About 20 years ago, an Apple Macintosh landed in my parents' home. Within a year or so, I became my school's Apple evangelist, even teaching the librarian how to use Macwrite to create documents. For the next 10 years, I remained an Apple fan, indulging in the Newton and an early laptop. Then something happened. PC makers innovated around the steep growth in demand and my Mac was both obsolete and ridiculed in the business world. So in 1999, I made the switch to a PC, assuming Apple computers would serve as a niche player for designers and video editors.