The Proliferation of MacIntosh Computers: Real or Imagined?

Since today is Sunday, I have nothing work-related to rant about. So tonight, I will instead be musing about a quandry that, lately, has occupied a good chunk of my thinking time.

I was watching a cooking show on TV with my mother a few evenings ago, when they cut to a promotional commercial. It was one of those commercials where they advertise a food item/cooking product, and then give you tips on how to include it in your cooking and meal plans. These types of commercials always end with the statement: "For more cooking tips, go to (insert website here).com!", accompanied by a little video of a web browser navigating to the aforementioned website. I noticed something here that I have noticed in many other commercials where a web browser is used to link to a website ... the GUI running the web browser was Apple's OS-X, and the browser being used was Safari.

Though I'm sure my memory is a bit cloudy (because I generally tend to zone out during commercials), I can't seem to recall any instance where the OS and Browser being employed in a commercial WASN'T Apple's OS-X/Safari. This perplexed me, because OS-X based computers and their Safari web browser aren't nearly as prolific as Steve Jobs and Apple Computer would like you to believe...

As it stands right now, 88.14% of the Operating System market is dominated by the various versions of Microsoft Windows. Mac Operating Systems only account for 9.77%, with the remaining 2.09% being taken up by the various distributions of Linux, BSD, Unix, and other platform-specific operating systems. (Source: http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8)

The web browser market scale also leans heavily in the direction of Microsoft. As of this writing, 66.82% of the browser market is occupied by Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Here, Apple's Safari doesn't even take second place, with Mozilla's fanatically-supported Firefox browser accounting for the next 22.05%. Safari limps in at a distant third, controlling a paltry 8.23%, with the remainder of the pie being divided up among Google's Chrome, Opera, Netscape Navigator, and several other lesser-known browsers. (Source: http://marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0)

One could suppose, without much doubt, that Apple Computer is paying to have their OS and browser placed in these commercials, and that's fine. However, the tactic just doesn't seem to be working for them. Windows and Internet Explorer, as maligned and hated as they are among the shadowy fanboy communities of the internet, are still as ubiquitous today as they've always been, DESPITE a concerted advertising effort and anti-Microsoft smear campaign by Apple.

With that being said, let me tell you that I am NOT a fanboy for Microsoft. While I very much like Windows XP, it is beginning to show its age, and it's still being hacked apart by internet malcontents with viruses, malware, and exploits. It's supposed replacement, Windows Vista, is a bloated and buggy OS with widespread and well-documented issues supporting hardware and software that run without trouble on XP. Even today, many people still opt to downgrade to Windows XP when they buy a Vista-equipped computer. Its hardware requirements are also incredible compared to other modern operating systems (including OS-X), and overall, it just isn't a suitable replacement for XP. It reminds me very much of the resulting shit-storm that erupted when Microsoft foisted Windows ME on PC users to try and keep them occupied until Windows 2000 could be completed. ME is one of the most criticized and hated operating systems to ever be released, and Microsoft certainly caught hell from thousands of angry users complaining of stability issues, unexplainable crashes, and poor driver support for existing hardware.

I guess it just seems unrealistic to me that OS-X and Safari would be portrayed as being so common on television, when in reality, its user base doesn't even account for 10% of the total market share in either category. It's also worth pointing out that nobody outside the techie community is going to recognize the software being displayed as Apple's. What does Apple hope to accomplish with this? Product placement is key, but it's a wasted and futile effort if the general couch-potato audience that's watching doesn't even recognize the software being placed. To them, it's just a mouse pointer clicking on a link, and nothing more.

Q&A with Mac

Greetings to you all,

You may be wondering why I'm writing up this mock Q&A session as my first post. I figured it'll help to get all the boring, mundane, and obligatory questions out of the way right of the bat, so that there'll be less confusion for any posts that follow this. If, for whatever reason, you have a question for me that isn't answered here, and you simply THIRST FOR THE ANSWER, then message me, and I just might answer it.

Onward to the questions!

Q - What is your name?
A - You can call me Mac.

