| I own an iPhone, an iPad, and a Macbook. I read Daring Fireball, TUAW and Macrumors. I believe that Apple's hardware is superior to all others in the market. People like to call out how I'm always "tuned in" to Apple news. But I am not a fanboy. I don't think the Operating system is the best. It is fraught with inconsistencies underneath its friendly veneer. There is a reason why Windows is popular and it may have something to do with usability. I use OS X because it is simply the best Unix desktop out there. The iTunes application is a beacon of monolithic programming. It reeks of legacy-oriented design, completely contradictory to Apple's touted design mantra. Yet it exists unaltered, version after version solely because of the revenue it generates. Design and Engineering be damned, we're making money here. I use it because they threatened and killed every other music player for the Mac. I have never bought an iTunes song. I unlocked my iPhone within the first 2 hours of owning it. I paid for my hardware, not the AT&T tithing. I am completely happy with my 50$ a month, fully functional smartphone. I run a jailbroken phone despite the security risks. The app store is a breeding ground of corporate adware and get-rich-quick wannabes. The only thing it doesn't contain is what Mac developers were renowned for -- small, independent and creative paid software. Some innovations found in Cydia deserve more attention that they get today. I bought an iPad because it was the cheapest and best way to acquire a manifestation of things Xerox invented 20+ years ago, and what Microsoft has been researching for 10+ years. And I am impressed with what I see. Overall, you're still the best products money can buy for what I want to do. I respect Apple because it has the best engineering in the world. It takes a spectrum of well understood technology, and creates the best possible device in that category. Every other part of Apple: its lawyers, its strategists, its leaders and its marketing do not matter. I am aware that the new Apple, Inc. caters to exactly two kinds of people. The busy soccer mom with a 6 figure family income, and the rabid nerd who chants Objective-C while worshipping at his local Steve Jobs altar. This is not a rant. It is simply a statement that Apple has more these 2 kinds of customers. The third kind is me -- the tinkerer, the hacker, the fan of good technology. The kind that rejects rules, limitations and playgrounds of corporate malfeasance. I am the one who Thinks Different. |
You could have been describing me. I got on the Mac bandwagon 10 years ago, when Mac OS X didn't work properly yet, and just recently got off.
Ubuntu is a better Unix desktop now. I laugh at the Ubuntu community arguing about their sleek new icons in the top bar. They're not quite consistent, use slightly different shades, some legacy ones are a different height from the rest. I remember reading the exact same arguments about the Mac OS X ones yet even the Linux guys assume the Mac is infallible in this regard. Any reader of Gruber should know otherwise.
There's pros and cons and everyone has their own use case but Ubuntu is gaining them, and the Mac is losing them as far as I can see (e.g. it seems like Ubunutu works better with iPods these days, crazy as that sounds, just by not implementing anti-features that stop you doing things like copying your music off). You know Ubuntu is going ship three upgrades in the next 18 months, whereas news has just come out that Apple has reduced the 10.7 team to a skeleton crew (which has happened repeatedly to other interesting projects within Apple) which means even its optimistic release date of 18 months is in doubt, as is how much they'll charge you for the upgrade.
I bought iPods because they were perfect for me and Apple were years ahead of the curve. They're not any more. I nearly bought an Apple TV, but if your life doesn't revolve around iTunes it doesn't make sense. I bought the iPhone, a bit more reluctantly, if I was going to carry a phone anyway, I might as well have one with a great browser, and they were a couple of years ahead of the competition. They're not anymore. I'm not going to bother with the iPad (or anything else Apple again) because they're not that far ahead of the competition and they won't be for long.
I don't need a pad, I want the same low-power ARM hardware plus a keyboard in a standard netbook form factor running Linux. If it's not got access to the "Apt" store, then I'm not interested.