Hell Just Froze Over (If I Believed in It)

Because I started my foray into owning computers before Apple was a big thing, I was used to Windows-based systems.

I remember using computers as far back as high school (were they called PAL BASIC??) and in my second year of journalism, in 1986-87 (Xerox Star?), as well as when I completed a six-week internship with The Ottawa Citizen—where we used a markup language that was different from HTML—but I didn't own my own computer until I was in university, in 1990. And that computer used Windows 3.0.

My first experience with a Macintosh computer was in 1987, after graduation from journalism school, when I worked at The Low Down to Hull and Back News, in Wakefield. It was the first time I used a mouse and because this type of computer was so new to me, I just focused on using it how our publisher had shown me, and that was it. I didn’t use the computer for anything else.

I only worked at The Low Down for a few months, so my memories with an Apple computer are brief.

It wasn't until I had my first computer, running Windows, that I became proficient with a computer, and I use 'proficient' loosely. I knew how to use it to write essays for school (I used WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS) and I used National Capital Freenet for chat groups. And I had some very early games that I played on it, but that was pretty much it.

Man, I remember having so many floppy disks... geez, I'm now wondering if that's where I stored my Spy's The Limit series?

Throughout the 90s, I used Windows-based machines and I never gave Apple any thought. They seemed almost toy-like, with their different colours of clear plastic and rounded shapes. I thought of them as niche computers, something I'd likely never use.

In every technical-writing job I've had (and even when I worked in South Korea), I've used a Windows-based computer, and I became proficient on them. Macs were expensive and didn't seem to have what I was looking for, and in time there seemed to be a rivalry between Windows and Mac users. I tend to dismiss such rivalries—people who love Canon cameras and poo-poo Nikons, and vice-versa, are just plain silly—but I have to admit that I thought of Mac owners as somewhat cult-like in their devotion to the company.

As one person jokingly put it to me, "Bill Gates wants your money: Steve Jobs wants your soul."

In the late 2000s, Apple was everywhere and everyone seemed to want the latest gadget, and even DW was an early adopter of the iPod Touch. I did borrow it sometimes, to listen to music on my commutes to work, and I took it to Scotland with me, in 2010, so that DW and I could keep in touch with one another, via WiFi connections.

When I returned from that trip, I decided it was time that I got one of my own, and so DW and the kids gave me one for Father's Day. Even though Apple had released the iPhone a few years earlier, I still had a perfectly good Motorola flip phone. I carried both devices with me for a couple of years.

When the contract on my flip phone expired, I felt I needed a replacement—something more robust than an old-style cell phone—and I reluctantly looked at the iPhone. I thought they were overpriced and they still had that ridiculous setup with iTunes, where you had to sync your computer in order to upload songs to your phone (it was one of the things I hated about the iPod). I wished you could simply plug your phone into your computer and drag and drop files onto it.

Being a Windows user, having an iPod was a bit of a PITA. But because I was used to its interface, I bought an iPhone 4S. I gave my iPod to Kid 1 and about a year later, when DW upgraded to an iPhone 5S, she gave her iPod to Kid 2.

Friends kidded around with me: the iPhone was the gateway to Mac, they would say, and I would next be wanting to upgrade my computer system. "When Hell freezes over," I replied. Windows had its flaws but I hadn't seen a blue screen of death in years and all of my programs for photo editing and writing were incompatible with a Mac.

Jobs wasn't going to own my "soul." (Though, DW and I later bought iPads.)

When my contract on my iPhone expired, I was done with Apple. The iTunes BS was driving me nuts and I wanted a drag-and-drop file system.

Also, the latest iPhone was really expensive, compared to the newest Samsung Galaxy phone, so moving over to Android was a no-brainer for me. And I've never looked back.

I even ditched my iPad for a Samsung tablet and said I was off Apple devices: that is, of course, until DW and I ditched our cable TV provider and started streaming shows through an Apple TV box.

