Over the past few months, though, I've been giving Apple a second glance. It's hard to say why. Maybe I'm intrigued by the design and engineering behind products like the new flat-panel iMac. I still think it looks like a desk lamp, but it's a pretty impressive lamp, what with all the gizmos and DVD-writers and round motherboards they've stuffed into those puny little bases. Maybe it has something to do with all the Macintosh computers that have started to appear at my workplace (in a lab environment dominated by big name box PCs, two iMacs and two rather more stylish and capable PowerMacs have been acquired by different sections and reputedly do their jobs quite well). Perhaps I've had to download and install one or two patches or critical updates too many. Or maybe I decided I hadn't been all that fair in the past, and should give some credit to the thousands of evangelistic Mac users who seemed to see something I didn't. I suspect it was probably all of these things. In any event, I started to do some research, which is what I always do in great heaps once I take an interest in something.

One of the things that hit me most poignantly was how insanely attached to their computers Macintosh users are. I'm not really used to that... I mean, I suppose everyone likes their computer, but I've always associated that with the bragging rights that come with having a really big, fast one, or being keen on the games it plays, or the net people it lets you have interminably mundane conversations with, or the pornography collection it holds. But it's the machines and the operating systems themselves that these people love, with the games and net chats and pornography collections being something of an added bonus. It's almost perverse to think about that kind of devotion and affection. And, oddly, the older the computer is, the more they're attached to it. A fourteen-year-old PC is nearly useless these days, but Macs of the same vintage are being used as servers, as basic web browsing and e-mail machines, as word processors, and even for ongoing pre-press layout and desktop publishing.

The durability of such old computers intrigued me so greatly that, when I saw a vintage 8mhz Macintosh SE (with 4MB of RAM, a 30MB hard drive, and two 1.44MB floppy "superdrives") for sale on a local newsgroup, I made an offer. I'm certainly no stranger to vintage computing -- I clung to my pokey 386 for years after its best-before date, and got a lot done with it too. Now, some people have gone so far as to get their old, stock, Macs to do unimaginable proof-of-concept things like play .mp3 files through their competent original sound cards, but I was content with far more modest applications. I was simply interested in getting my Mac to run an older (but fully functional) version of Eudora through a PPP connection to my local ISP. After all, it already runs Microsoft Word, solitaire, Adobe Acrobat (version 1.0), and a plain text HTML editor (with which I'm writing this very page). I've since invested in a faster Macintosh modem (that also works with my laptop, giving me portable 33.6 access for cheap), and I've installed all the applications I needed. I simply need to find the time to track down a cable for the archaic old 8-pin serial port (which is why the good Lord gave us eBay), and my endeavors will be complete. Meanwhile, as I write this page and otherwise play around, I'm acclimatizing to the slightly different keyboard commands that this little Mac requires, and familiarizing myself with the surprisingly functional operating system, antiquated though System 6 is. Once I have my modem connected to the SE, I will "upgrade" to the relatively more powerful and feature-packed System 7, which Apple still provides as a free download -- a strangely benevolent thing. The functionality of old Macs, combined with the software and support that still exists, has impressed me to no end. When Microsoft "borrowed" most of Apple's GUI for the purpose of launching Windows -- and did so with cunningly acquired permission -- they might have done well to also borrow at least a grudging support for the provision of legacy software. Oh well. At least they gave us Windows Solitaire, which still makes me smile.

I also learned a great deal about the modern side of Apple during my (admittedly ongoing) research, however. One of the developments that impressed me most is OS X, Apple's newest operating system. It combines the stability, security, and tweakability of Unix with Apple's beautiful, candy-like graphical interface. For those who love being among the educated few who know what grep and ssh and /dev/null all mean, the mystical Unix kernel is actually there, powering the system underneath its deliciously glossy surface. In fact, most Unix/Linux applications can be easily ported to run under OS X. On the other hand, the lazy and the ignorant (like me) could conceivably live quite happily without ever needing to see a Unix shell. I've never been one for command lines or systems that require an ordinate amount of configuration or do-it-yourself compiling, which is why I run Windows and not, say, Linux. I mean, I'm smart enough for law school, and once upon a time I was a fair programmer who even thought he'd like to study computer science, but I've since come to my senses and these days I just want to run my Photoshop and write my ponderous legal essays in a somewhat reliable word processor without all this mucking about with command lines, thank you very much.

