Engadget has published the results 
of its shoot-out between Vista and Leopard. Naturally, Mail.app and iCal win over Windows Mail and Windows Calendar.
In fact, to cut to the chase, Leopard wins the features shoot-out with 46 points to Vista’s 41.
Thinking about this exercise put me in mind of Umberto Eco’s well-known comparison between Macs and PCs, which he published in the Italian news magazine Espresso in 1994.
It is worth quoting at length:
…Insufficient consideration has been given to the new underground religious war which is modifying the modern world. It’s an old idea of mine, but I find that whenever I tell people about it they immediately agree with me.
The fact is that the world is divided between users of the Macintosh computer and users of MS-DOS compatible computers. I am firmly of the opinion that the Macintosh is Catholic and that DOS is Protestant. Indeed, the Macintosh is counter-reformist and has been influenced by the ‘ratio studiorum’ of the Jesuits. It is cheerful, friendly, conciliatory, it tells the faithful how they must proceed step by step to reach–if not the Kingdom of Heaven–the moment in which their document is printed. It is catechistic: the essence of revelation is dealt with via simple formulae and sumptuous icons. Everyone has a right to salvation.
DOS is Protestant, or even Calvinistic. It allows free interpretation of scripture, demands difficult personal decisions, imposes a subtle hermeneutics upon the user, and takes for granted the idea that not all can reach salvation. To make the system work you need to interpret the program yourself: a long way from the baroque community of revellers, the user is closed within the loneliness of his own inner torment.
You may object that, with the passage to Windows, the DOS universe has come to resemble more closely the counter-reformist tolerance of the Macintosh. It’s true: Windows represents an Anglican-style schism, big ceremonies in the cathedral, but there is always the possibility of a return to DOS to change things in accordance with bizarre decisions; when it comes down to it, you can decide to allow women and gays to be ministers if you want to…..
And machine code, which lies beneath both systems (or environments, if you prefer)? Ah, that is to do with the Old Testament, and is talmudic and cabalistic…
Which is more whimsical: the attempt to compare the feature sets of Vista and Leopard on the assumption that they rest on some notional level playing field or structuralism gone wild in correlating computers with Christian denominations?
What spirit of prophecy lead Eco to pair Anglicanism’s current troubles so precisely with the ever-increasing torment of Windows users?
I knew being a Mac user and being Catholic seemed to be a perfect fit but I was never quite sure why? Now I know….
As a calvinist reformed presbyterian type and Mac user I take a bit of an offense to this. OS9 was definitely in the “Catholic” way but I was not seriously drawn to Macs to the point of owning one until they reformed and converted to OSX. If anything I see Macs being more Episcopalian or Luthern and Windows more Baptist or Methodist. So, what are Linux users? Unitarians? Would BeOS be the Amish? Looks pretty simple but can “get a barn up in a day.
Thanks for that. I’m a huge fan of Eco but I’d no idea he’d made such pronouncements on OS choice.
That was one of the most stupid things I’ve ever read.
Tim,
I know what you do for a day job and I respect it, but I’d like to ask you not to bring it in here and to leave Eco out as well. Let us not divide up on religious lines. I have no idea where you or Eco stand on “Anglicanism’s current troubles” as you refer to them and frankly I’d rather not know–regardless of whether or not I’d agree with either of you. In any event I appreciate the info you provide on this site.
Thanks,
Drew
Mmm, the theory doesn’t fit with Vista’s “cancel or allow”, nor any of Windows’ bossy, useless messaging to the user.
I’d call Windows more ‘Islamic’ and OSX more ‘Christian’.
I can think of many reason but the first might be that Muslims and Windows have to reboot, or pray, 5 times a day..
Eco revised his opinion in 1999 in a footnote to this column (probably for a 2000 edition of his column, I only have a younger German paperback). There he states that due to the releases of Windows 95 and 98 it got tridentine-catholic together with the Mac. The “torch” of protestantism was handed over to Linux. But the polarity was still there.
Putting Windows 95/98 and Mac OS on one level, he doesn’t seem to have understood anything of the schism ;-). And then there is the Unix-core under OSX he couldn’t even have known of at that time …
To be honest, I’d say:
Mac=Democrat – Liberal, Tolerant, Progressive
Windows=Republican – Conservative, Intolerant, Stodgy
Yeah, Jean Lafitte, we all saw the Mac ads. Way to regurgitate them wholesale.
