geeks vs. computer users

[TommyWillB]

Originally posted by Ed Spruiell
Hey, at least you're in an all mac relationship.

Good point!

[ex2bot]

Ed,

I was reading (skimming) your post and I thought that your definition of geek fit me (because I do like playing under the hood) until you got to the part about rudeness and lack of social skills.

I think you'll find rude people anywhere. I'm sure there have even been a fair share of rude Mac users since it all started. I've met some of them.

You're absolutely right. Bad social skills are nothing to brag about.

I would say that I think just about ANY Mac user is a good thing because they are financing our fun! They are helpnig Apple stay healthy.

[BTW, Tormente made a good point about people assuming someone is ignorant about PCs if he is a Mac lover. I know all about Winblows. I've used it since it was called DOS. It's not that exciting.]

Anyway, I wouldn't worry about the Mac community getting spoiled by newcomers. Many (like me, I hope) will be a positive addition. Some will only contribute financially.

[edX]

I think you'll find rude people anywhere. I'm sure there have even been a fair share of rude Mac users since it all started. I've met some of them.

i think you've got a valid point here. to be fair, i've met them as well. i've always known that there will be a certain number of jerks anytime you put enough people together to call them a group. and while it might sound like it, i'm really not trying to accuse all the less than socially outgoing geeks of being jerks. knowing when to shut up and remain silent is a good social skill i sometimes skip over myself. besides just trying to get in touch with my frustration, i think i'm also trying to open up a bit of discourse here about how the 2 sides can learn to communicate with each other without so much tension. and maybe this tension is mostly just being generated by me (although izzy's affirmation suggests i'm not entirely imagining it). i just know that it feels uncomfortable and i have learned that uncomfortable feelings are a signal that something needs to change.

"financing our fun" - there's a perception i will think about. it does tend to shed a different light on things.

btw - having just read your compaq/osx post, i would say your sense of humor is good enough to suggest you may have fine social skills

[mystique]

Oh, Mac or no Mac, I am most DEFINITELY a GEEK. Why?

Does this sound familiar? I LOOK for ways to to challenge myself, to frustrate myself and to WIN. Mac or no Mac, it's a computer and I am constantly looking for a new periphial to add, another card, monitor, some way to set up a home lan on a dial up connection including an old 6100 that needs a special adapter to work with the NEW machines just to make it a challenge...then I spend all night and a day stomping around and throwing expletives and CD cases and trying it this way and that way and at the very LAST resort RTFM and asking why do I do this to myself ....because at 3 am the next day I FINALLY GET IT. And I literally stand up and put my hands in the air and shout "YES!!!!!!!!!!" and it's the BEST damn feeling in the world. THAT is why I am a GEEK.

Besides...I'm an atypical Geek...I LOVE clothes and makeup and looking good...BUT...give me the choice over Frys or a bookstore or Neiman-Marcus and I'm in Frys in a heartbeat or spending the day in the computer book dept. I love gadgets. I love brillants minds even when I don't know wth they are talking about. I read Slashdot for fun.

PC's just tick-me-off. My Mac allows me to be the Geek I live to be.

[ex2bot]

Hey, thanks, Ed! But what do you mean, humor?

Surely you're not mocking my frustration??? I still can't get the Compaq to boot OS X.

[fryke]

Hmm... For years I've been actively using Windows, Linux and Mac OS (Classic) all on one desktop (two, sometimes three machines). You can certainly call me a geek.

But I think I never lost the feeling towards the Macintosh. There are very good old reels by Apple that pushed that feeling to the maximum. Maybe Apple should - again - do that to some extent. I've uploaded one of those as an MPEG-4 movie:

http://mac.fryke.com/power.mp4

You have to control-click this link and download it to your computer... It's about 1.4 MB in size. (Isn't MP4 great?!)

My guess is that the new iGeeks will get to know the Mac platform for those things, too. Or they might leave it again...

[Giaguara]

i am definitelly a GEEK.

not a computer user.

and i am a mac geek.

you will never find a computer user who has a computer related tattoo unless he had it done when he was completely drunk. and i have an apple in my .. low back. and yes - the geek part of me enjoys that when i go to the beach and i notice that guys are looking on my apple (not on my..) .. heh, all those windows users. (anyone knows any beachs only for mac users? never mind..)
so, wearing apple even when i'm nude.

i got my first computer when i was 12, it was a 286... and bla bla bla.. later i had windows, then switched to linux - i wanted a mac but didnt have money ... - and then to mac.

when i know what i want i want to understand how to do it. i don't call for a service to mess my computer problems, if i cant resolve my problem i ask some 'more geeks' i know. i want to understand how to resolve .. .and how everything works. right now i have found out i can't do some things with finder, mail and ichat unless i break up the code, add the features i want and then make it work again. and i will not get peace bofore i have figured out how i can do that.

well, probably i am still a linux geek as well but not that deep. i know just that i want to add those same features i want to have on my os x also to the linux i use, ... i hope someone has done that before because i feel a bit too lazy to start to do the same thing to all the linux apps as well

oh yes, also 99 % of my friends are males. i dont understand the other girls logic. they talk about clothes, mode, bfs, feelings etc while i am thinking about computers... so weirdly, i frequent the geeks = am too much online. ok. to THIS point: the last time i went shopping was in paris, in apple expo. i noticed my wardrobe looked too much like steve's so i went shopping... result: jaguar underwear and green apple-parfume. i'm not joking

ok. mac geek. and it seems that i'm also officially a mac fetishist. or i found out that i was in the wired's mac fetishist article, when it was already online...

oh, i used to condivide as one nick G33K ... but that is an other and a sad story.

yes, i enjoy the geek company

[hazmat]

Originally posted by Ed Spruiell
izzy - you snuck that one in while i was composing my previous post. i think you helped expand on what i was trying to say very nicely. i would just clarrify that not all terminal jockeys are like that. some of them around here have been quite helpful to me over time and good friends as well. i can think of testuser and hazmet right off the top of my head. there are others to be sure.

One point I should make is that a lot of Unix weenies have been Mac users. In '95 I started working at an ISP. My boss, the owner, probably forgot more about Unix than I will ever know. And he used a Mac at home. I think this was all because it wasn't Microsoft. And this was all even before Win95.