Art Vanderlay writes "Readers should not be surprised by overcoverage of Apple Computers since the tech writers and columnists for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and Fortune are all Mac users. According to John Dvorak of PC Mag, no one seems to point out the connection between the skewed coverage and the existence of this peculiar conflict of interest based on the national writers' use of Macs. He feels the newsroom editors are generally so out of touch that they can't see this bias and are also Mac users." From the article: "This reality is not going to change. In fact it will only get worse as technology coverage is handed to newer, less-qualified observers who simply cannot use a Microsoft Windows computer. With no Microsoft-centric frame of reference, Microsoft cannot look good. The company essentially brought this on itself with various PR and marketing policies that discouraged knowledgeable coverage. I'll save those complaints for a future gripe session."Ads_xl=0;Ads_yl=0;Ads_xp='';Ads_yp='';Ads_xp1='';Ads_yp1='';Ads_par='';Ads_cnturl='';Ads_prf='page=article';Ads_channels='RON_P6_IMU';Ads_wrd='microsoft,media,apple';Ads_kid=0;Ads_bid=0;Ads_sec=0; Are Media Writers Biased Towards Apple? Log in/Create an Account | Top | 705 comments (Spill at 50!) | Index Only | Search Discussion Display Options Threshold: -1: 705 comments 0: 689 comments 1: 583 comments 2: 374 comments 3: 92 comments 4: 56 comments 5: 42 comments Flat Nested No Comments Threaded Oldest First Newest First Highest Scores First Oldest First (Ignore Threads) Newest First (Ignore Threads) The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way. (1) | 2 | 3 Ya think? by Anonymous Coward (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @09:29AMRe:Ya think? by hpavc (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @11:35AM It Just Works (Score:5, Insightful) by Analogy Man (601298) on Thursday October 20, @01:56PM (#13837721) Shouldn't it be telling that people that use a product and "...it just works" and "I like it..." appears to be commonplace with respect to Mac and less common with windows.I have used both platforms and have thrown my mouse against the wall with a "Fuck You Bill Gates" more than once and have never been so provoked by frustration with Mac. Is this due to media spin or my user experience?...I think the later. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:It Just Works by badmammajamma (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:02PMRe:It Just Works by soft_guy (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:23PMRe:It Just Works by Philip K Dickhead (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @02:34PMRe:It Just Works by phlinn (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @05:45PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:It Just Works by bloodstains (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @03:55PMRe:It Just Works by elhedran (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @06:08PMRe:It Just Works by garote (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @06:37PMRe:It Just Works by garote (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @06:46PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.you're an idiot if you think /. isn't biased by geekee (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @03:36PMRe:you're an idiot if you think /. isn't biased by i wanted another nam (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @05:11PMRe:Ya think? by w3weasel (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @12:00PMRe:Ya think? by jacksonj04 (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @01:10PMRe:Ya think? by tricorn (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @05:36PM -5 Troll: Are Media Writers Biased Towards Apple? by OpenSourceOfAllEvil (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @02:33PMRe:There is a Reason by Philip K Dickhead (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @02:51PM2 replies beneath your current threshold.What about slashdot? by cflorio (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @09:29AMRe:What about slashdot? by gr8_phk (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @09:46AM Re:What about slashdot? (Score:5, Insightful) by Eric Giguere (42863) on Thursday October 20, @10:00AM (#13835386) (http://www.makeeasymoneywithgoogle.com/) but here it is just because it has "Apple" in the title Unlike every Linux story.EricAre clicks from China and India automatically invalid? [memwg.com] [ Reply to This | ParentMOD PARENT UP! by Captain Splendid (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @10:22AMRe:MOD PARENT UP! by d99-sbr (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @11:15AMMOD PARENT SIDEWAYS!! by FlopEJoe (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @12:46PMRe:MOD /. BACKWARDS!! by name773 (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @04:35PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:MOD PARENT DOWN! by steeviant (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @09:25PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:What about slashdot? by name773 (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @04:38PMRe:What about slashdot? by name773 (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @07:43PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:What about slashdot? by Fahrvergnuugen (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @10:02AMRe:What about slashdot? by chaboud (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @10:19AMRe:What about slashdot? by aywwts4 (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:21AMRe:What about slashdot? by chaboud (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @11:29AMRe:What about slashdot? by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @03:13PMRe:What about slashdot? by CheapEngineer (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @05:14PMRe:What about slashdot? by arose (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @10:34AM Re:What about slashdot? (Score:4, Insightful) by badriram (699489) on Thursday October 20, @10:34AM (#13835712) (http://www.badri.us/) personally i find them more appealing if they were more neutral, and actually be news for nerds, instead of, just a biased view of tech news. Dont get me wrong, what goes in the comments area i do not care, people have their own