Dvorak tries a Mac... he likes it!

As most everyone reading this no doubt knows, John Dvorak hasn't exactly shown much love to Macs (and all things Apple) over the years. Mac fanboys may now want to brace themselves, however, as it seems Dvorak has had a change of heart -- sorta. While he still has "no plans to move to the Mac platform for my personal use," Dvorak has apparently been using a Mac for the past few months and, shockingly, admits to liking it. Of course, he isn't quite exuberant in his praise, calling the system he's been using (an iMac) "not half bad," adding that "it's very quiet, and it performs as well as the PC on general office applications." He also found that "the interface is slicker," and that he didn't get the feeling that the computer was going to " start acting weird because of some virus, spyware, or endless Firefox loading procedure." But other than that, he says, he "cannot see much of a difference between the Mac and PC." He even apparently found doing some things on the Mac, like burning CDs, "convoluted." Despite that, he says he has taken to recommending Macs to friends and neighbors, although we somehow suspect he won't go so far as to recommend an iPhone anytime soon.

[MisterFuhrman @ Jul 26th 2007 2:13PM]

In related news, Satan has just opened a Lemon Chill™ stand in Hell.

[adam @ Jul 26th 2007 2:14PM]

It amazes me that so many people (on both sides) care so much about what other people think of their OS of choice.

I use what works for me, and I could care less what others think about it.

[Aaron @ Jul 26th 2007 2:24PM]

No, this works for Engadget.

Start an OS flame war to drive traffic.

I never even heard of the guy but you can bet the Mac fanboys will be here in droves to defend/discount/debunk his personal assessement of the platform.

[Leonard Nimrod @ Jul 28th 2007 3:05AM]

@ Aaron,

This pundit is well known for many anti-Apple sentiments over the years so this is pretty remarkable coming from him.

[paloooz @ Jul 26th 2007 3:09PM]

>I could care less what others think about it.


You could, could you?

The phrase is "I couldn't care less."

[Jason @ Jul 26th 2007 4:18PM]

@paloooz

>The phrase is "I couldn't care less."

Actually, they are both correct and mean the same thing. I couldn't care less was the original form, with the latter I could care less coming from America and meaning the same thing. Language is a funny creature.

Source:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ico1.htm

[paloooz @ Jul 26th 2007 4:26PM]

I shouldn't have to explain this, as you clearly speak English. It's as clear as day that they mean totally different things.

"I could go to the store" does not mean the same thing as "I couldn't go to the store."

When you use "could," you are saying that it is possible for you to care less about said topic, inferring that you have some level of concern.

When you use "couldn't," you are saying that it is impossible for you to care less. You care not about said topic, therefore it is impossible for you to care about it. You can a level of concern, but that level is at the bottom.

So, yes, maybe some stupid people say "I could care less" but they are wrong. What they really mean is "I couldn't care less."

[Jon DunB @ Jul 26th 2007 4:30PM]

Whatever, accepting a phrase to mean something when it actually means the exact opposite is ridiculous.

From the page you linked...
"...it loses its force when put on paper and just ends up looking stupid."

[adam @ Jul 26th 2007 4:36PM]

@Palooz

Yes, I realized that after I posted. I figured that instead of cluttering up the comments with a correction post, I'd assume that my fellow Engadget readers would know what I meant.

Guess I was wrong.

[Priapus @ Jul 27th 2007 6:43AM]

@adam
paloooz occasionally gets upset if you drop one of the "o"s from his name. Methinks he is a language pedant. Truth is, English is full of inconsistencies, contradictions and silliness. Fortunately, if a phrase is in common use, it becomes accepted. For example, where I come from, an acceptable response to paloooz would be:

Get a dog up ya!

[Todd @ Jul 26th 2007 2:15PM]

REQUEST: Please change the title of this blog post to:

IRRELEVANT, OLD MEDIA WHORE BUYS APPLE COMPUTER TO STAVE OFF TOTAL OBSCURITY.

[CharlieX @ Jul 26th 2007 2:16PM]

heh heh...

[Sam @ Jul 26th 2007 3:29PM]

Dvorak never pays for anything anything... and he gets no spam.

[Michael @ Jul 26th 2007 4:40PM]

So you're one of those people who buy his act?
Dvorak is an easy one to figure out. Everything he says is for publicity. I'm sure the guy hasn't really thought any worse of macs then PC's for the last twenty years, but he uses that angle.
In a well written story you need the hero's and the bad guys. Not everyone can be the hero, he plays the bad guy, the cynic the antagonist. I find it funny how sheepish people are to quickly buy into it.

