Commentary: What's in a Name? MacAddict to become MacLife

According to a MacAddict job announcement for a new editor and a post by current MacAddict editor Rik Myslewski to the MacAddict forum, the magazine will be changing its name to MacLife "...early next year." We really like MacAddict as the name for an irreverent Mac-centric publication, especially for one that has helped defend the "cause" since 1996. We will miss it. Our own moniker "Macs Only!" and motto "We don't do Windows." were chosen to reflect a similar attitude.

But the times have changed--radically. Apple is no longer on the verge of extinction. It has been on the rise with Mac OS X, its computer lineup has never been better, its switch to Intel CPUs has opened new opportunities and the incredible success of its iPod and iTunes has given it a huge consumer base and status again among the electronic cognocenti. Does that make "MacLife" much more consistent with the current situation? Apparently, the owners of MacAddict think so. We are not so sure.

Unfortunately, the name "MacLife" is not so unique in Macdom. There is (or was) a Japanese Mac-centric magazine called "MacLife." There's a German Web publication called MacLife and a Web site in Canada, too, that claims to be owned by a MacLife Network, Inc. How about France and Austria? The Maryland Athletic Club's publication is called MAC Life. Then, there is Shawn King's brash internet radio show called Your Mac Life. And there was even a copyrighted column at LowEndMac.com written by Jason Walsh called Mac Life. Going to www.maclife.com, reveals the Web page of a Boise, ID, Mac store. And there's a Mac Life Security Products Web site. And so on...we just listed what we found via Google in the first 10 pages of "Mac Life" and "www.maclife." Mac Addict may have a tough time making the switch. We hope they don't.

As far as we can tell Mac marginalization is still a force to be reckoned with. We continue to read where school districts convert from Macs to Wintels for unfounded reasons, costing school systems a lot of scarce resources and depriving many students of the easier route to learning to use computing systems and the features that make learning more fun and productive. We also continue to read about huge security problems with Windows-based systems and wonder why governments continue to choose them. We wonder why governments continue to support a monopoly when such is not necessary for lower costs, better security and better performance.

There's still room for "attitude" and we hope that MacAddict will find a way to stay in it and with it. [Bill Fox]