Buzz Out Loud Lounge: Tech's biggest fanboys
- 9/18/07 5:08 PM
What about Digg users?
by indy1333 - 9/19/07 8:19 AM In reply to: Tech's biggest fanboys by acedtect
All those unemployed college students can get pretty passionate.
Apple is a given.
Microsoft has its fanboys, but they'd rather attack your computer than speak to you personally (unfortunatly they mostly just attack each other, cause they don't know how to code for Macs.)
XBOX fanboys would be more persuasive if they'd get out more.
Nintendo fanboys now have an added advantage over XBOX and PS3 fanboys, since they've been getting a workout while shooting each other.
The biggest fanboys, however, in my opinion are the iPhone fanboys. Not the Apple fanboys, but the iPhone fanboys (and girls). I mean, the thing had a cult following months before it came out. I get chewed out if I look at one the wrong way. There is nothing anyone can say or do that will dissuade them from thinking that the iPhone is a God-given, $600 slice of Heaven. Oh wait, they just got owned with a $200 price drop.
Good one!
by paintguru - 9/19/07 8:21 AM In reply to: What about Digg users? by indy1333I forgot all about Digg users! May replace Nintendo with that one.
fanbois
by Papa Chango - 9/19/07 2:07 PM In reply to: What about Digg users? by indy1333Apple with no doubt in my mind.
But I mistakenly thought you were gonna out the biggest techbois not the segment.
I know Tom couldnt do one for the show but how about a list of the biggest fanbois among tech journalist/hosts/personalities?
<cough>Kevin<cough><cough> McRose<cough>
Rob Enderle
Laura Didlo
My top two
by benanzo - 9/19/07 9:27 PM In reply to: Tech's biggest fanboys by acedtect
are definitely Mac users and Linux users. I was recently in IRC having a chat with some of the iPhone Dev Team (who are mostly Mac users, but a few of the more elite are hardcore Linux users (..by hardcore I don't mean Ubuntu or PCLinuxOS..I'm talking about Arch, Debian, Slackware, Gentoo..) -- when along came some absolutely clueless, but extremely arrogant Mac fannie to "hang out." We were talking about the subtle differences in building the iPhone toolchain in Linux vs. OS X when from out of nowhere this idiot noob starts making all these idiotic comments about how much better OS X is than Linux etc..we've all heard it and anyone who actually knows what they're talking about knows that it's simply not true.
Needless to say this argument began to spill out to other lurkers who just started bashing each other back and forth purely about Mac vs. Linux. I guess no one is willing to admit being a Windows fan ( at least not in a Mac/Linux dev forum ).
So, I do believe there's only one group more passionate than Mac users, and that's the Linux/Free Software croud (of which I am one.) It's one thing to say "cult of Mac" .. But it's another to actually have a solid philosophy and set of meaningful principles to endorse. What do Mac people have? Certainly not freedom.
I'm a big Free Software fannie.
What do mac people have?
by Nicholas Buenk - 9/20/07 1:50 AM In reply to: My top two by benanzoSimplicity and good usability, the experience etc, and the idea of technology and software as being an art rather than.... just devices.
Lets put it this way. Craft is focusing on a solution to a problem. Art is focusing on making a great experience. This type of thinking has an obvious attraction to people in creative fields which is why macs do well there.
Using anything but Free Software...
by benanzo - 9/20/07 11:21 AM In reply to: What do mac people have? by Nicholas Buenk...is like living in Jonestown. No matter how well it's designed or how appealing the "simplicity" of life is, you're still serving a master who'd rather you die than leave. It's pure nonsense that people choose to be enslaved by their software when the means to break Free is a download away. The future of nearly everything involving communication, entertainment, social participation (ie with your government) will be entirely digital on your computer, your phone, your voting machine. The world runs on software. Who controls that software? Certainly not you. Look how hard it's been to convice state governments to confront Diebold about their voting machine code. We've allowed a single company to control the outcome of America's most fundamental tenant, Democracy. And they still won't open the source!
It's great that iTunes looks good and works well, but might I ask, can you dig into the source and delete the function that spies on you and sends it's findings to your master? No. Can you take your "great experience" and run it on an AMD processor? No. Can you take those 3000+ DRMed tracks you bought and listen to them on a Creative Zen? ...yes, painfully.
Non-Free software is meant to subjugate it's users. The perceived "great experience" thing is just a carrot.
this is DIY arrogance talking
by minimalist - 9/20/07 4:28 PM In reply to: Using anything but Free Software... by benanzo"It's great that iTunes looks good and works well, but might I ask, can you dig into the source and delete the function that spies on you and sends it's findings to your master? No. Can you take your "great experience" and run it on an AMD processor? No. Can you take those 3000+ DRMed tracks you bought and listen to them on a Creative Zen? ...yes, painfully."
Does it ever cross a Linux fanboy's mind that maybe some people have no interest in digging into source code or building their own machines, etc and that just maybe that does not make them worthy of disdain and contempt? Mac people simply love a comprehensive, well designed solution that allows them to accomplish a task in the most direct and intuitive way possible. Linux people love to tinker and tweak and customize the heck out of things. Saying one or the other is superior is silly.
Nicolas got the connection between craft and art and Mac enthusiasts exactly right. This is precisely why creative people love Macs so much. it appeals to their sense of seamlessly integrated design that they try to apply to their own work.
