When does the Apple journey end?

I first got involved with Apple's computers in 1982.  It took a while to get to really using computers in my career.  First there were courses in Fortran and Basic on the way to earning a history degree from a spot on the Charles in the summer of 1971, but computers had their own building in those days.

After graduation I said goodbye to Cambridge, Massachusetts, took Interstate 95, grabbed the Bluenose Ferry in Maine to spent a couple of years remodeling an old farm house on the Nova Scotia coast. It was a rather unconventional way to start a career.  I then ended up north of Fredericton, New Brunswick running a 200 head commercial cattle operation focused on pure bred Angus bulls.

Through some twists and turns, I ended up as a Field Marketing Specialist for the Canadian Angus Association after dispersing our cattle herd in 1982.  One of my responsibilities was writing a monthly newsletter.  I did the first one on a typewriter which was zero fun.  I had spent the first winter in semi-retirement reading computer magazines, so I knew there was a better way.  Through the generosity of my late mother, I ended with one of the first Apple II+ machines sold in Fredericton.  At the time it was a true revolution.  With Apple Writer II, an Epson MX-80, and DB Master, I could do things faster than I ever dreamed.

Less than a month or so after buying the computer, I was selling them and soon training and managing other people to sell them.  They sold so fast we got them in by air.  It wasn't long until I was sales manager for five stores across the Maritimes and then ended up working for Apple in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

In those days working for Apple was an unbelievable honor along with a massive time commitment.  Weekends usually had something to do with Apple.  Travel was non-stop, but many very smart people believed that we were the good guys.  There were PC people but they were in the not very defensible world of DOS.  The Mac was new, better, and with desktop publishing along with some of the revolutionary tools like Adobe Illustrator could blow anything away in the creative space.

As I moved to Columbia, Maryland in the summer of 1987, we got the Mac II, its slots, and the most amazing color in the computer world. It was a heady time.  Apple was making inroads into the Federal Government.  Universities were falling all over themselves for Macs. By late in 1989, I was selling to higher education once again and living in Roanoke, Virginia.  I helped my wife do a newsletter for the local newcomers club.  I could have never done it without a Mac.  I worked with the local governor's school which at the time was all Mac. In the early nineties I ended up managing a higher education team and saw accounts like Va. Tech become great Apple customers.  It was the day of Mac LC.

Then the dark times came to Apple in the mid-nineties.  Products had problems, people left the mother ship like rats fleeing a sinking ship.  An Apple business card brought sympathy not an audience with any CIO.  It was hard time, but Apple people just worked that much harder carrying the message.  Then the constant reorganizations came. Eventually I ended up managing an enterprise team and laying off far more people than I care to remember.  I even laid off people who didn't work for me, because their managers were already gone.  I used to dread the call to fly to an airport near someone's home and call them unannounced on a Sunday night and ask for a meeting the next day.  I saw sales professionals break down in tears.  There was little that I could do for them, though once in a while I could find them another spot.

I can remember when I first thought things were starting to turn around.  It was when we shipped System 8.  It reduced customer software complaints so much that we actually seemed to have found some solid ground.  By the late nineties we were doing standing room only seminars in places that had  not been excited about Macs in years.

Around 1998 I first got involved with Apple and the federal government.  It was a huge challenge, but with a few dedicated Mac loving sales people, we made fantastic progress.  There were plenty of challenges along the way, but we seemed to be able to overcome almost all of the external ones.  It was always a running joke that when we could spend more time selling the customers on Apple than we did on selling Apple on the federal market, we would be on easy street.

Unfortunately that point never arrived for me.  I ended up out of Apple and perhaps because of my geographic location (three hours or more to an Apple Store) a little on the edge of the Apple world.  My first job after Apple was with a small system integrator, G3 Systems, Inc.  I was the only Mac carrying employee in what had at one time been an all Mac outfit.  After that I ended up explaining  National Lambda Rail's high speed networking to federal agencies as a consultant.  I saw almost no Macs other than mine as I called on federal customers.  I even ended up buying a Dell laptop to fit in, but I still used my Macs for most of my computing.