view and opinions about MS, apple, goolge, ibm, sun, sco etc. BUT the news article submissions must be neutral, and it is the editors jobs to get that right [ Reply to This | ParentRe:What about slashdot? by Gilmoure (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @03:55PMRe:What about slashdot? by jpickett (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @10:34AM2 replies beneath your current threshold.Re:What about slashdot? by dslauson (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @10:14AM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Google + Apple = ... by phlurg (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @10:36AMRe:What about slashdot? by MetaPhyzx (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @10:46AMRe:What about slashdot? by m93 (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @10:57AMRe:What about slashdot? by geekpolitico (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:37AM2 replies beneath your current threshold.2 replies beneath your current threshold. Human Nature (Score:4, Insightful) by dsginter (104154) on Thursday October 20, @09:29AM (#13835071) Umm... Isn't it human nature to root for the underdog? Good vs. Evil? Et cetera? [ Reply to This Re:Human Nature (Score:5, Interesting) by jcr (53032) <jcr@NOSpAm.idiom.com> on Thursday October 20, @09:37AM (#13835154) (Last Journal: Saturday September 03, @10:27PM) More than that, writers need to sell stories, and Apple has interesting things to write about. How many people give a shit if Dell brings out a new product?-jcr [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Human Nature by Ubergrendle (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @09:51AM Re:Human Nature (Score:5, Insightful) by dar (15755) on Thursday October 20, @10:06AM (#13835442) (http://slashdot.org/) This is known as being a fast-follower and it is often a good position to be in. Follow up on a good idea and (more importantly) get the little details right. Often it is not the first company to market with an idea to make it big.Alta-vista was big in the early search engines, but Google is the one still thriving. I don't even remember the name of the first company to come out with a MIDI card for PCs, but Creative is still going strong. There's lots of examples like that.Apple is doing some things right these days and reaping the rewards. I don't have a problem with that.Dell, however, has a different business focus. They're a commodity company and they're doing very well at what they do. There's room for both kinds of companies. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Human Nature by senatorpjt (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @10:31AMRe:Human Nature by Miguelito (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @08:29PMRe:Human Nature by jxyama (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @10:16AMRe:Human Nature by Superfarstucker (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:30AMerrata by Superfarstucker (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:33AMSurely you must have mixed up... by dadman (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @01:11PMRe:Human Nature by Moofie (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @01:13PMRe:Human Nature by name773 (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @04:50PMRe:Human Nature by Moofie (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @04:59PMRe:Human Nature by Doctor Memory (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @01:18PMRe:Human Nature by revscat (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @01:26PM2 replies beneath your current threshold. Re:Human Nature (Score:4, Informative) by skribble (98873) <scott@@@mydogateit...com> on Thursday October 20, @10:17AM (#13835552) (http://slashdot.org/) "Well, until the iPod Apple had a long history of introducing 'new' gadgets, which were basically stylised rehashes of PC equipment." Bzzzzt Wrong!Before the iPod Apple made a stir with OS X, which was certainly not just some stylized rehash of any PC stuff. Before OS X (and even through today... well yesterday at least) Apple made a splash with the iMac which (while certainly done with a great deal of style) redefined what a consumer friendly computer could be (Easy to set up, easy to use (relatively), and will look good at home where people tend to care about those things).The truth is since Steve returned with his NeXt compatriots Apple's been churning out lot of fantastic new products. Have you looked a Aperture which Apple announced yesterday? That product (unless there's some serious hidden bug in there somewhere) will totally rock the digital photography world. It's exactly the type of tool that everyones wanted and nobody made... Photoshop was resting on it market place domination and everyone else was trying to copy Photoshop. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Human Nature by spike2131 (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @11:12AMRe:Human Nature by marcello_dl (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @11:35AMBe fair now. PostScript came out of research by crovira (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @12:36PMRe:Be fair now. PostScript came out of research by tyrione (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @04:39PM Re:Human Nature (Score:4, Informative) by steeviant (677315) on Thursday October 20, @12:00PM (#13836658) No, technically it's a stylised rehash of Openstep which was a stylised rehash of Nextstep which was a stylised rehash of... well... nothing. Nextstep used a BSD Unix base combined with Carnegie Mellon's Mach microkernel, and used a completely unique object oriented development environment with a lot of other pioneering technology to make something which couldn't really have it's lineage traced back to any operating system that existed before it.If you want to get really technical, Mac OS X's relationship to BSD is that it runs a server on the XNU microkernel that creates a BSD-like environment for applications, it's not really even fair to say that OS X is based on BSD, let alone a stylised rehash of it. It has just taken elements from BSD and incorporated them into the operating system. [ Reply to This | ParentNewton by yroJJory (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @11:25AMRe:Newton by Reality Master 101 (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @12:33PMRe:Newton