The lede to my 19th column makes even less sense today than it did at the time. In 1997, Apple computers used Intel chips while Microsoft used NT chips, and what is today one of the most profitable companies on the planet was an endangered species because Apple had less than 10 percent of the computer market. I argued that holiday shoppers should consider getting an Apple anyway because its operating system was better than Microsoft Windows, and there were plenty of nifty apps that could run on the MacOS. Apple only has 20 percent of the computer market today. But after founder Steve Jobs returned to run the company again, also in 1997, Apple expanded its product line, not the least being the iPhone, which has 60 percent of the American smartphone market.
Before plunking down $2,000 for a home computer this holiday season, and choosing between Twiddle Intel and Twiddle NT, you might consider investing in an endangered species. Go ahead, laugh. But as the Apple computer dwindles down to a single digit share of the computer market, its operating system remains superior to the user-hostile interface of Microsoft Windows. For entertainment, education, desktop publishing, surfing the net and a lot of other activities, the Macintosh computer is simpler, easier and more fun to use. Period.
Oh, but they don’t make enough Apple software. Humbug! How much software do you need? The Apple operating system, along with some of the unheralded software that runs on it, are “cybersleepers” — overlooked, underrated, simple yet elegant technologies that are often unbelievably inexpensive.
For example, after getting a computer, whether it be a Mac or PC, you are going to want a word processing software program, the two most popular being Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect, which both have versions for both operating systems. Word retails for $339 and takes up 8 megs of RAM, which is to say, a lot of memory. WordPerfect sells for $395 and takes up nearly as much RAM.
But if you bought the Mac, you could download Tex-Edit, a $10 shareware text editor that uses barely 1 meg of memory and does most of the same things that Word and WordPerfect do, and a few things they can’t do. Seriously!
Created by Tom Bender of San Angelo, Texas, Tex-Edit can create, edit, format and print text documents just like the big expensive word processors. It also lets you insert pictures; view, edit and print text documents created by virtually any word processor or computer; re-format downloaded e-mail or text, cleaning up those annoying squiggles, misspelled words and boxes; have the computer read text aloud; create hypertext documents; and run scripts to automate repetitive computer operations.
Tex-Edit takes full advantage of Apple’s nifty “drag and drop” technology, enabling you to drag highlighted text, not just around the document you are working on, or between documents, but between documents from different word processing programs. In fact, you can take the icon of a closed Tex-Edit file, drag it onto an America Online e-mail message, and the Tex-Edit document will automatically open and insert itself into the AOL e-mail, retaining its formatting. No cutting, copying, pasting, program switching or fiddling with data translators.
Although it doesn’t come with a spell checker, Tex-Edit lets you use stand-alone dictionaries with it. And it can save text in some 25 different formats, including Word and WordPerfect. Tex-Edit has become my primary word processor because it’s so small yet flexible.*
Another thing you’ll want with your new computer is a graphics program that allows you to play with pictures. The top of the line is Adobe Photoshop. Originally made for the Apple platform, it now comes in both flavors, for a mere $895. At nearly 15 megs, it’s a real memory hog, and it may cost you another $895 before you’ve had enough classes to take full advantage of its many tools.
But if you had a Mac, you could download Thorsten Lemke’s GraphicConverter. This $35 shareware program uses barely a third the memory as Photoshop, yet it is both a graphics editor and a viewer that can create slide shows, plus a powerful image converter, able to open, convert and save some 90 different kinds of images, including animated GIFs.
Say, for example, you see a nice image on the Web, but for whatever reason you can’t download it as a picture file. If you have a Mac, you can take a snapshot of the screen using the Apple-Shift-3 command, which captures everything on the screen as a “PICT” file. With GraphicConverter, not only can you look at the picture you took simply by dragging the icon over the icon of the application, but you can crop the picture, adjust its color, size and sharpness, and play with various special effects, filters and other
adjustments. Then you can save the PICT file as a much smaller JPEG file that you could put on a Web page or email to a friend.
I could go on, but I know I must sound like one of those anti-fur people, extolling the virtues of a doomed point of view. Still, as you consider which computer you want to bring home to your family, which one you want to spend your time with for the next several years, consider this: Buying an Apple computer is not merely helping to preserve an endangered species. For the quality of life you save may be your own.
*Most of my writing since the 1990s was done with Tex-Edit. When Apple changed its operating system in 2021, Tex-Edit wouldn’t run on my new computer. In a panic, I contacted Tex-Edit creator Tom Bender, who told me he had retired and would not be updating the app. Ever. I was crushed, and to this day I have kept my old computer so I can still use Tex-Edit and another obsolete software gem, MPEG Streamclip for editing video.
© 1997 By H.B. Koplowitz, all rights reserved.
