I am flying back from Texas as I write this, defeated. Scorned. Humiliated.
Down south for a conference in San Antonio, I headed to the Apple store during a break in the action. I wanted to be one of the lucky few in Canada to score an iPad.
I just wanted to open one up in Starbucks and read the
New York Times, or a book. But I discovered to my horror . . . there were no iPads anywhere near the Alamo. There were none within 100 miles of San Antonio. There were none in Texas, zilch. Nada. Nyet. Nichts.
“We expect more in a few weeks,” said the girl at the Genius Bar, surrounded by a plethora of iPhones, iPods, MacBooks, iMacs, and other life-altering gizmos created from the mind (and the ego) of Steve Jobs.
The release of the iPad was delayed in Canada so Apple could fulfil orders in its largest market, the U.S. But seemingly, Apple can’t even keep up with the demand there.
What a change in the computer landscape since I became the proverbial “Mac guy” almost 10 years ago, totally by accident. A client and I were negotiating an account of mine that he had a problem paying; not because he didn’t appreciate or value the services, but because he had no more cash. As he was in the computer leasing business, he offered me a laptop. I said sure; a Pentium 3 IBM would do it for me.
He called back later and said, “It’s got a three in it, but it’s a PowerBook G3. Take it or leave it.”
I took it, sealing my fate with that of Mr. Jobs, and kicking myself that I never bought Apple shares at the same time.
Immediately trading up from that heavy PowerBook running OS9 to an iBook G3 running OSX, I discovered a few things about a computer and an operating system that very few lawyers used at that time. First, it worked without a lot of fuss.
I didn’t need a tech department to run it, and I never had to call the techies when the computer crashed, because it never crashed. But it could also run Microsoft Word and Excel, meaning I could actually draft documents, letters, and other work products on a Mac as my “second computer” if I wanted.
Then around 2002, I discovered it was able to seamlessly network within my small, six-lawyer firm. So having had one crash too many on my Windows desktop, having lost data I shouldn’t have lost, having bought upgrades that wouldn’t work with previously installed software, and having caught two viruses in Windowsland, I decided to throw Windows more or less out the window and converted to a stand-alone Mac within an office networked to a dozen Windows machines, to the scorn and chagrin of my then partners.
My conversion to Mac made me a bit of an evangelist, but I can’t say I’m anti-Microsoft. In fact, in an ironic twist of fate, I couldn’t have fired Windows without Microsoft’s help. Because they make Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for Macintosh, I could open anything that’s e-mailed to me, access an Excel spreadsheet on anyone’s directory, create a monstrously large and complicated Word document, and prepare a PowerPoint presentation, all on my Mac.
In short, I could do anything on my Mac that my partners could do with their Windows computers. So switching to Mac was just another option, like the kind of wine you drink, the music you listen to, or the suits you wear.
But the proof was in the pudding. Where the other lawyers had crashes, I had none. When they had to regularly bring the tech guy in, I told him his services weren’t required. In fact, the tech guy told me in 2003 that he had substantial contracts servicing schools, universities, and businesses that used Macs, but he’d go broke if it wasn’t for Microsoft and Windows machines and their “issues.” The Macs never broke down. “They just work,” he said, well before the advertising campaign used the same words.
When I was headhunted to my current firm in 2004, part of my deal was that I stayed in MacLand, and true to form, my iMac desktop was able to seamlessly integrate within a then 50-lawyer firm with every program except accounting.
Where our four-man tech department seemed to be constantly servicing the needs of the other Windows lawyers and assistants in the office, I was told after a couple of years I was one of the lowest users of the tech department in the firm.
I grew with Mac and Mac grew with me. Being a bit smug in MacLand, when the rest of the office was down for some reason, I was always up. I was even able to emulate the Windows-based accounting software using Parallels. Microsoft’s switch to Vista made me very smug when I heard my old firm was buying up extra XP licences so they didn’t have to convert to Vista.
But I switched back to Windows as my office desktop computer a few months ago, mostly because of a new document management system that worked with Outlook and interfaced with voicemail, and quite nicely too. Not being able to source a product that would do the same things on a Mac, I reluctantly joined the Dark Side and now work on a Windows machine at my desk.
It’s an interesting transition. I have to call the tech department regularly because something I expect the software to do can’t be done, as if I am a time traveller knowledgeable in future technology that hasn’t been invented yet (though in MacLand, it has).
Maybe I just expect too much, but I now find things that take two keystrokes on a Mac now take six on Windows and will lead to a crash or a hang 20 per cent of the time.
I can’t multi-task in certain programs as easily. It’s not as intuitive, nor is it ergonomically as pleasant to work with, as any tool should be. It’s been on my desk since September. The CPU has had to be replaced so many times, one of the techies thinks I’m cursing it with voodoo spells from Apple, or pouring apple juice on it.
Ironically, I sent this article to my desktop windows machine by e-mail from the airport and would have finished it from the office, but something else crashed on it, and I’m told I’m getting another “box.”
One of the other lawyers in the office uses Windows from his desktop. But he’s prophetic about the future of Macs in the office.
“Look at all the teens and 20-somethings. . . . They all have iPhones, iPods, and MacBooks” he says. “ When it’s time for them to call the shots in business and law, do you really think they’re going to change operating systems because old fogies like me tell them they have to use Windows in the office?”
“I’ve seen the enemy,” he says. “It’s us.”
Vancouver franchise lawyer Tony Wilson has written for various legal and news publications. He is associate counsel at Boughton Law Corp. His e-mail is [email protected].