I think the dude is brilliant, he knows how to get people going and that drives sales/readership.

[murray @ Jul 26th 2007 2:16PM]

Totally agree with Todd.

Couldn't care less what that Dvorak does. Can't imagine why anyone would. They man is a bore.

[Eric @ Jul 26th 2007 2:17PM]

"endless Firefox loading procedure"

What the fuck did he do to his firefox?

[dj-kenpo @ Jul 26th 2007 2:20PM]

I get this too, and a few of my friends, and my girlfriend on her computer, I ahve no idea what casuses it but it's pissing me off. firefox goes to do an update, then says it can't, then trys again, then keeps cycling ENDLESSLY. ctrl alt del is just a fix till next time it happens. reinstall solves for a little while, then it just happens again ina few weeks. no clue, but it sucks. still prefer firefox tho.

[apeguero @ Jul 26th 2007 3:38PM]

Problem I have with Firefox is that sometimes I click on a link and it takes me nowhere, it doesn't respond. Heck, even when I hit CTL+Click it won't open up another tab. It does this randomly, mainly from my iGoogle page and from the Bank of America website when I'm accessing my account info. IE doesn't suffer from this. I still also prefer Firefox though.

[Fitz @ Jul 26th 2007 6:15PM]

I know there are workarounds for it, but clicking on a PDF when in Firefox either takes like 10 minutes to load or grinds my computer to a halt. This has never happened in any version of IE I have used. I have plenty of gripes about FireF"i"x, but I still use it.

[Nick @ Jul 26th 2007 10:30PM]

I hate firefox. Im gonna post a firefox problem I have like this is a firefox problems anonymous meeting with people who care... but i prefer it to everything else.

[Kevlar @ Jul 26th 2007 2:26PM]

Dvorak: "I'm FULL!"

[Jonny @ Jul 26th 2007 2:26PM]

He likes the iphone actually....

Listen to the latest podcast of This Week in Tech (TWiT). He admits the iphone is better than he predicted...

[Frankenstein Black @ Jul 26th 2007 2:31PM]

*chuckles and says in decreasing octave* “Dvorak”...
Hey still kicking? Oh yea, and nice high school picture :^P...

[turtlesoup @ Jul 26th 2007 2:33PM]

Who the fuck is John Dvorak? Sounds made up.

[nathan @ Jul 26th 2007 4:02PM]

Many ages ago before the Internet, he was a very popular columnist for PC Magazine, PC Computing, and other magazines (magazines are those small paper books that come out regularly you read at the dentists' office if you forgot). I used to read him alot in PC Computing. I loved my PC Computing. I remember when they ran front page article in '92 about the "Information Superhighway" then they mentioned in a 2-page spread about this thing called the "Internet" that could become it. I'd be funny to read that again.

[Josh @ Jul 26th 2007 2:35PM]

Go. Away.

[TVGenius @ Jul 26th 2007 2:39PM]

He found burning a CD on the Mac convoluted? You drag files to the blank disc, then hit burn. No 'wizards' that complicate things.

[Blah @ Jul 26th 2007 3:04PM]

Or you can right click --> New Burn Folder
How can that possibly be more convoluted than the wizards on windows...?

Other than that I like him. His column is actually really funny.

[Josh @ Jul 27th 2007 7:43AM]

Yeah that one confused me. With the exception of the wizard for finishing the CD in XP, the process is more or less the same on Mac or Windows. Then again, anyone that listens to this guy on TWIT knows he's out of his gourd.

[CoffeeJones @ Jul 26th 2007 2:40PM]

Being a hypercritical sonofabitch doesn't make you look any smarter.

Also that 'Adobe leaving Apple because of delays in photoshop' a year back was just trolling garbage.

[mrah @ Aug 4th 2007 8:52AM]

nothing

[ark_v2 @ Jul 26th 2007 2:41PM]

First Colbert, now Dvorak. What comes next? Paris Hilton? WTH is going on with Engadget?!

[Matt @ Jul 26th 2007 2:56PM]

Funny you should mention that, I find it a massive pain in the arse. I have a mac mini with an external drive plugged into an HDTV; I hooked the drive up to my powerbook the other day and OSX remembered the size of the Finder window. It was so big that the bottom right corner didn't even appear on screen and I therefore couldn't resize it. Took me ages to work out how to sort it out, so Windows wins that one imho.

