The true mark of a real TM, I’ve come to believe, is that its usage should be entirely orthogonal to reality.
It should also be applied without discrimination or context. Ideally, it should be a Loon version of Godwin’s Law (“yer a WindowsFanboy™! Game Over!”).
Also, fanatical devotion to the Pope. But mostly, a real TM is entirely orthogonal to reality.
WindowsFanboy™ has all this, and more, in spades.
You can attack an Apple fan with this. Apple fans are anti-Linux (there’s no evidence for this in general, but, as I say, orthogonality to reality is essential): therefore they must be WindowsFanboys™.
You can attack anybody who has ever used a Windows computer without seeing a BSOD or spitting blood through broken teeth. WindowsFanboys™!
There is no such thing as a rational and/or detailed and/or documented argument against Linux, because only a WindowsFanboy™ would bother to come up with one.
And, best of all, if (like almost everybody on this site) you have used Linux, possibly even been enthusiastic about the possibilities that Linux promises in the unspecified and eternally receding future, and decided that for some reason it doesn’t butter your parsnips, then:
You just might be … a WindowsFanboy™!
————
Unlike many recent TMs, incidentally, this one has been seen in the wild. All over the place. Start from the Pog-blog and work upwards.
————
And, rather sadly for the Loons, there is practically no such thing as a WindowsFanboy™. (Although I’m not so sure about Ian.)
Most of us just use the bloody thing. We don’t have to cheer-lead for it. We don’t have to admire it. We don’t even have to like it. It’s just there.
Comments
My favourite situation is when someone is called a Windows fanboy, or a worshiper of Ballmer, only to discover that the accused doesn’t even run Windows.
i take it take they are not windows fanboys. prophets of disaster or naysayers is a better term. basically people who stand by the side of the street and say that it will never work. anti-cloud cranks are also in this category.
No, not usually. Most are just skeptical. We’re not fanboys of anything. We don’t simply buy something, or adopt it, because it’s “the new hotness”. We treat everything with the same rationality and pragmatism. Most of us know that being pragmatic benefits you the most in the long run. It’s people with irrational loyalties to products and companies that get burned.
couldn’t agree more. i was laughing at win7 and calling it justaservicepack™ but was so mistaken. i almost never fall in love with new stuff expect the unibody aluminum and the instant search (back when it was new)
@garegin:
Anti-cloud cranks?
That’s another interesting neologism (if a phrase counts as a neologism). The arguments for “the cloud” are entirely industry-driven and are aimed at large-scale enterprises: it’s Pogson’ “thin client” mania all over again. Or, to put it another way, a regression to time-sharing systems.
At the moment “the cloud” is an irrelevancy to individual users, who like an always-on computer, are not partial to subscription services, and are partial to running whatever local application takes their fancy. There’s no benefit, and frankly most web interfaces for anything as complex as an Office suite (yes, even Libre) are sucky beyond belief.
Cranks? Well, on the anti- side there’s John Dvorak, who has pointed out these deficiencies and several more.
Interestingly, on the pro- side is Herb Sutter, who’s excited by the possibility of massive parallelisation. But that’s hardly a use case for the typical individual, and in any case the quoted cost ($1,000 per hour) is a little rich for my tastes.
Yours may differ.
@Garegin:
Instant search was available on Vista, and I have yet to locate the configuration option on my Windows 7 machine that turns my shoddy £250 HP laptop into a unibody aluminum.
Logically, therefore, you should now fall out of love and revert to calling Windows 7 “just a service pack.”
It’s not like there’s anything else new in there.
it has the new taskbar and aerosnap. that counts as new features to me.
@garegin:
Ah, but “new enough” to fall in love with? I think not.
Your line of argument drifts around a little, doesn’t it? And fwiw, the “not like there’s anything else new in there” was sarcasm.
i fell in love because it made my life easier. thats the bottom line.
You must be signed in to leave comments.