The Professor's Notes

I have been pondering for a while the ability of Mac users to morph their discussions when necessary to enable them to claim the Mac is all things to all people, perhaps making Apple’s computer the St Paul of the techno world (see 1 Corinthians 9:19-22).

A few months ago I was commenting that Google’s new browser, Chrome, looked interesting, but alas couldn’t be used by Mac users.  I was quickly corrected, as one pointed out that they can run MS Vista on their Mac, and then use that browser.

Here’s the conundrum:

If you are running Vista is it still a Mac?

The argument seems to be yes, since the hardware is the computer, then the Apple Mac computer is the hardware.

I would accept that a “true Mac” is the combination of the hardware with the software, but the introduction of running Vista (or XP) on the Apple hardware and still calling it a Mac makes murky the water.

Now, with the ability to run the Apple Mac OSX operating system on a number of other Intel based machines, and on a number of netbooks we face a new question:

“If a computer running Vista is still a Mac because the hardware is Apple’s, then is a non-Apple machine, running OSX not a Mac?”

So should I stop saying I use Vista, and start saying I use “HP” or “Dell” or “homebuilt” or…?

I am left with another comparison to religion, and thus the title to this post.  Just as we can talk about a “cultural Christian” or a “cultural Jew” (someone connected through the heritage but not through religious or spiritual beliefs) and we talk about the spiritual or observant adherents to those faiths, can we make the same statement about Macs?

Are there “Cultural Macs” (those connected through the heritage that is hardware and logo) and “Observant” or “spiritual” Macs, that have the indwelling of the holy OSX code?