McDonald’s now provides free WiFi in many of their establishments, and they provide customers with a little ‘how-to’ on connecting.
Since the world is primarily divided into Mac and PC, McDonald’s provides instructions for both (Ubutnu users wouldn’t need a user guide :-)).
It looks to me like Mac users have a much easier go of things.
What do you think?
Are Mac’s really this much easier?
(Check out the PC Version, too.)
[via 9 to 5 Mac]
Peter S says
I think I saw a different version of this that walked a Mac user through the various terminal commands in order to connect. Next to it, had the Windows 7 “just connect” instructions. Kind of funny, even if it was probably made up. Definitely reminded me of the time I had trying to troubleshoot a printer issue on my friend’s iMac. Never did figure that out.
Eric Dye says
LOL! Sometimes “easy” is “hard.”
Mason says
You saw a photoshopped version that was meant as a joke. Terminal commands are not necessary. Being in a mixed computing environment, the above guide is definitely true. It is just that easy on a Mac.
Peter S says
I’ve used Windows for a long time – it’s pretty easy on Windows every time I’ve needed to connect. It goes both ways. I know little about Macs so something that should be easy (like getting a printer to work) was totally beyond me. No troubleshooting guides or anything else and every “fix it” page I saw for CUPS involved terminals. Plain text worked, but nothing w/ any sort of graphics. I’m still bugged that I couldn’t figure it out.
And yeah, the second one was a joke, but I appreciated it because it really can go both ways at times. Try setting up wireless on Win7 and it is also “just that easy”. Even in XP/Vista it was generally easy – turn on Wireless, Connect to [name], open browser, follow instructions on page. Done. Whoever wrote that guide doesn’t get it. 😛
daryl says
Is Windows Vista the latest version of Windows that works at McDs?
Eric Dye says
I wondered the same thing!
Alex Humphrey says
Even so, I have vista and all I do is click on the icon, click McDonald’s wifi and then click “connect”.
Is it not this easy for everyone? Is this assuming the user has never once used wifi before?
Eric Dye says
I think the place-mat was designed by a Mac user. Makes sense, to me.
Peter S says
Sadly, that’s probably accurate. Never had to go through that many hoops myself that I recall.
David says
Peter, This is probably what you were talking about:
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/UpdatedFor2011McDonaldsWiFiGuideWithUpdatesForMacOSXLionAndWindows7.aspx
In the end, mMDs just made the instructions way more complicated than they needed to be and it just feels like everyone is quick to jump on it to make fun of windows.
Peter S says
That was the one! I laughed when I saw it, not because I believed it was accurate, but because I went through something really similar just trying to get a printer working. Still have no clue why CUPS worked with a simple text file, but refused to print anything more complex. I finally gave up and said that bringing it in to people who know Macs more than I do would make sense. Messed around with the terminal for a while (attempting to follow the troubleshooting guides) and no luck. Thanks for digging up that link. I only caught the pic earlier. It drives home a good point.
Eric Dye says
HA! I’m lovin’ it!
James Cooper says
On a similar theme, I got a new printer a few months ago (epson) and the instructions for setting that up was 3 massive (and complex) pages for windows and for mac ‘put the disk in and run the app’! And after installing it first on my macs and then my parent’s windows machine (for when they need to use it) I can testify that the instructions were pretty acurate!
Eric Dye says
True.
Eric Dye says
PC Version: https://churchm.ag/mcdonalds-wifi-guide-pc/