Hi Leo, I’ve been reading your column for years and thank you for putting it
out there. I began reading your information when I was only on a PC. Then on a
PC and a Mac and I’m now making the transition to only Mac. How much of your
advice applies to only to the PC? Say 90%? I’d appreciate it if you could
mention Macs more often. I see you set one up for your wife. If only to say
that this doesn’t apply to Macs.
In this excerpt from
Answercast #71, I look at the number of questions I answer that could be
applicable to any computer, including PCs and Macs.
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How much is for Macs?
So, gosh, if I would make a guess I would say that 60 to 70% of what’s on Ask
Leo!, maybe 50 to 70% (somewhere in there) applies to just about any
computer.
Those are the kinds of topics where I’m talking about:
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Email in general;
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Or the internet in general;
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Or staying safe on the internet;
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Or any number of different, more generic topics.
I actually talk about those kinds of things a lot.
PC background
Now, my expertise, my background is in PCs. While I do have a couple of them
(and in fact, I’m recording this Answercast using my Macbook Pro), my strength is
not there.
I’ve got 30-plus years of experience in PCs to bring to the table when I’m
answering people’s questions. I don’t have that with Macs.
I find that I end up having to go out to other answer sites just to answer
my own questions with respect to the Macs – and I don’t really feel like I’d be
adding a lot of value by spending a lot of time on the Macintosh.
And I also don’t feel that it’s like a huge distraction… I should say I
feel like it’s a bit of a distraction if I need to mention on every
article that, “Hey this doesn’t apply to Macintosh.” By and large, it’s fairly
obvious.
General computer use and safety
Like I said, if it’s about the internet, if it’s about email, if it’s about
scams, if it’s about phishing, if it’s about things where it doesn’t really
matter what kind of computer you’re using – then those are pretty obviously
broadly applicable.
Windows applications
When I’m getting into nitty gritty details about how to do certain things in
Windows, it’s pretty obvious that’s for Windows… and to be fair, it could be
Windows running on your Mac (which I also happen to have here on my Macbook
Pro).
So that’s where I’m coming from. Like I said, my strength is in PCs and I
really, really try to play to my strength.
I don’t know if it’s appropriate to mention Leo’s “competition” here, but I would recommend http://www.askdavetaylor.com for this questioner. It’s kind of a similar question-and-answer site, but one that emphasizes Macs, just as Leo emphasizes Windows. I’m a big fan of both sites, as I have one of each type of computer in my home.
09-Dec-2012