>>The presenter kept apologizing for the Macs we were using. I think that tech oriented people tend to favor the Apples for their capabilities. Non-techies favor the click-and-that's-all-I-have-to-do IBM's. What are your thoughts?
I think that the presenter has never really used a Mac.
The thing that linear ppl can't fathom about the Mac is that there can be more than one way to do everything, and some are more elegant than others, whereas on a windows box, there is only one way to do everything. Kinda like if you want to hang a picture, you can hammer the nail into the wall with a hammer, or rock or heel of a shoe even, if you don't have a hammer. You can even use the butt end of a screwdriver. But on a winbox, if you don't have the recommended software solution, you must run to the store and buy Microsoft HammerPro for $49.95 before continuing. Only then can the nail make it into the wall.
Some people like to have the Wizard hand-hold them through a series of dialogue boxes to accomplish whatever they thought they were working on. They make cards with Printshop from clip art and feel really good about what they created. They're the kind of ppl who, as kids, traced cartoons from their coloring books and thought that they'd "created" something.
Some of this is creeping into the Mac OS to make it easy for initiates to get started, but it only forestalls the inevitable end for that type of user. When I see the dialogue box that asks "This is the first time you've used Barfbag Software. Would you like me to assist you in setting up your preferences? -Yes -No," I wish there was a "-Hell No" button to click. These canned wizards never anticipate the actual user. So, when someone who is getting warmed up to the idea of creating on the computer asks, "Hey, I want to do a triangular card for someone! Like a big piece of pizza!" Do you think the Printshop wizard is constructed to handle *that*?
So, Winusers plateau after a while, since the platform eventually stifles real creativity - whether that takes a day or a year. And if it doesn't happen after a year, a hardware problem, like a hard drive crash will occur and really end the fun. At that point, the box gets put into the garage.
Anyway, the percentages of Mac users who actually use their decks on a day to day basis compared to windows are outrageous - most of that huge Windows market share is collecting dust.
And I'm never surprised to hear how much "deeper" Mac users go with their machines. Those who really use the computer use Macs.
