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Apple’s BSOD Joke is Slightly Amusing

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Leopard BSOD Icon

By now you have probably heard that Leopard features a cute little Blue Screen of Death icon to represent Windows based machines on a network. I just want to say shame on Apple for taking amusement at a condition that has caused such terrible pain for so many people. I have suffered from BSOD at least a hundred times in my life, each time more stressful than the last.

About 90% of my BSOD instances occurred in Windows XP. Do you know what caused them? A malfunctioning hard disk drive, damaged because of a faulty power supply. You see the BSOD is an error reporting feature that is a standing joke because it was so common with earlier editions of Windows. I had it in Windows 3.11, a lot of times in Windows 95 and 98. Earlier versions of Windows were quite buggy, after all. With Windows XP it only occurred due to hardware errors, which can hardly be blamed on the operating system. The BSOD is designed to inform Windows users as to the cause of a system crash. Come to think of it “Blue Screen of Death” seems a very harsh term, I prefer BSOK (Blue Screen of Knowledge).

The Leopard joke does take a stab at those of us that choose to stick with Windows. I mean, why would anyone want to use Windows? Just last year Macs started getting some games, and while the frame rates suck for games that cruise on Vista and XP, they are working on it. While Windows has security issues, it is only because hackers target the most popular operating system on the planet. I get the joke; it is pretty funny, so laugh it up Leopardites. Laugh as much as you want while I enjoy a wide range of games with lightning fast frame rates at high resolutions (accompanied by the omnipresent threat of BSOK).

Source: Wired

 

About the author: C. S. Magor

 

C.S. Magor is the editor-in-chief and reporter at large for Uberreview and We Interrupt. He currently resides in the Japanese countryside, approximately two hours from Tokyo - where both his bank balance and the lack of space in his home are testament to his addiction to all things shiny.

Website: http://www.uberreview.com

 

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  • http://nothere gottabekiddingme

    Why did you even bother to write this? Go ahead and play your jumping and shooting games. “The rest of us” will be getting our work done without crashing, viruses, spyware, popup intrusions or Microsoft extortion.

    Are you carping just to get page views?

  • Ron

    Blue Screen of Knowledge. I think I just threw up a little in my mouth. If that’s not the most weaselly thing I’ve ever seen. In that case, let me be the first to wish you many, many happy hours of edification.

  • http://www.marines.mil/ Sgt. Hucker

    Lighten up, Francis.

  • Nick

    Many Mac users have been arguing their OS is better regardless of reason since I can remember. It is safe to say they have, at times been completely ignorant.

    Remember when you could only run one copy operation at a time, and in fact, you couldn’t do ANYTHING AT ALL while you were copying? Yet you had guys running around talking about how awful windows was.

    Currently, the Mac OS is downright amazing. However, if you can’t logically discuss the clear drawbacks alongside the advantages of Windows, you pretty much fall in the ignorant category. This also goes the other way around, and in this case the blue screen reference is a very relevant point by apple.

    The blue screen reference and the crazy beige old school monitor are more a reference to how antique windows has become rather than who crashes more.

    Who wants to deal with some crazy BIOS configuration tool from 93, Master Boot records and an overweight, slow as dirt OS? Honestly, my windows NT, then 2000 servers and workstations were solid. But since then, it seems like things haven’t changed or grown up much.

    Microsoft needs to get their act together and re architect asap. I feel like windows is a layer of legacy code between me and my hardware.

  • ex2bot

    Not all Mac users laugh at Windows users. Some people forget their manners. I myself used Windows machines for about 15 years before going Mac-only. You’re right about the Mac games, there’s a much smaller selection.

    I actually play games on my 360. Or my Mac. Running Windows. It does have its uses :) KIDDING!

    Bot

  • http://www.uberreview.com C. S. Magor

    Gottabekiddingme, I get plenty of work done on my windows based machine. I have three jobs and I use it for all of them. The last time my system crashed was hardware related and a faulty hard drive would have stopped a Mac in its tracks just as quickly. Am I doing this for pageviews? No, I am doing it because fanboys of all sorts amuse me when they rattle their sabers. I like Windows, you like Mac, why should it bother me if you choose to use a different operating system? Why should it bother you if I choose to use Windows? The fact is Apple made a joke and it was pretty damned funny. I actually laughed and I thought that other Windows users might appreciate knowing that the joke is out there. You know, because we use Windows not Leopard, so we are not privy to it.

  • http://www.uberreview.com C. S. Magor

    Ron,
    I don’t know if I appreciate being called weaselly or being the source of your nausea. Blue Screen of Knowledge does have a nice ring to it though don’t ya think. If you’ve got some sk1llz, you can actually set your system up so that it will blue screen manually. Great if you want to do a memory dump or amuse your friends.

  • http://www.uberreview.com C. S. Magor

    Nick,
    I agree, Leopard is an amazing OS, I don’t use it because I was raised on DOS. I used Windows since 3.11 and though it has its quirks, I am happy enough with it. I am comfortable with Windows and I can do virtually anything on it.

