Comments on: Jan. 1984: How critics reviewed the Mac

By: Dennis, Eindhoven, Netherlands

Dennis, Eindhoven, Netherlands — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:19:31 +0000

Alicia-

Just a wild guess: you're a shill working for Microsoft's marketing dept., and not a very competent one, if I may add. I mean, your complaints and comparison with XP Word are preposterous, anybody who has something to do with writing, editing or text design is going to find your criticism ridiculous. Next time, try to find a more competent colleague who could find something worth complaining about (and there are no shortage of options here).

By: ChCh New Zealand

ChCh New Zealand — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:22:14 +0000

Marco,
Thank god Apple never sold out to become merely the biggest. Instead it's simply the best and one of its older ad campaigns went "The Power to be Your Best".
Apple, keep looking past what we say we need and keep giving us instead what we don't even know we want… yet.
Bart NZ

By: Dave, Orange County CA

Dave, Orange County CA — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:47:39 +0000

If I was the tech assigned to giving temp writers like Alicia a a computer to work on, I would give her the slowest, most misconfigured Mac that I could. Heck, I would probably give her a G3 running Mac OS 9.

By: Wayne Bienek

Wayne Bienek — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:35:16 +0000

Timing is everything. The proper product for this time was the Amiga. Unfortunately the marketing wasn't up to snuff.

By: Joe, Evansville Indiana

Joe, Evansville Indiana — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:17:37 +0000

Anybody notice the similarity of the Macintosh with another Apple product? lol…

"• The Macintosh will not multitask."

By: Mark, Westchester, NY

Mark, Westchester, NY — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:10:13 +0000

Dvorak has always been anti-Mac and anti-progressive. For someone that writes about new technology products, he seems to hate game-changers. He was notoriously off on the iPhone. He reminds me of my sister who said, "I don't know why anyone would want an iPod." A half-dozen years later, she has one. She still watches VHS tapes…

To Alicia: Not going to throw anymore hate around, but as a writer of screenplays, ads, marketing, books, etc. the idea that it pains you to write on a Mac makes me giggle. In fact, I have about eight different writing applications and/or story structure programs on my Mac. I use each according to the project. The one I don't use and have gladly dismissed altogether? Microsoft Word. Bloated and unnecessary in so many ways.

And what a pleasure to use Keynote (the best application on a Mac!) over PowerPoint! Slick, easy and intuitive. Always the Mac way.

By: Lt. Nomad, Lingshan Islands, East Philippines

Lt. Nomad, Lingshan Islands, East Philippines — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:36:46 +0000

"Still can't run Crysis"

By: Ben, Bangkok, Thailand.

Ben, Bangkok, Thailand. — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:54:13 +0000

Incredible comments "Windows of course improved on that desktop design by …moving it from the right side of the screen to the more intuitive left side of the screen."

Nothing remotely 'intuitive' about this. I currently don't keep a can on my desktop – I keep it in a pop up menu. I keep very few icons on the desktop – there's 'Work' in the top right corner and I'd put my trashcan there if I wanted one. Don't assume that 'what you're used to' is 'intuitive' because it isn't. Being free to completely build and configure a desktop for myself, I can say it's very different to any thing Windows do, and much more similar to things that Mac does.

By: Bob

Bob — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:45:05 +0000

About Alicia's comments… is "writing" not an application? Maybe just didn't like the Mac GUI and the way the system felt to use. But when it comes down it, any given task is really up to the application. Not the actual computer or operating system. I could run OpenOffice.org on a Mac, Windows, or Linux. Same app. But maybe I prefer the way one OS works to another.

She might be a little harsh to hate Macs over the task of writing, but in the end… to each their own. Use what works best for you. Pretty much any hardware/OS combination can perform any task these days, so it really comes down to personal preference and what ends up making you the most productive.

At the time, the OS and the hardware gave her a bad personal experience. It didn't for other people. Nothing wrong with that at all. It's good to have a number of difference choices that work the way different people work.

Don't hate her just because what works for you didn't work out for her.

By: Alan, Los Angeles, CA

Alan, Los Angeles, CA — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:44:20 +0000

Alicia –

As a working screenwriter, I have to respectfully disagree. I've been using Final Draft since its inception, when it was owned by a small company in Santa Monica called MacToolkit. The first script I sold was written on a Mac. Every script sold since has been written on a Mac. Not sure what limitations you're speaking of, but perhaps you were using software you were unhappy with. But like you said, to each his own.