fragility

A recent discussion on the prt.sc internal mailing list about Apple fanboys made me think I should write something about this. I was never accused of being an Apple fanboy or an Apple hater and that’s because I am neither one or another (I was already accused of being fanboy and hater of other things but I’ll write about that some other day).

First of all, let me say that I never had an Apple product. That said, I have to admit I have a soft spot for Apple. I like beautiful things, and Apple knows how to make beautiful products. However, I’m far from loving Apple “no matter what”.

I don’t like the iPhone, and I’m not going to say why because all the reasons why I don’t like it have already been said all over the web, and that’s also why I’ve never written about it. No point in copy pasting other peoples articles there. And I think the iPod Touch is one of the most stupid products they’ve launched in the last years, unless you have lots of money to spend and you don’t care how you spend it. I don’t think it’s completely useless, but if I really want to listen to music, I’d buy a Classic, and if I really want to do several stuff one device, I’d rather go for the iPhone (if there was nothing else in the world of course).

So if I was going to buy an iPod right now, it would be the Classic. The price per storage unit is really great. I wouldn’t buy a Shuffle or a Nano, I think there are better alternatives.

So what do I really like about Apple ? OSX and their laptops. And if I can, and if the supposed Macbooks that are coming have a nice set of features for a nice price, I’ll try to get one. Right now, I wouldn’t buy one because I really think they need to update Macbooks. What about OSX ? It’s Unix underneath, it’s pretty, it’s good. I never worked with it 24/7 but I played with it several times and I’ve read a lot about it. Hell, I almost taught a friend of mine to use it when he bought his Powerbook. There are some things (mostly small things) about it which annoy me, but it’s nothing that would stop me from using it. One thing’s for sure: if I ever get a Mac I’ll probably miss Linux and Gnome a bit.

Another thing that annoys me about Apple (and this has also been written about a lot) is the fact they don’t have something at the level of the iMac without a screen. But I surely wouldn’t mind having an iMac, or a Mac Pro. A mini ? Not really.

And, as a company there are some policies I like and some I don’t. I won’t go into detail, but let me put it this way: if i ever met personally with Steve Jobs I wouldn’t have a chill down my spine (not that I don’t admire what he’s done with Apple).

And that’s about it. If anyone ever asks me what I think about Apple or accuses me of being a fanboy/hater/whatever this is my long answer. The short one ? meh !