The Lie
One of the oddest abilities of Man is the ability to believe a lie. No other creature has this dubious distinction. The current Lie of the decade is the one that every computer user is faced with, as they are deluged with all the propaganda and misinformation out there, and as they face their employers and every IT person who is promoting it. The Lie is everywhere, and few people there are who do not succumb to it.
What is the Lie? It is that Microsoft is the only business software supplier, and that the PC is the only business computer there is.
Amazing! Business computing today is like the final days of the Third Reich, or the last days of the Taliban, where everyone says “Everything is fine, fine!” and where no one dares to voice the truth of the situation.
The truth is that every user of Microsoft applications, its browser, and any version of Windows OS are working with a major handicap, which directly affects their business data productivity, security, and reliability.
Legion are the users who have lost time and data to their faulty MS software. Uncountable are the hours people have spent rebuilding their computers and hard drives and rewriting their files, because of Microsoft’s trashware. This is such a major problem in business that I think we could link the failing state of our economy directly to the failure of Microsoft’s applications and OS in business.
You and I, being Mac users, know the true condition of business computing, don’t we?
SO WHY DUMP ON APPLE?
The thing that surprises me, but shouldn’t, are all the latest high profile business articles dumping on Apple and the Mac. Why is it that the more successful and the more visible Apple and the Mac become to the business community, the more misinformed articles also appear?
There is a reason for these articles. People who use Windows and Microsoft applications have a need to support the Lie. Therefore, such well placed articles trashing the Mac and Apple Computer are vital and necessary to promote their belief in that lie. The truth about the Macintosh is a threat to the Lie.
Here are links to some of these misinformed articles concerning Apple Computer and the Macintosh. You can examine these for yourself to see how perverse the Lie is, and how many well known journalists and commentators are promoting it, at the expense of the truth about computers and computing. I think you will love the excellent replies by our own journalists too.
“Apple: At What Price Innovation?” By Scot Petersen of eWEEK
This article is full of misinformation, which totally ignores Apple’s innovation in software and in their new OS. A person reading this article would think the only claim to fame Apple has is in its pretty computer designs.
Charles Moore has an excellent article setting right the misconceptions and misinformation of Michael S. Malone, Editor at Large for Forbes ASAP, who suggests that Steve Jobs has become the Raymond Loewy of computer design, and that he is turning Apple into the Studebaker of PC makers.
“Irked!” by My Mac Columnist Bob McCormick. Bob cited this misinformed article in BUSINESS WEEK “Finally, a Chance for Apple to Flourish” Bob did a great job of showing where the misinformation was.
Peter Cohen of MacCentral has an excellent response to the misinformation from Business 2.0’s Eric Hellweg.
“The Best Revenge” By Robert X. Cringely. This article suggests that Steve Jobs does not care whether Apple gains market share, and it explains why. It also explains the thinking of both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, and goes to length to dispel misinformation about the Mac.
WHY BELIEVE THE LIE?
When people buy into the idea of a lie, they think they do it for survival. These people are very conservative. They think their business depends on supporting the poor business decision they made in buying those Windows PCs in the first place. Once they go down that road, there is no turning back.
Perhaps others do not want to appear different, so they do what everyone else does. This means they use the PC and MS software by default. These business people are compared to Lemmings, and rightly so. Some managers in business are terrified of anything new. You probably know someone like this. They are far more comfortable believing the lie about Microsoft than boldly stepping out for a better computer. For them, the Lie is safe. They really don’t care if their computers work or not. They just want to be like everyone else. If this is true about them, how sound are their other business practices?
Some business managers really are clueless concerning computers. Computing is a new way of doing business for them, so they place all their trust in their highly paid IT personnel. After all, those IT people are employed to install and operate their networks, and to keep all their PCs running. Those people know what they are doing, right? If they say MS is the only computing software, why, it must be true! You know how those IT people will vote about their computer systems, right? How many of them would be without work if their company switched to Mac or Unix servers, and computers? About ninety per cent of them.
THE HEART OF THE LIE
We have talked before in this series about the failure of production in American business, and how Bill Gates and Microsoft have cost businesses trillions of dollars in lost revenue because of their shoddy and unsecure software. Yet most people will never do anything about it.
It runs counter to logic and good sense to ignore this problem, but people do, don’t they? It is more convenient for people in business to believe the Lie than to fix the problem or to look for a better computing solution. If you work in a business that uses the PC, and if your company is in lockstep with Microsoft and their propaganda, you understand what I mean.
Just try to mention to your boss that a Macintosh can do productive work better than your PC. Try telling them that Macintoshes can be easily networked with their PCs. Attempt to explain to them how many great software titles there are for the business Mac, and that your company can save thousands or millions of dollars if they switched to the more stable and productive Macintosh computer.
You know the result of your efforts, right? “My mind is made up, don’t show me the truth!”
HERE IS THE TRUTH
I think THIS is the major difference between Mac users and the users of computers running on Microsoft: People who use Macintoshes are perhaps are innately more honest about themselves and their world than their counterparts working on the dark side.
You can take this paradigm from the Macintosh itself. Macs are honest computers. Files go where you want them to. You can always find them again. That is never true of a PC running Windows. The size of any drive or file is always knowable on a Mac, whereas a Windows PC will actually lie to you about where a file is, or how big it is, or if it is deleted or not. And, of course, what you see on the screen is what you print.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
If you know the truth about the Mac, how stable and productive it is, and if you know how open and free its computing experience can be, then you need to promote the Mac as the best computer for your business. Do this so that your company can be more productive and a better competitor in your markets.
You have to be discrete when you speak for what is true. You should always be polite and gracious in your speech and in your actions. After all, these people are opposing themselves and their own best interests more than they are opposing you.
Remember that the best computer for your business may not always be a Mac. Yet a company who values its employees and their morale, and who is interested in extending their bottom line by making everyone more productive and protecting their data, the Macintosh running the OS X is a logical, and true choice for them.
Here are two final links that are the very best for promoting what is true about computing. First is Apple’s own site created to dispel all the misinformation about the Macintosh. The other is an excellent resource showing the Mac as the more productive and cost effective computer over a PC.
SPEAKING FOR THE TRUTH
Hey, the truth is out there. I know sometimes you might feel like Mulder or Scully as you promote the Mac, but the truth has to be put on the table for everyone to see. You might believe telling the truth is a lost cause, but it is not, by any means!
The truth is, Microsoft is now on the ropes, besieged by the Justice Department, by several states, and now by AOL/TimeWarner. Their illegal and immoral business practices are finally getting some justice, or at least some acknowledgment by the public. This will help wake up many business as they seek other, more secure and productive computers and platforms. They might even choose the Macintosh you suggested.
What is at stake is much more than Apple’s market share. What is at stake is our country’s success in competition in the business world, and the survival of our global economy. All of our businesses need to be more productive and more on the cutting edge of technology. You and I know they will never get there using Microsoft applications and the Windows OS. But they could get there using the Mac.
If you don’t already know it, the most successful and productive and cutting edge companies in America are all run on the Mac.
Now is the right time to speak up for the Mac so that people can know that there is a real and true alternative to their computing problems.
The true solution to professional business computing needs is a Macintosh. In fact, it always has been a better solution, so spread the word!
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