Smug Ugly

Another unbelievably "right on" post - kudos!

...or, it's just a light-hearted joke, 'cuz, you know, people still like to make jokes once in a while. Even during big projects, they like a good joke. Lighten up a bit. Or, actually, lighten up a lot.

My hunch is, this was an easter egg from the beta version that slipped through to the release. Regardless, there's plenty of smugness to go around in this industry. :)

I've seen the Zune team's bin, Dan, and I think it's actually substantially different -- that's an internal promo for the team, not part of the finished, shipping product. And it's also an acknowledgement that they're facing a formidable competitor, one that their own team has bought products from. Considering that Zune has a market share roughly comparable to OS X's share of the operating system market, I think it's at least a little more tasteful to keep the lame back-and-forth hidden away on campus instead of building into the OS. But yes, nobody has a monopoly on smugness.

Thank you! I felt like I was stupid for not being able to remember which undomesticated feline my current laptop is running. And, regardless of whether or not Steve Jobs knew about the BSOD, attitude always starts at the top. That's just the way it works.

As I said, I honestly don't think this was meant to be part of the shipping version of Leopard. I agree that it's inappropriate, but I still think it's kind of funny. Childish, but funny.

Two thumbs up!

Dan, I doubt that Apple would let something like this “slip” by them into a production release - the image was definitely put there intentionally, and I would imagine, lightheartedl, albeit without a bit of tact.

My question is: what would be a better image to use as a replacement? I’m guessing they’re not using the windows logo for a reason, so what else is there to denote a windows box from a mac one?

From the desktop, clicking Help > Mac Help I get the following: (http://i23.tinypic.com/r76s8p.gif)

There is also teh google.

Kudos to you! Nice write up.

I think of Six Apart as one of the smuggest companies on the planet, just for the record. Smug, assured of their own cuteness and tone-deaf when it comes to public relations and customer communication.

I still wince when I think of Mena's blogging around the time SA acquired LJ, let alone the time MT stopped being free and it turned out nobody at SA had thought through the pricing.

So, pot, kettle, etc.

Sheesh. Lighten up. This is taking cranky to a new level!

Dave asks how else you could tell a windows box from a mac. I have a different question: why would I care?

Damn!

There's nothing less consistent about a blogger than a blogger who plays up their own consistency.

Better to leave judgements of you to other people, Anil.

That aside, my general experience with using Windows is that it's very crashy... not just the operating system, but the programs, and using them... I use Windows and Mac all the time... and Red Hat, too... :-) I've been using computer since I was 7, and I used to run a graphic design business on a PC. I used to reformat my drive all the time and spend half the time with my machine in pieces rather than doing work.

The blue screen of death and indeed Windows not doing what I want is generally my experience, so the blue screen of death makes sense as a Windows icon, to me.

FWIW, I thought it was funny without being arrogant.

i'd say that actually "mocking everybody else if you're absolutely flawless" is arrogant... its like laughing at the criple because you are in different leagues... you can mock others only when you are guilty as well, and so it is actually a healthy thing to do since you are laughing at yourself...
i also like this setup where there is an "Apple" who is inserting dirty icons into builds and then there is some other "Apple", who is letting them thru... i'd say, all as a part of a big plot/conspiracy to hurt microsoft's feelings... yes, apple wants to see tears in their eyes, because that is all they can do at the moment since they don 't meet the specification for those for whom it would be acceptable to comment on competitor...
But that's not all - actually Apple is aiming at You and your family, and any reasonable man with enough confidence and self-esteem should analyze and regard those little icons as personal insult to his family... when you are done with system, move on to applications folder :)
i say - much a do about nothing... in real life it is not some big bad "Apple" with agendas about everything but it is John, or Peter, or George or UmbaTumba - live real people who accidentaly get the idea, who implement it and i bet share it with their friends, ex/future colegues in microsoft... and laugh at little soap-box journalists who see a sign in everything...
and as about accuracy - icons need to be distinctive and easy to spot/recognize/understand... not accurate - who cares?! i'd say you are the only one looking for separate icon for each linux distribution...

