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If you want to do something, use a PC. If you want to get something done, use a Mac. Those were the very words I spoke about 8 years ago when I mastered the art of working with my very first Apple computer. The simplicity, elegance and productivity of the Cupertino experience had me convinced that the core business of Windows computers was not getting things done for you, but running spyware and participating in botnets to ‘get things done' for some dingy hacker in his mother’s basement in the southwest of the Ukraine.
And in many ways my statement was correct. I had been lured into the Cupertinian crack the same way a lot of people got into Apple: I got an iPod, after the iPod came the first iBook, then the first Mac Mini, and so on. These days my house consists mostly of hardware that bears the seal of Newton's falling fruit… Yet I start to wonder … is that still something that is absolutely necessary?
To answer this question, let us look back to the state of the technological landscape back in those times. Apple had just released “Tiger,” bringing some sense of stability and usability to the fairly new tenth iteration of its operating system. Where OS 1 to 9 still leaned heavily on its Xerox roots, OSX stood on the shoulders of a Unix kernel and offered a clean but fairly customisable interface. Windows had just delivered its long overdue baby called Vista, and, even though many people in the industry considered it to be a miscarriage, decided to release its fledgling to the world.
The Linux wars were still raging in full force as different factions in the Debian and Red Hat camps fought in a pyroclastic flame war in the Newsgroups, incinerating each other’s arguments and scorching any newbie who dared to come close with a novice question.
In that landscape, Apple was truly a shining beacon of productivity with its Iife and iWords suite, its slick hardware and elegant operating system, its fancy MP3 player and its endorsement by the graphic and intellectual society that “this was the way to go”. … But today it is perhaps a different story.
The one thing that has dramatically changed is Apple's focus. To me, the first sign was its infatuation with the iPhone and the mobile market. Probably considered Apple’s most popular and profitable product of all time, the iPhone also changed the very DNA of its maker. Apple used to be about creativity, and I emphasize 'Create'. Want to write a novel? Get a Mac. Want to get into graphic design? Get a Mac. Want to call your mom or play a game where you throw birds at blocks? Sorry, WHAT?
Indeed. Back then the core focus of Apple was not aimed towards entertainment or communication, at least not until the iPhone came along. And in those years since Steve Jobs picked that 'Magical“ device from his pocket, Apple has changed considerably. As I looked around the workspaces of my friends who did graphic design, I saw their Apple workstations age with time. The near orgasmic cries of joys – that they uttered whenever an update was released – diminished with every iteration and turned into small grunts of frustration as the upgrades to their shiny silver towers were once again postponed.
But for the rest of us grunts, Apple still had something to offer: superior hardware and a powerful operating system. But the decay of the latter started to show its flatulent underbelly with the arrival of Snow Leopard. In the spirit of “IOS-i-fying” the operating system, certain power features got 'hidden away” in favor of some 'IOS like' enhancements that were supposed to bridge both operating systems. In essence, OSX was getting dumbed down.
Oh well, If you are a slider, and don't like a certain kind of operating system, you just dual-boot a second operating system onto Apple's superior hardware … right? As long as that hardware remains superior, there is no problem, but, aside from the fact that Apple's “innovation curve” on its desktop and laptop platforms was becoming an exceedingly flatter slope, its prices continued to keep the same high standards. As the competition (Samsung, Acer, Asus) caught up with equally fancy ultrabooks (with an equally fancy price), Apple decided it would be a good idea to remove all of the removable parts from its hardware. The new iMacs got glued shut, the Macbook Pro's had no user replaceable parts .. The (power) user started to lose the one thing he had over his Apple experience: control.
So do I still buy the Cupertino party line when I'm out shopping for a new computer? I used to say 'of course,' but that is starting to change. Advising a friend (aspiring power user) on a new laptop yesterday, I heard myself utter the words “Asus” and “Linux” in one sentence. The request that queried this answer was one motivated by the option of “control”. Being able to “do” stuff with hardware you can “do” stuff with. As many flavors of Linux start to mature, “Apple” is not the default answer anymore, not even for the creative minds! And if you are on a budget and would like to add your own sticks of RAM (or an SSD drive), the polished silver of Cupertino is also no longer the default solution.
What it comes down to is that there are no certainties in the computer industry. With the ever faster pace of digital evolution, today’s masters of the industry become tomorrow’s outcasts – where the outcasts become the underdogs and the underdogs become the new heroes. In a couple of years, I've seen companies and technologies fade to the background, step back up to the plate, and be embraced or rejected by the ever growing crowd of consumers. In the end Apple has not lost its shine but it is no longer the company it was when it crawled out of the shadows of oblivion. It is no longer the underdog, nor is it the prettiest girl at the ball. Microsoft is no longer the corporate suit, and Linux seems to have trimmed its wildest beard. Everybody loses some shine, and everybody gains some. The great thing about this is that there are no longer default answers to standard questions. And as the defaults subside, the power of choice arises.