Don't get me wrong, I love Maximum PC. I get their magazine every month and I read every page of it and usually, it tastes sooooo goooood. But this time simply isn't the case. In last month's issue, the cover article was "Can any PC notebook beat the Macbook?". The article was about comparing the performance of the Macbooks, in different classes, against several PC notebooks. The Macbook seemed to have won in most of their "tests". At first, I thought, "Wow, how the hell did that happen?", and then continued on with my life.
Next issue roles around, and I read this.
" You also blatantly reveal that you kept the bundled CPU-sapping third-party applications installed on the machine! Dell is notorious for installing bloatware on its systems, while OSX doesn't come with anything installed--no antivirus, anti-spyware, or other apps. This is not a fair comparison. Compare a freshly installed OS and it's fair. I am extremely disappointed."[1]
Then it gets even more interesting. Will Smith(who I actually like as writer/editor) becomes a total dumb ass and actually defends his decisions.
"We strongly encourage power users to remove the crapware that Dell and other vendors install on their PCs, but the vast majority of people who purchase these laptops leave the system as-is, not realizing that third-party apps can hurt performance. To measure the real-world end-user experience, we review the PCs as they are shipped to us, not as they should be shipped to us."[1]
So, here's my take on this. A magazine that writes for power using, PC building, techno lusting type of people doesn't deserve power user statistics. Hell, they could of done two statistics, one with crapware and one without. So apparently, every single person who uses a Windows machine is not a power user and is apparently incapable of removing crapware because apparently the first thing I don't do with a new laptop is wipe it. Apparently, it's fair to compare a machine that has anti-virus, anti-spyware, third-party software(such as user behavior tracking software) running to one that does not. What maximum PC has done is officially, knowingly give us crap statistics. Put crap in your going to get crap out.
In Maximum PC's august issue, they wrote in that very article"Obviously, we can't run our benchmarks on OS X because the majority of our tests don't offer OS X support. To truly assess how well Apple's notebooks measure up as PCs, we dual-boot the MacBooks into Windows Vista Home Premium and ran the benchmarks in that OS--for an apples-to-apples comparison among all models"[2] So basically, They are comparing a clean install of Vista to a chuck full of third-party software Vista. So they aren't even fucking comparing the Macbook's native operating system to these PC notebook's operating system. This has got to be one of the worst articles I have ever read, in my entire life.
With that all being said, Obviously, I'm biased. There is no hiding that. I prefer Windows or Linux over mac any day of the week. Which is why This article ticks me off so bad. Fortunately for Maximum PC, they are still the best Computer magazine around(In my opinion), but that might change if they keep writing knowingly bugged articles.
PS. Mac users should be offended by this article becuase it doesn't even compare the "MAC" part in MACbook, Windows users should be offended for comparing a clean install to a not so clean install. And everyone should be offended by this truckload of maximum BS.
--[1]MaximumPC magazine,"How to build the Best PC Ever!", September 2008 issue, page 103
--[2]MaximumPC magazine,"Can Any PC Notebook Beat the MacBook?" August 2008 issue, page 24
--Image was obtained at http://www.maximumpc.com
--If you want me to do an article on something, drop me an e-mail at ursc_army@hotmail.com, or simply reply to a blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment