Keith Ridgway | Switcher, but No Fanboy

Keith Ridgway's Blog: iMacarena

I have become what my friend Stephen calls an AppleFag.

And yes, of course, it's a much more satisfying and richer computing experience than I've ever had on my series of Windows machines. Yes, the design of everything is wonderful. Yes, things just work. Yes it's intuitive and practical and lovely. Yes yes yes. Nevertheless, there are certain things that surprise me about it, especially given the main obstacle I had to overcome in making the switch. Which was, is, the aforementioned Apple-Faggotry.

Aw come on people, THAT'S funny!

Which is odd. Given that no corporation in recent history has so successfully instilled brand ?loyalty? as Apple.

Now that's not entirely true. Practically every major business magazine has run a feature on Cult Brands, mentioning Harley Davidson, Krispy Kreme, and Saturn among others.

You get pretty adept at editing the registry on a Windows machine. You can have fun finding your way through the system folders and working out what happens where and when and how. And changing it. You can't really do that with an Apple.

Not entirely true either. The Unix foundation of Mac OS X is quite customizeable. Apple protects the user interface jealously, but there are third parties that allow customization there too. I've used Windows quite a bit, but I never experienced any joy in customizing the registry.

I'm with him about iTunes lock-in, I don't like it and don't think it's the best long-term strategy. Even if they have tried to make speed bumps instead of road blocks. eMusic Rules.