Call it fanboyism, call it bandwagoneering, call it what you want. I just never liked Apple products. I never really liked the product design, I never liked the look of OSX, as a web developer, I never liked safari and its terrible JavaScript issues. I certainly didn’t (and still don’t) like the extremist apple zealots. Luckily, most apple users really don’t fall under that banner, even though the noisy ones make enough noise to make you think they all have to be doing it.

Phone Home

So what changed? The iPhone. I tried to resist it, but a combination of being ready to leave Verizon, breaking my current phone twice in a row (although one was my fault, phones aren’t meant to be dropped into toilets), and the idea of having a nice handheld web browser for when I’m downstairs away from the computer was too good a deal to pass up. The lack of 3rd party software support was a hang-up for me, but I ended up picking one up, and hoping that they change their policy. That said though, the point that most people seem to really miss is that, even with its limitations, the iPhone is still the head of it’s class. I think what we have is a case of too much hype, and too many rumors beforehand generating all kinds of hope that just couldn’t realistically be matched.

I’m not going to talk too much about the iPhone; it’s been beaten to death at this point. The effect the iPhone has had on me, or rather, the series of thought processes it has spawned, are what I’m really talking about. Before the iPhone, the only apple product I owned was an iPod shuffle (the first gen one). I was neither impressed or disappointed with it. It worked as it was supposed to, even though I still don’t think the concept is a great one, so nothing to complain about. It didn’t really do anything to surprise me either, its kind of like getting a B in school. Not great, but not bad either. The iPhone though, has surprised me. The interface, the usability, the visual appeal, everything. I thought I would like it on the grounds that I’m just a gadget geek, but I really find myself liking it more than I ever thought I would. Frankly, if apple was that smart with the interface of the iPhone, then maybe I really am missing out on something in OSX.

You want me to work with that?

Short of jumping on a coworker’s computer and testing some sites in safari, I haven’t ever found myself willingly sitting in front of a Mac. Given the limited seat time, I found the interface “clunky”. I didn’t like that the application windows didn’t have their own menu, but the shared one up top. I certainly didn’t like safari, but that’s because it seemed to always give nothing but problems with either javascript or flash content, thankfully though, safari 3 appears to have fixed a majority of these problems. On top of that, I just couldn’t find anything. I couldn’t figure out where applications were if they weren’t on the dock, couldn’t figure out how to open a network drive, and frankly, just couldn’t figure a lot out at all.

History lesson

Before I continue, lets cover a little bit of history for a few moments. I’ve pretty much been a windows guy for a while now. I was a beta tester for win 95, 98, and ME (lets not talk too much about that little jewel). I ran 2k after 98, then XP, and now vista. I like windows. It has its faults like all of the others, but its strong points are very strong, and industry support is strongest, and that’s not something you can just ignore. Vista is their best try yet…though it seems they broke as much as they fixed…but its still very usable. Aside from that, in the last year or so, I guess you could say I jumped on the Ubuntu train. As a matter of fact, aside from playing a single game that I can’t get to run in Linux, (and now, syncing the iPhone) I haven’t really booted into windows for well over 6 months now, at home that is. I’m still in XP at work. I like Linux because it just ‘feels’ better than windows. The idea of community developed free (speech, not beer) software gives you a nice warm and fuzzy feeling. Add that to a nearly DRM free environment, and viola, you got yourself a winner. I’ve convinced friends to give it a try, some stuck with it, others didn’t. My mom was even able to use it, which says a lot to tear down the “only for geeks and sysadmins” image of Linux.

Let’s be friends!

Back to the present. Last night I decided to stop by the Apple store and check out the new iMacs. I really just wanted to play in OSX for a little while. So I sat there for an hour or so just messing with things. Learning the user flow, asking a few questions to the guys in there (though, I have to say, most of the employees in the Apple store fall into the aforementioned extreme zealotry category, which makes them a bit annoying. After having someone who had never used Linux try to counter my points for it, I grew weary of them.), I started to understand a lot more about the OS. Add to that the fact that the new Mac Pros are rather customizable with multiple choices for just about every component, and apple even seems to be slipping away from just a hard-locked view on hardware.

When it comes time for a new computer, I might be looking to Apple, especially if I decide on a laptop. My current laptop is an HP desktop replacement, that weighs about as much as a diesel engine, and runs even hotter. I’m more likely to go with a desktop though, and since working on a single monitor drives me crazy, it will have to be a Mac Pro.

In the end, I have to admit that the thing holding me back from Apple was fanboyism, or more specifically, anti-fanboyism. The godlike worship for SJ that so many Apple fans have blinded me to the fact that there is, actually, a decent product under all of it. Frankly, it’s unfair to judge a system, be it Apple, Windows, or Linux until you’ve used it in the long run. All of them seems to have something to offer, and it’s up to the individual to decide which points are more important, and go with the OS that favors those points.

Fin.

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