Yes, I am biased in my perspective on what works best for digital photographers. But what is bias other in my case of having acquired a lot of experience with computers and digital photography doing it every day now for almost a quarter of a century. Some of that experience has been good, some not so and on that basis I have formed some opinions of what might be a better choice among all those that are out there. And, I believe it is because of this very bias due to experience readers look to me for advice, besides the fact what I do and have done for all these years is try out all kinds of new hardware and software to find out how it works and if it is worth having.

But my bias seems to come up as a negative almost entirely in regards to the old saw of Mac vs PC, the never ending dispute and rivalry between Apple and Microsoft. The latest episode of this TV series is the subject of ZDnet’s Adrian Kingsley-Hughes blog today URL http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=4046&tag=nl.e550 regarding a new Microsoft ad attacking Apple. the ad is titled, “I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person”; but its really about someone who wants a laptop on the cheap. But you make up your mind about that, and its not why I am writing this blog entry.

That reason is that someone from the PC industry thought it is time I was berated for being biased because I favor Apple Macs for digital photography, and sent me a long e-mail trying to make me feel guilty because in his opinion I was misleading my readers. Well if truth be told I was a PC/Microsoft person for many years, beginning with my first personal computer purchased by the publishing company I worked for then and plopped on my desk with the implication I was expected to use it. It is only after much disappointment and frustration at the hands of Microsoft that I switched my allegiance to Apple, and was not entirely weened from PC’s until a couple of years ago.

As I said I use this stuff to do digital photography, testing a variety of devices like scanners, printers, displays and associated software on a full-time daily basis, year in, year out. From this experience I have learned a bit about what works and what does not. My long experience using PC’s and Windows was not all bad, but it was painful at times, frustrating at others, and rarely peaceful without the interruption of some disaster or another from sickness due to a virus or indigestion from a multitude of incompatibilities. About 10 years ago I was fed up, not just with PC’s and Windows , but with the fact Microsoft was not particularly concerned or interested in supporting digital photography. So I bought my first Apple Mac. It worked quite well and I was pleasantly impressed. I still had a couple of PC’s one workstation for graphics and another I used in my office. But as time continued and new models of both hardware and software came out I purchased more Apple Mac computers and eventually, about two years ago I retired my last PC because by then I could run a copy of Windows on an Intel Mac as a boot-up alternative.

The bottom line is that over all the years I have been doing computing and digital photography, much of it was done with Windows PC’s but of late that has transitioned to all of my work now being done on an Apple Mac, even Windows software evaluation. The Apple Mac experience has been without any incidents, never a hardware breakdown nor an operating system failure. It has been a most pleasant and rewarding experience that has allowed me to concentrate entirely on my main occupation of working with digital photography. So how can I with such a cumulative experience not be biased in favor of Apple Mac computers? Why would I recommend anything else when my experience over many years has convinced me otherwise? Is there any reason why I should not think if Apple Macs have been so good for me and my digital photography that they shouldn’t also work as well for others?

If you have a comment, they are welcome, so please post it. If you have a question you want me to answer please address an e-mail to David B. Brooks at: goofotografx@gmail.com