(Graphic: A riff on the unofficial piney logo of jailbroken iPhones–now including mine. Credit: iPhone Unlock.)
This post is part of my “I’m Not a Mac” series, chronicling my controversial migration away from Apple Computer after 15 years as a Mac user. Find other entries in the “I’m Not a Mac” series archive.
I didn’t expect my Wednesday post, I Am a Future PC: Why I’m Dumping Apple after 15 Years, to garner the attention that it did. In the past two days, the post has made the rounds of several Mac headline sites and generated a lot of heated comment debate over my decision to migrate from Mac OS X to Microsoft’s Windows 7. Many of those commenters were longtime Mac users who sounded like they were taking it personally that any former Apple fan would leave the fold. While I continue on my way out the OS X door, I’d like to respond to the commenters who let me know in no uncertain terms that they don’t agree with my opinions about the Mac platform.
Tough.
I could note that Macintosh is just a computing platform, not a religion, or a political stance, or a life-or-death medical treatment option. I could ask how my personal operating system preferences impact in any real way the lives of commenters who read my blog on Wednesday from many places thousands of miles away. (On Wednesday, alone, the post was read on every continent except Antarctica.)
I could point out that Apple’s requirement that Mac OS X run only on Apple-built hardware and desire for Mac users to run as much Apple-coded software on that hardware and hook as many Apple-designed peripherals to that hardware as possible eliminates choice. Sure, Apple’s applications and machines are closely integrated. Given the lack of hardware alternatives, though, they’d better be.
I could also point out that I don’t need anyone’s permission to change my OS. Numerous commenters told me they didn’t agree with my decision, my reasoning, my logic. They urged me to reconsider or at least make an argument that they found compelling. Reading these particular comments, it sounded like I needed the permission of the installed Mac user community to leave it. As if I was trying to leave a religious cult and the faithful were trying to keep me there, against my will if necessary.
But I think “tough” sums it up best. Before Wednesday, I spent several months shifting away from Apple software and over to a cross-platform or open-source software suite. In lieu of Apple’s branded Dock, software, and iApps, now I’m a regular user of Google’s web apps (Mail, Calendar, Office), Firefox, NetNewsWire, OpenOffice, DragThing, and Picasa. And I’m liking it. A lot.
Here’s where I’ve gone since Wednesday…
Linux in the Running
Several commenters suggested I give myself a wider base of comparison by trying out Linux as a potential replacement OS. So I did. I downloaded Sun Microsystem’s open source VirtualBox virtualization software, and the latest build of popular consumer Linux flavor, Ubuntu. Except for the pesky but common low resolution running in virtual mode, my initial reaction was positive. I hadn’t realized how much useful open-source software comes out of the box or is immediately available for download with Linux.
I did, however, find that I’m not a big fan of Ubuntu’s GNOME interface (one of the two main graphical user interfaces, or GUIs, used by consumer Linux builds.) So next I downloaded Ubuntu’s sister version, Kubuntu, which uses KDE, the other main Linux GUI. I think it’s a lot more attractive, but I won’t say that too loudly–the battle between GNOME and KDE users in the Linux world rivals the Mac-PC debate, and I think I’ve stirred just enough controversy this week. Besides, I haven’t yet gotten Kubuntu to play well with VirtualBox. Once I get it up and running alongside Ubuntu, I’ll spend some time trying both on for size, work-wise and play-wise.
Google Voice Rollout
Back in 2007 when I thought I wanted to move from my beloved Chicago back to my native New York City (thankfully, the urge passed), I signed up with Grand Central for an NYC-based virtual phone number to help easy my shift from city to city. Grand Central, of course, was the company offering “one number to rule them all” bought out by Google and turned into the nifty–and if you’re Apple, controversial–Google Voice service.
In my earlier post, I made no bones about wanting to shift away from iPhone and over to Google’s Android mobile phone platform. I maintain only a single phone number (it’s easier that way), so I knew a bridge number would make it easier to shift from carrier to carrier. Skype would have fit the bill, but Google Voice would work better. And lucky me, we former Grand Central users all got early access to Google Voice. (Please don’t ask for invites, I gave mine away on Twitter.)
