I was a Mac man from the early days (~1985) through most of the 1990s. In the 1980s I thought they were the most amazing computers, while the IBM PC and its clones were just a clunky hunk of junk. The Amiga had flashier hardware, but the Mac had a better software layer, which adapted better to changes in hardware (e.g. when the Mac II brought in larger screens, colour and 32-bit addressing), while Amiga apps were still stuck with hard-coded assumptions about screen resolution and the like.

It wasn?t until about the mid 1990s that I felt that Windows PCs could at last offer a credible alternative to the Mac. Much of the rest of the world felt the same, too, and that?s when Apple?s fortunes began to decline.

Then Steve Jobs came back. I never thought much of his NeXT machine (I remember some Apple engineers did a spoof ?NeVR? version of the logo), and it was clear the market wasn?t exactly enthusiastic about it either. But somehow the combination of him and Apple together again really began firing on all cylinders. His iMac single-handedly popularized USB (which had been languishing in a chicken-and-egg dilemma despite Intel?s best efforts)?you could tell it was the iMac and not Windows 98 which came out the same year that was responsible, because all the cool new USB devices came in translucent blue and other bright colours, so they could look good next to an iMac, rather than a drab beige Windows PC.

But I didn?t like what he did with OS X, which I saw as an attempt to foist the failed NeXT technologies on the large Mac installed base. So the last piece of Apple hardware I bought was a 2002-vintage G4 iMac. I had already been doing a bunch of Linux admin and programming work by that time, so I decided to concentrate more on that.

In retrospect, I chose the right time to part ways with Apple. As the company moved more and more into non-PC products (Ipod, Iphone), it became more and more controlling with its product strategy. I stuck with platforms where I could write and run whatever code I liked?or whatever my customers liked.

Then this thing called ?Android? came on the scene. It was built on a Linux kernel, which I already had some familiarity with. Earlier this year I had a client ask if I could do some development on the ?Apple mobile platform? (their words) for them. By this time it was clear which way the wind was blowing: I advised them that they would reach a wider market by going with Android rather than Apple.

And to put my money where my mouth was, I downloaded the Android SDK, installed it on my Linux box, and started to learn something about it. Unlike with Apple?s platform, I didn?t need to sign any licence agreement, register with any special program, abide by any NDA, or jump through hoops to get my code running on hardware that I own: I could just compile and go.

It?s fair to say that Android would not be where it is today without the competition from Apple. Apple, too, has shown signs of benefiting from the competition with Android; if it could only loosen up a bit, it could benefit a whole lot more. The legacy of Steve Jobs has taken it so far, but it?s not going to take it much further.

Oh, and the ?six colours? refers to the rainbow colours of the original Apple logo (dating from the founding of the company up until Jobs? return). I still have pullovers, carry bags and other tchotchkes bearing this logo, from the various conferences I went to in the late 1980s and early 1990s, in Australia and the US. Good times, meeting people who had previously been just names on the Internet, and exchanging our love of things Apple.

Ah well, time to get on with the rest of my life. One era ends, another begins.