Ever since the dawn of personal computing, which can be irrefutably carbon-dated to the mid-1980s, there’s been a fierce Us vs. Them tribal mentality to Mac and PC folks. I’d like it to be known that from the bulky-beige-box beginning, I’ve been an out and proud Macolyte. The very first computer I ever worked on? An original Macintosh 128K with a vision-destroying 9-inch monochrome monitor. (Embarrassingly, I learned how to use it from a trio of kids—all under the age of 10.)
We Macolytes were set to dominate the world, as the famous “Why 1984 won’t be like ‘1984’” commercial promised. Then financial shenanigans, treachery, and corporate greed in the computer industry hobbled Macintosh, and we followers—always devout, ever iconoclastic—were marginalized to design firms and ad agencies’ art departments by a sniggering rabble of front-office PC users.
But we hung on, licking our wounds, purposefully carving out a distinctive personality for ourselves as cool, hip, not-your-Bill-Gates computer geeks. And in doing so, we made computing drop-dead sexy, if only for 10 percent of the population. Exhibit A:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNnX6XRQBec
Lo, these 25 years, the world has shaken out into two distinctive self-described and, if the folks at Hunch.com are to be trusted, readily recognizable camps of Mac and PC people. A website that finds patterns among users, Hunch tallied more than 80 million responses to questions designed to uncover interesting traits about the computing Us and Thems. They delved into everything from personality to media usage to food preferences, which you’ll find herewith.
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Mac vs. PC Users at the Table
Now, I’m not claiming any kind of culinary superiority over my PC-hugging friends—after all, like them, I have yet to find an animal protein I don’t like, and, truth be told, I’m just as apt to reach for a tunny fish melt (as I used to call it as a kid) as I am to scarf down a bánh mi. (Don’t know what it is? Well, look it up on your Dell, Mr. Gates.) But what I will cop to, as my middle-age spread sprawls into a middle-age buffet, is that I like the notion of myself as a twenty-something, hoodie-wearing hipster huddled over a phenomenal Côte du Rhône, reenacting the latest episode of “The Colbert Report” with my even cooler friends. I hold on to the image of me debating the significance of Queeque in Moby Dick while knocking back Moscow mules, even though I don’t know what the hell they are. My MacBook Pro, iPhone, and iPad make me feel young. And that, perhaps, is the greatest sustenance Macintosh has ever afforded me.
To see the whole Hunch report, click here.
So what about you? Are you a Macolyte or PCer? And how accurate are the distinctions? Come on, you can tell us below.
Oops. This chart says I’m a Mac.
I’m a die hard pc-user. Now that Photoshop is on PC, I see no reason to switch, but that doesn’t stop me from using Ipods. I mean, I get the sexiness of Macs, but I just adore the new version of windows. It is genius.
Plus I’m not art-y. I enjoy seeing the clutter of millions of cords coming out of the back of the computer. HA!
Hi Mariko, I’m with you. I came up as a Mac but I am a die-hard IBMer. Think us PCers are just as sexy!
Beth, I adore you, as I hope you know. Forgive me, but PCers just lack a little of that luster…come over to the dark side! It will affect you in ways unknown…I promise!
I have one foot in the dark side with an IPhone in one hand and an IPad in the other!
The way I look at it, you have two hands in the light, Princess Leia.
NO, NO, NO. Doesn’t work. We have a PC because AutoCad (my husband is an architect) is not made for Macs. We don’t drink white Zinfandel and haven’t been to a MacDonalds in about 30 years. (Did we ever really go there?) Two nights ago we opened a lovely Anderson Valley Pinot and had it with some Copper River salmon (fresh and wild, of course). Last night we had Turkish lamb kabobs, rice pilaf, and oven roasted ratatouille. We live in a city where we get wonderful banh mi and shawarma, and tuna fish for us is seared ahi. Either we are the exception to the rule, or the rule doesn’t work.
Jackie, I think you’re full-fledged exception!
Definitely a Mac girl! I am on a Macbook which I am proud to say is my first! But the expression “Once you go Mac, you will never go back” holds very true for me! My fiance is still holding onto his PC. We often have the “hi, I’m a Mac” reenactment in our house (while his spontaneously updates or fully shuts down in the middle of composing an email). Regarding our food preferences, I feel it is germane to mention that I am the culinary student in the house. I attend an arts school and the greater majority of the laptops I see while sitting in the library or in a lecture are Macs. They are supreme, it’s that simple!
Christina, you’re a woman after my own heart. LOL about the spontaneous shutting down during PC updates–oh, something we Mac people never experience, right?
BTW, curious about the photo you attached. What’s it of?
David,
It is a chocolate semifreddo with roasted hazelnuts in a creme anglaise. One of my creations from pastry class. It was really amazing!
It looks amazing.
But why adapt when you can adopt? Rick, there’s a shiny new or used Mac just waiting to call you poppa.
incognito, are you sure real name’s not Steve Jobs?!
: ) … It did sound a bit like a plug didn’t it – but its all true.