Geek Culture: The Making of an Apple Fanboy

The OG Mac, circa 1984

I wasn't much of an Apple fan growing up. Sure, I got to use the Apple II and the first Mac (pictured at left) and that, in conjunction with the C64 was my introduction to the computer world. At that point, though, personal computing was still a fairly new thing, and we had no idea what we had in store a few years later, so there wasn't anything to hate, either.

Then, years later, I became more and more involved with the media industry, and Macs were the way to go back then. They were work horses, and could handle any task with ease. Oh, and they rarely, if ever crashed.

Fast forward a few years more, and the Windows-based machines had finally caught up, and even surpassed Macs in power and affordability. It became a standpoint that with a Windows machine, you could get twice the power of a Mac, for half the cost. And so, it was back with Windows 98 that I had fully moved into my position as a Windows guy. I had even taken a vehement stance against Apple for some time. But Windows-based computers still had a stigma attached to them that they were unreliable, and if you wanted to do any real work, you would use a Mac. As a studio designer/builder, I encouraged many of my clients to go for a PC instead of Mac, to save them money that they could use for other parts of their studios. This was around the time of Windows XP, and that OS had become very solid and dependable. The more I went around, the more I helped to end that stigma and bring the Windows-based computer up to what is considered a "professional" computer.

I never really cared for the snobbery that came around with your average Mac user. They looked down their nose at anyone who used a Windows computer. They rallied that the only computer you could use for graphics, audio or video applications was a Mac. The media industry as a whole has already proved this not to be true. Avid, a high-end video editing platform company had even made the shift away from Macs. Yes, this was in retaliation to Apple's Final Cut Pro software, and when Apple purchased eMagic's Logic Audio software, Avid's subsidiary Digidesign (the makers of Pro Tools) focused development towards Windows.

Then came the iPod. And iTunes. Apple finally did what they set out to do with the iMac and iBook a couple of years earlier, and reached the consumer market, lessening their focus on the professional market. Thanks to the MP3 taking over for the compact disc, Apple saw an opportunity that was still virtually untapped and released the first iPod in late 2001. At first, I liked the idea, but the price point was still too high for me to truly develop a proper interest in the product. At this point, mind you, I was still fairly anti-Apple. One of my then favourite bands was setting to release a new album, and the only way to check out any previews was through iTunes. And since I couldn't wait to hear it, I quickly downloaded and installed iTunes and listened to the thirty second clips. Up until then, I listened to my MP3s using Nullsoft's WinAmp, and until then, I thought I had the Bee's Knees of MP3 players. I was wrong. After a little iTunes education from one of my Apple-inclined office mates, I loaded my files into iTunes, and was astonished with how well it was laid out, and how well I could organize my music collection. Around two years later, I finally bought my first iPod (I've since bought two more) and could carry around said music collection in my pocket, instead of having to cart around a pile of CDs along with a bulky portable CD player.

I was pretty happy with my toe dipping into the Apple pool up until that point, then a few years ago, Apple started sticking it to the smartphone market with the awesome iPhone. Even though I was salivating over the iPhone, I had to settle with an iPhone knock-off, once again because the price point was still too high, and I thought the novelty factor would wear off. I was wrong. Again. A few months ago, my work handed me an iPhone 4, and I can assure you, the novelty has not in fact worn off. I have a BlackBerry as my personal cell, but I find myself "forgetting" it at home a lot these days. I also managed to get my hands on an older 1.25 GHz G4. Sure, it's not the latest and greatest, but hey, it was free and free is never a bad thing. And yes, I do happen to use it for my Pro Tools system, but not because Macs are superior to PCs, but because my PC is a laptop, and it's very difficult to stick a PCI card into a laptop.

So coming from an anti-Apple stance, to owning quite a few Apple products, I think I've come a long way. I've fallen in love with the OS X interface, and their newest systems from the Mac Pro, to the MacBook Pro. The Mac Mini is even a pretty neat little system. So, while I am an Apple Fanboy of sorts, I still do have a strong affinity towards PCs, and think it's really all a matter of personal preference, rather than one system being better than the other. But Apple sure does make some really awesome gadgets.