Last year I worked for Webmail.us, an email outsourcing services provider.  Out of the forty plus employees, I was one of three who used a Mac.  For a long time until I sorted out some challenges, I had to haul both a Windows laptop and my PowerBook G4 to work.  I got down to just a MacBook in the summer but having an Intel chip had nothing to do with it.  The web eventually solved most problems.

As I am getting ready to move into the world of real estate, I am very aware that it is a Windows centric world.  All the people at the real estate firm, Bluewater GMAC, where I hope to work carry Windows PCs.  While it's true that it is easier than ever to use a Mac as a Windows machine, it just doesn't seem right.

I'm still not as comfortable on Windows as I am on a Mac, but  I have accepted the fact that other people can be very productive on a Windows machine.  I suspect I could too if I put my mind to it.  There are even a few things where the software is better for the task on Windows. 

As much as I love the Mac it still it isn't easy being a Mac user when other users are few and far between.  I live in a wonderful place on the North Carolina coast, Bluewater Cove.  We are right on the White Oak River just minutes from beaches of Emerald Isle on the Southern Outer Banks. We aren't exactly isolated from shopping or people but once again the nearest Apple Store is three hours away.  The nearby Staples and Best Buy stores have no Macs or Mac experience.  I've managed to find one Mac user in the area.  I'm sure there are more, but I'm not sure I want to find them.

There's something to be said for being a semi-secret Mac user when other Mac users are scarce.  I just spent a couple of hours diagnosing a friend's Mac problem a week ago and even loaned him an extra PB power adapter until his new one could get in. That kind of free local Apple support can overwhelm you. I have managed to get away from most of the free Mac support that I used to do for friends. 

Unfortunately the way I have gotten away from it, is by watching them buy PCs.  The good news is that they have found much more local support than me.  Having to drive a couple of hours to help someone on a simple Mac problem is something most of us don't have time to do. While I would like for Apple to do a better job of support, I have to acknowledge that most of the seriously important Mac support comes from the Mac community as a public service.

I have been amazed at the huge volume of hits I have seen on two posts, "HP AIO Photosmart C6180 and Mac OSX," and  "The not so reluctant home system engineer" which dealt with my experience using  the HP product with a Mac.  I think it is a measure of the challenge that Mac users face in a world of PCs.

While there are many products out there that might sort of work with a Mac, it is something of a crap shoot until you know someone with a Mac is using the same machine with a similar configuration to your Mac.  That's not to say that everything works spectacularly on PCs.

Yet I am almost to the point that the Mac journey could end.  My MacBook hasn't been a product that would drive customer loyalty.  There is one thing keeping me on the platform.  Over the years, I have sometimes poked fun at the digital lifestyle that Steve Jobs made famous.  It is almost funny that the integration between iPhoto, iTunes, iMovieHD, and iDVD  are the biggest hooks keeping me on the Mac.  Maybe Steve knew what he was doing after all.  While I am a little more hooked into photography than your average user, it is rather unfortunate that more people don't do DVDs so they could understand what integration between applications really means.

All of my other applications, save a few cool ones I could relatively easily replace with less cool Windows apps, are dual platform. If I gave up the Mac,  I seriously doubt using a computer would be as much fun in the Windows world, but I have no doubt that the world would continue turning. 

In my recent post, "A blue collar strategy for Apple," I fantasized about running a small Apple store.  I guess some part of me still believes in the superiority of Apple technology and wants to see other people enjoy the advantages of the Mac in spite of the challenges of being an Apple customer.

Maybe like many other Mac users, I am here for the ride as long as there is something to ride.  I might not be going head to head with CIOs on meeting their enterprise needs with Macs these days, but I can still secretly enjoy myself when a group of Windows users are banging their heads on the wall.

Just maybe the Apple journey isn't over for me, and a few real estate agents might be using Macs in a couple of years.  The Windows screen to my right is dark, and the Mac one on the left is burning bright.  That feels pretty good.

Comments

[Harv]

HP makes horrible software for their nice hardware. Sorry to hear you got bit by this. I have a HP PSC 750 I don't use because the software is so vile.

