Author Plumbs Bottomless Depth of Mac Worship (Windows is just so… last century)

The San Francisco Chronicle ^ | December 12, 2004 | Alan T. Saracevic

[quidnunc]

It's not your average cult, really.

It's more intellectual, with creativity winning out over conformity. Although its philosophy is rooted in the battle between good and evil, the group even criticizes its leaders on a pretty regular basis. But loyalty to the cause is never in question.

It's "The Cult of Mac," and it's actually wackier than your average cult. Really.

You can read all about it in Leander Kahney's new book from San Francisco's No Starch Press.

Kahney, a scribe covering Apple for Wired News, embarked on his journey to chronicle the weird world of Mac addicts last year, and I think he nailed it. If you have iPod-clutching, Macintosh-using, Woz-loving, Newton-worshiping cultists in your circle of friends, get 'em this book.

But even if you you're not a HyperCard-carrying member of the club, the book is worth a look. Kahney has uncovered some real characters on the scene. Consider some of these:

• Sun, a member of San Francisco's Kerista commune in the '80s, who introduced the free-loving group to Macs and inadvertently created a million- dollar business. The commune, which practiced a form of group sex where members slept with a rotating cast of six or seven colleagues, went crazy for the early Macs and started a shop selling the machines. Within a year, revenue hit $1 million and quadrupled in the next four years before the group disbanded. For a brief, wacky moment in time, the Kerista commune on Haight Street was the largest reseller of Macs in Northern California.

-snip-

[quidnunc]

FYI

[N3WBI3]

Its people like this who give mac users a bad name..

[MrLee]

Macs are cool - got 4 of 'em! Everyone got their iPod yet? Ask Santa (but only if you've been good!)

[AntiGuv]

Does the cult actually stand for some belief system or is it just a front for rotating group sex? (not that there's anything wrong with that...)

[John Lenin]

It's a cult allright if you like to stay 2 steps behind cutting edge technology.

[cyborg]

Four computers at once? LOL

[Publius6961]

If you have iPod-clutching, Macintosh-using, Woz-loving, Newton-worshiping cultists in your circle of friends, get 'em this book.

Why?
Even immature, whacko, dope-smoking, delusional, pierced DU freaks and their acolytes have a right to pretend they're superior...

[EggsAckley]

My last Mac was a dog right from the first day. Seriously flawed, and continuously in need of repairs. That's when I went to Windows. Still don't trust those Macs.

[skip_intro]

It's a cult allright if you like to stay 2 steps behind cutting edge technology.

And at twice the price to boot.

[primatreat]

The only technology Windows users are good at is hunting for more virus protection programs

[MrLee]

Yeah, and I get to vote against Al Gore every once in a while too(stock holder)! :-)

[7.62 x 51mm]

I don't have a dog in this fight; I'm outta here...

[writer33]

Mac's suck! I have to use 'em at work, and I'd rather be beaten like a red headed step child!

[Prime Choice]

-- Or Rodney Lain, who called himself the "iBrotha." Lain, a black Mac fan from Indianapolis, was a rabid evangelist for the computers ... Lain committed suicide in 2002, just a short time after landing his dream job at a local Apple store.

Poor Rodney. Getting the job must have shattered his illusion that computer users want to blow three to four times the amount of money on a computer that will be obsolete in even less time than the average bleeding-edge PC.

-- Then there's Taylor Barcroft ... living off an inheritance.

The Teresa Heinz-Kerry of the Mac world.

-- And, finally, there's Charles Phillips. He's 5 years old. ... Charles' three rules, as quoted in the book: "Rule 1: You can never have enough RAM. Rule 2: Get a good disk utility. Rule 3: If you don't buy a Mac, you're an idiot."

Translation: Master Phillips is a trained monkey who can parrot the catchphrases of his parents.

[cyborg]

What's the deal with the ipod? Are they that great?

[cyborg]

LOL

[JRandomFreeper]

Macs are cool - got 4 of 'em!

I take it that you don't do a lot of open-source development, eh? Or is there an open-source community for the Mac parallel universe world?

/john

[John Lenin]

How many Mac web servers are there ? When do you think the switch to 64 bit will hit Apple ? LOL

[BlazingArizona]

Although we are united in our belief that the word of Steve (peace be upon him) is inerrant, most Mac users are not the mindless radicals depicted in the media. We believe that Windows and Linux users, as "people of the disc" are worthy of respect and should not be beheaded unless we get into a really, really heated argument.