A few years ago, DW made the decision to get herself a MacBook Pro. She had been using a Mac as part of her work and liked it. When she got laid off from the job, she decided she wanted one for her own and bought one with an M3 Pro processor, which gave it lots of power for video and photo editing.

At the time, I was grumbling about our home Windows computer, which was nearly 10 years old. It was great for photo editing but when it came to making videos for my YouTube channel, it was slow and the program that I used, Pinnacle, would even crash while rendering a video file.

DW suggested that I use her MacBook for video editing. She had Final Cut Pro X loaded on it, so she urged me to give it a try.

And yes, it was fast and powerful. Final Cut Pro reduced my editing time down to a fraction of what it took on the Windows computer. For about a year and a half, I've been using DW's MacBook for video editing and using my Windows machine for everything else.

But about a month ago, my Windows computer started slowing down even more. I'm beginning to think that the port for my HDMI cable is wearing out, as my monitor flickers and even blacks out if I bump the computer.

Most importantly, my photo-editing software cannot handle the file format of my Sony α6700, so I now have to use DW's MacBook, with Photomator, when I want to edit the photos I've shot on this camera. Because it's DW's computer, I always have to wait until she's done editing her photos before I can look at my own, and usually by the time she's done, I've moved onto something else.

I have to admit, I know very little about computers: specifically, about their processors and video chips (I'm probably even getting my terminology wrong). Because DW's old job had her working with photo-editing and video-editing software—she got me PaintShop Pro and Pinnacle—she had to know about the capabilities of computers to run that software. She was the one who did the research into all the computers we've owned over the decades.

Computers have always only ever been tools for me. As long as they work, I'm happy. How they do it doesn’t interest me.

When I told DW that our Windows computer was getting long in the tooth and slowing down (she also knew that I couldn't edit my Sony shots on it), I said that we should check out the computers the next time we were in Costco.

"Why not get yourself a MacBook?" she suggested. "If you get a Windows machine, you'll still have issues when you edit your α6700 photos."

I was reluctant. First, Apple computers are much more expensive than Windows-based computers, and I'm a cheap bastard. Also, all of the photos that I've shot, going back to my old Nikon D80, were stored on external drives that are formatted for a Windows machine. I didn't want to lose anything.

I would have to abandon the software that was on my old computer, though in truth, it's the photo-editing software that doesn't work for my Sony camera anyway, and even though I've also been using Affinity Photo, I'm not especially enamoured with it.

Everything else I use is online or stored in the cloud. As long as I can access Google Docs and Photos, I'll have access to everything I need.

Two weeks ago, DW told me that Aeroplan had a 20-percent-off sale and suggested that we use some of our points towards a new computer. We had more than a quarter of a million points and we no longer use them for air travel, as we can often find better sales for flights when we don't use points (and don't have to fly with Air Canada).

DW found a MacBook Air 5 on the Aeroplan site and suggested we use our points toward one. She also eyed a toaster oven and remarked that we had enough points to get both, and have some left over.

We ended up not getting the toaster oven but we ordered the MacBook.

It's not as high-end as DW's MacBook Pro but it'll do what I need it to do, other than edit my videos as quickly. DW said I could continue to use her computer to do that, if need be. But this new MacBook will be a step up from our current Windows computer.

I received the MacBook last Thursday. Since then, I've spent time getting familiar with it, trying to set it up as close to my old computer as possible and learning new things that are Mac-specific.

And I’ve discovered that this computer recognizes the external hard drives that hold the tens of thousands of photos that I thought were only formatted for a Windows computer. I was worried about how I’d be able to access them on the MacBook.

(I told you I don’t know much about computers.)

I’m moving my computer from a Windows system to a Mac one but I will continue to use an Android phone. I've had four Samsung phones over the years and I'm happy with them, and have no intention of going back to an iPhone.

I don't believe in souls so have no fear of selling one to Apple.