And what of things such as about:mozilla?

"The Windows version of IE showed a blank HTML document with blue background color. Possibly a joke reference to the "Blue Screen of Death". Removed in Windows XP SP2 but it can still be shown by typing "res://mshtml.dll/about.moz" instead." -Wikipedia

Also, my Airport Extreme shared disk uses SMB (for windows clients) and shows up as a BSOD. :-)

This is one of the things that makes me hesitate to get a Mac when I get my first laptop next year. Spec-wise a Macbook would fit my needs perfectly, but I'm just not sure I want to become part of the Mac demographic. Unfortunately, said demographic tends to intersect with the irritating-smug-people demographic and I don't want anything to do with that. I like Macs, but I wish the company was secure enough in its betterness to present itself simply as creating great products, not as a creating products that are better than everything else.

"To be honest, there's really only room for mocking everybody else if you're absolutely flawless. And even then, it's pretty bad taste. I've seen exactly what it looks like firsthand to see people take cheap shots and make snide comments about their nominal competitors, and it invariably makes the complainer look worse than the ostensible target. When the company you're taking a shot at is Microsoft, that's saying a lot."

Anil, did you intentionally make a cheap shot at Microsoft at the end of a paragraph deriding the use of cheap shots?

I'm no Windows lover but I'll tell you -- Ever since Win2K, I don't relate to Windows OS as being crash-prone at all. Win98 and earlier were god awful.

In my 6-month ownership of this particular XP machine, it has crashed once that I can remember. And I work the heck out of this machine: audio production, gaming, productivity apps, Windows developing, heck I even run Adobe apps. :-P Current uptime: 16 days.

I lament the giant divide between Apple's impressive hardware design prowess and their total lack thereof when it comes to software. The BSOD is a damn arrogant statement.

I'm a recent switcher who still has a few PCs and considers them equally stable. Nonetheless I found it funny.

I have to admit I agreed with Margaret before the switch, though - the least attractive thing about the Mac platform was that I might become "one of those smug Mac people."

I think a large part of Apple's recent success were the "Mac vs. PC" commercials - while they had some smugness, the fundamental message was that Mac and PC are both nice guys and generally get along just fine.

Apple could use more of that sort of message, and things like this don't help.

Gates has tried to point out this smugness about Apple too. I suspect there will be a backlash about it soon, which will probably make both companies a little bit better.

-Rex (Microsoft badge-holder who took that iPod Photo Bin photo and MacBook user)

Well, Apple is more of a music company than a computer company as far as raw earning power goes. Maybe that will change but as of now they aren’t even underdogs in terms of market share. I’m a happy mac user but woe is me when I try to connect to a Windows network. Connecting to printers is more or less up to luck and even browsing the network was problematic.

The “Easter Egg” if it is in fact so (and I don’t think it is) is more or less there to alleviate mac user frustrations due to short-comings in Apple’s ability to connect adequately with MS computers and various printers.

The BSOD monitors on Leopard put a smile on my face not because they’re taking cheap shots but because I could finally access MS computers on my network without jumping through hoops via esoteric finder menus.

Who else but Apple could make a Blue Screen of Death on a CRT look so appealing?

It's a jab, but not below the belt. Tough love, I think they call it.

Who else but Apple could make a Blue Screen of Death on a CRT look so appealing?

It's a jab, but not below the belt. Tough love, I think they call it.

I think I can hear someone saying "Ha! Where's this bloke's sense of humor?!"

I think it's funny to use a ten year old crash screen of a competitor's product to define that product, but the BSOD screen shows up no matter what PC-based share you're connecting to. The BSOD doesn't even exist in XP or Vista, does it?

I mean, there are still those white text on blue NT failure screens, but they're few and far between.