by Moofie (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @12:50PMRe:Newton by Reality Master 101 (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @01:18PMRe:Newton by Moofie (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @01:39PMRe:Newton by angst_ridden_hipster (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @01:57PMRe:Newton by Reality Master 101 (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:12PMRe:Newton by Moofie (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @02:13PMRe:Newton by Moofie (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @02:26PMRe:Newton by angst_ridden_hipster (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @08:29PMRe:Newton by Moofie (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @09:48PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Newton's a rehash of.. by Simonetta (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @01:25PMRe:Newton's a rehash of.. by BasilBrush (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @07:53PMOS X was a stylized rehash of BSD. Duh. by infernalC (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:54PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Human Nature by idlake (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @10:04PMRe:Human Nature by minuszero (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @10:36AM Re:Human Nature (Score:5, Insightful) by daviddennis (10926) <david@amazing.com> on Thursday October 20, @10:45AM (#13835827) (http://www.amazing.com/) DELL INCORPORATED"It's not dull, it's Dell!"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASECONTACT: Michael Dell, (555) 555-1212DELL COMPUTER INTRODUCES NEW 3.2GHZ COMPUTERReplacing their already fast and innovative 3.0 ghz computer, Dell announced today their new 3.2ghz computer, their fastest ever. Identical in every way with the previous model, other than the innovative new processor, the Dell 3.2ghz computer includes USB 2, FireWire and serial interfaces. The video card is specially designed to connect with the new color coordinated line of 17" and 19" monitors.##Okay, my friend.Are you still awake?Apple's announcements have certainly kept me awake lately.The press really doesn't care about Apple. They care about good copy. They care about a news story people will read without falling asleep, since that's their job: To tell us about interesting stuff going on in the world. If they don't, well, we'll go somewhere else for our news.Fair enough?D [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Human Nature by SumoRoach (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:12AMRe:Human Nature by Pray_4_Mojo (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:53AMRe:Human Nature by daviddennis (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @01:37PMRe:Human Nature by koi88 (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @10:53AMRe:Human Nature by s4ck (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:05AMRe:Human Nature by badasscat (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @11:40AMRe:Human Nature by Em Adespoton (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:50PMRe:Human Nature by HTH NE1 (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @03:46PMRe:Human Nature by tricorn (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @07:52PMRe:Human Nature by tricorn (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @07:54PMRe:Human Nature by operagost (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @11:02AMRe:Human Nature by hondo77 (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:59AMRe:Human Nature by Ubergrendle (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @03:47PMRe:Human Nature by john82 (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @11:54AM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Human Nature by Moofie (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @12:46PMRe:Human Nature by theAtomicFireball (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @12:49PMRe:Human Nature by Oliver Wendell Jones (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @01:14PMRe:Human Nature by RapmasterT (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @04:55PM Re:Human Nature (Score:4, Insightful) by Iriel (810009) on Thursday October 20, @10:05AM (#13835431) (http://www.stevenvansickle.com/) Very true, but there's a little more to it than that. Apple has always been a sort of 'elite' kind of computer market. Maybe that's too strong of a word to use, but nobody can deny that Apple has always catered to having some form of a unique company identity which attracts that unique user-base. Of course, now that the unique and possibly 'hip computer company' is making new things, reporting it is great press for almost anybody (even if they have the technical acumen of Jack Thompson). [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Human Nature by gilesjuk (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @10:27AMRe:Human Nature by P3NIS_CLEAVER (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:15AMRe:Human Nature by Iriel (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:35AMRe:Human Nature by P3NIS_CLEAVER (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:36AMRe:Human Nature by spxero (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:48AMRe:Human Nature by hitmark (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @12:04PM2 replies beneath your current threshold.Re:Human Nature by Anonymous Coward (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @10:06AM Re:Human Nature also remember (Score:5, Funny) by hackstraw (262471) * on Thursday October 20, @10:10AM (#13835483) (Last Journal: Saturday December 18, @05:33PM) "10 percent of computer users are Mac users, but remember, we are the top 10 percent."- Douglas AdamsAnd yes, I selected that quote free from any bias whatsoever. