I've been a Mac fan since it was released. I was 8. My dad wouldn't let me get one because he disliked them pretty intensely, said you couldn't tell what they were doing and couldn't fix them, and they were overpriced. And I mean, he wasn't wrong. I remember once, probably 1985 or 1986, we were at a computer show where they were raffling off, I think, a Mac 128k or Plus. My dad told me if either of us won we would sell it and get an Amiga. In retrospect that would have been cool, TBH.
The only thing that ever got my attention instead was when NeXT came out. It was just so badass, this ominous black cube with the cool 3d grayscale UI. But even more out of reach financially, so I just hung out at the local university computer base that had a bunch. I think the guys in the store viewed me as a kind of mascot. But TBH NeXT struggled just as hard as Apple and didn't even have their legacy brand equity.
Those of us who suffered through the bad years are still the most loyal, I find, even though they are stagnating, and even though the modern OS and hardware, though unquestionably vastly better in functional terms, are just not quite as interesting and unique.* In the late 90s, when Apple was at its nadir, I had to reluctantly mostly abandon the Mac. I still had one but most of my time was in the unix/Linux/FreeBSD world. So when NeXT reverse-acquired Apple, and the classic look and some of the classic feel of the Mac married the unix foundations of NeXTStep, it was game over, and the first chance I got I convinced my boss to let switch and I've never looked back.
Similar story for me. After using Macs for years, I drifted into Linux-land, and it took me a while to realize “Oh, wait, Macs are UNIX now” and jump back in. Been very happy since.
I've been a Mac fan since it was released. I was 8. My dad wouldn't let me get one because he disliked them pretty intensely, said you couldn't tell what they were doing and couldn't fix them, and they were overpriced. And I mean, he wasn't wrong. I remember once, probably 1985 or 1986, we were at a computer show where they were raffling off, I think, a Mac 128k or Plus. My dad told me if either of us won we would sell it and get an Amiga. In retrospect that would have been cool, TBH.
The only thing that ever got my attention instead was when NeXT came out. It was just so badass, this ominous black cube with the cool 3d grayscale UI. But even more out of reach financially, so I just hung out at the local university computer base that had a bunch. I think the guys in the store viewed me as a kind of mascot. But TBH NeXT struggled just as hard as Apple and didn't even have their legacy brand equity.
Those of us who suffered through the bad years are still the most loyal, I find, even though they are stagnating, and even though the modern OS and hardware, though unquestionably vastly better in functional terms, are just not quite as interesting and unique.* In the late 90s, when Apple was at its nadir, I had to reluctantly mostly abandon the Mac. I still had one but most of my time was in the unix/Linux/FreeBSD world. So when NeXT reverse-acquired Apple, and the classic look and some of the classic feel of the Mac married the unix foundations of NeXTStep, it was game over, and the first chance I got I convinced my boss to let switch and I've never looked back.
* John Siracusa's excellent explanation of what I mean: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2003/04/finder/