What is your opinion of tech fanboys / fangirls?

fanboys (and fangirls) are funny, even ridiculous to observe.

I know people who are so bought into the Apple ecosystem that they consider it to be their one religion. I know strong Android backers, too, but non with the total myopia of the Apple fans.

My analysis as an amateur shrink: Everyone needs something to believe in, a power greater than themselves. Some join churches. Others by Apple products. They work in the same way, a cozy welcoming environment where some other power (God, or Apple) takes care of you.

As a rationalist, I find fanboys hilarious.

I respect that each person has his/her preferences. I think it’s a good thing that we know that certain people are fanboys/fangirls of certain things, this way we can roughly judge the personality of this person, what he/she like, and so on.

Take smartphone tech for example, those who prefer Android could be perceived as tinkerer, lover of free apps, often clumsy-handed, etc while iOS user can be perceived as the contrary. For video game, too, we can judge the personality of someone. We can almost always know that a pokemon lover has to be a Nintendo fan, and vice versa.

Knowing information based on their fanboy/girling too will help us to determine what gifts they like and how to approach them.

They ruin it for the rest of us.

If you think that Apple products and a Playstation console are “most efficient”—then maybe you’re the fanboy without even realising it.

To understand is to acknowledge that to the fandom, it’s not simply a matter of metal and plastic. This is an emotional relationship that is in play. The relationship involves feelings associated with the brand, the service, perceived prestige, features, company values, and a host of other endorphin and dopamine-saturated details. To have an affinity that strong is life affirming for some people. Emotional bonds and connections, especially the kind that trump DNA, are stronger than Kevlar and don’t have to make sense to anyone except the individuals feeling and experiencing them.

I say as long as there’s nothing corrupt, immoral, or illegal happening . . . rock on!

I use the best product I can, depending on what the use is.

Up until the past year or so I loved iphones, because they had a good UI, which was suited for phone use, but now you can no longer jailbreak them, and they get more and more ridiculous with proprietary connections, plus android can do so much more, especially with USB on the go. (and the fact that on most phones you can plop in an SD card).

For computing, mac is good for some things, but not for all like some people think, bang for buck pc takes the cake, though mac is superior in some elements.

The problem is that people don’t look at things objectively, they take a very subjective view, and the issue arises when they won’t accept facts.

I am for the most part neutral, with one big exception.

/begin rant

Apple fanbois act like modern art boost MFLOPS and their GUI, invented by Steve Jobs, is the best possible interface that can possibly exist. From a tech standpoint, all Apple really has going for it are it’s customer service, how well they play with other Apple products (and ONLY Apple products), and the ability to convince so many people that having ten times the industry-average profit margin on their products it “paying for quality”. If that were true, then Macs would have a failure rate so far below industry average that a Mac going in for repairs would make the local news. While they have improved from fourth place a few years ago, they still don’t have the top spot in the majority, and definitely not by a margin large enough to justify that sort of price.

Of course, part of that is because so many Apple fanbois insist on things I know to be false. For instance, iOS being more intuitive than Android? That is subjective and my tech-illiterate wife disagrees; she had a hard time doing anything in iOS but figured out Android with very little help from me.

Oh, and Macs being good for graphics? Not since last century; all the graphics design folks I know use either PCs or SGI. My $600 PC has a far better GPU than any iMac under $2,000 and had I spent $50 more on a video card, I could beat their top two models on graphics as well. Of course, that’s only because I can get into my case without specialized tools. Sure, it’s a little bulkier having something that isn’t hermetically sealed, but I consider it better than something that is just completely disposable.

Apple not only has nothing that can fit my needs, they are proud of “features” that run absolutely contrary to what I want in my tech, then have the audacity to overcharge for it. So I hold a special brand of derision for the Apple fanbois, and generally don’t even try to hide it because I’m not sure how much of their opinions are based on sheer ignorance and how much is just them valuing things I consider negatives while showing indifference to the things that I actually look for in my tech gear like a GPU that can get decent framerates on my 32” screen without turning the details down. Try running even an older game like Deus Ex: Human Revolutions on any Mac that cost only twice what I paid for my entire system (including 5.1 speaker system and 32” monitor) and see if you can crank the graphics without falling below 45 FPS. Then try it with a more modern game like my current time-sink, Armored Warfare.

/end rant

/deep breath

Anyways, I have no real problem with personal preference type things, but I have a MAJOR problem with people that insist bullshit is fact. If you want to tell me Ford is better than Toyota, fine; I will disagree, but I will probably so respectfully. However, if you try outright bullshitting people, we are going to have issues.

Apple is the exception since so many years of their evangelical lack of objectivity has swayed my opinion of Apple products so far that I am ashamed to admit that I ever even liked them, let alone that I was a die-hard Mac-boi myself until the mid-‘90s. Now that I’ve been through AA (Apple Anonymous), I can’t help but look at the object of my former addiction with a certain degree of disgust.

I really can’t understand the type of mindset that propels people to be on line camping overnight so they can be the first to have the brand new XXXXX (whether it’s an iPhone or new edition of Windows).

I mean, a month later when demand has leveled off it’s still the exact same product which will give you several years of happy service.

You really couldn’t survive a few extra days without it even tho there’s likely to be bugs and glitches that take about a month or so to get sorted out?

What kind of a masochist are you?

I just don’t get that level of dedication to any retail product.

@Kropotkin,
I said I use products that are most efficient and suit my needs

It’s more about them being efficient for me and my expected user experience. I was not making the point that my preference of tech brands are the most efficient overall. They are not for everyone. When it comes to PS it really comes down to familiarity.

When it comes to gaming, it’s also a matter of which platform-exclusive titles you prefer. Many of my preferred titles are either ported or exclusive to PC, which is nice because it saves me a lot of money; I already have a PC anyways, and it doesn’t cost much to give a PC better graphics than any console could get. If I ever did go back to console gaming, it’d likely be a Playstation because of the Gran Turismo series, but with the racing titles available for the machine I already have, that is unlikely.

@jerv I’d go PS as well, because of red dead redemption.

I despise console exclusive games though, such a dumb move on many parts.

@XOIIO It depends though sometimes it can be a very clever marketing in order to establish a brand identity. Sega did this with Sonic the hedgehog for years (before they sold the rights to Nintendo). Nintendo have done this with Mario. Whereas Naughty Dog did this with Crash Bandicoot for the Playstation (back in the day when it was mainly owned by Naughty Dog).

Well, that depends on the studio. Konami really has little reason to prefer one platform over another whereas SCE/Polyphony Digital, an actual division of Sony, can’t help but be a little biased. And with emulators being a thing that exists, PC gamers don’t miss out quite so much.