Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs has died.  That sucks.  Love him or hate him, Steve Jobs changed the world and he changed what I expect from the technology I use.

I depend and work on computers for a living.  October 1st marked my 15th year as an IT professional (meaning I get paid for what I like to do anyway).  At the end of the day, computers are just a tool to get a job done.  I’ve used a lot, from my early days with Commodore PET’s & Apple II’s, to Amiga & IBM clones, to self built Linux boxes and Sun server hardware to iEverything.

Just like you tend to use different tools in a toolbox, computers and operating systems have different uses as well. I’ve used A LOT of computers and operating systems through the years.  When I come home and am no longer working, I choose to use the tools that are made by Apple. To quote a marketing line that Steve Jobs used in the past: “It just works”.

I got sick of feeling like my work followed me home, I just wanted my stuff to work when I needed it to.  This didn’t happen over night, it started because I was tired of recompiling my linux kernel just to get music to play one day.  I moved my Unix needs over to OS X a few weeks later.  Today, as I look around my house at all my technology I realize just how much Steve Jobs has slowly changed my life:

I write this on a 27″ iMac. My iPhone 4 sits on the desk along with my iPad and my iPod nano from 2007.  Sitting next to me on the floor my a G5 from 2005 that I’m giving to our nephew.  In our family room is a Mac-Mini acting as the media center. In our bedroom is an Apple-TV.  In our kitchen is an airport-express playing music, in our living room is another airport-express playing music.  It is all talking to each other perfectly through an Airport Extreme router.  You could call me an Apple fan and you would be right to do so.

Tonight, I’m sad for his family.  Cancer Fucking Sucks.  I hope they find a cure in my lifetime and I don’t have to witness anymore people I know suffer or hear about others dealing with it.  Steve changed the world and we are better for having had him in our lives. I will miss his vision.

 

Rest in peace.

 

 

 

A list off the top of my head of the various operating systems that I have used:

• Amiga OS
• Apple System Software (Many Versions)
• Debian Linux (Many Versions)
• Commodore Basic
• FreeBSD (Many Versions)
• Gentoo Linux (Many Versions)
• MS DOS
• Mac OS 6.0
• Mac OS 7.0
• Mac OS 8.0
• Open BSD (Many Versions)
• OS X 10.3
• OS X 10.4
• OS X 10.5
• OS X 10.6
• OS X 10.7
• Red Hat Linux (Many Versions)
• Slackware Linux (Many Versions)
• Sun OS 5.5
• Sun Solaris 2.6
• Sun Solaris 7
• Sun Solaris 8
• Sun Solaris 9
• Sun Solaris 10
• Sun Solaris 11
• SuSe Linux (Many Versions)
• Ubuntu Linux (Many Versions)
• Windows 3.1
• Windows 95
• Windows 98
• Windows ME (yes)
• Windows NT
• Windows 2000
• Windows 2003
• Windows 2008
• Windows 2008R2
• Windows Vista
• Windows 7