[Leonardo]

Almost ending..what are you saying here now? You must change the appearance of the pcs to be less unpalatable. I did see one app that seemed like it would be a decent windos app, and that was Atlantis Ocean Mind, a word processor. That was when I was looking for a word processor for a friend who did not want to use word on his pc. And there are softwares in my business that are worthwhile, I wish they worked on the Apple Mac platform. I don't have any pc, although a unix machine may be of value. But I already have that, in my Macs, now.

I am in the lumber business, and there are few software programmes made for the Mac here, whether for producing sawmills, or for retail businesses. But there is one for retail businesses and contractors.

What is going to go in to our office is Macs.

Hold on, man. Do not throw yourself in to the sea. Keep enjoying the journey with your Macs. Vive le Resistance.

[Jeremy]

The next big thing is global warming and how to switch some of this technology off. Burning bright indeed!!
As you suggest the web fixes most things and app.s are mostly cross platform.
If you aren't learning an interface then you're a consumer on the web. So Applelove is commodity fetishism, and the free market for PCs just reminds us how dull and uncultured a free market can be.

[Ed Eubanks Jr.]

Thanks for your honest reflections. I can understand your position, and recognize that it must be very difficult to continue in what obviously feels like isolation.

I was forced to abandon Macs in the 90s because of costs-- I couldn't afford to continue to upgrade my Macs, and couldn't justify NOT getting a new computer when Windows PCs cost so (comparatively) little. Believe me, I ran back as soon as I could-- and that was not until 2004.

As a Mac user before and after an era of using Windows, I can attest to the frustration and difficulty of the Windows platform. I don't disparage it completely-- I'm fairly amazed that those PCs work at all, given the virtually limitless possibilities of lousy and buggy hardware and software they must accommodate. But it is anything but fun to be a Windows user. Yes, the world keeps turning-- but the next turn may well bring a complete shut-down to your working world as you re-format and re-install everything. (I found this to be a nearly annual practice, and sometimes more so.)

I have found that almost nothing I do is "incompatible" with my Windows counterparts-- even more obscure things like creating Gannt charts that are readable in MS Project. And I've found that whatever I lack in local, face-to-face support is more than made up for in online help.

Anyway, all of this is to say: I've been to the other side, and I'm so thankful to be back that I couldn't pass your post by without trying to urge you to stick with it.

[vanni]

Hi. Good article. But also kinda of odd, in that the past two years I have seen about 7 of my architect friends switch to Macbooks Pro. And in one office during the christmas party that i attended almost to a person said they were picking up new apple laptops after macworld sf. So while i hear many fed-up windows users who have had it with their virus-infected pcs and are switching... you seem to be on the verge of going ... to vista?? I urge to think twice. ciao PS iBlueberry? AppleTel? ;-).

[Chris Giddings]

I think the largest thing holding the real-estate industry back from using Macs is the incompatibility of their online software with Mac based browsers. We ran into this issue over and over again while I was work at the AppleStore here in Cincinnati.

Always we would seek a way to help the customer, and as the Business Sales Specialist and a software developer it irked me that an entire industry would knowingly make the choice to cut out a group of millions of users simply because they didn't want to do simple testing and write only slightly different web code to ensure their tools worked with Macs.

I am hoping the trends in integrating AJAX based systems moves into the real estate industry, and quickly. AJAX is platform agnostic for the most part, being based on JavaScript. Apple did a FANTASTIC job using AJAX to develop their recently updated .Mac Mail and AddressBook interfaces. I'm hoping they do similar with an online iCal interface. I often desire to enter new calendar events on the fly and want them to sync to my machines at separate locations.

Here's to hoping that in the next two or three years you're still Mac-ed out and having a blast with computing.

[Vineet]

This was one of the best blog posts I've read. It is inspiring, especially the part about moving from working on a farm to working for Apple. Wow. You have my respect.

I'm really hoping you don't give up on using Macs. But if you do, you can at least make your PC look like a Mac with FlyAKite. Maybe even spray paint.

[dxb]

I often answer the "which should I buy" question by saying - "Mac is the way computers ought to be, Wintel is the way they is."

