Monday, January 22, 2007
HOW TO: Have a Crossplatform Relationship.
filed under: Dating 2.0, HOW TO: by Lux Nightmare
During a recent first date – one which had gone well enough to make it back to my apartment – my gentleman friend, eyeing my pretty 15 inch G4 Powerbook, turned to me and said, “I like your taste in computers.”
“Thanks,” I said. He told me about his MacBook, and we geeked out on computers for a bit, and I thought, “Thank god I don’t have to have that discussion this time.”
I’ve been a Mac girl for as long as I can remember. As a little girl I had a (hard drive free) Mac Plus, which was later upgraded with a fancy 1meg harddrive. Through the years I cycled through a Mac SE, a Centris 610, a shiny blueberry iMac, a 450 mHz G4 tower, and two different G4 Powerbooks (a 2001 and a 2005 edition).
So yeah, I guess you could say I’m loyal.
And while I wouldn’t say that I prescreen my dates for platform-compatibility or anything, I have noticed that my most successful (or at least, longest running) relationships have always been with people who were running the same OS as me.
But then, I once hooked up with a boy because he worked at Tekserve and had a Mac-inspired tattoo, so I wouldn’t exactly say that I’m normal.
In a world where Intel chips are de rigeur, where Boot Camp allows Mac users to run Windows alongside OS X: does the Mac/PC divide still matter? Or is bridging the gap between operating systems as easy as setting up a multiplatform network?
For some people, the thought of crossing the OS divide is unthinkable: a friend and die-hard Mac fan has gone so far as to prescreen girls before going on dates with them, using a bit of sitemeter trickery to determine their home computer set up.
And on some level, this kind of brand loyalty makes sense. In certain circles, your OS of choice is used as shorthand for the type of person you are. Mac users are the style conscious hipsters who value streamlined design. Linux users are community-oriented, socially conscious, and often more than a bit idealistic, with a dedication to free software that sometimes trumps practicality. Windows users are often middle of the road: far more concerned with daily life than the nuances of computers, they just want something that’ll get their work done and get them through the day (or else they’re dedicated gamers whose devotion to all the latest games necessitates a Windows box – but those people are usually too busy playing World of Warcraft to actually get out and date.).
If you’re a true believer, dating someone with an incompatible OS means dating someone with an incompatible value system: something akin to a devout Catholic trying to make things work with the head of the local Planned Parenthood. Sure, you might really like the person, but the potential for conflict is just too high.
Not everyone is a true believer, though. And for many, a person’s choice in computer may be no more than that: a choice, not a lifestyle, and certainly not something to base decisions about a relationship on.
Even the most hardcore OS loyalists may find themselves singing a different tune upon meeting someone who ranks high in all the other areas of compatibility. Diehard Linux geeks – the kind who reject any software that isn’t open source, no matter the cost or inconvenience – have been known to change their stripes, adapting to the lifestyles of their Mac loving partners (a transition no doubt helped by the BSD kernel that powers OS X — see, maybe we can all get along). And even I – a poster child for the Mac cause – have been known to overlook a partner’s choice to run Windows, when given just cause. Like many things, taste in computers can quickly become unimportant when you meet someone who seems so right in all the other ways.
At the end of the day, it’s easiest if we remember that – sexy as they may be – computers can always be left out of the bedroom. As Josh, a programmer from Brooklyn, reminded me, “None of my peripherals have OS compatibility issues. They’re all plug-n-play. Well, just the Hitachi [Magic Wand]. The rest run on batteries.”
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The timing of this is remarkable, given that I’m currently attending an Apple Tech Talk, ogling all the new features in 10.5. My personal computer history: Mac Plus (we splurged, 20MB external drive, and 4MB of ram, it was my parents’ business computer), IIci, Performa 575, PowerMac 8600/250, 1999 Powerbook G3 (Lombard), Dell Precision, iBook (icebook), PowerMac G4/867, Powerbook Ti 800MHz, Sony Vaio, PowerMac G5/2/2.0, PowerBook Ti 12″ 1.5GHz, MacBook Pro 2.0GHz, iMac 24″.
Does it matter? I had a good relationship with a diehard PC user to loved to give me flack for my Macs, but we generally avoided the issue and found other things to talk about (kind of like those political journalists who are from opposing political parties… you just learn to leave work at work). That said, my ex-wife was a Mac user, and the last girl I was deeply interested in was a Mac user, so maybe there is something to that after all.
How To Survive a Mixed Computer Relationship…
“It is not good that man should be alone…” unless he happens to use a PC, then he’s screwed. One of the more fascinating posts I’ve read recently, one young lady discusses, in-depth mind you, the perils of being in……
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How To Survive a Mixed Computer Relationship…
“It is not good that man should be alone…” unless he happens to use a PC, then he’s screwed. One of…
my girlfriend uses a mac and we tease each other all the time, its a fun little battle we have going. as for “Mac users are the style conscious hipsters who value streamlined design” go suck an egg! just because you think you’re hip with that stupid macintosh doesn’t mean you have any idea how to use your box, it just means you paid more for it and you can be a complete idiot and still operate it.
p.s. we both play world of warcraft
[…] HOW TO: Have a Crossplatform Relationship. […]
OSデートもいいけど。…
最近面白かったのが、「マックにインスパイアされたタトゥー持ってるってだけで、その……
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