So I have decided to make my first blog on one of my biggest pet peves, Fanboism. What is a Fan Boi or what does it mean to do Fanboism? (Can also be reffered to as Fangirlism if the subject suffering from the symptoms is in fact, a girl) Fanboism can be related to just about anything, especially PC hardware in this case.  As an example an ATI Fanboi is someone who is so obssessed with ATI that they will always buy their products and never support or buy anything from their rival Nvidia.  They believe that everything that ATI makes and always has made is better than anything else. It also works the other way around if you are an Nvidia fanboi.  Fanboism is a disease and it can be highly contagious, so stay away if you think you see someone suffering from the symptoms of Fanboism. Here is an example of what a conversation with a ATI fanboi might be like (sorry if I am offending any ATI fans, it is purely for the use of this example, I am in fact using an ATI card myself, so I really don't have anything against them.)

"ATI Fanboi: My ATI X1900XT Pro is such a good video card!

Nvidia owner: Yeah, a couple years ago that was a pretty dang good card, I used to have one.

ATI Fanboi: What do you have nowZ0rz!?

Nvidia: A Nvidia GT275 GTX.

ATI Fanboi: OMGWTFZ sux0rz, why did you go Nvidia??!!?!??!! They suck, I mean if I quad crossfired my two X1900s it could totally pwnz0rz that pos!

Nvidia owner: Uh, but you can't quad crossfire that old card...

ATI Fanboi: But if I could! Then it would pwnz0rz!

Nvidia owner: Why don't you just go out an get a ATI HD4870 or HD4890 those are about on par with my GT275.

ATI Fanboi: OMG hEllz no! ATI became the suck when AMD bought them, AMD is horrible, Intel all the way!

Nvidia: But it's still ATI.

ATI Fanboi: No it's not!!!1111one ATI died when AMD bought them out, the only true ATI cards are what came before!

Nvidia: That.. doesn't make any sense..?

ATI Fanboi: Cuz ur a nubCAKE!"

That might be an extreme case of Fanboism, but sometimes that is really how it feels. Let's say someone comes out with a great product, you do your research and top rated review web sites like Tom's Hardware and Anandtech say great things about it, and so do other people's reviews. Yet, the fanbois and fangirls (or would it be fangurls?) will bash that product non-stop or say horrible things about it, because of who the manufacturer is and not because of what the product can do...

Now, there might be more legitimate reasons why someone will choose one product over the other.  Maybe they got bad customer support,  maybe they had a hard time dealing with drivers, or maybe they just plain out didn't like the control panel software that is standard with the hardware!  That is fine, Fanboism is an extremity that happens in the persons mind and no matter what, they will still support the company they are fans of, even if they do get a bad driver, or poor customer support, or they really don't like the interface of how they control their video card settings, but they force themselves to like because they must obey their "God."

Bad drivers and poor customer support can happen all the time, so hopefully eventually in the future you can get over the bad experience you had and maybe give the company another chance.  More competition is always great for the economy and especially the consumer.  So my advice? Do your research, keep up to date on the latest prices and latest performance benchmarks on hardware before you decide to buy it.  Hardware and software always changes quickly and rapidly, so you have to always be adapting and trying new things. In fact here is a good example with a personal experience. I have always been an Apple fan, love the OSX operating system, never thought in my lifetime Microsoft would ever be able to pull off an OS that it's only use would be to just play games... but I've been impressed with Windows 7.  I built myself a gaming rig just to use it, and I really enjoy using it as my every day computer.  I still love my Mac of course, and always will, but Microsoft has done something right, and I learned my lesson about having Mac fanboism in me.

Though the die-hard Mac fanboi's will never even touch Windows 7, and I might be called a Mac blasphemer, because of how loyal they need to stay to their "way of life", I would have to say they are missing out on a large piece of computer history, and if Fanboism keeps you out of the loop from learning something new, that is extremely bad indeed...

Don't be a Fanboi, try something new, you'll learn something and it will be fun.

- Zedaine 08-29-09