Home Is Where the Mac Is
Sunday, February 23, 2025
I started using Apple computers in 1991 when I began college. Except for checking my email using Pine,1 for which my memory tells me I had to use a Windows machine, I gravitated toward Macintosh computers.
As part of my senior project in music technology, I built the first-ever website for the University of South Carolina School of Music’s choral program on a Macintosh. At that time, Apple was the standard computer in creative arts departments. The website was definitely a product of early web design, complete with a blue rock paper background. It served as the official website for the program for an embarrassingly long time. When the university established its in-house web development department, it prioritized designing sites for programs that didn’t already have one. By the time they finally got around to replacing the choral program’s site, I was well into my teaching career and had begged my professors for years to take it down.
After college, when I was starting out and struggling to support a family, I resorted to using inexpensive Windows computers that I had to replace every two years. Using those Windows computers was fine at first—just fine and no better—but after a couple of months, they would gradually devolve into a sluggish mess. No matter how often I defragmented, rebooted, or reinstalled the operating system, using a Windows machine always became a frustrating experience.
For the past 20 years, I’ve exclusively used Apple products.2 When my district’s IT staff upgraded Windows units in administrators’ offices, I told them that unless they had to put one in my office, they could give it to someone else who needed it because I would never even power it on. They were happy to let me use the MacBook Air they provided for mobile duties as my main computer. (I’ve always wondered why they give each administrator both a fully capable laptop and desktop.)
I frequently use iPads and would never consider getting rid of them. At times, I’ve even thought about going iPad-only. My 12.9” iPad Pro is my music folder when I perform for everything except church services. I use my iPad when I visit classrooms or supervise lunch or hallway transitions. It lets me quickly look up information a forgetful middle schooler might need. It enables me to document incidents on the fly to keep track of all the shenanigans middle schoolers find for themselves.
But the Mac is my home. My last MacBook Pro served me faithfully for five years. I didn’t realize how slow it had become until I recently upgraded to an M4 machine. The new machine will easily last that long and likely well beyond that. I know every inch of the machine, and it never fails to give me exactly what I need when I need it. I know the machine is going to work before I ever open it up, and I never have to fear seeing a “blue screen of death.”
It brings me joy to open my MacBook and work. And because of that, I’m solidly and happily in the camp of Mac-first users.
Photo by Daniel Korpai on Unsplash
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Does anyone remember Pine? It was a DOS-based email client back when email was barely a seedling. The UI, at least on the machines I used, was green text on a black background. It was glorious! ↩︎
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I used to be an Apple Fanboy (probably), but the luster wore off long ago. I’m now fully aware of exactly what Apple is and is not. Keenan’s excellent (but long) post explains this duality very well. It’s a must read. Despite that, there is no viable alternative short of unplugging and moving to the wilderness of Montana. Microsoft products are barely better now than they were “back then” and Linux–well, I have no need to develop another hobby. ↩︎