> I find it ironic that Apple has prided itself with "Think Different" and break away from big brother (for those that remember the "1984" commercial) when apparently Apple prefers homogeneity instead of uniqueness.
The 1984 commercial wasn't intended to state that every individual computer should be different, but that you should be able to do different things with your computer than just the business applications that were prevalent.
Actually I wasn't really focusing on their software but their hardware (my wife wants the iPhone in gray to match her coach pocketbook). You can actually customize Mac OSX far more than you can customize gnome shell.
I was merely making fun of Apple's crazy licensing for the App Store, their lack of respecting privacy, the fervent fanatic love for them, and that a majority of the users that use Apple products are of a particular demographic all of which to me is very very 1984ish.
It's a little more nuanced than that. The simplicity enabled many more people to express themselves in contexts other than spreadsheets. The Macintosh, for example, ushered in the age of desktop publishing, which was a boon to writers and academics.
Practically speaking, I don't see that as having changed in Apple. They still see the gateway to creativity and self expression being ease of use, as opposed to some other values such as hardware compatibility or UI customizability.
The 1984 commercial wasn't intended to state that every individual computer should be different, but that you should be able to do different things with your computer than just the business applications that were prevalent.