb 1984
Dvorak continues, "[The Mac] runs the same old applications (more or less), and it gets the job done, albeit somewhat more elegantly. The processes for some things, such as burning CDs, seem convoluted to me. I'm not a fan of some of the navigational concepts. And I have one USB key that the Mac refuses to recognize for some unknown reason. But these are not deal-breakers."
MacDailyNews Take: Windows is an upside-down and backwards poorly-faked Mac. It takes time to break bad Windows habits. Dvorak's are so deeply ingrained that "a couple of months" might as well be a millisecond; there isn't enough time in the universe for him.
"I sense that the OS is more solid than Microsoft Windows, but I cannot say why exactly. I suspect that the modern underpinnings of the Unix kernel have something to do with it. I have no plans to move to the Mac platform for my personal use," Dvorak writes. "That said, I have noticed that I've been recommending the machine to friends and neighbors when they want to know what kind of system they should buy... I have to think to myself, 'Should I recommend something that will come back to haunt me, or recommend a Mac with its higher price but lower hassle factor?' The answer is simple. I hate the idea of having to do customer service for people who cannot keep their systems clean, and that's most people."
MacDailyNews Take: Dvorak has no plans to move to the Mac platform for his personal use because that would be the logical move. Instead, he'll illogically continue with the extra hassle of a less solid, less usable, less elegant Windows PC. Stockholm Syndrome is brutal to witness.
Dvorak continues, "The way I see it is that the differences between the Mac and the PC that really matter are minor. The big exception is the usability factor. And, in the end, that's probably what the majority of users care about. Yes, it's a sad day for the Mac bashers."
Full article, Think Before You Click™, here.
MacDailyNews Take: We post this article at the request of too many readers to mention individually, not because Dvorak's opinion of the Mac matters a whit. Dvorak's "it's a sad day for the Mac bashers" comment belies his inflated perception of himself, and while "inflated" is an entirely appropriate description of John, nobody should care what the irrelevant hit-whore Dvorak thinks about the Mac. Positive or negative, he has no credibility or integrity; he's just trolling for page views, as usual.
Related articles:
Dvorak: Apple iPhone will be duplicated by others within a couple of quarters - June 07, 2007
Dvorak trolls: ‘Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone’ - March 28, 2007
Nike to make all running shoes iPod-compatible by year end - March 26, 2007
Dvorak: ‘I personally do not like the Mac; Windows Vista’s ‘Mac-like’ qualities may spell its doom’ - January 24, 2007
Dvorak on Apple iPhone: ‘I think Apple can do wrong and I think this is it’ - January 13, 2007
Apple sells 450,000 of Dvorak’s ‘nutty’ Nike+iPod Sport Kits in under three months - September 13, 2006
Dvorak tries damage control - June 20, 2006
Video: Dvorak admits to baiting Apple Mac users for hits - June 10, 2006
Dvorak thinks iPod+Nike Sport Kit is ‘nutty’ - May 24, 2006


"Burning CD's is convloluted"
Yeah, drag files onto the CD, then click "burn" icon in the Finder, or select Actions > Burn.
Yep, to a PC user I can undestand how he might find that convoluted.