

Invasion of the Apple Fanboys - px
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/10/invasion-of-the-apple-fanboys.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AVc+%28A+VC%29

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daleharvey
I recently switched to using a mac after a long time of pc+linux, the most
jarring part of the change was dealing with the community.

Every time I asked a question I could split the difference of replies fairly
easily, one group would almost be offended that I asked the question, told me
"I just learn how its done the mac way", and offer me their sub standard
solution, these were often fairly rude.

The others were would point me towards an app here or an app there, I got help
writing my first objc and SIMBL plugin, even the authors of a lot of cool
applications, witch / sizeup / alfred etc were easily contactable for
questions about their apps or just in general.

While intellectual snobbery has always been somewhat of a problem in
computing, I think the class snobbery I have seen in a small set of mac users
is a particularly bad trend.

~~~
matwood
_Every time I asked a question I could split the difference of replies fairly
easily, one group would almost be offended that I asked the question, told me
"I just learn how its done the mac way", and offer me their sub standard
solution, these were often fairly rude._

RTFM!

Now do you feel that your back in the linux community? :p

~~~
stakent
Or RTFArchive on many forums, on Usenet etc.

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ErrantX
Apple criticism is going the same way as the "three topics to avoid"
(religion, politics, global warming).

I mean, I am an Apple fan, but some of the blind fanboyism you see in other
fans is... well... insane!

~~~
DeusExMachina
I see this from Android fanboys too, though. Apple vs. Google (or iPhone vs.
Android) looks to me like those endless religion wars on the best programming
language, Vim vs. Emacs and so on.

Blind fanboyism has always been there, on any side of any competition. Could
be that it is just natural (which does not mean it has to be forgiven).

~~~
rimantas
What's worse than fanboyism is blind hatred by people who never used a product
(or did not even held it in own hands). Alas, this seems to happen more on
topics related to Apple. The second worst is labeling everyone "fanboy"
without any thought.

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akamaka
In his original blog post, Fred predicted that Android will take over the
iPhone market share the same way that Windows beat MacOS back in the day. As
politely as he worded it, his post was pretty much flamebait, and the response
was unsurprising.

And now he writes "I hope they don't start a denial of service attack".
Seriously?

~~~
yef
Apple, despite its many hit products, is still open to criticism. Fred's
prediction is not flamebait, it's just a prediction, and a totally fair
prediction in my opinion.

I'm glad the startup and early adopter community recognizes Apple fanboyism. I
hope they recognize their own bias toward Apple as well, which I've noticed
here on HN.

~~~
akamaka
Agreed, criticism is great.

But what Fred Wilson wrote is closer to flamebait than well thought-out
commentary. Kind of like Gruber calling Eric Schmidt "creepy".

~~~
Samuel_Michon
The post in question:
<http://daringfireball.net/2010/08/creep_executive_officer>

Some choice quotes:

 _Here’s my theory: the problem with Google is that Eric Schmidt is creepy. I
think he’s a really weird dude. Recall, for example, this comment of Schmidt’s
from 2009, regarding Google and privacy: "If you have something that you don’t
want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place."_

 _Schmidt said: "I actually think most people don’t want Google to answer
their questions. They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next.
The thing that makes newspapers so fundamentally fascinating that serendipity
can be calculated now. We can actually produce it electronically."_

------
bryanlarsen
For those who haven't read the article and think this article is just anti-
Apple flamebait as the title suggests, here's the corresponding Windows slam:
[http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/guides/2010/10/the-21st-
cen...](http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/guides/2010/10/the-21st-century-
guide-to-platform-trolling-windows-sucks.ars)

Both articles are very well written with legitimate criticism, and are careful
to point out why things are the way they are, which are often legitimate
reasons, even if the author doesn't agree with them.

Edit: oops: my comment was a reply to this article:
[http://arstechnica.com/apple/guides/2010/10/the-21st-
century...](http://arstechnica.com/apple/guides/2010/10/the-21st-century-
guide-to-platform-trolling-apple-edition.ars/), which I read at the same time,
with a similar title. Sorry.

~~~
Tamerlin
Thanks for those links. It's rather entertaining to see that a pretty good
tech site is going to great lengths to make a case for both platforms being
basically crap. And it's a strong case. :)

------
DeusExMachina
Could this be related to what happened few days ago:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1801727>

and HN be the source?

------
stakent
An tangential question: why do some people relate to _Android_ as _Droid_?

Is this (by)product of Motorola marketing?

~~~
Samuel_Michon
'Droid' is a Lucasfilm trademark, which Verizon licensed. On other carriers,
Motorola and HTC handsets use different monikers.

Droid = Motorola Milestone

Droid 2 = Motorola Milestone 2

Droid Eris = HTC Hero

Droid Incredible = HTC Incredible

<http://daringfireball.net/linked/2009/10/17/verizon-droid>

~~~
stakent
Ok. Thank you for clarification.

------
tumult
You get the same chaff from internet dorks if you talk about anything that
people are likely to attach their identity to: video game systems, programming
languages, bands, whatever. There's nothing special about Apple fanboys.
They're just fanboys who like Apple.

Picking Apple fanboys to complain about tells us more about the author of this
blog post than about Apple fanboys. He had already decided to find something
before he went looking for it.

~~~
prawn
I think you have a point in your first para, but wonder if your second one was
unnecessarily inflammatory and what got you knocked down. I don't think his
post tells us anything more exciting than 1. Fanboys exist, and 2. He happened
to attract Apple fanboys on this occasion (or his blog is on the radar of
Apple-oriented sites/forums).

~~~
tumult
No, I think it does tell us something about the author. He decided to look for
confirmation that Apple fanboys are especially egregious. Why? I would guess
that he has some problem with Apple or some of the encompassing culture.
Whether random people on internet blog post comments reflect Apple culture or
not, he decided to hold it up as evidence that Apple people are toxic.

~~~
prawn
I can't agree. I think the problem he has is with fanboys being wankers.

In this case, they're Apple fanboys but he'd have a similar gripe had he said
something about the best console and attracted a PS3-360 war.

~~~
brudgers
The difference is that any criticism of any Apple product anywhere on the
internet is somewhat likely to provoke rabid responses. On the other hand,
criticism of the newest Sony Vio, will probably be ignored and rarely elicits
_ad hominem_ , and the idea of Motorola fanboys is a bit absurd.

It is not really surprising given that Apple actively provides talking points
to its customers (e.g. I'm a Mac).

------
pohl
Summary: the author submitted a blog posting to HN that was little more than
consumer electronics advocacy & prognostication. The story got flagged &
killed on HN, probably because it had nothing to do with startups, hacking,
etc. other than the tenuous connection that the author is a VC. But the author
didn't apply occam's razor and instead invented an elite cadre of apple fanboi
ninjas in his head to explain the disappearance. Flagged.

Edit: By the author's standard of evidence, I could assume there's an elite
cadre of fandroid ninjas downvoting me. Take note at how I don't blog about it
and submit it as an article.