    That being said, it has not grown up the way the Mac OS has. It is hard to use for the average person. By now, I know the system well enough to get around the Japanese version at work, though I cannot read kanji. The fact is there are a lot of things that you can do really easily on a Mac that you cannot do easily on a Windows based machine.

    Windows is slow, unless you have a lot of RAM and a good CPU and then it becomes fast. I have seen XP go from reboot to fully functional in about 30 seconds.

    gottabekiddingme,
    Yeah, we get a few more viruses as one person pointed out. We get popups if we don’t disable them and we pay more for our software but we pay less for our hardware. You can build an extremely hot system for under $3,000 and a very decent one for under $2,000. I like my Windows because I like the versatility that it grants me.

    I like my “jumping and shooting” games. Give me the same games and the same performance on a Mac system for the same price and I might consider changing teams. Until then, I am quite happy where I am.

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  • Boydbme

    I am also enjoying lightning fast gaming in windows, with all the latest releases. it’s so great! I pity those poor mac users who… oh no wait.. what I mean is when I’m done playing games I restart my macbook pro and boot back into OS X

    it’s called Bootcamp. we’ve had it for a while and it’s standard in Leopard.

  • http://www.uberreview.com C. S. Magor

    Oh Boydbme, you almost had me there, I thought you were a Windoze buddy and then you spoiled everything by telling me you are playing games on a Macbook Pro.

    You see, the problem with bootcamp is you need to buy two OS instead of one that does everything.

    You see what I do when I am done playing games is, I press close, and load up whatever productivity software I need at the time. We have all the good stuff, even some of the things that started off over with you guys.

    All kidding aside, I think Leopard looks slick, but no one is going to persuade me to break with more than 20 years of MS acquired knowledge. I actually believe that Leopard looks better than Vista, but I dig DOS commands and the power they give me over the system.

    Nice comment though, it really brightened up my day. I nearly choked on my first coffee of the day.

  • ex2bot

    Yeah, since I have a Mac, I miss the power of those DOS commands. After all Mac users don’t have DOS. We just don’t have that kind of control. ;)

    Um, unless we use the UNIX command line. Which is vastly more powerful than DOS.

    Bot

  • http://www.uberreview.com C. S. Magor

    DOS commands are easy AND the XP command line has a lot of stuff that was missing in DOS. It does all that I need, I cannot think of anything that it doesn’t cover. You can perform any function of Windows in the command line (not that you would want to or need to, but you can). When windows starts acting batty, that is the first place that I head.

    What I prefer about DOS command line is the simplicity of the syntax. Less keystrokes per command and like most of us middle-aged geeks, I grew up with DOS, so the commands are ingrained and as natural to me as eating breathing or sleeping. I have a Solaris box for when I want to play with Unix.

    If you need UNIX level functionality in the command line for Windows, there are a few command line updates that you can download. Not that I have ever bothered. The fact is that I can get UNIX command line and it won’t cost a penny, but if I were a McOwner, I would have to purchase a copy of Windows in order to play the latest games.

  • ex2bot

    Yeah, I know there are lots of people out there with no intention of getting a Mac. It really doesn’t matter to me one way or the other.

    I just thought your comment about DOS commands and power were funny considering DOS (and even the XP command line) is a mere shadow of a *nix shell.

    And, I have no life (hangs head). :)

    Bot

  • JustinD

    The BSOD icon is a little lame. I grew up with DOS and didn’t switch to Windows until 95′. I preferred my DOS shell over Win 3.11. Of course, everyone who has used Windows has experienced the BSOD many times. I have built many high-end PC’s and they are great for gaming, but OS X is better for networking and productivity, although I wouldn’t have traded any of my previous PC’s for any of the early Mac’s. Lately Apple has been moving in the right direction and I’m sure that if everything keeps progressing the way that it is and Microsoft doesn’t step up and do some major revisions to the Windows framework then Mac will continue to take more of the market. The biggest downside to Mac’s right now is that they all look the same and you can’t custom build a Mac the way you can a PC.

  • http://jrptech.f-sw.com JRP

    I think the BSOD Icon is funny.

    I like my Windows OS, Linux intrigues me (total n00b tho), and I’d like to spend some time in Leopard.

    Funny fact:

    My laptop: 8 months old, Dell, Vista Business. 2 lock-ups that couldn’t be solvedby ending a process.

    Friends MacBook Pro: 4 months old, OS X Leopard, 1 lock-up of the same magnitude.

    I didn’t like Tiger, I’d love to see more of Leopard.

    I’d love to play w OS X server, but being a SysAdmin, I doubt I’d like it over WinServer2k8 (or 2k3).

    You love Leopard? Cool. I’m happy for you.

    You love Vista? Cool. I’m happy for you.

    You love XP? Cool. I’m happy for you.

    You love Ubuntu? Cool. I’m happy for you.

