Hello everyone. Long-time review reader here. Never been on the forum, but I feel like Tom's Guide is one of the few sites I can trust for reliable tech reviews so I wanted to create an account here finally.
I've been using computers since I was like 5 (~1996), but I didn't start dabbling with hardware until around 2007 or so and destroyed my laptop trying to upgrade the RAM so I could get a few more fps in Guild Wars. I was completely clueless. I bought the wrong kind of RAM, and instead of returning it I thought I'd just expand the notch with a nail file so it would line up properly. I put it in the computer, and it never booted up again. That's when I figured out I needed to learn PC stuff.
Then my uncle gave me a Dell XPS desktop (he was a tech guy and had upgraded to a newer model) which I loaded up with viruses. I didn't have a Windows disk to start over and I was a teenager, I didn't want to tell my parents I screwed up the computer, and there was no way I was paying for Windows XP, so I got into Ubuntu for a while until I graduated high school and my parents bought me a new laptop. I'm a big Linux and Open Source fan but there's always been specific software I needed Windows for so I could never fully make the switch.
I've worked in IT since 2010, and I was mostly a Windows/Linux user. I used to be a huge Google/Android fan before I started becoming more privacy-conscious. I had bought some Apple stuff here and there (had an iMac in 2011 and an iPhone 5s in 2014), but have always preferred the openness, customization, and serviceability of non-Apple products. That is, until after working in tech support for a while and developing a pretty strong hatred of Google and dislike for Microsoft, and I've kind of lost the joy in messing with hardware and customization in my free time. I still love gadgets and accessories, but as far as computers go I just crave simplicity now.
I've had an iPhone 12 Pro, Apple Watch 6, and Airpods Pro for a several months now and I've tried out other phones and accessories like the Galaxy S21 Ultra and Galaxy Watch Active 2, I just ended up returning them. I was really impressd by the M1 chip that came out last year, but I still couldn't bring myself to get one because of the lack of I/O. But now that Apple has brought back standard ports and MagSafe in the new MacBook Pro, I decided to order one. My goal is to move from tech support to iOS or web development within a year.