Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, passed away Wednesday, October 5, 2011, at the young age of 56.  I have grown up with him and tracked the ebbs and flows of his career with the perspective of a fickle consumer.

To develop a credit rating, I borrowed money from a bank to purchase an Apple IIe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIe) in 1982 immediately following college graduation.  The case included a built-in keyboard and a flat spot on top to place the amber monitor.  I immediately bought a case-less generic keyboard that included a numeric keypad and jerry-rigged it to work with the computer.  One of my first applications (i.e., in Applesoft BASIC) was a program to print W2 information for the farm clients of a friend.  Wikipedia reports that with 11 years in production, the Apple IIe is the longest-lived computer in Apple’s history–take that, Moore’s Law!  I was an immediate fan of Apple’s co-founding “Steves” (i.e., Phone Phreaker Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs), and the culture that produced books such as “Beneath Apple DOS.” 

A few years later I decided to purchase a more portable computer to take on an overseas engineering assignment.  I really wanted to buy the popular portable PC clone by Osborne, but in the end shied away from its 64 character onscreen limitation (i.e., the Osborne had to wrap the last 16 characters of the typical 80 character line onto the next line).  Instead, I bought a “luggable” (i.e., a portable computer that is heavier than today’s desktop computers) Columbia computer that included free WordStar word processing and SuperCalc spreadsheet software.  It also included a rather horrible prequel to Quicken that actually increased the work needed to balance check writing.  This began my several decade hiatus from Apple products because, 1) I needed portability and, 2) I liked the variety of software offered in the rather “open” PC market.

Steve Jobs left Apple also.  His foray into NeXT computing became, as he said at his 2005 Stanford Commencement, the precursor to the Apple that we now know today.

My first MP3 player was actually from Sony, which continued Sony’s Walkman product line from portable cassette player to CD player, and then finally to an early digital player.  Along with others, I agree that Sony overplayed its digital rights management hand and its proprietary ATRAC format at just the right time to allow newbie portable-music player Apple to launch its history making  MP3-friendly iPod.  Of course, the iTunes store played a critical role.  Thus begins my return to my Apple roots.

It was actually students that pushed me all the way back to Apple.  Informal classroom surveys around 2005 revealed that approximately one-third of my students were using Macs.  This caused me to purchase a Mac so that I could create Mac-friendly assignments.

The transition back was rough, though.  I remember several painful weeks of regret when nothing was making sense.  Apple seemed to make things different for “no apparent reason.”  “Control-C” did nothing–instead, why did it have to be “Command-C” (i.e., “Command” is the special key with the Apple logo on it)?  I felt sure Apple did not want me.

However, I persevered and am now very happy with the simplicity, ingenuity, security and reliability of the Mac.  Purchase options were minimal.  Pricing was a bit high, but simply because the systems included premium components.  For example, Microphones and cameras were built in, and Apple Time Machine allows fantastically beautiful and simple file recovery.  I still use the PC, but am now fully “bi-cultural.”

So long, Steve, and thanks for the ride…