    -JRP

    Web – jrptech.f-sw.com

  • Chris

    Well, as a life long Windows L-user, I do have something to say about this. Recently at work (I’m a sysadmin) I was given a few new computers. I now have a Mac running Leopard, an XP box, and a Gentoo Linux box.

    I’ve took a few courses in Linux when I was in college and since then have become rather involved in the community. I know the Dos shell, and the L/Unix CLI.

    When you look at OS X, closely, you’ll notice its FreeBSD with a pretty little wrapper, A Unix OS. Apple bought out… someone, I don’t recall who, and purchased the rights to FreeBSD. So in actuality, your using Unix.

    While both OS X and Windows have their benefits, its all really boils down to personal preference, and personally, I prefer Gentoo Linux. Only cause of the power I have over the system. Plus, my present run-time on the servers is 1085 days without a restart… you gotta love that.

    Microsofts benefit is that its great for games, and pretty dang well universal. Plus what your capable of building… its sweet. MY personal gaming box is a Phenom 9600 with 4 gigs of Crucial Ballistix Ram… and well, its a HIGH end machine, total cost? About 1300 bucks. You cant get a Mac for that cheap, at least not a gaming capable one, and thats WITH the Apple employee discount (Yes, I talked with a buddy of mine that works there at the Cupertino HQ).

    The beauty of a Mac is really just the shear simplicity. They designed it to be idiot proof and it pretty much is.

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  • http://yousuck.com patatas

    mac users are assholes. i’m sick of the “ow i’m a mac, so i’m better than everybody!” mentality. who cares if you use a mac dumbass. and i pity those who just use it just to say they use mac and shit (i.e. mr bootcamp boy)

  • ben2talk

    Amazing how you feel the need to defend your poor choice of OS.

    Actually, I use XP for games – but only for games and never with anything else – no internet, no networking, no themes or services running, no extra software installed (actually that’s not true – it’s useless unless you install a ton of stuff on top).

    I got a BSOD just from installing a game! Nothing to do with hardware!!! Something about a .dll… but I do use linux, and had used my Clonezilla (linux) disk to take an image of the C: partition, so could simply restore it.

    Lightning fast framerates? PS3 is faster if you don’t have a very expensive rig – and who is stupid enough to pay that much just for something to play games?

    With other operating systems, funny – I never needed a ‘Blue Screen of Knowledge’. Do you use the knowledge? or simply trash it and restore a backup? or are you the stupid kind that tries to fix it and then end up doing a clean install?

  • Daputti

    ben2talk, you really show your ignorance. I could see it from miles away.

    So you got a BSOD by installing a game, telling you something about .dlls. You know what, it always tells you that a .dll file cannot be found and that is exactly because of hardware failures, most commonly the hard disk drive or the random access memory.

    PS3 is definately not faster than the average PC. Seriously. PS3 and Xbox both run games at 25, 30, or in some RARE cases, 60 frames per second, 60 being mostly the Modern Warfare titles in the Call of Duty series.

    Who is so stupid to buy a computer for internet browsing, AND a console for gaming, when you could just hack up that extra $300 and get a custom built PC that will run any game 3 times better than a console. Besides, who’s stupid enough to pay more for a console game when the same game for the PC is around $10 less?

    And something about Mac vs. Windows. Mac is just an idiotproof simulation of a so called computer that will not let you do anything. Apple’s products have no inconsistencies, only features.

    Windows may not be JUST as stable as a Mac, but hell, who really cares when it crashes like once every two months, and that the BSOD is old and hasn’t occurred since XP. We don’t have compatibility problems. We can play games. We can fucking customise our own computer, you Apple kids cannot, you think it’s your computer but Apple’s just controlling what you can do or what you can’t do.

    Windows and Linux ftw, control over ease.

  • Ben

    Daputti
    Jun 30, 2010 at 4:57 am

    ben2talk, you really show your ignorance. I could see it from miles away.

    So you got a BSOD by installing a game, telling you something about .dlls. You know what, it always tells you that a .dll file cannot be found and that is exactly because of hardware failures, most commonly the hard disk drive or the random access memory.

    ?? I don’t think so – I have 4GB Ram, and never had any issues with Linux – and two hard disks, one a Seagate barracuda 500Gb and the other a WD 2TB – both working fine, and both less than 6 months old.

    It wasn’t a hardware failure, it was an example of how Windows is capable of trashing itself during a very simple task. For normal people, it’s impossible to fix – for sensible people it’s something they won’t fix – they’ll use image backups and restore them after failure.

    As for gaming – it’s personal choice and up to you, but I always notice that I’d need to double my PC budget to get a decent gaming rig – I’d be happier buying a Mac if I was going to extend my budget that far.

    Getting rude about ‘we can customise our own computer’ – actually most of your customisation involves hacking, which is illegal.

    Of course, one main attraction of Windows is that it’s easy to steal, and easy to run stolen software isn’t it? Hands up anyone who paid for Photoshop? Office? or the myriads of customisation and hacking tools which you’re often expected to pay for too???

 

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