[miend]

I'll admit that I went with a Thinkpad T430 over a Macbook Pro partially for this reason (I was also planning to run Linux on either, and I could get all-Intel on the Thinkpad). I still personalize it, but it's refreshing being even just one differing aesthetic at work. I've never known where to begin, but for years I've been cataloguing aesthetic & functional features I want in my "perfect laptop" and "perfect OS" which I doubt I'll ever get to see.

If I could put into as few words as possible, I still want some (initial) cleanliness in my aesthetic, but I don't want my devices to evoke safety and invitation -- I want them to look capable and daring. I want them to say "I'm a weapon against your obstacles. I will help you achieve whatever it is you do -- faster, better, more completely." My intuition tells me, however, that this might not be well received by a market, even if I knew how to cause such a thing.

Of course I'm a big fan of the cyberpunk aesthetic(s) as well. I would occasionally feel a dull sadness that the world doesn't seem to be turning out to be nearly as colorful as I'd hoped for as a kid, that when it comes to everyday objects, the world had apparently just "given up" and accepted a fate of bland uniformity. There is little market for deviant design.