How has the User Community changed

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hmg19227
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Joined:February 14th, 2011, 6:12 pm
How has the User Community changed

Post by hmg19227 » February 14th, 2011, 6:20 pm

Hello, I am a student and am writing a trend story for one of my classes. I am writing it about MacHEADS. From the research I have done so far the user community has changed a lot. I was wondering if you could give me some insight.

Older users:
What was it like being apart of the early community?
What was it like when the company almost went under?
How has the community changed? How do you feel about the changes?
How do you feel about Macs being "what's cool"?
ect...


Younger users:
If you switched to Mac from a PC, why?
Do you feel like there is still a community or if one is even needed?
Does the fact that Macs are "what's cool right now" impact your purchases?
ect


Thanks so much!
I hope to hear from some of you soon!
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Turboladdade
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Re: How has the User Community changed

Post by Turboladdade » February 15th, 2011, 9:24 am

I didn't get into Macs until well after the company made its big turn around with the iMac. My first Mac purchase was in 2000 during Mac OS 9's heyday. Since then, though, there have been dramatic changes. For one, back then the processor architecture played a big role in evangelizing the Mac. I recall many PowerPC vs. Intel debates with many a PC geek - far more than say Mac OS 9 vs Windows 98 or Windows ME debates, although those were frequent too. Now that has kindof flipped mostly toward Mac OS X vs Windows 7 debates, with much less frequent hardware debates, and those centering mostly around fit and finish and craftsmanship.

But even back then, and I think even during the pre-Jobs era, Macs were always the "what's cool" - kindof elite club of owners that understood the superiority of their platform and connected with the overall philosophy of the company. I don't think that has changed at all.

Now a days, though, there are a lot of newbies that own iPhones and iPods. I don't think they're the same kind of fanbase. They like their iPod or iPhone now, but they'll be equally likely to immediately switch to some competing product at the first hint of shiny newness.

There are also those who were so religious about it, and were shocked so profoundly when Apple switched from PowerPC to Intel back in 2006, that you see a sortof disturbing denial of reality. You can find some posts like that here, people talking about how they'll "never give up" PowerPC or Mac OS 9. There was a thread about this recently here at Info-Mac. That's no good either.

Info-Mac itself is very old - dating back to 1984. You can browse through a mostly complete archive of topics in the "Classic Info-Mac" folder. Nowadays Info-Mac is kindof slow, but I'm sure others will chime in.
I am now telling the computer exactly what it can do.
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