Comments on: Whimsy: Vista and Leopard, Protestants and Catholics

By: raven

raven — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:27:12 +0000

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…

By: David

David — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 02:32:45 +0000

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!)

By: Sebhelyesfarku

Sebhelyesfarku — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 08:27:38 +0000

Sell your overhyped Apple crap, buy a PC and install Ehad Linux. http://linux.ehad.info/english

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 02:43:55 +0000

So…. what if I’m Jewish?

By: Gibbons Burke

Gibbons Burke — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:53:56 +0000

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.

By: Jean Lafitte

Jean Lafitte — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:51:16 +0000

@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.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 14:25:19 +0000

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.

By: Sebhelyesfarku

Sebhelyesfarku — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 06:14:04 +0000

Dumbass Maczealots remind me to Jehovah’s Witnesses rather than to Catholics.

By: SteveL

SteveL — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 05:01:52 +0000

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… :-)

By: Tim Gaden

Tim Gaden — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 21:35:46 +0000

Henning, thanks for setting me straight. And for the translation. He certainly captures many of the Linux users I know :)