A not-too-serious rant about Macs
Ok. I'm into exploring new and creative expressions of church. I'm inspired by cool video imagery, music and liturgies that relate to people at a deep, honest level. I read people's weblogs and contribute to online discussion on various topics surrounding spirituality, theology and life in general.
But there is a snag. At this point in time, and much as I like them, I am not a Mac user. I use a cowboy outfit called Windows which in various guises has served me well over the last ten years.
Yes I know. The credibility factor does tend to drop when you turn up at the big alternative worship event and pull out an IBM Thinkpad from a battered rucksack. The air around you is thick with contempt from fellow worshippers, and as you plug in your conventionally-shaped black power supply to the nearest outlet you can't help feeling that perhaps turning up here wasn't the best idea.
With the evolution of the Apple computer, the aesthetics of personal computing begin to be apparent. Macs really are nice to use, and the current OS is just beautiful to look at (in my opinion). The issue for me with Macs is that they are too self-contained. I've heard all the sales talk about why Macs are better, but the persuasive pitch seems to assume that the machine is isolated in time and space and unrelated to anything around it that isn't coloured white and expensive. I know Macs' connectivity is excellent, but some stuff that I run is only available for Windows at present. And can someone please recommend a good Star/OpenOffice equivalent for Mac? I don't want to buy MS Office.
If there is any point to this rant it is to ask if non-Mac people are considered serious players in the creative church game. Take Linux users, for example. Some of these people have simply given the finger to the big names and have gone out on their own, relying on sheer coding ability and nous to create stable systems that can do all sorts of things. Surely this spirit of adventure has a place in the church of the future?
Is the pursuit of cool going to be a downfall in church? Given that Macs and PCs are on par, performance wise, why are PCs looked down upon? Why are Mac users obnoxious towards PC users? Are we jettisoning PowerPoint on a Windows machine in favour of Mc...sorry MacKeynote?
That being said. I'd quite like a Powerbook, Anyone got a 12" one? Is the small screen manageable?
But there is a snag. At this point in time, and much as I like them, I am not a Mac user. I use a cowboy outfit called Windows which in various guises has served me well over the last ten years.
Yes I know. The credibility factor does tend to drop when you turn up at the big alternative worship event and pull out an IBM Thinkpad from a battered rucksack. The air around you is thick with contempt from fellow worshippers, and as you plug in your conventionally-shaped black power supply to the nearest outlet you can't help feeling that perhaps turning up here wasn't the best idea.
With the evolution of the Apple computer, the aesthetics of personal computing begin to be apparent. Macs really are nice to use, and the current OS is just beautiful to look at (in my opinion). The issue for me with Macs is that they are too self-contained. I've heard all the sales talk about why Macs are better, but the persuasive pitch seems to assume that the machine is isolated in time and space and unrelated to anything around it that isn't coloured white and expensive. I know Macs' connectivity is excellent, but some stuff that I run is only available for Windows at present. And can someone please recommend a good Star/OpenOffice equivalent for Mac? I don't want to buy MS Office.
If there is any point to this rant it is to ask if non-Mac people are considered serious players in the creative church game. Take Linux users, for example. Some of these people have simply given the finger to the big names and have gone out on their own, relying on sheer coding ability and nous to create stable systems that can do all sorts of things. Surely this spirit of adventure has a place in the church of the future?
Is the pursuit of cool going to be a downfall in church? Given that Macs and PCs are on par, performance wise, why are PCs looked down upon? Why are Mac users obnoxious towards PC users? Are we jettisoning PowerPoint on a Windows machine in favour of Mc...sorry MacKeynote?
That being said. I'd quite like a Powerbook, Anyone got a 12" one? Is the small screen manageable?
posted by Alex Wegman at 08:13
3 Comments:
Love it...I feel I've made it in the blog world a post has been picked up, I can die happy. I'm probably going to stick with the PC cos I don't think my kids will be able to play their Lord of the Rings PC version on a Mac..Have a good day.
Well, as you know Alex I use both, so continue my tradition of a 'foot in both camps', and walking that awkward middle line... While I agree that a shiny silver pad with glowing icons and keys does have a stylish slickness that lends itself to the 'we're to cool for 'regular' church' style of alt.worship, in the end it's about usefulness in my book. Hence at most things I'll pull out the mac and the compaq... Heck, i'd happily use a 286 if it did what i wanted to (and for many purposes, it probably would!)... and seriously, for most alt.worship applications, cheaper is better.
Of course, in saying that I'm still playing around with the idea of multiple mp3 players and laser projection systems :-)
There's work happening re. porting OpenOffice.org to the Mac; currently it relies on X Windows, rather than Aqua, so it's sub-optimal.
There's also neooffice/J (www.neooffice.org), a Java implementation of OpenOffice.org. Not the finished product yet by any means, but usable nonetheless.
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