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ATPM 9.03
March 2003

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The Candy Apple

by Ellyn Ritterskamp, eritterskamp@atpm.com

Not Ready for the Leap

Someone said Apple is planning to open a retail store in my mid-sized city soon. I couldn’t find the news report to confirm this, so I spent probably an hour (spread out over a couple of days) looking for other verification. I never did confirm it. I know my friend didn’t make it up; he read it in our local newspaper, which is very reliable. But I was frustrated not to be able to find quick confirmation on the Web.

Finally, I stopped looking and thought, “So what? I’ve survived all this time without an Apple store here. Why do I need one anyway?” I really don’t need one; I’m content to make purchases via catalog or online. If there were a store here in town, I’d just go in and buy a bunch of stuff I don’t need anyway.

This investigation began when I asked a friend if he wanted me to get him an iPod when I visit the Apple store in Orlando next month. That’s when he said, “Oh, that reminds me. There’s going to be one of those stores here soon.” But if we just got the news, it’s probably some months away, so I guess I’ll go ahead and get him that iPod now.

So now I’m thinking, what would I buy if I could get my hands on the stuff and see it in a store right down the street? One of those 20-inch monitors, for sure. Yummy. Probably some iPod accessories: a leather case, the wired remote. Yeah.

But to think about new software or even hardware, I’d have to make The Leap. You know the leap I’m talking about. The leap to OS X. Every time I reach this point in my head, I run away screaming.

I actually tried OS X for a few months, on an early-generation iBook. It was cute and fun to play with. Since it was a machine new to me, I didn’t have to reconfigure anything or reallocate anything or do anything complicated that I didn’t understand. See, I’m not what I think of as a power user. I use hot keys and keep my files and folders pretty well organized, and I use a Mac a lot at work. I’m not ignorant about stuff, but I’m limited to only understanding things that I use in real life. I can sometimes help out other folks if their questions are no harder than a three on the one to ten scale, but beyond that I make way for the real power users. I keep meaning to learn AppleScript, and there’s tons of stuff I wish I understood better.

I ended up only keeping that iBook a short time before passing it along to a friend who needed one. My experience with OS X was short and sweet. If I had to make The Leap now, I’d need to allocate a couple of days just for the psychological preparation for making such a big change. Then half a day for the switch itself (this presumes I’ve purchased a new machine and have to transfer files), and then a couple of weeks of getting used to the interface and monkeying with it to get it the way I want it.

But it just seems like the long-term adjustment would take a really long time. I’d compare it to breaking up with someone in a romantic relationship: the longer it lasted, the longer it takes to get over it. Gosh, at this point I’ve been using this OS, or one like it, for so long that I might need therapy to help get me over the loss.

Change is often good. If we never changed we’d never grow. But sometimes it really is tough to make ourselves do it.

I think right now I’m gonna stay safely on my side of the OS fence, with 9.1 chugging along happily. It ain’t broke; I ain’t gonna try to fix it. Since I’m standing still, I can’t really say Onward. But I will anyway.

Onward.

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Reader Comments (2)

Aphelion · March 15, 2003 - 10:17 EST #1
Actually, Ellen, in standing still, you are moving backwards. OS 9 was broke and OS X is the fix.

Having said that, if you are comfortable OS 9 user and it meets your needs, by all means, continue to use it, but the future of the Mac platform is OS X.

OS X is an event on your horizon, Ellen, and you should continue to take a peek at it from time to time to understand it's power and simplicity.

OS X is so technically superior to all that has come before that it is a "must have" for all Mac users. One by one the "laggards" will catch up.
Lee Bennett (ATPM Staff) · March 16, 2003 - 09:17 EST #2
Aphelion - while your comment that OS X is the future of the Mac platform is completely correct, I think you're completely overgeneralizing things when you say things like OS 9 was broke and that OS X is a "must have."

Sure, I happen to think OS X is a great OS and I use it on my G4 PowerBook at home. The only time I ever even launch Classic mode is the rare times I need to use Adobe PageMaker from here.

At work, however, I'm still on OS 9 because I am very dependent on PageMaker there. I'm simply not yet ready to transition to OS X until 1) InDesign goes through one more major update to make it truly as useful as PageMaker currently is, and 2) the press my office uses fully supports InDesign...they don't yet—not fully, anyway.

OS 9 is most definitely not broke. It works just fine. If people applied that statement to any other product, then you'd always see only current production year cars on the streets. I guess my 2001 Dodge Stratus is "broke," so I should upgrade it. It must be broke. It's going on three years old. :-)

Oh, and my friend's '67 Mustang that he bought new and has kept in pristine condition its entire life must also be broke. NOT!

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