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Human Nature also remember by MegaFur (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @12:32PMRe:Human Nature also remember by Shadarr (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @01:54PMRe:Human Nature also remember by Shuh (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @03:16PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Human Nature by supabeast! (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @10:17AM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Human Nature by theManInTheYellowHat (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @10:40AMRe:Human Nature by alcmaeon (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @10:43AMRe:Human Nature by johnny cashed (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @11:29AMRe:Human Nature by Pray_4_Mojo (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:44AMRe:Human Nature by Chowser (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @03:39PMRe:Human Nature by Gilmoure (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @04:08PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.It's hard to root for the so-called "underdog" ... by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @09:44AMRe:It's hard to root for the so-called "underdog" by thparker (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @11:26AMHeh... by BrokenHalo (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @12:02PMRe:Heh... by HTTP Error 403 403.9 (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @05:08PMRe:Human Nature by Alranor (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @09:50AMRe:Human Nature by Dogtanian (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @10:02AMRe:Human Nature by Alranor (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @10:07AMRe:Human Nature by steeviant (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @12:18PMRe:Human Nature by Dogtanian (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @03:09PMRe:Human Nature by steeviant (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @06:37PMRe:Human Nature by Anonymous Coward (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @09:52AM Re:Human Nature (Score:4, Insightful) by wrf3 (314267) on Thursday October 20, @10:04AM (#13835427) Because I've used Linux, Windows, and OS X (among many, many others). Given the choice, I'll take OS X every time. I value my time -- that leaves Linux out. I value my productivity -- that omits Windows. I value my sanity, that leaves OS X. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Human Nature by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @10:13AMRe:Human Nature by dogfriend (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:04AMRe:Human Nature by Explodo (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:48AMRe:Human Nature by Gilmoure (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @05:05PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Human Nature by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:52AMRe:Human Nature by Moofie (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @01:16PM2 replies beneath your current threshold.Re:Human Nature by BrokenHalo (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @12:21PMRe:Human Nature by Quattro Vezina (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @08:44PMRe:Human Nature by leoxx (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @01:05PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Human Nature by abb3w (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @01:34PMRe:Human Nature by KillShill (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @01:55PMRe:Human Nature by spike2131 (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @03:22PMRe:Human Nature by WiseWeasel (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @06:55PMGames drive the platform by Tipa (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @06:38PM2 replies beneath your current threshold.Re:Human Nature by jimbolauski (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @10:40AM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Human Nature by daviddennis (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @10:52AMRe:Human Nature by benjamin_pont (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:19AM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Human Nature by Overly Critical Guy (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @12:20PMRe:Human Nature by Overly Critical Guy (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @12:56PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Human Nature by cexshun (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @10:46AM Re:Human Nature (Score:4, Funny) by blitz487 (606553) on Thursday October 20, @11:09AM (#13836070) I've never understood the hype for the ipod either. I'm not paying $.99 for poor quality DRM'd music. I have 8000 songs on my home jukebox, legally purchased, some in the form of vinyl that I've enjoyed for 30 years. I have no faith that DRM'd music will be playable even 5 years from now. Ipods won't play .wma music; I'm not paying money for someone else's jihad. I don't wear 'ear buds' because they are a major cause of permanent hearing damage. I never carry a music player while jogging because I prefer to hear cars bearing down on me in time to jump out of the way. And those advertisements of dorks silently bee-bopping around with wires coming out of their ears leave me cold. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Human Nature by defy god (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @11:55AMRe: Human Nature by hondo77 (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @12:11PMRe: Human Nature by blitz487 (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @12:48PMRe: Human Nature by hondo77 (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @01:01PM They will play MP3 though (Score:5, Interesting) by SuperKendall (25149) * on Thursday October 20, @03:09PM (#13838382) I can only think of you with pity for having encoded all 8000 songs in WMA, and then not being able to use them with a decent portable player.You can use the iPod and never once have a DRM song touch your player. I have hundreds of CD's and they ripped just fine to DRM free MP3's. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:They will play MP3 though by Squozen (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @07:44PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Human Nature by David's Boy Toy (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:27AMRe:Human Nature by drsquare (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @12:52PMRe:Human Nature by swerk (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:01PMRe:Human Nature by CDarklock (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @04:15PM2 replies beneath your current threshold. HA! (Score:5, Insightful) by RedSteve (690399) on Thursday October 20, @09:30AM (#13835075) And HA!I am astounded that such an astute observer as Dvorak didn't seem to pick up on the fact that the virulent "Apple is Dying" meme in the 90s was perpetuated primarily by PC-using columnists... [ Reply to This Re:HA! (Score:5, Insightful) by ScuzzMonkey (208981) on Thursday October 20, @09:55AM (#13835338) (http://slashdot.org/) Pick up on it? He practically invented it. And still tries to spread it, in typical resolute but poorly considered Dvorak fashion. