Who is TheBigO?
- Updated : 19/01/2007
There are many people under the name 'TheBigO' around the globe, and we all have our differences.
The biggest 'O' is probably Oscar Robertson - an American basketball player from the 60's and 70's. He is generally considered the greatest all-around player in the history of basketball. In 2000 he was named "Player of the Century" by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
Find out more about Oscar Robertson »
Then there is Owen Renn from Atlanta in the USA. A young Field Tech with his website currently produced in iWeb. Music and Photography seems to be his thing.
Check out Owen Renn's website »
Then there are BigO's that have blogs and have contributed opinions to shopping and other websites and forums.
And me?
Well I have been a Mac user and Mac Evangelist since I first experienced an Apple Mac LC III back in 1992. Having struggled with IBM PCs, DOS and Windows, the Mac, though wierd and completely different, just seemed to work and do all the things with the minimum fuss.
Even the closed architecture, high prices and lack of peripherals didn't put me off - because I knew that time was important and didn't want to be struggling to just do simple tasks because of the blue screen of death and crashes I had experienced on the Intel 386's and 486's of the time.
My first Mac was a PowerMac 7600/132 back in 1996. This was a real workhorse and I spent most of my life working on it, creating my first website back in 1996. As I had spent all my working life working in graphic design it was no surprise that I became more and more involved in website design and multimedia.
My next move was to get something more compact as I was moving around, so my next machine was a PowerMac 5500/250 in 1998. This was an all in one mac and served me well - but as applications were getting more processor hungry, so was my work...the 5500 wasn't going to meet the challenge. So this soon became the machine for the wife and daughter.
The 7600 was sold off and the 5500 was passed down and used by my in-laws right up until until 2002. Now that shows just how useful these machines were. But the defining reason for their demise was technology, from the universal adoption of USB and Firewire over serial and SCSI. The processor wouldn't run OS X and the Hard Drives just wouldn't hold it. As OS 9 was no longer supported, especially on the internet, there was no point.
Back in 2000 I got the best of the best. The very sexy and cool G3 Lombard PowerBook. This changed everything for me. I could work anywhere and everywhere. The new G3 processor was fast, there was USB so I could connect a keyoard easily, as well as external monitor, and it was thin - albeit a bit heavy. It took a while until I decided that I would install the OS X Beta. OS X was a revelation - albeit a bit ragged at the edges.
The next machine was undoubtedly the sexiest iMac EVER. And I mean that. They are like Marmite. You either love it or hate it, but the anglepoise iMac, with its 800MHz G4 processor, 17" monitor and superb design it's fantastic. It ran OS X with all the promise and pernache that OS X brought, with the introduction of iTunes and the iLife suite of programmes. Home computing would never be the same, and no other computer manufacturer has ever caught up in terms of industrial design. This machine is in constant use today by my wife and daughter, albeit with an external HD for that iTunes library. Teamed with the Harmon Kardon sub woofer and it's round speakers, oh - I just love it. And never, ever dis the anglepoise monitor. It is the most useful bit of industrial design I know and has been really handy when sharing what is on screen with others. Although I understand the 20" was a bit unstable.
Then 2002 it was out with the Lombard and in with the 800MHz G3 iBook. This was the fastest iBook available, with CD-R and DVD ROM. It also had an airport card, was 12" and had the best iBook shell I think apple ever had. The reason? Well the outer shell looked white, but was actually a clear plastic, over a white underlay. This meant that when it scratched, the scratches were less noticeable. I did a lot of travelling and flying, so this was perfect on the plane and was a hard machine to replace.
But then came 2004 and the 12" Powerbook. The G4 processor had come to the mac and this was an all important speed boost for the mac. And this little beast never disappointed, except for the ultra buckle shell which is still an issue today. A few drops and the casing would ripple like a Cadbury's Flake. But it still worked and ran all the apps at desktop-like speeds. That was until the G5 came out.
The next acquisition was a 20" G5 iMac in 2006. The G4 processor and HD of the powerbook just couldn't take the demand of multimedia and sheer photoshop processing required. The G5 could. And in this version of the iMac (the slim version) it really does everything. I am typing on it now, listening to iTunes and recording TV while Skyping and checking email. The promised land of multitasking bacame a reality with the G5, which has been around for some years now and proven its worth.
But here we are today. And Apple has seen it's business grow from strength to strength. This mainly due to the iPod and iTunes, bringing the Mac to a wider audience.
I got my first and last iPod in 2001. It was the Rev2, 10GB model for around £250. I still use it today. Yes it is a bit of a brick. And yes it does need to run the HD diagnostic everytime I plug it into my Mac. But it has a battery life of about 4-6 hours, which is still it's original spec, and has never had anything changed on it. Yep, still the same earphones. Earphones that I still believe are the best Apple ever made.
With the rise of Apple's fortunes and their ambition for dominance came the inevitable move to Intel. Whilst we cringed at the thought of Apple ads with a resounding 'Ding Dong Ding Dang - Intel Inside' at the end and the PC users infiltrating our, until now, closed network, Apple moved with its plans for world domination.
But I could see the value in the move and anticipated a move to Intel as being a step in the right direction. With a tumble down some tube escalators, a fall onto my back , my powerbook bending in half as it cushioned my landing, and the great forsight of extended home insurance to my laptop in transit - a new MacBook Pro beckoned and I saw the light.
I got the little beauty - first thing I did was buy a neoprene case to wrap the fragile case in, a copy of Parrallels desktop and an OEM copy of Windows home edition. Need I say more? I have a portable beast with an Intel Core 2 Duo that runs OS X with the speed I expect, and all the iApps, Photoshop and InDesign runnning faster than the G5 iMac (albeit slow on starting up and switching between apps) and also Windows, one runing with IE6, one with IE7 and I may even think of installing a Linux system to see what all that fuss is about.
I predict that the next generation of Intel chip for the mac will have on-chip virtualisation without the need for Parrallels and the like. But we'll have to wait and see.
My strategy and understanding technology
I often get asked what Mac to buy. And each time I say the same thing to everyone. Whatever computer you are going to buy, whether a Mac or PC, bear in mind that technology is moving at a pace where you should expect to upgrade every 2 years. And that has been a philosophy that I have maintained, allowing me to sell my old computer while still financially viable, while getting the most out of it before the next best thing.
