My Apple Lineage #30daysofApple
By Rama, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr, Link
One of the more noticeable (I’m saying annoying, yes I mean annoying) things that has been a repeated comment on/with my #30daysofApple experiment/project, are people saying that I’m not an apple person or that I’m just being a windows fanboi. Which I find hilarious because quite frankly, y’all are wrong. Let me go thru my apple lineage, and why after almost 40 years of life on this planet, thinking critically and using all kinds of computers, from PCs, Apples before Mac, Mac before OSx, Sun sparc systems and AS/400s. A month long review series analyzing how one brand of computers is doing, is something I am more than qualified for.
Let’s start with a flash back to the mid 80s, the very first computer my dad bought for us to use was an apple ][ (yes, you read that right I used the square brackets). After we managed to kill it (I dunno, I was too young to remember) we progressed to an apple ][e which my sister and I used for gaming and some educational gaming like wizard of words. There was about a decade where we switched to PCs because of cost, but we did have a Mac SE sitting around the house, however without a keyboard or mouse it was just kind of a paper weight.
At some point during this time, I helped speced out a power macintosh 8100s based AVID Non-linear video editing system for the HPU video lab. I didn’t have much hands on time using it, but I sure do remember ordering it. Speaking of work, taking a break from this lineage, I was the only one in my dept at HPU who was using a macintosh as a work computer. Being a network engineer at the time, it was MUCH easier having a laptop that had a UNIX underlayer, that allowed me to tftp firmware and configurations, ssh, sftp and do a host more other functions without having to load extra software onto my laptop. Esp when we weren’t given the budget to actually buy management software, so troubleshoot a router, need it to output it’s log file somewhere? Reconfigure the syslog on my mac to receive syslog and read the output files. Need to flash a router? No problem, I has a tftp server built in. Need to edit my boss’ wedding video? Yup, can do that too because iMovie rocks.
Back to the lineage, after the iMac, I bought a Powerbook G4 titanium, the aluminum Powerbook G4 and I ended my previous mac run with a 2008 vintage Macbook Pro, with an intel core 2 duo and eventually 8GB of ram. I added an SSD into it at some point, and kept that going until 2013, when it finally died while I was in Washington state. Had I had the income at the time, I would continued with another macbook but when you’ve just moved states, no income yet, a mid tier Asus laptop on sale for $600 sure looks better than a $1000+ bottom of the line apple product. At some point I also had a first generation macbook air, but I traded it for something, can’t remember what. Might have been an iPad, could have been food. I don’t know.
By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, Link
In terms of my software journey, again, I started out on the Apple ][ learning how to use apple DOS, ProDOS, and apple Basic. When I finally got to the powerbook 5300 time, I was using (classic) Mac OS 7, OS 8 and ending on OS 9. Before switching to the beta of OSX and continuing that ride until Snow Leopard when my macbook died. I’ve built hackintoshes based on various OSx iterations, and now I’m currently on Sierra. I’ve sort of missed 4 iterations of OSx or as it’s now called Mac OS again (still sounds like a pinoy dictator or a flying robot), but I have used them in various forms, while maintaining my dad’s mac mini.
As for accessories devices, I’ve owned apple newtons, iphones from the first gen iPhone thru iPhone 4, where I switched to android. However, I had an iPhone 5(s?) as a backup phone from @michaelchoy and now I’m on an iPhone 6. So it’s not like I’m completely out of touch on the iOS side. I also had the first gen iPad, second gen iPad, almost all flavors of the ipod from the original firewire ipod, gumstick ipod nano, square ipod nano, to also an ipod touch.
So to the next person who tells me I just don’t understand apple and their philosophy.
