With the blogosphere going crazy over the past few weeks about Steve Jobs retiring as CEO, I thought maybe I should also post something about oranges. I’m usually not irrational, but I admit that my hatred of Apple mostly is – but it started from semi-legitimate reasons.

In Elementary and Middle School, the computer labs used Macs. If I remember correctly they ran OS 6 or some shit like that.

Fuck. King. Ug. Ly.

They were ugly, crappy, didn’t read the files created on Windows (or something, I can’t remember what the exact problem was but everyone complained about incompatibility), and pissed the hell out of me. The higher end models in the “Multimedia Center” ran OS 9 or whatever first had the dock, and although they were pretty they still pissed the hell out of me. And so the hatred begins. 

Then started Phase 2. In Thailand, Apple products are considered a status symbol of sorts, and a lot of people buy them just because it’s fashionable. There are some people who genuinely like the OS, but the rest are mostly idiots who buy it and end up running Windows all the time anyways.

iOS is a controlled system, and you’re severely limited by what you can or can’t do to customize the OS. As a geek it is in my blood to customize the heck out of stuff, which is why I like Android more.

And most of all, I have an ego. Admitting I’m wrong about hating Apple is admitting that I’m, well, wrong.

I have to admit, Apple does make good products. Heck I got an iPad2. They’re also the only ones really innovating in the desktop OS arena – Linux breaks a lot at random things, and Windows hasn’t really improved on anything for years except look a bit more pretty. It still isn’t as pretty as OSX, and with that godawful Ribbon interface I want to kick someone’s ass at Microsoft. I’m seriously considering moving to Lion, as the small little things that are changed in the update sound really good to me. The only thing keeping me tied to Windows are incompatible games like Touhou. Oh and I don’t like the way the Mac desktop is arranged, with the dock and the top bar thingy. I prefer Windows 7′s bar.

As for Steve Jobs, I always liked his presentations even while hating on Apple. He manages to make everything look so magical and awesome, that you end up wanting it even though you have no use for it – I clearly remember wanting the new Apple TV that was revealed last year despite the fact that I don’t watch TV at all. Part of what makes the devices awesome is his extreme attention to detail at every level, such as the shade of yellow on the Google icon. On Android some parts of the UI looks cheap or inconsistent, and scrolling across homescreens on Honeycomb lags if you do it too much. On iOS, the experience is much more natural and immersive. They’re small minor issues that don’t detract from the functionality of the device, but the experience is much more satisfying.

And so, with the improvements to the OSX software and the release of great market-leading products, I abandon my irrational hate of Apple. Until the next status-symbol-hogging idiot comes along, when I will proceed to stab her with my Android-powered GN Sword.