A Mac experience

I am in the process of buying a new computer. My old PC has been with me for almost 3 years and is fast approaching its "Used by" date. I know that my next computer will be a Mac.

When I was younger (oh, the good ole' days), I liked buying custom assembled PCs, so that I got to choose the components I want my computer to have. And because I was a poor student and back then computers are quite expensive, I was able to balance the cost and the features this way. I had plenty of time back then as well, so I could do a lot of tweaking myself. Installing, uninstalling a lot of stuff as I wished. I remember when I first discovered Linux (It was Redhat 6.0), I used to spend days to install, uninstall, compile kernels to build up a usable computer system (yes, my computer back then was consistently unusable). Back then, I had no family, no kids, job was simple, had plenty of time learning about computers inside out. But now, I simply just don't have the time to "look after" my computers. Computers to me now are just like any other house hold electric appliances. Like TVs, DVD players or Wii consoles, I shouldn't have to "look after" them to make them do things I bought them for. A Mac, in my opinion, does just that. At least Apple is making its computers do just that. ... "It just works". By dropping "computer" from its company name, Apple is clearly heading to the right direction.

And mind you, I am not a Mac user ...at least not yet. My latest experience with an Apple product is my new shinny iPod Touch and I absolutely love it. It has the only mobile web browser that I can ACTUALLY use to browse the web. The screen is big enough for serious TV and Movie viewing. And there are so much more this shinny thing can do, I am actually WAITING for the upcoming 2.0 firmware upgrade. And I think Apple's complete closed approach to third party iPhone/iTouch applications a good thing (To think that I am a GNU/Linux user for the last 10+ years) . Let's face it, there are geeks who will absolutely hate this, but for rest of the users, do they really give a damn? I doubt so. My customer serving experience tells me that all the customers care is "it should just work". And guess what will happen with Apple's closed approach to third party applications? Not surprisingly, they will "just work"(they better do, otherwise Apple will just kick them out of iTune).

There is an article on Slashdot about "How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong". In my opinion, maybe it is not Apple that is doing everything wrong, maybe it is all the other companies still don't get it. Computers nowadays (and when I say Computer, i mean both the hardware and the operating system) should just be house hold appliances. Special computers will be built for special needs(e.g. for software developers, digital artists ... etc), but for the majority of computer users, a computer should be no different from a TV set, or a microwave oven. It should allow users to manage their daily digital routines such as Web browsing, e-mailing, documenting ... and that should be it. And here is a prediction .... in the next few years, we shall see the slow death of PCs in their current form. Computers like iMac and Mac mini will dominate the market. and people won't care about the OS war no more because by then, it should be totally transparent to the end users.