I grew up on Windows. Starting with Windows 3.1, then Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, and so on. In my family I was (and still am) known for my knowledge of how to fix broken computers. A few days ago, however, one of my friends called me with some weird problem with his Mac. Even though I’ve been on Mac for about 1.5 years now, I felt totally lost in helping him. I could tell him everything about how to use his Mac to the max, taking advantage of all the cool features, but when it came to figuring out why his computer wouldn’t turn on or why he was seeing some crazy error while booting up — I found myself lost. How is it that I knew so much about fixing Windows but have been so clueless about complicated Mac problems?
I came to a basic realization: I don’t know how to fix Macs because I’ve never really had to fix my own Mac! (actually I did once when I had permissions issues with my drive, but that was caused by my mistake). On Windows, every week or two I remember troubleshooting some issue or another. I fought countless viruses, created and resolved major havoc on my machines. In this process, I learned a lot about fixing Windows.
So does the fact that I don’t know how to fix Macs really speak for their top quality? Or am I just over-thinking my laziness in educating myself about Mac internals?
