The IBM-based PC users, the ones who have been waiting so eagerly for today's launch of Windows 95, just can't take a computer seriously when it starts up with a happy face.
Macintosh users, who have been quite happy with their happy faces -- as well as with their long file names, versatile "trash cans" and other amenities that are only now being offered in Windows 95 -- wonder why anyone would want to take their computer so seriously.
Choose your weapon. Rev up your RAM. Even though the latest juggernaut program from Bill Gates and his Microsoft army makes the competing systems look a lot more alike, the Mac-PC feud is far from over.
"It's pretty much a religious war," says Nathan Garcia, associate lab director for the Macintosh Publishing Group, which includes MacWeek and MacUser magazines.
The people winning the war are undoubtedly the PC users, who dominate the market (only about one in 10 computers sold are Macintoshes) and the workplace. Proud of their densely technical language, fanatical PC users look down their noses at the small, user-friendly Mac brigade. The Mac devotees, on the other hand, are driven by a love of graphics, convinced of their superior sense of fun, and confident that they are the innovative guerrillas who will someday win the revolution.
People tend to invest their emotions in machines when they've also invested thousands of dollars in them. As every technophile knows, a computer is a black hole designed to suck up your paychecks to buy more add-ons, software and memory to support it all. Windows 95 buyers will add another $89 or so to the running tab to keep up with the Joneses, or the Macses, as the case may be.
And what will Windows 95 buyers be getting, besides an ad campaign that features the Rolling Stones selling out one of their songs for the very first time?
An operating system that is trying very hard to look like a Macintosh.
Mr. Garcia, who has a strong background in PCs as well as Macintoshes, has tested the new Windows and isn't impressed.
Apple's slice of the market
"A lot of people on the PC side are saying the Macintosh is dead and all that stuff, and that's the furthest thing from the truth," he says, pointing out that despite Apple's traditionally poor marketing, the company still has 10 percent to 11 percent of the computer market. It's not much, but it's not dead. He expects that share to increase now that Apple has finally licensed Macintosh "clones," as IBM did so long ago.
"I think both platforms have their pluses and their minuses," Mr. Garcia says, "but I think Windows 95 is a travesty. It's a Johnny-come-lately attempt to keep people from turning to alternatives."
Ouch. And he's not the only one picking on Windows 95. On the America Online computer service one night this week, Hecklers Online took a few shots at the new Windows by bringing in their own "Bill Gates" to answer questions. A typical comment from the faux Gates: "Window's 95 will revolutionize the PC market . . . by rendering 90% of home PC's useless!" (The misspelling of "Windows" was enough of a hint that this Bill was counterfeit.)
Sheila, 27, calls the Windows 95 hype "pish posh!" She goes by She1031 on America Online and, like many users on AOL, wouldn't give her last name.
Sheila is, of course, a Mac-o-phile and uses Macintoshes at home in Bethesda and at work. She also engages in friendly arguments with a co-worker about which system is better.
But she isn't ready to write off Windows entirely: "Time will tell if Windows 95 will catch on. I think people will wait and see what happens."
Marci, a 24-year-old from Silver Spring who goes by Suluwesi on AOL, has tried both PCs and Macs.
"I just happen to like the fact that Mac is so easy to use," she says.
"Easy" is just what bugs those who tout Windows' superiority. When someone on-line suggested Macs have an edge because they're user-friendly, she got this response from a PC user: "Too friendly for me!!"
Can a computer really be too friendly? No pain, no gain? As RedHtChPep put it on AOL: "USA Today = MacPaper. McDonald's = McFood. Macintosh = MacComputer." RedHtChPep is really Scott, from Baltimore. He says he's buying Windows 95 soon, and he's not worried about program bugs. "I bought a Pentium within two months of its introduction," he says.
"Life is full of bugs . . . full speed ahead!"
Why all this excitement?
Lawrence Corey, 43, of Maryland Line, who uses a Mac in his business -- Corey Advertising Design -- doesn't understand the hype Windows 95 is getting. "I think it is a big deal being made of the fact that IBMs and their clones are getting close to the ease and smartness a Mac has always had," he says, adding: "I am a graphic designer. The Mac is my magic carpet."