In either case, I tend to think of this development as the first operating system innovation of consequence in many, many years, and one that rests atop platforms based on a considerable tradition of stylish, innovative, and powerful hardware design, and reliability-driven integration. Windows XP is a step in the right direction -- gaining stability and speed by finally ditching MS-DOS and improving networking capabilities -- but in light of everything I've encountered hands-on, and through my research, I've decided that when the day comes for me to upgrade my long-suffering desktop, I'm moving to Apple. I'm tremendously impressed by everything I've already mentioned, and I'm further swayed by the relatively decent way Apple relates its customers. Apple doesn't require you to enter a 25-digit registration key; nor does it require any kooky and nebulous on-line "product activation" from users installing OS X. Instead, they simply provide you with a powerful OS that's easily the equivalent of XP's "Professional" version, and throw in a surprising suite of applications for photo editing, music, video and DVD playback and creation, as well VPN network compatibility, a spam-blocking e-mail application, and even a full-featured Office-compatible word processor suite.

Meanwhile, Apple has also rid itself of the old spectres of "incompatibility," by supporting open standards for networking, music formats, multimedia, and business applications -- moreso than any other platform beyond Linux. Similarly, Microsoft Office for the Macintosh can open and work with any Windows Office file, and send it back to a Windows user without complication. There are over 6,000 software titles for the Macintosh, dispelling the old myth that there is "no software" for the Mac. Indeed, a lot of the best professional software (Final Cut Pro, Logic Platinum, and Shake for example) is Mac-only. Still others got their start on the Mac and continue to dominate professional industries on Macintosh computers, such as Quark XPress and Adobe Photoshop. Macs can also do some nifty things other computers can't, such as natively print to PDF files without extra software, and record mp3 files without a third-party plug-in (since, after all, Windows Media Player only supports Microsoft's proprietary WMA format out of the box, which is one of the many irksome things that deterred me from upgrading). Speaking of music, Apple has also come out in favour of "Fair Play" music rights, balancing the rights of music consumers with the interests of recording artists in implementing its iTunes Music Store. When you buy music through the store, you buy the right to burn it to a CD an unlimited number of times (although in fairness you can only burn a given playlist 10 times), and transfer it to the digitial music player of your choice and play it on up to three other computers. Since I'm (1) a law student and (2) have a cheap dial-up connection, I don't download illegal music. Now that iTunes is available for Windows, I can't wait for the music store to be available in Canada. No one else has been able to do this before, nor since.

Unfortunately, I'm the sort of person who makes computer upgrades infrequently. That is to say, I'm poor. So, no there will be no new computers for me, Apple or otherwise, until I'm finished law school. Which should be about 2005. In the meantime, I will make do fairly happily with my three-year-old desktop and three-year-old notebook. On the other hand, if you are thinking about a new computer, and for some inexplicable reason you care about my opinion more than that of your friends and family and all those peers who doubtlessly want you to do the sensible thing and buy yourself a PC -- well, then, by all means, buy a Mac and know that I respect you, even if others offer only scorn.

This is not to say that Apple is infallible -- certainly not to me, since it wasn't long ago that I had little good to say about the company, but not even in the eyes of its own (often fanatically) devoted users. Indeed, another thing I've noticed about Macintosh users is how tremendously whiny they can be in the face of perceived wrongs. This ranges from "ludicrously picky" to "somewhat justifiable" grousing, typically on public forums like message boards and newsgroups. Someone pitched the theory that Apple users complain so much because they're accustomed to getting so much. I can almost believe this. One gets rather resigned to the lockups, hardware conflicts, blue screens of death, and crashes that one encounters running Windows for any length of time, but Macintosh users (evidently) expect nothing less than stability, hardware compatibility, speed, ease of use, and reliability from their computers and their operating system, having (generally) received all of the above over the years. Instead of being resigned to hardware and software difficulties, like I am, Macintosh users apparently find them outrageous. So slight bugs are quickly reported, and actively discussed all over the internet, and fixes are anxiously awaited. But I'm practically understating the matter -- some people spout off like Apple has deliberately and personally screwed them over with every petty oversight or a slightly-short-of-miraculous upgrade to a product line.