It’s funny really. I’ve spent my whole life anti-Apple. My parents were very forward thinking and bought me a Commodore Vic 20. Surprisingly, they upgraded me to a Commodore 64 when that came out. I say me, because I was the only one that used the thing, and I used it! I learned programming, application design, problem solving skills, logic, and Algebra on that thing. I played games, cracked copy protection, re-wired my hardware, and rocked that 64.
Image via Wikipedia
And there in is the kernel of my hate. It was Commodore 64 vs. Apple IIe, a head to head no holds barred struggle for Home PC dominance. Apple people (owners) where kinda snobbish. They cost a lot of money at the time. I’m thinking the IIe was around $3,000. People that owned them acted like they had Bentley’s and Grey Poupon. The Commodore with monitor and printer was around $600. The Commodore had half the RAM that the Apple did and kicked it’s butt in every way, except one. Apple made it through the hardship and became a dominate company today. I could go on and on about my feelings for Apple vs. Commodore, but that is the beginning.
[edit: Look for my future post on why I loved the Commodore 64]
I hated Apple like a sports fan hates the other team, only most people leave that on the field and move on. Not Me! I have never owned an Apple product and never will. We have an iPod Touch in the house that my daughter got free from Girl Scouts. I use a 3rd party software solution, because I refuse to have iTunes anywhere in my computer network. I use a Quicktime alternative when I need that service. I am Apple free.
I guess I’m silly as well. I don’t know why I have such strong emotions towards Apple and Steve, I don’t really even know the man. With Steve Jobs stepping down recently, I can only assume his health is near an end. Men like him,at least how he appears to be, are too driven to let go of all that he has been apart of. He’s really an interesting individual and I am impressed with what he has been able to steer Apple into accomplishing. No, he didn’t do it alone, despite what the media portrays, but, he was a part of it. (I LOVE commas, too)
I remember NeXT. We had a NeXT lab on campus. I avoided it like the plague, ’cause it had “the taint.” Heh. I never matured properly.
I’m still a Commodore fan. I still have my 64 over 30 years later. I still have my drives and my printer. I lost the monitor to a brother-in-law to use for a tv and I lost my games to a cousin that was supposed to return them before he lost or got rid of them. I still fire up an emulator every once and a while to get a taste of that great time of personal computing at its finest.
If only Steve hadn’t been the coach of the other team. I wish it was his drive behind Commodore at the time. I’d be the biggest iCommodore fanboy you’ve ever met.
So I guess Steve isn’t so bad after all (Wow! Steve gets a pardon after all these years.) Apple still sucks! The company may have changed their name, but they haven’t changed their “suck.”
Goodbye Steve.
Image via CrunchBase
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