Everybody with the words "Apple Fanboy" on the tips of their tongues can start reaching for a cold beer to swallow them down. I'm by far an Apple Fanboy. Very true : I just placed the order for my Imac (see the article below) and am waiting (although not very patiently) for the thing to arrive. But asides from that i'm not one of these guys who worships every toilet seat Steve Jobs ever parked his royal behind on. Yet today I am consumed with a feeling of guilt. Guilt ? Why ? because I have just converted the first persons in my family to buy a new Macbook instead of a Windows Laptop. Are those gasps of surprise or of outrage I hear ?
As a matter of fact these newly aquired 'mac-o-fe-liacs' (is this a word) are my sister in Law and her boyfriend. He is a Tae Kwon Do coach, She is the five-foot-one reincarnation of a Shinoby arcade box. Both are trained in the art of mortal combat, diciplened, in good shape and do moves that would make the Karate Kit crap his left sock on the spot. But they are terrible when it comes to computers. Its not that they are not tech savvy ! No sir-ree. Anneleen sprouted from the same technology-infected nest where I found my own spouse. So she knows her way around a computer, figures crap out at lightning speeds and erm… Thinks a Virus scanner is a waste of time. Yes : Their laptops used to be infested with bots, virusses, spyware, mallware and horribly long start-menu's. Their machines where slow, lacked the crisp agility of their owners, the fighting stance .. the .. software-hygiene. So perhaps they are the perfect candidate for getting a Mac. Not because they are ready for the next step in computing, not because they are posh cybernauts with high graphical needs and not because they need a computer that would match their China. Is it perhaps because they are cyber-slobs that never clean their temporary internet file folder ? Or is is because they are in need of a computer they can use.
Think about it : Most geeks like us are USED to caring for our systems, are USED to fighting the good fight against spyware and stuff. But .. what if you need a computer that like a blender (no strike that, you have to clean blenders) What if you need a computer thats like a shovel : Pick it up to dig, put it down when you are done. Perhaps the Mac is not the next snob-istical step in the geek-evolution. Perhaps it can be one of the most basic (although pricey) steps on the ladder of using a computer. Only time will tell….
Sis in law on a mac and a grandmother on Linux. Ain't that a family ! 🙂