Last updated 11/19/2004

The Cult of Mac

The Cult of Mac
Author: Leander Kahney
Publisher: No Starch Press/O'Reilly
272 pages ... $39.95
ISBN: 1-886411-83-2

This is a book about Mac fans that Mac fans might want on their coffee table.

What makes Mac fans so loyal? The answer of course depends upon who you ask: Marketers say it's the brand; psychologists say it's a social relationship; and Apple loyalists say it's the merits of the machine, its friendliness, its simplicity. But some common themes emerge: community, the alternative to Microsoft, and the brand that connotes nonconformity, liberty, and creativity. Mac users are not merely an ad hoc group of people who happen to use the same kind of computer. They represent a distinct subculture, with its own rituals, traditions, and mindset.

A lot of highly creative people fire up their Macs every day to shape our culture.

Most of the stories in this book aren't about the clever things people create with their Macs-Apple covers that in its marketing. The stories are about grassroots Mac cultureÑthe kind of thing Mac users do to show their loyalty to Apple and the Mac platform. They are about Apple tattoos, paper Macs, Mac aquariums, interface tweakers, songs about Macs, and people who spend their weekends visiting Mac stores. They are about the culture surrounding the Macintosh: the cult of the Mac.

Overall, I liked The Cult of Mac . There were a few parts that I did not like, such as including what I felt was questionable material which was acknowledged to be fictional. I particularly liked reading some of the things I remember, and about Mac fans in Japan. The illustrations are excellent, putting the captions upside down and sideways on the Japanese pictures was a nice touch.

There is a good article about Guy Kawasaki who said, Apple has thousands of user groups. Those are truly the evangelists. He also said, Take a cause, fall in love with it, evangelize others to share it, and change the world. Isn't that enough for a third generation Japanese-American from Hawaii?

You will like the way the book ends. ,q>People are dedicated to Macintosh because it just works.

For more information or to buy The Cult of Mac , go to
http://www.oreilly.com