I switched to Mac back in March, and my Macbook is no more stable than my now two-years running XP machine is. In fact, it's a little less so, although all of my crashes have been Parallels-related (hosting Ubuntu, not Windows) and while I think OS X should be stable enough to not throw a kernel panic (maybe we could dub this the "semi-transparent grey screen of death"?) it clearly isn't.

Anyway, it's funny, but the BSOD is a relic of the past. Why not use a vinyl record as the iTunes icon?

"The disdain here isn't for the unfortunate unwashed who have to suffer through Windows because they're so clueless ... the derision is likely aimed at people who care a hell of a lot more about you and your boundless Mac-enhanced creativity than, say, the OS X team does."

This is exactly where your whole complaint = FAIL. Because it's not at all about taking cheap shots at people in any way; this is a joke, made by OS designers/engineers about a competing OS; designers/engineers whose concerns are related to their product, not the users of that product.

If, as a PC user, you feel personally insulted/attacked by this simple joke, well, I'd say that's your own insecurity manifesting itself. I don't see anything in that screenshot that says "TEH PC UZERS ARE TEH STUPID IDIOTS." You're the one suggesting that.

Which is worse -- passive aggression of Apple with this icon or aggressive aggression of Microsoft? If you recall, they have a history of predatory behavior. This was predatory behavior entered into the record of court cases MS lost.

As far as the feature -- I *wish* Windows had included insulting icons for Mac in older versions of their operating system. Maybe a little black and white bomb? to represent Mac machines and Mac networks? Sadly, no they typically chose to not include Mac-friendly networking by default. Interoperability from inside Windows has been "passive aggressively" ignored.

Microsoft's history is to fear interoperability with other networks, and to not build such features in. Ever installed Mac services on NT? I have -- pain in the butt. At least with Mac, interoperability with other systems is something that is valued, perhaps with a snicker or a sneer, but the feature is there.

you need to chill fool.

Great post, fully agree.

Side note: why does Quicktime suck so much? It tries to take over my windows machine every time I decide I just have to see some mov file and forget why I uninstalled it the last time.

Would a newer monitor with a darkened grey screen displaying a Vista Cancel or Allow dialog box been more on point for you?

Lighten up folks! its a jab at windows and its funny. Have you missed all the PC vs Mac ads? They're funny too.

I use both Mac (home/freelance) and Windows (9-5)are both are very good and both have their little "issues". If Windows could display Mac clients on the network, I'm sure it might use a snarky icon as well.

Wow. Such ado about nothing. People need to lighten up.

Except Jason Scott, who was right on. Do tell us, Anil: how easy was it for you to take that cheap shot at MSFT in a paragraph decrying cheap shots? And did you feel smug?

Or did you just think you were being funny?

My dear people whoever thinks that windows crashes, this comment is for them. Run any operating system but windows as root and talk to me 7 days later if anything remains of it.
THIS IS AN ADVICE FOR ALL, USE WINDOWS WITHOUT ADMINISTRATIVE PRIVILEGES. CREATE A LIMITED ACCOUNT AND USE THAT.

Can't we just have a good old fashioned bitchfest once in a while? I often think of Apple as a fun & bitchy acquaintance. Not an actual friend, mind you, I save that status for my flawed but lovable PC.

Speaking personally, I am shocked, SHOCKED that people are making fun of Windows! Round up the usual suspects!

Yes, lighten up. This seems a pretty harmless and lighthearted dig to get so worked up about. It's also pretty funny

I think it's double funny now that Leopard has turned out to be wholly untested and rushed and produces a blue screen of it's own.

I'm a Mac user and am getting mighty tired of the "it just works" attitude, when in fact, OS X has it's own peculiar set of bugs.

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/10/leopard-upgrade.html
lol

The reason Leopard installation produces a blue screen in some circumstances is because people have installed stuff that messes with their systems on a very deep level. I wouldn't blame Apple for not including workarounds to detect old versions of such software when it's very clearly unsupported in the first place.

