I was a devoted Macintosh user from 1985 onward, but it's been six or seven years since I last bought an Apple product. Apple seems to have become increasingly

I was a devoted Macintosh user from 1985 onward, but it's been six or seven years since I last bought an Apple product. Apple seems to have become increasingly particular about the kind of experience they want you to have when you use their equipment, and it doesn't appeal to me; it's pretty, to be sure, but it's too paternalistic. I'd rather be left alone to do things the way I feel like doing them. The MacBook Pro I use at work is nice enough, though I feel more of an eye-rolling irritation with its high-tech touch bar, paper-thin keyboard, and USB-C-only design than the sense of futuristic delight Apple must have been hoping for. I cannot see anything about it which comes close to justifying its $2800 price tag, and I would never consider buying one for myself. Hardware performance outran my day-to-day needs a long time ago, so I am perfectly content with a $300-$400 second-hand laptop and a $250 phone. I have learned to take a sort of contrarian delight in the humble, rugged utilitarianism of a ThinkPad, and I recently got a phone with a QWERTY keyboard, because I'm tired of typing on glass and fighting with autocorrect. It's probably a good thing for the world that Apple keeps pushing the frontier of design forward, but I don't need to be along for that ride myself.