The worst thing about Apple is the fans, Jason Cross explains just to the right of an ad for Dell laptops. If you’re a fan yourself, you may wonder how he could have possibly come to such a strange conclusion. It’s all vividly described in his article at ExtremeTech but I believe it’s just a big misunderstanding.

His first point on his fan hater list is the fact that we tend to trash talk Microsoft, saying they have a “copy & paste” corporate philosophy. I’m not going to argue with him; fans tend to do this. But the real problem doesn’t lie in how Microsoft copies ideas.

All companies more or less copy ideas. If they see something that amazes them — something they just can’t let go off — why shouldn’t they incorporate that idea or feature in their own products? That goes for Microsoft as well as any other company. So what’s the problem?

In an interview, Steve Jobs told us about his trip to Xerox where he saw what was going to be the very first GUI for Macs. It’s an amazing story and it all happened over twenty years ago. Here are the exact words he used to describe what he saw that day:

“They showed me really three things. But I was so blinded by the first one I didn’t even really see the other two. One of the things they showed me was object oriented programming - but I didn’t even see that. The other one was a networked computer system; they had over a hundred Alto computers all networked using email - I didn’t even see that. I was so blinded by the first thing they showed me, which was the graphical user interface. I thought it was the best thing I’d ever seen in my life. They had the germ of the idea, and they’d done it very well and within 10 minutes it was obvious to me that all computers would work like this some day.”

Throughout that day, Steve Jobs was ecstatic. What I’m trying to say is that, most of the time, Apple copies features and ideas because they find that they are really too good to miss out on. They copy ideas because they feel like they can build upon them to make them better, and incorporate them into their own products to make life easier for people.

The problem lies not in how Microsoft — or any other company — uses this copy & paste business method. The problem lies in why they do so. One shouldn’t copy ideas just to make their products more saturated with features, or to make more money by replicating something popular. When necessary, one should take the core of an idea and build upon it to create something that is truly useful.

So basically, our distaste is not directed only towards Microsoft but all companies that abuse the art of copy & paste in business. But since Microsoft is a very public company with products that are used by millions of people as we speak, it often becomes the target for our infamous trash talk. Not to mention the fact that most of their products are in direct competition with Apple’s.

I’m not going to be entirely defensive, tough. The Apple fan community is perhaps more often than not aggressive when discussing competitors and their products. There’s a magical feeling about the Mac experience that most of us cannot explain, so irritation and anger erupts. It’s all a misunderstanding.

The second point on his list is our “why do they even try?” reaction to competing products and companies, which is also based on the above mentioned, indescribable Apple experience. Again, the writer misunderstands the Apple fan community. We’re not at all arguing against healthy market competition — this is not about politics. We just believe Apple products are superior.

Microsoft can compete as much as they want, for all we care. It’s not about that. I haven’t read or heard anyone saying that Microsoft shouldn’t even try but if I would, I wouldn’t take it literally or as life-and-death serious. Such a statement wouldn’t come from a political extremist, just a fan who loves his iPod.

As for the authors third point, I can’t really relate. First of all, he’s saying that fans have an attitude where, if Apple does something bad, it’s okay or understandable. In his example, bundling of software, he says that we hate Microsoft for bundling their software but on the other hand love Apple for doing the same thing. Apparently, we also hate the fact that Windows is closed source, while it’s okay for Mac OS X.

I don’t know about other fans, but I’ve never had a problem with closed source. If I would, I’d be using Linux or FreeBSD. Neither have I ever had a problem with bundling of software. As I said, I can’t really relate here and I don’t get why anyone would. The author also mentions the lack of third-party applications on the iPhone, disregarding the fact that it’s on it’s way and that his favorite mobile OS from Microsoft has been on the market for a while longer.

As I said, I think it’s all a big misunderstanding that is based upon the never ending comparison of Microsoft and Apple. It has become a war, or perhaps it has always been. It’s a war between subjective minds, not about products but about philosophies. Add in a little envy and jealousy and you’ve got a recipe for a long lasting conflict. I think we all need to chill out for a while. What happened to peace, love and understanding?

Preferring one shouldn’t necessarily mean hating the other. But passion and hate all too often walks hand in hand.