How MacBook Pro Converted A Prominent Apple Hater
3:29 pm, July 14th, 2009, Lonnie Lazar
John C. Dvorak
Image credit: Randy Stewart
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They’re quite aware of what they’re going through.
- David Bowie
One day, people may point to an article published Monday at PCMag.com (perhaps the preeminent Windows-foucused tech magazine around) by long-time Apple-baiting columnist John C. Dvorak, as a signal for the storming of Microsoft’s figurative Bastille.
“If I was going to buy a new laptop this minute, a MacBook Pro is probably what I’d get,” are words almost no tech watcher of the past 20 years would ever figure to come from Dvorak, the smart, engaging veteran columnist who has taken over the years a nearly perverse glee in stirring up the bee hive of Apple loyalists in tech journalism.
But that’s exactly what Dvorak had to say after seeing first-hand “all these whiz-bang features” of his son’s brand-new MacBook Pro that, he said, “make me realize that I have fallen behind.”
But don’t go thinking Dvorak has fully consumed the kool-aid or that his enmity for Apple will abate completely anytime soon. The real reason he’s kindly disposed to an Apple product at this point, aside from “that hard aluminum unibody that makes the thing feel like a rock,” is a piece of software his son required, DEVONthink, which organizes and sorts PDF files into manageable database blocks – and has no Windows-based counterpart. “It’s about as close to a killer Apple app as anything I’ve seen since VisiCalc in the late ’70s,” he gushed.
Of course no Dvorak piece would be complete without a pointed jab at something Apple, and he dutifully reported his son’s experience at the Apple Store as something akin to “a car dealership in the ’70s, with layers of various salespeople, each trying to screw you.”
“I actually think that the Apple Stores are barriers to sales, and people only buy Macs because the machines have clearly moved ahead in genuine usefulness,” he wrote, saying, “overall, it’s a pathetic indictment of the entire PC scene.”
Well, perhaps it’s a reach to tar the entire PC scene with the same brush, but clearly change is in the air and more and more people such as Dvorak’s kid are coming around to just how far Apple machines have moved ahead.
It’s at least a bright sign that someone like Dvorak has finally noticed.
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Apple, Hardware, News, Software, Top stories | Comment on this article
AMEN
Eric, on July 14th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
My father was a LONG-TIME PC user, Apple basher – biz runs on PCs and all that. And then two years ago in his retirement, Dad’s now 81, he was convinced to try it and got a MacBook. Now he also has a iMac, gave me a 24″ iMac and if the iPhone didn’t run on AT&T, he’d get one of those too.
These days when we Skype we’ve learned that it’s so much more fun to talk about Macs than our different views of politics!
Cynthia Cooper, on July 14th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Dvorak . I can’t recall the last time he called anything correctly. Being “contentious” does not equate to being any use to anybody.
Chris Bulow, on July 14th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Lonnie – long time reader, first time commenter.
While I do Creative Commons all my images, I ask for attribution and a link back to either my Flickr account or my blog. It’s pretty simple and not much to ask.
The original image is here – http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewtopia/865496725/
And my blog lives here – http://blog.stewtopia.com
Cheers,
Randy
Randy Stewart, on July 14th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
I do not follow PCmag, but almost all the quotes froM Dvorak I have seen appear like he is, I cannot think of any polite way to say this, a total idiot. Just completely embarrassing, how does he keep his job, he is factually wrong so often.
But wait, George W Bush was (re-)elected, so anything is possible.
On a positive note, I have a new employee working for me, who had never used a Mac. I showed him quicklook and spotlight, and he said: You are trying to make me buy a Mac?
ged, on July 14th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Can’t spell Dvorak without D.O.R.K.
jamez bee, on July 14th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
There are only two possibilities:
1) The MacBook Pro suddenly sucks, or
2) Microsoft cut their marketing budget, and Dvorak was a victim.
I’m betting on 2.
imajoebob, on July 14th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Bastille reference. Brilliant. That happened on a July 14 as well. Coincidence? I think not.