[doak @ Jul 26th 2007 2:59PM]

The downfall of the OS is the cult itself. I am really sick and tired of mac users showing off their superiority complex to say one hardware or one OS is more superior than the other. Don't get me wrong, I use a mac and I like the OS.

However, classifying myself with other people that thinks "if anything is white, then the company must be copying Apple" is an insult.

[Iceman68 @ Jul 26th 2007 3:00PM]

I would love to have a Mac. If only someone would create a program that lets you rip your DVD's and make backups with a Mac. I would go out and buy one tomarrow or the day after.

[Chris @ Jul 26th 2007 3:34PM]

There are a couple programs for the Mac OS that can do that and a cursory search via Google will lead you to them

[Kevin @ Jul 26th 2007 3:10PM]

Ripping DVDs on Mac= HandBrake

"Making" backups depends on the sort you wish to make. There are utilities out there.

[Geoffrey Sperl @ Jul 26th 2007 3:15PM]

Handbrake ($0) and Visual Hub (~$20) to back it up to almost any version you want. Boom. You're done. Which Mac are you buying?

[Geoffrey Sperl @ Jul 26th 2007 3:16PM]

"Version" (you can tell I'm distracted) was actually supposed to be "format."

[Jeremy H @ Jul 26th 2007 3:03PM]

I have this issue all the time switching from my laptop to projector. Easy fix- push the little green circle at the top left. It will re-size to fit your screen.

[koopa @ Jul 26th 2007 3:08PM]

@matt,
the little green circle on the top left with a "+". Auto resize. Also, expose'. also, ctl+tab.

[koopa @ Jul 26th 2007 3:09PM]

@Iceman,
google "mactheripper". works great.

[paloooz @ Jul 26th 2007 3:11PM]

Handbrake works good too.

[Tim @ Jul 26th 2007 3:11PM]

Dvorak has actually given the iphone a fairly decent review on either TWiT or various other podcast. His biggest issue has been the praise even before the phone was even released.

[Bobo @ Jul 26th 2007 3:14PM]

So this assclown has been ripping into Apple without even using a Mac after all these years..?

I crown thee King Assclown

[Chris @ Jul 26th 2007 9:37PM]

He has a lot in common with most people that rip on Macs. Most have never used them for any extended period of time. Those that did usually went into it without an open mind.

[Martin Porcheron @ Jul 27th 2007 8:00AM]

Most people rip the Mac because they are pissed of with Mac fanboys spamming the internet with "Macs RULE", "Steve Jobs FTW", "Windows Sux", "They cost the same so you should switch" etc...

The amount of Mac spamming is enough, IMHO, to want to kill all Mac users. I've used a Mac, I think it's good - but my Windows laptop was 50% cheaper than the comparative MacBook Pro, and even if they were the same price, why would I have to learn something new if I can have something I know the ins and outs of?

[michael @ Jul 26th 2007 3:39PM]

I could care less about which one is actually 'better'.

I have a MacBook Pro, and OS X Tiger on it, and it's fine. It's kind of nice that OS X is very simplified, clean, and pretty. I just hate how not many things are compatible, I sometimes see things stuck in weird places, and a few other quirks. I just don't find myself that productive with it. I pretty much use it only for working with media stuff.

I also have a Sony Vaio with Windows Vista on it, and it's pretty fine too. I actually kind of like Vista. It's very elegant, handy, and it just works for me. My Vaio is capable of doing handling Vista. Vista works great for me. The only problem I had was some compatibility problems. At least things were more compatible with Vista than OS X. I also installed Live OneCare on it, and I have no viruses or anything. I really like it. It makes me productive, and I take it with me to college every day. I also can't help but notice more lookers at my Vaio than my MBP.

So both sides are find. It just depends if you get the right computer. If this guy likes his Mac, good for him. How about posting about a guy loving his other high-end computer?

[John Jacob @ Jul 26th 2007 5:09PM]

I agree. I bought both a Vaio and a MBP, and I still kind of like the Vaio more. I think the design is more uber sexy, and I actually kind of like Windows Vista. I've done everything right, and I've got nothing wrong with it.

[apeguero @ Jul 26th 2007 3:40PM]

In other news, "Rush Limbaugh was seen at Sen. Hillary Clinton's last campaign speech. He has changed his opinion of the Presidential candidate and has now become a staunch supporter of her run for the 2008 Presidency".