Last Friday, I told you about my 13-year-old daughter's less than rhapsodic reaction to Windows Vista. I wasn't at all surprised when someone suggested that I should show her a Mac.
In fact, she has not only seen current Macs, she has tried to use them for real work. Bear in mind, though, that she uses Windows both at home and at school. Also, note that she tends to say "computer" when she actually means "monitor," like many people. I'm sure that you can infer what really happened here from her description.
She went to a friend's house to work on a report for school. As she tells it:
They have the biggest computer I've ever seen in their living room. It's huge. Everything on it is fancy and artsy. I hated it.
And it's white. Everything is white. The computer is white, the mouse is white, the keyboard is white. Ugh. I nicknamed it The White Monster.
Once my friend got it, she started bringing papers in to school that were unreadable. She'd make everything look beautiful on the big screen, but when she printed the paper the type would be tiny.
Anyway, I tried to use it for the report we were working on. I couldn't find the Internet. My friend said, "Use Safari." Why would they call the Internet Safari? Why not just call it the Internet?
They had Microsoft Word. Why get a Mac if you're going to run Windows programs?
My big problem was I couldn't copy and paste: there was no right mouse button. I hated that mouse. My friend showed me how to select and drag and drop, but I couldn't get used to it.
Finally, we went to her bedroom and used her old Windows computer. It worked fine.
Posted by Martin Heller on March 23, 2007 06:00 AM
