zahnster

Ever since transitioning over from PCland in early 2004, my Mac affiliation hasn’t been questioned much, due to the fact that most of the industry professionals around me also use them. It’s kind of like being a liberal in NY, nobody’s going to question your motives. This is all good and fine, until you find your Macness under attack. With your defenses down, it’s hard to think of a good response, and you can end up looking silly.

This is exactly what’s been happening to me recently, and being sick of my weak responses, one night I got to thinking, why am I a Mac?

Well, I know why I’m not a ‘Windows’. As someone who’s grown up online, and turned professional web developer during the birth of web 2.0, I’ve been pretty spoiled by innovation in software. I demand it, and any company who can’t provide me with such a service is not worth my time. I don’t have time to wait 3 years for a buggy web browser, and I definitely don’t have time to wait 8 years for a crummy OS. Add to that viruses, trojans, adware, malware, and spyware… you know, I think I’ll pass, kthxbai.

I also know why I’m not on Linux. Several times during my childhood I would have Linux phases, where I was just too annoyed / bored by Windows, and wanted to experience the ‘nix way of life. I had heard such good things about it, after all, and it really is the best line of OSes. The problem with this, was at the age of 15 I was no computer science expert. I was just a kid who liked to play around with websites, so compiling my own drivers so I could play a DVD was not my idea of a fun time. I wanted to like Linux as my OS, I really did, but at the end of the day I ended up missing the application support of Windows.

Then came along OS X. In early ‘04 I was in the market for a laptop, so I took the jump on the advice of a friend and got my first Mac, a PowerBook G4. It had OS X v10.3. I immediately liked it because of it’s ‘nix background. It had the security and stability of a super-solid OS in it’s FreeBSD backbone, yet there rarely is a need to get ‘down and dirty’ with the OS unless you wanted to. Even things like web services can be handled Terminal-free with programs such as MAMP and Locomotive. Mac had everything I needed, nothing I didn’t, and unlike my Linux phases, I didn’t miss Windows one bit.

In fact, as time went on, I became more and more immersed in the Mac world. The innovation is brilliant, with a new OS coming out roughly every 1.5 years. And if the OS innovation wasn’t enough, Mac boasts some of the most creative and useful apps on the planet. Case in point, they have the only decent svn gui in Versions, and there’s a wide array of homebrew companies like Omni and Panic, who release amazing software for really affordable prices. Mac is the incredible marriage of ‘nix and a commercialized support community, who not only pumps creativity and innovation in, but they do it on a really personal level. It all adds up to one big win.

A lot of the attacks against Mac tend to be in their business practices. Some of the top arguments I’ve heard:

• “They stop supporting older technologies too quick”
• “They’re not open-source”
• “They dictate what you can build on it” (this is a huge argument against the iPhone)
• and the all too famous, “They’re too expensive”

Granted, they’re pretty decent reasons, but with good comes bad and Apple needs these in place to be the innovators that they are. Yes, they do need to control the hardware a bit more, because that’s how the OS can be so streamlined. Yes, they have strict standards as far as development goes, but that’s how they keep the crap out, and provide a unified theme to the OS experience.

As far as costs go, I seem to be the only person who doesn’t think Mac’s are overpriced. Sure, you can get a flimsy Dell for $499, but you can also get a Kia, or you can get a Porsche. There’s clearly a difference in the manufacturing.

I’m not saying Apple’s the perfect company, but for this web professional at least, it’s clearly the best pick of the bunch.