[Blog] Computers and depression
Jul. 22nd, 2005 03:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lprovenFunny how those things are so often linked. Could there be a causal relationship, I wonder?
Anyhoo. There's this great interview that you really should read, with Will Shipley, creator of Delicious Library, a nifty app that only runs on Mac OS X. He has a lovely comment on people reluctant to even contemplate switching over to Macs:
I don't know. Maybe folk will look when Macs have an "Intel Inside" sticker and have as many megahurts as "real computers", 'cos, like, everyone knows that more megs make it faster, right? (Technical readers would be surprised how many intelligent, educated people ask me if adding a bigger hard disk to their computer will make it faster, or if filling up the old one makes it slower, or who cannot tell the difference between memory and disk space. People don't know and don't want to know.)
If you just want to do things with your pooter and don't care how it works, YOU, yes you, ought to be using a Mac. Seriously. They're less than £500 and 2nd-hand ones from years ago work fine today. Yes, you can keep your printer and screen and stuff. And your mouse. Yes, you get a right mouse button. And the little wheel. Yes, you can bring your files across. No, you don't need to buy loads of new software; almost everything you need comes with it or is free. No, you won't struggle to relearn. No, it does NOT help you to be running the same thing as at work. All right, no, I admit, they don't have loads of great games. Buy a sodding Playstation.
He also has things to say about why OS X is such a great thing for programmers. This is relevant to non-programmers trying to understand why Mac users think Macs rock.
But Wil, interestingly, has also fought a lifelong battle against depression and OCD, and in his own normally-very-techy blog, he has some good points to make about that, too.
Anyhoo. There's this great interview that you really should read, with Will Shipley, creator of Delicious Library, a nifty app that only runs on Mac OS X. He has a lovely comment on people reluctant to even contemplate switching over to Macs:
Mac users love their machines; Windows users put up with their machines because they don't believe there's anything really better.What can you do? You tell people there's a better way, that they don't have to put up with this, you even show them, but they just won't. Sad and terribly frustrating. Sure, there are reasons for Windows, and Linux too, and people for whom these are just right, but unless you have some of those special needs or actually actively enjoy fixing broken computers, then the Mac is a better answer.
It's depressing, really, because it's like dealing with victims of abuse: "Seriously, there's a better world out there, and you deserve it! You don't have to put up with this! You can leave! Mac will treat you right!" And their response is right out of the textbooks: "Why would I trust Mac? I don't think anything can be good after this."
I wish I were joking above, but these are almost exact quotes from like a dozen conversations I've had.
I love the Mac user base because they tend to be people who are into trying out new software and recommending it to each other and giving the little guy a chance. Windows users have demonstrated, ipso facto, that they do not believe in the little guy.
The two types of Windows users I've identified at my café are:
1. I use Windows to run Word and Excel and browse the web (and read e-mail in my web browser), and
2. I'm a programmer and I spend all my time in a Windows IDE or hacking around with my system.
The problem is that market (a) already has all the software they think they'll ever need, and clearly isn't into looking beyond what they already have or they'd have noticed they could do all that they currently do, and more, but much easier, on a Mac. And market (b) is too small for me to aim any software at it.
I don't know. Maybe folk will look when Macs have an "Intel Inside" sticker and have as many megahurts as "real computers", 'cos, like, everyone knows that more megs make it faster, right? (Technical readers would be surprised how many intelligent, educated people ask me if adding a bigger hard disk to their computer will make it faster, or if filling up the old one makes it slower, or who cannot tell the difference between memory and disk space. People don't know and don't want to know.)
If you just want to do things with your pooter and don't care how it works, YOU, yes you, ought to be using a Mac. Seriously. They're less than £500 and 2nd-hand ones from years ago work fine today. Yes, you can keep your printer and screen and stuff. And your mouse. Yes, you get a right mouse button. And the little wheel. Yes, you can bring your files across. No, you don't need to buy loads of new software; almost everything you need comes with it or is free. No, you won't struggle to relearn. No, it does NOT help you to be running the same thing as at work. All right, no, I admit, they don't have loads of great games. Buy a sodding Playstation.
He also has things to say about why OS X is such a great thing for programmers. This is relevant to non-programmers trying to understand why Mac users think Macs rock.
But Wil, interestingly, has also fought a lifelong battle against depression and OCD, and in his own normally-very-techy blog, he has some good points to make about that, too.
