The Apple of my Eye

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Through the vernacular of a once loyal MS Windows user, Siegler takes our hand and walks us through what is so great about the newest iteration of Mac OS X, 10.7 Lion.

But the following is my relationship with Apple, inspired by Siegler’s account:

The year was 2005. I bought my first iPod, a 2nd generation iPod Nano, with a John Lewis voucher work rewarded my team with as a thank you. I still have this iPod, still use it, and still appreciate the design (except for the earphone jack being on the bottom instead of the top of the unit).

It was my gateway drug to Apple.

Windows kept me prisoner by merit of the time and energy I had poured into getting to know her. It can be very hard to leave a relationship, even one riddled with mental and emotional abuse. Oh, the time I invested trying to maintain a stable Windows install.

And then in 2008, my resistance to Apple eroded. With my laptop’s Windows install coughing and spluttering; streams of digital bile, gobbets of BSOD sputum and error messages all over my attempt at having a quiet night in with my computer, I finally caved.

I saw the latest Aluminium bodied MacBook. I recalled the glint in the eyes of my friend whenever he talked to me about Apple, and his growing collection of Apple hardware. I weighed it up: Stable; sexy (hardware and software); usable; and with minimal tinkering required, but plenty of scope there if you want to.

Right, I thought; enough is enough. My mail-order computer was in the post. The bloated and sluggish hag of a Sony Vaio, barely a year old, was quickly shown the door. More than a decade of pain and strife, gone. Untethered, I was; free.

Have I looked back since?

No.

None of the Apple equipment I have enhances my abilities or talents to get things done. How could they? They are only tools. Fine tools, but tools nonetheless.

But, I haven’t had to reinstall the operating system, tweak much, or waste hours repairing, sharpening, and tidying. Lion is still fast on my nearly three year old MacBook. Also, the flicking between desktops makes good use of my relatively lo-res 13″ screen. It looks like my next notebook hardware upgrade is still years away. (Okay, so I also have an iPad 2; an iPhone 4; and several iPods.)