Why I am not buying an Apple

My 3 year old Gitana has given me enough problems already that it deserves to be replaced, or demoted to a headless file server. Maybe it is time to switch...

The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

I wanted to replace it with something light, powerful, and solid. I wanted a good arquitecture, I wanted something fast with good battery life. I wanted something that will let me do hardcore scientific computations, and that I didn't have to worry about its security. If it looked as good as my iPod, and was as easy to use, even better.

I wanted OSX running on PowerPC. I wanted what a Powerbook used to stand for. I wanted to be an Apple fan boy. I really wanted to get a Powerbook because they are just plain cool. But I can't. I am sorry, but I just can't.

The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life;

OSX is even better than ever: the beatiful *nix I always wanted to have for an OS. So, what happened to Apple? PowerPC failed, it wasn't able to keep up with the processor speed race. "I want a Powerbook, but I want it now." I have been saying for the past few months. But, Apple hasn't upgraded their Powerbook lineup in a long time, and I refuse to pay full price for an old processor. I want to give Steve Jobs my money, my loyalty and my soul. But I can't wait anymore. With the announcement of Intel architecture and all the rumors around it, it is hard to tell when will a new Powerbook come out: maybe next month, maybe next year. And, no matter how smooth the architecture transition is for the OS and the applications, they are always somewhat painful. The truth is that OSX running on Intel makes Apple a less attractive now. It is being hacked to run on most Intel systems, and the hacks will get better with time. So, why pay the premium Apple hardware prize? The quality of Apple's product is better than average, but it is not as good as their marketing genius makes us believe. The iPods have their battery problems. I know several people with problems with drives in their computers. They are good, but not perfect.
I wanted to switch. I really did. But, looking at my budget, looking at the problems Apple has been having with their processors (IBM and Freescale, I'm looking at you two), and looking at the short term future for Apple, I decided to buy Wintel one more time.