The Proud Owner of a Macintosh Computer

I believe the year was 1995 when my mother purchased her first desktop computer. It was a nifty little PC and ran under the direction of Windows 95. Those were trying times. The computer crashed more than a caffeine junkie. Everything you could think of: the blue screen of death, that illegal operation window, and even something claiming "WINDOWS DIE NOW" appeared on that computer monitor. But, it was all we had, and we loved it very much.

Throughout the years, I had my bouts of PC terror. There were times where I spent hours on a paper, and jolly ol' Windows would say that Microsoft Word has stopped responding and had to close. My fears: 3. Spiders, 2. Death, 1. Losing a 10-paged paper on a PC.

Even through all of my frustrations and all of the times I threatened to throw my computer out a window (I was quite vocal about this), I still had a special place in my heart for PCs. It came to a point where I was used to all of the errors. I knew how to maneuver my way out of the blue screen of death and even out of a frozen program. It seemed as if I conquered the dark forces of the Microsoft platform. This all felt fine for a while, that is until I realized I was selling myself short.

My mom and I combined have put in thousands of dollars for the Microsoft corporation. A large chunk of that money wasn't even for the purchase of the computers themselves, oh no. You can get yourself a cheap hunk of PC junk and still run Windows. That large chunk of money went into buying software and hardware to help our sick little PCs get better in times of strife. The computer I'm using to post this went through virus hell and had to be shipped off to a computer store for about a week. Come to find out, Windows XP had "holes" of security that made its computers very vulnerable to virus attacks. It was then that I came to another realization: Microsoft is working against me.

There are tons of conspiracy theories out there against Microsoft. Some are plausible, some are slightly ill-conceived, and some are just ridiculous. But does it really matter which are true and which aren't? The real point is that Microsoft and Macintosh users alike are seriously trying to figure out why PCs are so god-awful. These thoughts have lead to great commentary and satire, which have both heavily influenced the recent PC vs. Mac advertisements. Apple is genius in that instead of having to go through the pains of consumer research, the consumers themselves have done all of the work for them.

For years, I swore by my PCs. In reality, I just knew I wouldn't be getting an Apple for a very long time. Those suckers are expensive, and for good reason, they're incredible. It took me about 5 years to finally see the light, and today, you are looking at the proud owner of a Mac Book Pro.



You are also looking at a very, very poor little girl.