looking for an older Mac notebook

[gruntly-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org (Theodore Ruegsegger)]

Mark Woodward <markw-FJ05HQ0HCKaWd6l5hS35sQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Anyway, I enjoyed your post, but I feel compelled to address two
> misconceptions:
>
> (1) [Under favorable conditions, Windows users can learn to like Macs]

(I summarized that because several other posters pointed this out, too.)

Well, that's hardly in dispute, but let's face it, that was true long
before Macs switched to Unix. Apple gives a whole lot more attention
to the user experience and has always had a huge marketing push to
give their customers the exciting feeling that they're part of an
ultra-sophisticated but oppressed minority (refer to Neal Stephenson's
/In the Beginning Was the Command Line/ for a more detailed discussion
of this phenomenon). If you're in one of the fields generally lumped
under "creative" (what are the rest of us, chopped liver?), you'll
almost certainly have a Mac rather than a Windows box. Hollywood seems
to think Macs are the only personal computers on the planet.

I didn't address switching users to Apple because I'd be no more use
supporting that, either. It's been a long time since I had any
significant proprietary software in my universe. I agree that, now
that Macs use Unix, they're inherently less trouble-prone than Windows
(that certainly wasn't true before--my coworkers used to send viruses
back and forth from one state to another, over and over, just by using
the company network of Macs).

No, I was more questioning the optimism of the anticipated Mac to
Ubuntu transition.

> (2) ":D :D :D I love the refreshing innocence of young people." Were it only
> true that a 47 year old man could be considered young.

Oh, to be 47 again! I remember wasting a lot of time trying to cajole
ungrateful users into trying GNU/Linux (yeah, who'd have guessed?)

> Anyway, I think my sister will be less difficult than my wife, and may even
> be easier than my mom because she does not use any "bedrock" Windows
> software products.

I enjoyed the several thoughtful responses to my screed yet feel I
need to point out that, like any generalization, it's not absolute. Of
course there are people willing to learn and take responsibility for
their own computing environment and their use of it. You just can't
take that for granted, as I did when young and innocent. The ones who
are are worth all the bother in the world.

> I think it will be just a habitual thing for her, and as
> long as it is sufficiently better than the family Windows box, which it will
> be because it is a laptop, she'll be happy with it. Once she's happy with it
> and using it, the envy of others will set in.

You're certainly right about that. If she becomes comfortable with it,
she'll be much more credible to others than you or I, geeks that we
are, might be.

Ted