In my eleven-part ‘I’m Not a Mac’ series begun in 2009, I blogged about my migration from OSX to Windows 7 after 15 years as a confirmed Mac user. Last fall, I said good-bye to the Windows ecosystem, too. Hello, Linux. Here’s why I’m yours now.
In my ten-part “I’m Not a Mac” series last year, I blogged about my migration out of the Apple ecosystem after 15 years as a confirmed Mac user. Fifteen months have now gone by since I gave up Mac OS X and iPhone for Windows 7 and Android. Here are my follow-up thoughts about living almost Apple-free for more than a year.
After 15 years as a Mac user, I’ve officially become a PC. After selling my Macbook, I couldn’t be happier. Read on to find out why I think Windows 7 feels more ‘Mac-like’ than Mac OS X…and what that says about Apple.
Injudicious product naming aside, who really needs an iPad? Ever since its launch in January, I’ve wracked my brain to figure out the empty niche Apple’s snazzy new tablet is intended to fill. Trouble is, I keep coming up empty.
I’m stuck with Mac OS X Snow Leopard for awhile. That unexpected delay wouldn’t suck so much if Apple’s newest operating system hadn’t decided to eat my Macbook battery. There’s a debate among Mac users about why Snow Leopard seems to flag previously good batteries as failing, frequently popping up the warning, Service Battery. That would be fine if your battery was actually failing. Some aren’t.
But there are elements of Mac OS X I love. They won’t motivate me to stick with the operating system, but I’d sure like to take them with me when I finish migrating to a new OS. Primary among them is Time Machine, Apple’s point-and-click, behind-the-scenes backup functionality.
Many of them have expressed shock, anger, and in the case of the AngryMacBastards podcast, a desire to ‘put a bullet’ in my head for writing publicly about my disillusionment with Apple Computer.
I dove into Linux at the suggestion of several commenters who urged me to take a look at the open-source end of the OS world before deciding to go over to the Microsoft dark side. Why not? I figured. One-half of my goal is never again to have to pay several hundred extra dollars for specially branded hardware just to run my OS of choice, and the other half is to remove myself from Steve Jobs’ heavy-handed control of the applications I choose to install there.
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 am a future Windows PC user and that is that. After a 15-year relationship with all things Apple, I’ve finally had it with the Steve Jobs ‘you’ll use your computer they way we tell you to use your computer’ method of customer relations.