Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report | The Great Panther Disaster of 2004

On a Windows machine, you can push a button to eject a disk and then insert a different disk. Not on a Mac.

On a Mac, there is no button. You eject a disk via the operating system. Which assumes that you have a bootable operating system. Which I didn't.

...

Reader Chris Miller says, There is a way to force eject a CD on a Mac: Hold down the mouse button as the computer starts up.

In over ten years of daily Mac use I somehow never came across that tip. And it sure is not intuitive, especially for a platform that prides itself on user-friendliness. Is a discreet Eject button too much to ask?

Apparently Mac has killed Jeffrey's inner child ;) [Go watch the movie, ok?]

I'd like to point out that this story describes my every dealing with a Mac. People who claim Macs are "intuitive" need a subtle attitude readjustment... something like having an iMac rammed up their arse, while being flogged with the stupid round iPuck mouse. PCs at least have an On/Off button; and having been unable to get a Mac to turn the hell off on a few occasions I know how annoying that is.

Read The Fucking Manual you say? I have tried reading Mac help files; only to discover they refer to control panels without telling you where the hell to find them. They assume you already know what you're doing, despite the fact that you've opened the HELP file which would suggest that you don't know how to do something. Buy a book you say? As if I'd have that kind of money left if I'd actually bought the bloody Mac ;) Seriously, I didn't have a Mac book and I wasn't about to run out and buy one.

Now, PCs are afflicted with just about every problem that you'll get on a Mac; and vice versa. I do not claim that PCs are perfect, nor do I claim they are intuitive, nor do I claim they are morally superior, nor do I think my computer wuvs me. If a problem occurs on my PC I do not immediately launch into a self-righteous rage against the world (I rage at the Scourge of Redmond). This is how you know I'm not a Mac user. I am willing to admit my computer has faults :)

My point, in case it's not abundantly clear, is that PC vs. Mac is a lot like Pepsi vs. Coke. It's 90% emotion and 10% fact; and the best thing you can do is admit that neither one is intrinsically better than the other (before you start, PC video cards caught up years ago, so shut up); although Mac is sure as hell a lot more expensive, both to buy and run (eg. Mac repairs - you pick it up by the integrated handle and carry it to the overpriced Mac techies, who will guilt trip you for not reading poetry to it in the evenings).

Neither one is better than the other. Neither one gives a perfect, crash-free, computing nirvana experience. So STOP TRYING TO TELL ME YOUR MAC NEVER CRASHES. OK? OK.

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