It has nothing to do
by benanzo - 9/20/07 6:30 PM In reply to: this is DIY arrogance talking by minimalistwith DIY. It doesn't matter if the user has the ability to dig into the source and fix a problem, or change the application's behavior in some beneficial way themselves. The idea is that *someone* can. Not necessarily you, but someone other than the original creator. Let's take the popular open source application Limewire as an example. They got sued and as part of their settlement they agreed to start filtering out potentially infringing results. The only problem is that Limewire interfaces with the GNUtella network, which basically no one owns and therefore cannot be moderated. So Limewire's solution was to build the content filtering technology into the application itself. This, of course, left a bad taste in the Limewire community's mouth, so they simply removed the bad code and called the new application Frostwire. It's essentially the same program, but without the content filtering. Even though I didn't perform the code surgery myself, I still benefit from the effort immensely.
I don't have to be able to fix the problem myself in order to reap the rewards of using Free software. It's not arrogance. I feel bad for the subjects of Mac and Windows the same way I feel bad for the subjects of communist China. But the difference is you can be Free and choose not to. There's the problem.
they don't need or want your pity
by minimalist - 9/20/07 9:56 PM In reply to: It has nothing to do by benanzo"It's not arrogance. I feel bad for the subjects of Mac and Windows the same way I feel bad for the subjects of communist China."
I highly doubt that any mac and Windows users want or need your pity. They are perfectly happy with their systems.
And it is indeed arrogant to make judgmental statements that Mac or Windows users are somehow "enslaved" or are like ignorant communists who are just too stupid to know what's good for them.... or that they are like brainwashed cultists living in Jonestown. It may not be as blatant as the classic 16-year old fanboy tactic of calling the other side "sheep" but the general idea is the same... I know what's best for everyone else.
If you like Linux, then great. The free market allows us all to use the system that appeals to our sensibilities and values. Nobody is forcing you to buy a Mac or a Windows machine. The Diebold example is an absurd form of hyperbole. Turning the choice of an OS into some sort of uber-libertarian moral imperative that will make or break democracy is overdramatic to the extreme.
Yes, they need my pity.
by benanzo - 9/21/07 9:36 AM In reply to: they don't need or want your pity by minimalistThey're like victims of domestic violence. They understand that something is wrong, but often refuse to leave the dangerous environment. It's usually not until a friend or some third-party observer takes notice of the situation, and begins the long process of intervention. Does that mean that because the victim doesn't want pity that the observer shouldn't attempt to convince them to leave?
Free software is a place where MS isn't sneaking onto your system in the middle of the night to fix problems and create new ones. There's no DRM here. There's no such thing as AACS (aka worthless, system-bloating DRM) -- There's MacroVision in OS X Tiger and you'd better believe they're going to build kernel-mode DRM into Leopard for Blu-Ray disc playpack.
Why can't you mount the iPhone as a disc? Because Apple purposely disabled UMS mode on the phone and the USB PTP/MTP transfer of Music/Movies/Pictures to/from iTunes is encrypted with SSL...making USB sniffing difficult and therefore hard to hack it to mount as a disc.
That's what you live with when you're under the thumb. Restrictions.
the very definition of arrogance
by minimalist - 9/21/07 1:46 PM In reply to: Yes, they need my pity. by benanzo“Yes, they need my pity. They're like victims of domestic violence. They understand that something is wrong, but often refuse to leave the dangerous environment. It's usually not until a friend or some third-party observer takes notice of the situation, and begins the long process of intervention.”
This I-know-whats-best-for-everyone-and-they-are-just-too-deluded-or-stupid-to-see-it-themselves is the very definition of arrogance.
It’s also why Linux fanboys get my vote as being the most obnoxious ones out there. Mac fanboys may love their machines and prattle on and on about how great they are but Linux fanboys take it to a completely new level… as if it’s some moral crusade and that the future of civilization depends on everyone seeing the light and worshipping at the alter of complete, unfettered c-h-o-i-c-e.
That's
by benanzo - 9/21/07 2:24 PM In reply to: the very definition of arrogance by minimalistabsolutely right! The future of "c-h-o-i-c-e" depends on the ability to control the software that controls your life! It's not arrogant. It is absolutely a moral crusade. It's the same reason you might get out and campaign for the election of a democratic candidate (not the party, the philosophy) in order to defeat the possibility of a fascist totalitarian being elected. If it's arrogant to try to convince people *not* to vote for the Nazi, then I'm arrogant.
(NT) Hardcore Linux = LFS (Linux From Scratch)
by Owyn - 9/20/07 4:19 AM In reply to: My top two by benanzoThe Anti-fanboy
by jimgleeson - 9/20/07 5:50 AM In reply to: (NT) Hardcore Linux = LFS (Linux From Scratch) by OwynI think underneath all this, there should be another question concerning the anti-fanboy fanboy. These are people that with as much passion and irrationality seem to despise the very products that other fanboys venerate. I don't think either extreme is healthy.
Also in regards to people who would be more fanboy-ish if they got out more, that actually contradicts the very idea of what a fanboy is. A fanboy is someone who doesn't get out enough. They live shrouded in whatever their passion is and they rarely get out beyond their comfort zone.
Then again, even those who claim to step out of their comfort zone can hold onto passions so hard and fast that they cannot see the truth for what it is.
My final thoughts. No matter what your passion is, it takes all kinds.
Open source fanboys
by markdc1 - 9/20/07 6:55 PM In reply to: Tech's biggest fanboys by acedtect
Say something bad about open source and they'll crucify you.
| Forum legend: | |
 |
Locked thread |
 |
Moderator |
|
CNET staff |
 |
Samsung staff |
 |
Norton Authorized Support team |
 |
AVG staff |
 |
Windows Outreach team |
 |
Dell staff |
 |
Intel staff |
