The Apple of My Eye.
Why I love apple as a former linux user.
Linux. It’s an operating system I love very much. Or at least I love the idea of linux. The idea that you can own your computer and do whatever you want with it, change it completely to your liking and use it however you want.
It’s a great idea in principle but there are some hangups. You see, theres a difference between being able to do everything yourself and having to do everything yourself.
There’s a difference between being able to use your computer how ever you want and spending all your computer time figuriing out how you want to use it.
When I used to use linux, sooner or later I would not be able to restrain myself from trying out something new. That new distro, that new window manager, seeing if I have the brains to install arch again.
I used to spend so much time configuring, customising and hopping around distros and desktop environments and getting lost instide config files that I never actually got and real work done.
The work I was actually supposed to be doing like working on my blog or writing poetry or working on my books.
Then, I got a macbook. And that’s were everything changed.
Sometimes, less freedom actually is more freeing.
Sure, if you really really know what you’re doing (and trust me, I do not! XD) you can just about achieve anything on a macbook that you can in linux. BUT! The fact that apple make it harder for you to do that at all is actually something I personally find beneficial.
The fact that it’s locked down means that I can lock down my kid in a candy store side and focus on the task at hand. Actually doing work.
That’s the freedom I’m reffering to. The freedom from my lack of linuxy discipline and the resulting freedom to get on with some meaningful work.
All of the cli utilities that work on linux also work in macos and a lot of the mainstream programs that are available in the windows world are also available on mac os. Like microsoft office for example. At work my computer is as you’d expect a windows pc and I’ve gotten used to using programs like outlook and word and I like how they work.
Having other apple gadgets also makes a huge difference because…
NOTHING works together as well as Apple gadgets.
When you own multiple apple gadgets they do something magical. They actually work! I mean really work. Work together seamlessly. I can copy something to the clipboard on one device it’s instantly available on any of my other apple devices.
It doesn’t require any setup other than being logged into the same apple account on all your devices which you do automatically when you first buy them anyway and then bam! Universal clipboard.
Not only that, once when I was using my macbook and wanted to connect to a wifi network that my iphone was already connected to, my iPhone automatically asked me if I wanted to connect my mac to that network. I tapped connect and then my iPhone did the rest!
I didn’t need to select a network or type in any passwords, apple’s magic software did it all for me.
I can’t remember if it was Steve Jobs or Jony Ive who said that the objective of apple computers is to get out of your way and let you do your work.
The less time I have to spend configuring my system, the more time I have left over to actually use that system to do work. The more seamless and integrated that system is the more productive I can become.
Nowadays I wan’t my tech to be whatever lets me get my ideas down as quickly and easily as possible and whatever gets out of my way and lets me get on with my work.
I’m an aspiring author and I’ve only just learnt that if I want to make any progress with my writing I will have to treat it like a full time job. As i’m essentially writing on a daily basis be it working on first drafts, blog posts, poetry or just jotting down ideas, the less obtrusive my pc experience is the better and for now at least, I cannot find a less obtrusive system than apples.
One last point:
Apple out of the box does most of what you’ll ever need.
Most of the things that people use third party apps for can be done for free with apples own apps. I was starting to use todoist to manage daily tasks but now i’m discovering how powerfull apples own reminders app can be if I just give it a chance.
For example some of the features I’d have to pay for in todoist are freely included in apple reminders like reminding me when I reach or leave a certain location. I wasn’t paying for todoist anyway because I don’t want to spend a gazzilion pounds a month on subscriptions as I need to eat food in order to stay alive but now I don’t even need to use todoist.
I can and will fully embrace apple’s reminders app along with all of the other apple apps that I can, like notes. Ahh notes!!! I just could not find anything as simple, powerfull, functional and elegant as apple notes.
What more do you need? Folders on the left as many as you like and subfolders, and notes that can be typed or handwritten that, just like everything else apple’s, automagically sync accross all your devices.
Sure, there are probably millions of other note taking apps out there but nothing quite like apples simple notes app. In fact, nothing comes close. Everything is either lacking functionality that apple notes has or is trying to do so much more that it just ends up being way too complicated at least for me.
I don’t want to use a second brain to take a few notes! I just want something simple so that my very limited brain power and energy can be used for the things that matter. My writing.
I suppose I better finish there otherwise this will turn into a book on it’s own :/
Thanks for reading this article! Hopefully you enjoyed reading it or at least found it interesting. If you’d like to read more articles like this feel free to follow me on social media using the links on the homepage or below.
If you’d like to support my work feel free to share my posts or website on social media. If there’s a topic you’d like me to consider feel free to email me at baigelbytes2@gmail.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/baigelbytes
IG: https://www.instagram.com/baigelbytes1/