So I laid down Google’s admittedly annoying $10 fee to change to a Chicago number of my choice and immediately contacted my friends, colleagues, and clients to ask them to ditch my old number (or as I put it, to please pet and feed my new Google Voice number and bury my old iPhone number in the backyard.) Boy, did I miss being a Grand Central user. I was happy to find most of the same neat calling features I remembered in Google’s version. Those features include visual voicemail which predated the iPhone, the ability to listen in on messages before I answer calls or to block callers permanently, and the ability to record separate greetings for different callers or groups of callers–those last three features, of course, nowhere to be found on an iPhone.
If only I didn’t have to use Google’s clunky, hastily created mobile web app to access the service from my iPhone. But, of course, I do, thanks to Apple’s ongoing, FCC-enraging refusal to allow a Google Voice app on non-jailbroken iPhones. (Can you see where this is heading?)
The Great Escape
If I was really walking away from Steve Jobs’ control over my computing life as I declared earlier this week, then I knew I had to put my money–or at least the risk of my iPhone investment–where my mouth was. Late last night, I boned up on jailbreaking procedures, read through the iPhone Dev-Team blog, downloaded the latest Pwnage jailbreaking software, and became a criminal in the eyes of Apple. All to load software of my own choice on my owned phone.
Though first I had to suffer through a common jailbreaking problem, the dreaded “1604” error. Just as iTunes was trying to restore my iPhone from the special .ipsw file created by the Pwnage program to, essentially, break the device free from the App Store, the error popped up and my phone sat there like a sad little electronic brick.
It took an hour to figure out the problem: insufficient Pwnage documentation from the iPhone Dev-Team. If your phone has not yet been jailbroken, the Pwnage program places the phone into a deep-recovery mode called DFU mode, like REM sleep without the rapid eye movements. Once there, you restore the phone yourself using iTunes, by option-clicking the Restore button in iTunes and selecting your new .ipsw file.
Of course, the on-screen prompting in Pwnage tells you none of that, so when iTunes launched and stopped Pwnage from putting my phone in DFU mode, I followed the few instructions Pwnage had already given me once more, proceeding to put my phone into Recovery mode–not a deep enough sleep, as it were, to restore with a jailbreaking .ispw file.
This helpful site will tell you that you need to put your phone in DFU mode, and this helpful site will tell you why (unlike Recovery mode, DFU mode blocks the iBoot agent from loading, allowing for the jailbreaking magic to happen.) But, really the iPhone Dev-Team could just have said that in the on-screen instructions in Pwnage. At any rate, another hour later I had a jailbroken, fully restored iPhone, with an icon to access Cydia, the independent app store for apps Apple doesn’t want you to have. (Mind you, jailbreaking doesn’t take away access to Apple’s own App Store.)
Long story short…well, too late for that. But the time and tedium of jailbreaking was worth it for one thing: the shiny, new, free GV Mobile app that now resides on my iPhone, downloaded from Cydia. It’s the best of the Google Voice apps that Apple removed from the App Store over the summer. It integrates with my iPhone Address Book and it works beautifully.
And it uses a phone number completely out of the control of Steve Jobs. I bet that just kills him.
Categories: "I'm Not a Mac" Series
Mike
I’m an #OpenlyAutistic gay, Hispanic, urbanist, Disney World fan, New York native, politically independent, Jewish blogger in Chicago. I believe in social justice, big cities, and public transit. I write words and raise money for nonprofits. I’ve written this blog since 2005. And counting...
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Men like Vega must think he is god.
PS:Try a phone with Oled screen, Mike.
Don’t misunderstand me, please. I really don’t given a fuck about the OS you use. What I do give a fuck about is your annoying, self-important attitude about it. The way you try to spin a platform choice as some form of self-expression, or noble struggle for freedom.
I know. I shouldn’t. But I can’t help it. It’s like accidently watching Hannity: You stumble over something that causes this unbearable pain in your frontal lobe and you just have to vent your rage, just to keep your head from exploding.
Vega, if you didn’t “give a fuck” so much, you wouldn’t be bitching to me in this comment thread.