Partners in Grime, on July 14th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
you are beeing too hard on the guy. yes he is spewing incredible statements sometime, but you best notice his intention when you listen to him speak on one of his many shows. he just knows how to spin his stuff to get atention. hes selling his merchandise as a writer, and hes good at that.
i think of him as an os agnostic. he said a lot of nice things about apple products lately, but he points out their shortcomings honestly. i agree with his points on the apple stores, at leasat concernig the ones i visited. the same is true for any other big electronics stores, but hes not talking about them. plus, the sales people there try the same stuff upselling, but they are less dangerous because they are less informed about the products they sell
fischziege, on July 15th, 2009 at 12:29 am
@Randy: please accept my apologies for not crediting you as the photographer on the image used in this piece. I got it off a quick Google search and did not notice any copyright or creative commons licensing info appended to it. I have added a credit and link to your blog now.
Thanks for being so gracious in your comment.
Lonnie Lazar, on July 15th, 2009 at 1:08 am
Hey, I like Dvorak. He may be tarnished by years of PC but that aside, he has it out for everyone and everything. He has several key paragraphs for Windows as well as Mac (we’re just immune to the one). I frequent his blog and his associates all for the better; I appreciate his divergence.
Bastian, on July 15th, 2009 at 4:19 am
This article is misleading because Dvorak owns an iMac and he likes the it. He also wrote about it in one of his articles last year, or maybe the year before. Either way, I don’t expect open minds from people who can’t handle criticism about Jobs/Apple.
tayker, on July 15th, 2009 at 7:02 am
dvorak has been irrelevant for longer than even his buddy leo laporte. fallen behind, john? more like never there.
firesign, on July 15th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Dvorak has admitted to writing controversial articles just to get traffic. He enthusiastically bashed Apple for years to drive enraged Apple fans to his site. Now he’s obviously courting M$FT fanboys to do the same with this article.
SenatorK, on July 15th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
^ I was going to say “professional troll”, but that pretty much sums it up.
Torley, on July 15th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Once a blowhard, always a blowhard. Puh-leaze.
Brian, on July 15th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
John Dvorak was and is a grade-A ass, has been wrong about everything more times than anyone this side of Bill Kristol, and his reference to DevonTHINK as the best thing since Visicalc proves that he is not only incompetent, he’s not even on the same planet as most computer users (even the hard-core).*
*I’m not knocking DevonTHINK or Visicalc here, both fine products, but neither was ever in the mainstream of computer use.
If anyone in any other profession performed the requirements of their job as badly as Dvorak, they’d have been fired 20 years ago. He’s not even a very good writer, for feck’s sake! He’s a BS artist and “hit whore” and it’s a sad reflection of the “technology writer” industry that someone this bad at the basics could even stick around, nevermind have an audience.
Charles Martin, on July 16th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Regarding the App Store: Yes, I find the contant being marketed to annoying so I usually just go into the iTunes store only when I have to.
However I have a Mac Mini, and though it is not the most powerful machine I have, I like it the most and is the one I use for fun. As a home computing appliance, it is fantastic. However much of Apples software is not fit for corporate buiness – ever tried to get Safari working seamlessly through an authentiating proxy? or iTunes – how do you stop 500s user downloading terrbytes of podcasts and music onto your network? Then have ot back it up? No policy control that i have found.
Oh, and mobile.me – what a joke, yes it will synch with Outlook, bit not when connected to exchange, and not through a proxy either.
But I ;ove my Mac Mini
John, on July 17th, 2009 at 4:28 am
Damn, this guy doesn’t need any more press. He’s been getting huge publicity from Slashdot and the likes for years, due to all his asinine, ill-informed judgemental criticisms of various things. Now that he’s finally making some sense, the publicity just keeps on rolling in
Dunno why people even paid attention to his dim-witted writings to begin with! 
amatecha, on July 18th, 2009 at 2:11 am