Q - No, seriously, what's your name?
A - As far as you are concerned, my name is Mac. Just Mac. No middle name, no last name, no nickname, no bullshit. My "real" name, if you want to call it that, is of no importance to you.

Q - Where are you from?
A - I'm from the USA. Exactly where is irrelevant.

Q - How old are you?
A - I am in my mid 20's.

Q - What do you look like?
A - It really doesn't matter what I look like. You didn't visit my blog to see my ugly mug, anyway.

Q - What company do you work for?
A - I will refer to it only as "Company X". Where it is located and how it does business is of no importance.

Q - OK then, what do you do for work at Company X?
A - I am a Level 1 Help Desk support technician. The Level 1 techs are the first level of internal support and deal directly with the other end-users in the company. Basically, when people fuck up their computers, break or jam printers, or forget their passwords (which is VERY OFTEN), they call or e-mail us and we fix the problem. If it's a more complex problem that is beyond our ability or authority to troubleshoot, we then send the issue to the Level 2 techs or the System/Network Administrator.

Q - Why did you create this blog?
A - At Company X, I am one of only three Level 1 technicians. The three of us, along with our boss, support a user base of well over 600 people in all different departments, along with about 100 additional remote users in locations around the country. That's roughly over 200 users per technician. Anytime there are widespread system issues, whether they are within our power to troubleshoot or not, people in the building and in the remote locations spam the Help Desk with calls, e-mails, and complaints. This, along with the usual ebbing and flowing tide of stupid questions and complaints we get each day, is enough to chip away at one's sanity over time. As the months and years have passed, my demeanor has changed from incredibly cheerful, polite, and friendly to sad, angry, and irritable. I decided that it was in my best interest to have a place I could go just to vent my anger, frustration, and rage, so that it would not start to accumulate and show through in my work.

Q - So ... does that mean you hate your job?
A - No, I don't hate my job ... at least, as of right now, the positives still outweigh the negatives. I most certainly will always enjoy working with computers ... it is the human factor of the equation that I struggle with. Many of the users I deal with are ignorant, selfish, rude, and often, downight stupid. Their behavior is troublesome and often makes my job harder than it was ever meant to be, and I waste much time and energy dealing with rude, ignorant, stupid users rather than troubleshooting problems like I want and am supposed to. Oftentimes, they do not follow my suggestions or recommendations, and wind up making the same stupid mistakes over and over again. Last time that I checked, the definition of the word "Insanity" was "Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result each time". Hence, the title of my Blog!

Q - Did you go to school for your computer skills?
A - Indeed, I did, but the bulk of my knowledge and skills were self-taught and acquired through experimentation before that. Going to school only helped solidify the skills I already had, and taught me the things I could not have learned through experimentation and research alone.

Q - So, your name is Mac, and you work with computers ... You must love MacIntosh computers!
A - Actually, quite the opposite. I, along with many other IT professionals, dislike Mac computers because of the proprietary hardware and software that they use. My personal reasons for disliking Apple and their MacIntosh computers range from the logically technological to the irrationally maniacal. I've never owned a Mac and probably never will. Unless Steve Jobs and his Kool-aid drinking hippie cronies suddenly realize that Industry Standards will always be superior to Proprietary designs, and that their products are neither unique nor especially high-tech compared to equivalent products from other companies, they will continue to get the cold shoulder from me.

Q - How much do you make?
A - Not enough.

Q - Are you single?
A - Yes, I am currently single.

Q - I have a computer problem. Would you be willing to help me fix it?
A - I'm gonna have to pass. I deal with computer problems all day at work, most of which can be prevented with a little maintenance and common sense. I didn't create this blog to be tech support for the internet. Take your problem to someone else.

Q - Do you have any siblings?
A - Yes, I am the middle child of three siblings.

Q - So, smart guy, you are skilled with computers. How many computers do you actually own?
A - I own three computers ... two desktops and a laptop. The laptop is a Gateway FX-series that I bought, and built the two desktops myself from scratch.

Q - Anything else you'd like to add about yourself?
A - No. The rest, you'll just have to find out as you go along. I hope you enjoy reading my blog, though!