Drew, settle down. If you don’t like the approach of this article, don’t read it or waste all of our time bitching about it.
Eco is talking about the basic philosopy of how these operating systems reach out to their users. It’s worth thinking about, and remembering, that we spend as much time inside these systems as many people once did (and indeed many still do) engrossed in their religious activities and studies. The comparison is not to be taken literally.
@Henning, do you have the text of that revision?
@Drew (and others), of course I am sorry to have caused any offence. Like most blogs, Hawk Wings is something of a potpourri. Do feel free just to read the stuff that makes sense to you or is useful.
That’s a very Anglican solution ;-)
Sorry, I haven’t made it clear, I translated it nearly word by word. But here again more precisely (from German):
This matchbook [Eco's column La bustina di Minerva is known under this name in Germany] was written six years ago. Meanwhile things have changed. The diverse releases [English in the original] have led Windows 95 and 98 to become together with Mac decidedly tridentine-catholic. The torch of Protestantism has been handed over to Linux. But the polarity/opposition is still there (author comment, 1999).
@Nice: I did my best to provide polite feedback on what type of content. I think Tim’s response was fine and acceptable. I think yours was a bit more like what you accused mine of being.
@Tim: fair enough.
To me, OS choices are more about personality types than religious groups (which, in my view, each have their own personality types). I grew up fundamentalist (rigid worldview, legalistic, rule-bound) and have developed into something more open and evangelistic. The MacOS has fit my worldview & personality quite well. I don’t think of it in terms of religion, though.
I like the idea of examining tech through the eyes of personality type or “inward” perspectives – it’s very interesting. What are the GTD types, then?
I find it interesting what “Nice” says. There is the German word Weltanschauung which happens to be adopted in English. Literally it means “view of the world”. As Nice said, we spend much time in the “world” that is constructed within an operating system. Although the comparison shouldn’t be strained too much, of course, the historical aspect seems quite interesting.
Henning, thanks for setting me straight. And for the translation. He certainly captures many of the Linux users I know :)
Interesting….
But does Mac [1] obfuscate (and add extra conditions too), or [2] make clear, the ‘good news’??
————–
Just ignore my comment above… :-) (I was being naughty)
The trouble with all analogies is that they may be only true at some points…. And even then people may not agree that the analogy holds…
Very ‘courageous’ to run Eco’s analogy, Tim :-) (A bit like me telling a democrat joke once on an (motorcycling) list dominated by Americans: I forgot that they take their politics more seriously than Aussies….ooops!)
But, you are such a good bloke, Tim – irenic even …that it should be hard for most people to take offence… :-)
S!
Dumbass Maczealots remind me to Jehovah’s Witnesses rather than to Catholics.
Whatever his qualifications regarding religion, Eco apparently didn’t know much about computers. He was really making an observation about human personality types, and projecting that on to inanimate objects. It probably tells us more about him than about the computer systems.
L.
@Nice
Regurgitate the Mac vs PC ads? Hardly. I’ve been thinking that way bout Mac vs. Windows for years, long before those ads came out.
Just to run against type, I’m a conservative and stodgy Catholic Mac user since 1984 except for a period in the late 90s when Windows 98/NT was in fact superior to the Mac OS. Bought a Pismo G3 PowerBook in January 2000 and haven’t looked back.
Eco’s likening the Mac to the Catholic Church is even more apt now than it was when he wrote that essay in 1994 because the meaning of the word “catholic” is “universal”. My current machine, a PowerBook G4 runs on a version of Unix under the hood, can run Mac OS Classic programs, as well as DOS/Windows using Virtual PC. It is truly a catholic device. It does everything – music, video, photos, text, web, apps, chess, telephony (Skype, iChat), navigation. It’s quite astounding to have this much functionality in one box.
So…. what if I’m Jewish?
Sell your overhyped Apple crap, buy a PC and install Ehad Linux. http://linux.ehad.info/english
I have a strange pain inside, also being a Calvinist (Reformed Baptist-Presbyterian). I think he found some interesting correlations, but I think I would have refrained from the religious analogy, though he seemed to avoid profanity and blasphemy well enough. All that aside, quite introspective. Hmmm… (I still hate MS/Windows!)
Actually, I did a term thesis on that idea, using Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism. It was quite entertaining, and supported Eco’s observation with Weber’s theory of religion as an ethos…