When I first saw the Macintosh, I've seen how simple and easy it was to use, despite being born to a family that adopted an IBM compatible PC for their home computer. After I first saw the iMac back in primary school in 1998, I then thought to myself: because I got so assimilated into Microsoft, I don't know if there'll ever be a chance that I'll have a Mac. Then, I proved myself wrong, but it took almost 9 years until I then finally got my first Mac (a white mid 2007-revision MacBook from brand new), having got an iPod Nano a few years before then. The tiresome Blue Screens of Death and meaningless errors, as well as a rather confusing infrastructure lured me to the Macintosh platform. Having learnt about the legacy the Mac created, I then realised that it was Apple's magnum opus, the platform that started the whole GUI craze back in the 1980s, well before my time. After my first Apple product, I then fell in love with Apple and as a result, joined the thousands that became part of a legacy that forever continued, like Steve Jobs when he was first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer during what was year 7 or 8 in secondary school. In terms of competition in the computing market, the Mac was to David what the PC was to Goliath, but then eventually, the differences became blurred when one then became the other, but nonetheless, had it not been for the IBM PC, where would industry standards be now, and had it not been for the Mac, where would the GUI operating system be now, and where would the industries that both created be? It was all thanks to both competing platforms that helped the Mac get to where it is now, but competition from smartphones and tablets are starting to eat into the market, but after all, it was Apple that kickstarted the revolution, and perfected both at the same time. The same rhetoric applies to the founding of Apple; where would Apple be had it not been for Steve Jobs founding the company and then returning to it after he left? Apple did, however, had its dark years when Jobs first departed in 1985, but even so, it still helped an industry long confined to physical media to become part of the whole computing boom, and Adobe's first products were launched on the Mac during his absence. However, the early to mid 90s were a dark era for Apple as consumers were confused about the profusion of Macintosh computers and the confusing specifications they had, and the many flops that came out of Apple's first diversification. Even in the dark ages came innovation: the Newton PDA would then give way to the iPhone about a decade later, and would later provide inspiration for the Palm Pilot. Steve Jobs' return to Apple in 1996 brought along with him new ideas from his old company he also founded that would help evolve the Mac OS operating system into something more advanced than the platform that was based on the original from 1984. When he once again became CEO, Jobs simplfied the range of Mac models, then later launched the Mac that started off a whole new revolution in design, the iMac, in 1998. My current Mac was based on the successor to the PowerBook series that revolutionised laptop computers forever, but my current Mac is one of the last to be seen under his power before he left for good in August 2011, and his subsequent death later.
Had it not been for the Mac, where would my career choice be? How would I have continued under the same platform I lived under since 1994? And how simple would my life be? Thanks to the Mac, I am now where I am, and my dreams shall forever be pursued after falsely believing that I'll never have a Mac, but it's all down to personal preference. No matter if you're a Mac or a PC, both has had their finest hours, and still will do, but most of all, it was Apple that perfected the idea of the GUI from Xerox, and then later provided inspiration, despite the many legal battles that were fought against them. All I can say to you is thank you Apple, for getting me to where I am now, and thank you to Steve Jobs, who started it all. Rest in peace, the dear leader of a technological revolution that perfected many technologies, started off new competition and most of, inspired me greatly, with ideology and motivation.
