I wish I could quit you

My iBook has again broken down and I do not know how bad it is. I have not backed up anything for a while. My photos, my documents, my e-mails, my life is in that laptop. I know these things happen and I know I should back up my files and things. But I did not. So I make a pledge here and now: if my files are safe and will be rescued, I will buy an external hard-disk that I will use to make at least weekly backups of everything.

I cannot hate Apple or Mac because of this though. No one can make perfect products, but Macs are very near to perfection. Other laptops tend to break down as well, but is seems in general that older laptops than mine are usually more reliable (especially IBMs etc). The old ‘clamshell’ iBooks were bastions of reliabilty.

The iBooks have been plagued by logic board failures (mine has been changed twice), video freezes, etc. The new MacBooks, which were to replace iBooks, have experienced battery problems, whining, discolorment (the white ones), unexpected shutdowns, overheating caused by shoddy assembly work, etc.

Apple has become more visible and more popular (especially among Windows users). One of the key selling points of the Mac is that “it just works”. When it does not work, it feels like Apple have betrayed and defrauded you. They have given this beautiful machine to you only for you to see it disintegrate in front of you. It does not feel so bad if the crummy cheap Windows PC dies and takes your data with it, but it does hurt when something you loved does it.

No, I could not go back to using Windows or start using Linux, or give up the nice and affordable designs of the Mac hardware. So I can only hope that nothing bad happens and remember to back up my system. And those Mac users, the majoirty of which have not experienced even a hiccup on the machine, be happy, but never forget to back up your data.

Read:
BBC News: Is Apple feeling the heat?