Lars is right that OS X has its own bugs. You don't get to choose the OS with the fewest number of bugs, you get to choose the OS whose particular strengths mask away its particular defects best. It is entirely possible to be satisfied with your choice with any alternative today, even though none of them are anywhere near perfect.

And as for the blue screen? I might be upset if it wasn't a big fuck you aimed at Redmond, and Anil admits tacitly that Microsoft might not be such as bad target himself. That other shares running on Linux- or BSD-based OSes can't get another, nice icon is regrettable, but the point is nevertheless made, and it's nice that someone has the stones to carry this out.

And needless to say, I completely disagree that only flawless people should be able to act like asshats towards other people.

I had the same experience as Adam Brown, seeing the blue screen of death icon for my Apple Airport Extreme and I was glad to see this little joke backfire on them. I hope someone will create (warning: lazyweb request) a nice replacement icon that families well with Apple's Mac icons minus the negativity.

@Anil.

Man, who cares? I'm at an office that is very pro Mac. We all laughed when we saw that on friday (installing our OSs onto production machines the same day the OS came out). We laughed, then we went on with our business.

If you don't remember, I think the Mac vs. PC ads were way more smug. I actually disliked Mac and sort of cheered for PC (obviously, that had something to do with John Hodgman, whom I particularly like.

But in the end, I think the problem is with people. If anyone, Apple employee, Microsoft Employee, or any computer user at all, finds their personal identity and sense of value by the computer they use, they're sorry individuals.

I love my Mac, and I recommend them. But I don't think highly of myself because of it. And those that do, regardless of which camp they belong, need to go outside and get in touch with reality.

I found the icon to be funny, but I find that kind of reaction even funnier.

Wow... all I have to say is... dont you have anything better to do? The people saying "lighten up" are making some severe understatements.

GET. A. LIFE.

Jesus.

Its called a "joke" and its a pretty funny one actually. You even admit you use Macs yourself, but yet you are unable to see this humor, and feel the need to create this over inflated blog entry. What exactly is the point? Oh right, to toot your own horn and come off as a cultured, sophisticated intellectual.

Dont you have a thesis to be writing or something? Leave the funny stuff to the people who have senses of humor.

Methinks the PC user doth protest too much

they can do what they want douche

I don't think you can really call them smug. They're an underdog. You use the phrase "dominating markets" but come on. They're a market share underdog. They have to be scrappy.

There was the whole John Hodgeman TV campaign that turned every aspect of using a PC into a joke, but you think THIS is smug? What about the TV ads with the flaming Pentium guys being extinguished? Now Apple's all-Intel. THIS is what tipped it for you?

it's a snide shot at the other computers you own, or of your family's other machines around the house, or of the computers of the peers you work with

You can claim their intent to be whatever you want, but you're inferring. And taking it pretty personally, I might add! Suddenly Apple has flipped from underdog to ugly fat cat and taken their impudence out on your family, friends, and colleagues! How dare they! I'm writing this on my PC, and I think you're taking it a bit too seriously.

Haha this made me laugh - who gives a fück about arrogance? Do I give a shît about people who think they are in some way superior? Hell no - life is too short.

And if you think that anybody who criticises should be free of flaws themselves, I suggest you get a good book on logic out of the library and read it, as this idea and others like it (logical fallacies) will seriously waste your time and mental energy, to say nothing of having your ego dented a dozen times each day.

Get a thicker skin AD!

Just passing through ... as this page has become part of the comedy circuit.

"Referring to versions of OS X by cat names ... seems astoundingly user-hostile."

Oh Please, steady on there cup cake, or should that be ... Tiger !!!

Regarding the Big Puddy cats. The promotion of the various Mac OS X products by means of advertising and distinctive design, Apple have established, the Mac OS X brand with an exotic hint, suggesting - fierce and powerful with predatory instincts, while also, testifying to a lithe and graceful OS with dynamic attributes.
It's just a marketing ploy, aimed to identify and imbue concepts in the product.

Get over yourself already.

SKY LARK.