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:HA! by hanshotfirst (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @12:42PMHe literally invented it by Infonaut (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @05:34PMIs this a campaign?? by BerntB (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @10:00AMRe:Is this a campaign?? by tbone1 (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @01:31PMRe:HA! by Dystopian Rebel (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @10:07AMRe:HA! by toddestan (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:08PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:HA! by Ryan Amos (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @10:14AM Re:HA! (Score:4, Interesting) by Eric Giguere (42863) on Thursday October 20, @10:15AM (#13835535) (http://www.makeeasymoneywithgoogle.com/) You have to separate the writing of articles/columns/books from the editing and layout tasks. The latter are normally done on Macs, yes, and that was a very natural evolution. The non-techies (think English majors, graphic design artists, etc.) found the Mac systems easier and more intuitive to use, so of course the software developers took note and developed software for that market. Seems like a perfect example of one company managing to dominate a vertical market. Kudos to Apple for that.But how much of the writing is actually done on a Mac? Now, it may be that conventional journalists may use Macs more often than not, but I suspect most freelancers are using Windows systems. Or even Linux. And producing Microsoft Word documents more than likely. Almost everyone I've written for accepts Word documents, for many it's the preferred (often the only) format. (IBM being one exception, they want you to write it using XML, which actually can be more of a pain.)Yes, it's ironic that most of the pro-Windows books out there today end up being edited and composited on Macs. But that's just the way the industry works today. I think calling it a bias is an exaggeration.EricHow I keep my dogs safe in my yard [ericgiguere.com] [ Reply to This | Parent Re:HA! (Score:5, Interesting) by orac2 (88688) on Thursday October 20, @10:29AM (#13835658) But how much of the writing is actually done on a Mac? Now, it may be that conventional journalists may use Macs more often than not, but I suspect most freelancers are using Windows systems. Or even Linux. And producing Microsoft Word documents more than likely. Almost everyone I've written for accepts Word documents, for many it's the preferred (often the only) format.a) You can get Word (and nearly the entire Office suite) as an OS X application. Microsoft has, after all, been writing software for Apple longer than its been writing software for MS Windows.b) As a journalist, I can tell you anecdotely that the proportion of reporters I see at conferences, etc., who use Macs versus those on PCs is much higher than in the general population.c) In a lot of places the layout/design production end is at least partially integrated with the editorial end, so that articles can go into a system as manuscripts (i.e. Word documents), have a few rounds of edits and get laid out all in one tracking system. This also allows editors to do screen edits: i.e. we can't change any of the graphical elements, but we can still edit text ourselves even after its been laid out in something like Quark. This is great when you have to do someting like shorten an article by 5 lines to make it fit the available space: it's something only an editor can do, and it saves having to have us stand over the shoulder of a layour person. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:HA! by Eric Giguere (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @10:38AMRe:HA! by Antifuse (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @10:52AMRe:HA! by Eric Giguere (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @10:59AMRe:HA! by SmittyTheBold (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @12:11PMRe:HA! by Eric Giguere (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:06PMRe:HA! by orac2 (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @11:00AM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:HA! by badriram (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @10:37AMRe:HA! by Eric Giguere (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @10:43AMRe:HA! by noewun (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @11:08AMRe:HA! by Eric Giguere (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @11:22AMRe:HA! by noewun (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @11:27AMRe:HA! by Doctor Memory (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @01:35PMRe:HA! by mei_mei_mei (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:41AMCONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE! by ZombieRoboNinja (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:51AMRe:HA! by poot_rootbeer (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @12:19PMActually... by Dhrakar (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @08:46PMRe:HA! by BlueStraggler (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @06:19PMRe:HA! by _J_ (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @10:19AMRe:HA! by the_rev_matt (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @10:27AMRe:HA! by lwriemen (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:02AMRe:HA! by at_slashdot (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @11:07AMRe:HA! by RedSteve (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @12:19PMRe:HA! by toddestan (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @03:23PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.1 reply beneath your current threshold.that's a refreshing change by pohl (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @09:30AM