'The Mac Is a Toy'

Rodney O. Lain - 1999.12.30

Oh, the Mac over there? Macs are only good for graphics.
- an Intel rep, overheard at CompUSA

The Mac is toy. They're only good for games.
- the average PC user, overheard at CompUSA

I'm sitting here, fiddling with my new Blue and White G3. I just got around to testing one of my Christmas presents: Star Wars Episode I Pod Racer.

Yosemite design I double-click the installer icon. A message window comes up, saying that I need to upgrade to OpenGL 1.1.2. I do so.

Now my computer crashes. I'd heard that the OpenGL upgrade wasn't any good, so I downgrade back to the previous version.

Frustrating with silly games, I get back to work. Games are kids, anyway.

And they say Macs are toys?

I always hear PC users downtalk the Mac, saying they're only good for graphics. In the past, many said they were only good for games.

But guess what I hear PC users talking about all the time? How to play some game. All the Mac users I know spend their time creating software, work projects, novels, etc. Heck, I didn't start playing games on my Mac until I hooked up with CompUSA last year. That and the fact that the product reps give me free software.

Until then, I didn't care about 3dfx's Voodoo cards. I cared just as little about joysticks and gamepads. John Carmack meant nothing to me (he still doesn't).

But if you listen to PC users, we do nothing else with oour Macs but play games.

The most disparaging remark I hear our local Intel rep say about Macs is that they're only good for graphics. I like to say they're only good for graphics professionals, emphasis on the word "professionals."

Professional means serious, productive, contributive to society. Games means recreation, no value added, childish. Do I have to point out the obvious.?

Let them talk

There will always be an argument against our choice to use the better machine. Remember when the first Mac was introduced, PC users said that the mouse was a toy. They said that the Mac's graphical-user interface was a toy.

I don't need to point out what's obvious about this, either, do I?

No matter how much the Mac evolves, there will be detractors. The point is to never listen to them. They want time to stand still. They are satisfied with the current state of the computer. I'm not. Apple isn't, either.

That's why I'm not too keen on playing games. What evolution and growth is in that?

Back to my game....

To each his own

I still haven't gotten my game to play, but I don't really care, either.

If I were a PC user, time would probably stand still until I got that game to play properly, but I'm not a PC user. I've got work to do.

Rodney O. Lain (1968-2002) called himself a fashion victim: He liked wearing socks with his sandals. When he wasn't dispensing fashion advice, Rodney wrote for Low End Mac, The Mac Observer, Applelinks, and many other websites. Rodney lived in Minnesota. His own website was iBrotha.com, and we have collected as much of his writing that has since disappeared from the Web as possible in The Rodney O. Lain Archive.

The most widely read Things Macintosh columns:

Apple is a company, 10/4/1999
The main difference between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, 1/17/2000
The $600 iMac, 12/24/1999
Apple will rule the computer world, 11/17/1999
I'm not paying $20 for my OS X upgrade, 2001.07.25.
A Mac is like Prozac, 10/13/1999
I'm a drop the funk bomb on ya: Milking the Macintosh for all it's worth, 2001.03.20.
More links and links to memorial articles in the Things Macintosh index.

Latest Deals on Low End Mac

More links in our archive.

About LEM Support Usage Privacy Contact

Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2012 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iPad iPhone, iMac, iPod, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.
Advice is presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Email may be published at our discretion unless marked "not for publication"; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.

Custom Search

Follow Low End Mac on Twitter
Join Low End Mac on Facebook

Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler 11 is now in the Mac App Store!! -- Special Introductory Price of $59.95!! -- To Buy From The Mac App Store Click Here Now!! Or buy direct from Strider Software.

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker and Mac Casino applications in minutes.

Affiliates

Amazon.com
The Apple Store
The iTunes Store
PC Connection Express
GainSaver
Parallels Desktop for Mac
eBay