Jul 29, 2011
How to use the free internet at McDonald’s: Windows vs. Mac
I know that Macs are known for their simplicity as compared to PC’s, but this just seems a bit over the top…
Is the person who designed this pamphlet biased against PCs and just trying to make them look bad or are Macs really this much simpler? (I haven’t used a PC to get on wireless in years, so I honestly don’t know.)
- Panel 1 – Windows XP
- Panel 2 – Windows Vista
- Panel 3 – Mac
(via Cult of Mac)
* * * * *
“(I haven’t used a PC to get on wireless in years, so I honestly don’t know.)”
Pretty much the best part of the post…
Windows isn’t usually that bad, but occasionally it can be. you won’t need these instructions *every* time, but every now and then things just get weird…
that’s the problem
I think it’s accurate. The last time I tried to get a PC online (Vista), I gave up after 10 minutes.
Nope. I have a Win7 laptop and getting on public wifi is the same as the Mac steps on the right.
OMG! TWO MORE STEPS! OH THE HUMANITY!!!
4 more steps (6 & 7 under Vista also go with XP).
Most of that stuff (like setting the DNS to automatically obtain an IP is pretty standard on Windows), so it could probably be skipped.
Goll-ee! It looks like a Mac user who was in the same boat as you did a search for “Windows Internet Connection troubleshooting” and just copied the whole thing over. Yikes.
The XP section is basically telling you to make sure you have a bunch of settings enabled that would ALREADY be enabled if you had ever used wifi before. Of course, if you don’t use wifi much, (or if you ran into a problem), those are settings you would need to check. I’ve never connected to wifi with a Mac, so I don’t know if there are equivalent troubleshooting settings in OSX.
It ought to be as easy as “1) Go to start>network connections>connect to wireless network.” 2) Select “McDonald’s Free Wifi” from the list of available networks and click “connect.” 3) Open your internet browser and you will reach the McDonald’s FREE WIFI landing page.”
So, bias combined with overzealousness.
They’ll need a reprint; it’s not called Airport anymore.
“Is the person who designed this pamphlet biased against PCs and just trying to make them look bad or are Macs really this much simpler?”
Macs are designed to be as user-friendly as possible, but as such have the least customization. The user has less control over what they can do with their computer, what they can put in and take out, and how they run software. The Mac is basically designed to “do most of your work for you”. The problem is when you don’t want it to, lol. It can be rather limiting to a computer expert.
It’s sort of like learning a standard transmission and an automatic. Standard can get better mileage, gives you more control, and takes more skill. If you learn to use it, an automatic can feel frustrating, like a parent holding your hand through the store… when you’re 20, lol. Macs can feel the same way to someone who has learned Windows (and especially to someone who has learned Linux).
Very well stated!
So stop having your mom hold your hand and use the BSD subsystem to drive manually to your heart’s content!
OS X is built on a UNIX kernel so you can go as deep as you want. Either through finder or terminal you can do anything you’d do on linux. Look at support files, permissions, etc. You can log in as root and do even more. Just cause it’s simple on the outside doesn’t mean it can’t be complex. Just have to take the time to actually get to know another OS.
You can, but nobody will ever tell you how to.
This is ridiculously inaccurate. Most mac users don’t need that first step, so that description should be shorter :)
So true. Haaaaaaaaaaaa! Andrew, you made me haaaaaaaaaaaa out loud!
Weird, when I walked into a new hot spot at McDonald’s I clicked on the Network Connections menu, selected the desired network, entered the password, and boom, connected. If my little siblings can figure it out, so can everyone else.
Just shows how much mac does for you and how much it hides and limits the options.
Mac’s… making the general public more stupid one step at a time!
Use Unix.
Melissa is correct. These instructions tell you to check to make sure everything is set to the default setting, which it should be already. If a Mac didn’t have the same settings available, it would mean a huge loss in functionality.
When will people finally realize that choosing a Windows machine over a Mac is like choosing to have leprosy over a free massage…
Since when does “Mac” equate with “free” anything? It’s more like a Mac is having leprosy and paying €2000 to upgrade to Flaming AIDS!
Windows 7 has always been easier then the Mac window- normally a window pops up and says click to connect to a network.
What people forget to mention when passing this on is that they already showed the 3 step process on the front of the pamphlet. This is the extended version.
So actually this shows how silly mac is. If your internet goes screwy, your steps to fixing it is… just repeat what you already did. If that doesn’t work, pay $1999 to have it fixed.
As a few have said, this is just how to reset it if it isn’t working.
i reply with this img ^^
http://www.motifake.com/image/demotivational-poster/1003/owned-mac-pc-owned-games-demotivational-poster-1268608694.jpg
I approve this message.
^Owned.
No, it’s not a fair comparison. The Windows instructions tell you, in detail, how to go through and reset all the wireless settings to the defaults, manually, one at a time.
The Mac instructions just assume the defaults are already set.
You could rewrite the Mac instructions to be just as long by adding in all the same steps to ensure the same settings are correct and make it just as long as the Windows one, or you could rewrite the Windows instructions to be as simple as the mac ones.
I had no problem setting up with a PC at MacD.
Step 1 – Laptop automatically connects to network.
Step 2 – Open browser.
I will say that once you were connected and you browser was open, that the whole process became a bit more complex b/c you had to approve certain things and have pop-up turned off and all that. That was where the headache set in.
Nobody uses a Mac at McDonald’s. Mac users are at Starbucks.
Haha!! So true!!
I think McDs need to realise that Windows 7 came out 2 years before this image was posted, and it’s dead easy with Win7:
1) select wireless and connect
2) open browser
3) that’s it, job done
4) seriously, you don’t need anything more
5) why are you still reading? :-P