Why All-In with Apple? Part 2 – History
Continued from Why All-In with Apple? Part 1 – Preamble – Ted Bouskill (bouskillblog.com)
In the first part of this series I discussed why I’m writing this series along with making it clear that based on family history and who I am, the choice to select Apple products had nothing to with the shallow superficial thought that it would raise my status because Apple is a status symbol.
In this article I’ll explain the history of why I’m all-in with Apple products at home.
After leaving the Canadian Air Force my father started on the end of a shovel with the Potash Company of America then rose through the ranks quickly to become a processing plant supervisor. He was recruited then trained by IBM to work as a system analyst. That was the start of my journey to became ensconced in the technology world as a software developer.
Dad was eclectic and forward thinking. We were one of the first families to own a microwave. We didn’t have a fancy color TV, Dad felt a microwave was better for the family than an expensive TV. That practical logic played a part in my choice to use Apple. The fact that some things were worth spending more money on for the value and convenience.
I assumed everyone had a microwave. Dad never bragged about it, he was excited that we could prepare some foods faster and be more efficient. It wasn’t a status symbol, it was improving our quality of life.
As soon as he could he took me into the mainframe room at IBM (where even his manager couldn’t go) by getting me a job hauling paper in there for the linefeed printers as well as punch cards and other work. He begin teaching me principles of computer science and the software development process. As a curious person I loved learning about it all, however, for me it wasn’t a career path. I wanted to be an artist and/or an animator. Although simple art using characters was possible on a print out (what is now called ASCII art) I knew someday computers could be a tool for creating art, so learning about them was worthwhile.
There is a long complex story about how I went from being an artist with tremendous potential to succeed, to then becoming a software development manager for companies like Electronic Arts and Amazon. I’ll try to share the important parts that led to my seeking joining the Apple community.
As a struggling artist that participated with the integration of computers into our homes and work lives, I became a computer programmer, however, my path preceded Windows and the Apple Macintosh with their graphical user interfaces (GUI) and I was using the command line where you type instructions to the computer directly like you see in movies. On UNIX and it’s very limited but cheap cousin MS-DOS.
I still dreamed of possibly becoming a computer animator and artist so I still kept an eye on the Macintosh which was a better artistic tool than Windows. That would be another story!
Because a friend’s dad had hired me to work in civil engineering as a surveyor. As computers entered the work force, by using my natural abilities and doing some hobby programming at home, I found an opportunity to potentially become a computer programmer by helping engineering firms work in 2D/3D.
It nearly worked, however, in the late 90’s when I worked on a now ubiquitous tool 3DS Max for doing computer graphics work in film and TV, I became a successful software developer that moved into building web applications. Along the way, I stopped using UNIX and was now using the GUI in Windows like everyone else as it dominated the computing landscape.
During this time Apple nearly died, was resurrected and LINUX, an open source version of UNIX was created by Linus Torvalds. At the same time, there was a key change in my life; I started a family in 2001 when my first son was born.
I still thought about doing computer art and animation. A best friend I’d known since high school was a UNIX then LINUX programmer at work, however, at home he used Apple products for digital photography which was a superior tool because Apple invested more time into optimizing their hardware for the creative industry. Their monitors could better mimic pantone colors used in the print.
For all my hobby work, I still used cheaper, readily available desktop PCs that I was constantly upgrading at home. I had also purchased some very high end PC laptops for doing contract programming and other work to supplement my income. Linux was still emerging so Windows was the operating system of choice to run all my computers as the cheapest practical option.
I suffered through using Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows XP, Windows NT, et cetera, et cetera and of course was always spending time doing updates, ensuring I had proper backups; after many cases of losing weeks worth of work due to hardware failures. Finally as my second son was born and they started using my PCs at home, four issues led to my entry in the Apple world.
- iTunes on the PC – I love music. I had been buying cheap MP3 players for personal use and enjoyed listening to music at home on my PC when working. Long before Spotify, Apple iTunes was my best choice to get access to a massive music library.
- Digital camera’s and video recorders – Money was tight as I was struggling to deal with a computer technology recession after the dot COM bust from the late 90s, however, I always managed to get quality older generation gear on sale, or as gifts, so my wife and I started accumulating many, many, digital memories.
- Controlling both of my boys access to the internet and the computers, as well as their screen time.
- The emergence of the smart phone as led by the iPhone.
Managing all of the digital content on PC’s was arduous. Of course any time the subject came up, my UNIX programmer friend who used Apple products at home would show me how easy it was for him to manage media on his Mac.
Windows native backup tools were not very good, so I had to invest a lot of time and money into software and hardware to back up our precious memories. I was spending more and more time on this as our hard drives filled up with either Windows updates, massive Windows applications and the ongoing family photography!
I was struggling to find a unified solution to control my children’s access to the computers and was spending more and more time setting up white lists, black lists, and time restrictions. Indirectly the changes would sometimes affect my wife and I, or the rules prevented some PC or educational games from even being usable.
Finally a friend who bought the first generation iPhone simply because he didn’t want to carry a digital camera and a phone in his pocket set in motion the thought that maybe there is a better way!
So through my contacts at Electronic Arts I finally decided to buy a used Macbook Pro as my latest big heavy laptop PC was aging. There were multiple reasons I did this.
- The Mac OS had parental controls as part of the operating system
- I wanted to see if the smaller OS and application footprint along with it’s digital media capabilities would make it easier for me to manage our family photos and videos
- I learned that Apple’s Time Capsule was a low maintenance easy way to ensure you always had backups of all your content
- I had learned that Mac updates were far less dangerous than Windows updates
- My digital camera and digital video recorders were aging badly, and smart phones were an attractive option to allow me to carry one device instead of three when I was out and about with my sons
So, by 2010 I had a used MacBook Pro, a Time Capsule to back it up, and got a deal on an iPhone 3 when the iPhone 4 was coming out while I worked for Glentel communications. Glentel sold cellular phones and plans for all the manufacturers and most of the providers. The staff made it clear the iPhones were superior when cost wasn’t a factor, so that helped me make my choice to try the Apple world.
It didn’t cost me much because the MacBook Pro was used and the iPhone 3 was inventory all the providers were trying to get rid of.
Why All-In with Apple? Part 3 – Results – Ted Bouskill (bouskillblog.com)
