Editing 934: Mac/PC

{{comic
| number    = 934
| date      = August 5, 2011
| title     = Mac/PC
| image     = mac_pc.png
| titletext = It's fun to watch browsers fumblingly recapitulate the history of window management. Someday we'll have xmonad as a Firefox extension.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a parody of the "{{w|Get a Mac}}" (also known as "I'm a Mac" or "Mac vs. PC") ad campaign for the {{w|Mac}} brand of computers. The ads personified the Mac and their competitors, the PC. The ads poked fun at the PC's terrible function while paying attention to the Mac's unique features. Each ad started with the duo introducing themselves as "I'm a Mac..." "...and I'm a PC."

The comic, however, presents the differences between them as no longer of much importance, since most everything nowadays is done through browsers. In essence, using the same browser to visit the same website among different operating systems would give you an experience that is very much the same. Additionally, there is some self-referential humor here; both the Mac and PC are [[Cueball]]s due to xkcd's style. Therefore, they are literally identical as far as appearance goes. The apotheosis of computing via a browser is probably the {{w|Chromebook}}, a range of laptops whose operating system is based upon the browser {{w|Google Chrome}}, and which first became commercially available a few weeks before this comic appeared.

The title text refers to {{w|window management}}, which is software that controls windows on computers, and is in many ways similar to the more recent development of {{w|tab (GUI)|tabbed}} browsers. {{w|xmonad}} is one such program, and [[Randall]] says that eventually it will be an extension usable with the browser {{w|Firefox}}. What makes it somewhat unusual (and thus worth mentioning) is that it is a {{w|Tiling window manager|tiling window manager}}, meaning it automatically arranges and resizes newly opened program windows to fit a grid. This is especially useful on large screens.

==Transcript==
:[Two Cueballs stand facing out of the screen.]
:Cueball #1: I'm a Mac
:Cueball #2: And I'm a PC.
:Cueballs: And since you do everything through a browser now, we're pretty indistinguishable.

==Trivia==
*{{w|Chrome OS|Google Chrome OS}} is this concept taken literally: every program that can be installed by the default method actually is a "web app" running in, obviously, the Chrome browser. Though no direct reference is made, the release of the first {{w|Chromebooks}} predates this comic by only two months, and it's hard to believe that Randall could have missed it.
*Randall's prediction in the title text has basically proven correct: The [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tile-tabs/ Tile Tabs] Firefox extension allows tab tiling in Firefox, but is not derived from xmonad.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Internet]]