I Don’t Support PCs

Written by Joey

Photography introduced me to the 'new media' evolution. I currently do community management at Meraki in San Francisco, but this blog is about journalism, some UX design, and the occasional rant. more →

@joeybaker | joey@byjoeybaker.com

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About a year ago, I read a blog post, (I wish I could remember who wrote it, I owe them a ‘thank you’) where the author wrote that he ‘no longer supported PCs.’ At the time, I thought this was amusing. The vast majority of people that I know own PCs. I’ve been the local tech support for as long as I can remember. Heck – I was the IT department at my middle school. I’ve been supporting and fixing people’s PCs so much that its just expected that I can fix anything in real short order. (Sometimes I can, sometimes not.) Reading the post, I admired the author’s undertaking, but didn’t think it could ever apply to me. There were just too many people that I knew that owned PCs. I kind of liked helping them out. However, in the last 6 months a large number of people I know have been making the switch – to the point where I’m no longer the oddball out when I pull out my MacBook. So, about a month ago, I decided to start to tell people that I just don’t support PCs anymore. If they need help, they’re more than welcome to go see ___mutual friend here_____ and get help, I “don’t support PCs.” Of course, if they wanted to go buy a Mac, I’d be happy to help them with any questions they might have. I thought for a while that this would be a real turn-off for people. They might think that I was purposefully being unhelpful, or mean, or whatever. After all, it’s not like I can’t fix their issue, just that I won’t. To my surprise, the reactions have been mostly: “Well, you’re a bit of a Mac snob, but you’re right, Macs are better. I’ll go talk to ____ until I get a Mac.” Moral of the story: Not supporting PCs has made my life much easier. I have less headaches, and people seem generally open to getting a Mac. Sidenote: Macs now hold a 6.5% market share – up from 4.4% where it’s been hovering for years.