Thomas Hawk Switches

San Francisco photo-geek and Zooomr evangelist Thomas Hawk has a secret. Two weeks ago, he walked into the Apple Store in Palo Alto and plopped down the cash for a brand-new MacBook Pro, which he says is "f**ing amazing!"

For some reason I can't seem to fathom, Hawk felt so ashamed of this that he kept his new illicit love hidden from the world until he came to grips with his new OS orientation. Why the sudden change of heart? The standard PC user gripes apply; Windows is buggy, Dells are badly designed, and things tend not to work.

More interesting to me than the simple fact of Thomas switching is this anti-Apple counter-culture which has become more prominent with the rise of the iPod. I know more than a few otherwise intelligent people whose only reason for not buying an iPod is that they don't want to be like everyone else. But my point to them is always that maybe everyone has an iPod because it's really the best out there! Why subject yourself to a sub-par audio player or computer simply because you want to be the "rebel."

Now, I've only seen this philosophy present in people who are deeply involved in the circles in which I run; bloggers, designers, and as one called us, "The San Francisco Hippy Crowd." So I guess what I'm really observing is people trying to be the counter-culture to a counter-culture. Interesting, eh?
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