Ahem.
Crybaby.
“I could point out that Apple’s requirement that Mac OS X run only on Apple-built hardware and desire for Mac users to run as much Apple-coded software on that hardware and hook as many Apple-designed peripherals to that hardware as possible eliminates choice.”
Apart from needing to use a Mac for OS X, you have NO restrictions in using any software or peripheral you like. No restriction at all.
“And it uses a phone number completely out of the control of Steve Jobs. I bet that just kills him”
Sorry dude. He won’t give a fuck what some borderline narcissist uses for his oh so important communication needs. Or if you want to enjoy the added freedom of receiving iPhone worms specifically aimed at jailbroken iPhones.
“I’d ask if Apple were listening, but I think they closed their ears to their long-term base awhile ago.” Oh you mean the valuable long-term base from the amazingly successful 1990s? Mhhh, let’s see. After “closing their ears” they have gone from success to success. By offering a product that obviously appeals to an increasing amount of consumers. I bet after they have finished counting their billions they are ringing their hands in dispair after having lost such a valuable member of their long-term base.
And what is it with your desperate need to personify the company, make it all about Steve Jobs? Do you feel your daddy doesn’t love you anymore? After you stuck with him all these years? Poor you.
Bottom line: Use the computer that works for you. No one gives a fuck. It’s a tool, not a philosophy or a dogma. If you need a computer to give you purpose in life, you have issues. If it doesn’t work for you anymore, just use a different one.
But don’t try to make it about perceived values, strawmen like the “Mac faithful” or your misguided sense of entitlement.
Yes I’m a Mac user. Not because i believe that makes me a better person, but because it works better for me. I enjoy letting Software do the work of organizing my photos or finding files (Spotlight anyone?), without having to care about ancient concepts like file directories. And as Computer use keeps entering the mainstream even further there are more and more like me and less people like you.
Thank god
UPDATE: I can now happily Internet tether my 3G iPhone running iPhone OS 3.1.2, thanks to the iPhone Dev-Team hack tutorial here. It took some SSH and terminal tinkering, but it makes a huge difference in how useful I find my iPhone–and may keep me an iPhone user just a little longer.
Thanks. I agree, branding is definitely dogma–that’s why it’s a good idea to live up to your own branding. I’d ask if Apple were listening, but I think they closed their ears to their long-term base awhile ago. Don’t worry, I’ll be equally skeptical on the Windows side.
hu… from the looks of these comments you didn’t smack the hornets nest hard enough. Welcome to the world of open source. One thing to beware of though, people who nestle comfortably in one dogma tend to find another nest rather quickly after leaving the safety of the first. I guess you’ve figured out that branding is a kind of dogma.
Apple’s militant control over the iPhone is the primary reason I haven’t jumped on the iPhone bandwagon, followed closely by the fact that it’s on AT&T’s lousy network. Of course, Verizon isn’t much better than Apple in the control department, but at least they have a fast network that doesn’t garner a lot of complaints. I’m looking forward the the Android phones finally being released by Verizon. The Motorola Droid looks promising…
Well, by way of update, I think I’ll need a bit more time to figure out how to install the Linux Guest Additions for VirtualBox.
However, it’s been a joy playing all weekend in the Cydia alternative app store with my newly jailbroken iPhone. Beyond the GV Mobile app, I’ve finally got five icons in my Dock, icons in my menu bar to alert when I have messages and voicemail waiting, a video recorder on my 3G non S iPhone, also finally a new theme (thank you, Winterboard), and downloaded a way to hide that useless Stocks app once and for all.
None of this is any surprise to other jailbreakers, but to a newbie like me, it feels like the mobile-phone equivalent of running through a springtime field of grass. Chasing butterflies.
Great tip, thanks! Now I have a project tonight 🙂
Next tip for you: In VirtualBox, be sure to install Guest Additions.
GA will allow you to use VB as just another window so you don’t have to capture the cursor, will allow more resolutions, maintain a shared clipboard between the guest and host, and share Windows folders.
Been awhile since I did that, but it is pretty simple and there are tons of tutorials. It will make your virtual OS life much easier.