[Sean Corrales]

This was a really enjoyable blog entry. But one question - why is the Macbook not a product that'd breed customer loyalty? I have a Powerbook G4 that I adore; it's the first laptop I've ever used that I actually liked.

Here's hoping you stay with the Mac faithful.

[AC]

Using HP on Windows isn't that much fun, either. When the minimal install for a printer puts 70M of crap on your machine, and the typical install loads a J2EE app server, there's something foul going on.

[Richard]

I've followed your blog journey for a long time. You have the passion of a true believer, and carry the pain of unrequited love. Apple's failure to realize its potential (in your eyes) and its disregard for other true believers, has made your journey bitter-sweet, more former than latter. You are unquestionably a good man made to do things that are in your mind not good. If only Apple had listened to you, and others, it would be a better company today. I think you're right.

Most people love Apple, or hate it. I love its products, but would not cross the street to shake Steve Jobs' hand. People who refer to him as "his steveness" and so forth, repulse me. And yet from the angst and tension of Steve Jobs work environment has come the best computer on earth. As long as Macs are the best computers on earth I will continue to buy them. When their not, I'm gone.

And not to cross the street to shake Steve Jobs' hand, either.

I understand Vista is quite good. Try it. But don't work for Microsoft. The pain would be too great. You are a man with a tender soul.

Richard Taylor

[Super Mike]

Convincing others to go Mac? No thanks. My wife, kids, and I use Ubuntu. We used to be Mac users, than Win 9x/2K/XP users, and now we're quite at home with Ubuntu.

[Francois Reeves]

I started with a Mac, way back in the 80's, left for PCs as all businesses were using them. Came back to Mac a few years ago when there were no more compatibility issues between the two platforms. I don't see the day I would ever consider going back to a Windows environment. The whole thinking of Microsoft engineers is wrong. It has been wrong for years. There is nothing intuitive about the interface. It looks awful too. This is not the point anyhow. Grab a video camera, visit a house. Film it. Go back to your Mac, put that sequence online with comments, a web site and stills in less time it takes to cross the Transcanadian bridge to P.E.I. Your PC colleagues are still reading documents and figuring out how to remove a scene from a sequence. The Mac is multifaceted, will run Windows, Unix, OS X and kitchen sink if it were an OS. I recently made a short presentation (using Keynote) saved it in QuickTime, put it on my iPod and showed it on television. Talk about portability, compatibility, convergence and ease of use. These words are still concepts for Microsoft engineers. I don't think you could ever get an engineer to think like an artist, to see the whole picture. It looks like a Mac.

[Gene Hilton]

Enjoyed reading your article - very interesting for this Mac fan. I saw you mentioned the Apple store 3hrs away - that must be the one that is about 5 minutes from my house, but aside from window shopping and the occasional purchase, tech support there at the Genius counter comes with a price - waiting! Think I'd rather be on the NC coast. Take care & good fortune to you and yours. Gene :)

[naum]

I never owned a Mac until 2003. OS X spurred me to get a Mac, and simply, it's the best decision I ever made, in the personal home computing realm.

The last few years have seen a lot more folks migrate over -- in fact, recently, at a web startup firm I worked for, all of the developers were on Macs, and a good chunk of the sales/help desk folks were too. Where I work at now, Macs are slowing creeping in to the IT mix...

Yes, market share is still low, but the computing experience is so superior...

I recognize that some people have esoteric computing needs -- like airline pilots who have no Mac or F/OSS equivalent of flight planning software or accounting firms locked into a Win world, but for everyone else there's really no reason not to make the switch, unless the primary reason for your computer is high end gaming.

One thing that does frustrate a Mac user are web platforms that seem to discriminate against Mac users. Something that infuriates me (a) as a web developer and (b) because it violates the whole spirit of the internet which should render the choice of a client platform meaningless...

[Hellene]

Some interesting stories of businesses using Macs to give them an advantage in the real estate business: http://www.apple.com/business/solutions/realestate.html

Maybe they could give you some insights?

[Sean]

Welcome to the North Carolina coast... just remember, being at the beach is better than a Mac (or any computer) any day of the week!

[Anugrah Mittal]

hats off to your struggle