Mac OS Goes "Mainstream" - iPods Bite

It never occurred to me that, when the Mac OS went to a *nix type core, that an old thought of many of those (such as I) who appreciate the Macintosh "for what it's good for" would actually come true.

Apple is apparently abandoning the PowerPC architecture and moving to (..drumroll..) Intel chipsets. Slashdot has been my primary source of info about this for the past few weeks, but I decided to do some searching (i.e., Googling) and the prospects so far are awesome.

The Mac OS is really great in a lot of ways. The typical person who has been exposed to Windows for any length of time typically does not like Macintosh, but then again, the same goes the other way. It all comes down to "what you're used to". Macintoshes have ALWAYS been the way to go if you were a graphics artist-type person. It is interesting that the Apple Macintosh basically went from Motorola 68000 series, to PowerPC series, now to (basically) Pentium processors. Talk about full circle. And the driving force behind Apple's limited success has been simple: a simpler (not necessarily better) user interface and cool looking computers.

That's where they decided to expand and delve into related arenas... first with the Newton PDA with handwriting recognition (failed, off market now) and then the iPod.

I've never liked the iPod, but again, part of that is due to "what I'm used to". Most people buy an iPod ONLY BECAUSE it LOOKS COOL (which I agree; it does). Major kudos to Apple for it's "invention" of the "scroll wheel" - that is certainly a very user-friendly interface! But, anyone who tries to argue my beliefs on "why they purchase an iPod" is simply wrong (do not question me; I am right; you are wrong). *snicker*

The functionality of an iPod versus the vast majority of other MP3 players (both the ones available when iPod first came out and the ones today) is like a grand chasm - the iPod blows when it comes to functionality. In fact, now that my daughter has an iPod Mini (because it looked cool and was light-metallic-blue, and played music) I'm more convinced of this then ever.

I guess I would need to have the ability to build a portable MP3 player to make myself truly happy (like most of the computers our household has ever had). I don't see that happening anytime soon...