I use a Mac at work amongst a sea of Windows and Linux fans. As such I sometimes get drawn into friendly banter about why Macs are terrible and Apple is the worst. As a long time Apple fan, none of this is new to me, this is just how it goes.

We had one of these brief discussions today and at one point I said “yes, those things can be annoying, but I love my Apple stuff anyway.” As I mentioned in yesterday’s podcast, It’s a sentence you don’t often hear when discussing this sort of thing. When we debate why something we like is better than something someone else likes, it is surprisingly hard to give even an inch in the debate. But if you never give even an inch, you start to argue for things that you don’t actually believe in.

For example, today we were comparing the app upload process for the App Store and Play Store. I will not hesitate to say that the process for uploading an update to an existing app on the Play Store was easier than it was on the App Store. It was faster, easier, and had no human involvement, so I was able to release when I wanted with little hassle. The App Store has a worse upload experience, more frustrating UI¹, and took days to approve. I’m happy to say that this experience was better overall in the Google tool than the Apple one.

But that doesn’t mean I find Android to be a general dumpster fire in terms of productivity. Nor do I think it makes trusting Google with all of my data easier. And it certainly doesn’t mean that I would prefer to use a Chromebook to do my work than a trusty MacBook or iPad Pro.

The world would be boring if we all liked the same things. Especially in tech, things are rarely a zero sum game. You can love all things Apple/Google/Microsoft, but if you find yourself defending literally everything the company does (something not even these companies do themselves) then you might want to consider a slightly more critical view of your pet company.

1. It has some nice things going for it and I think it’s structured more clearly, but it’s so god-forsaken slow that I can’t say it’s better. ↩