I hate to admit it, but I am indeed one of those poster child Apple sellouts who carries a needlessly expensive MacBook Pro and a glossy (and needlessly expensive) iPhone 4. I wouldn’t do it but for the gurus at the J-School who “strongly suggest(ed) the Mac option” in the summer orientation brochures. I don’t like thinking that I’ve backed myself into a technological iCorner, but I do try to make up for it by maintaining what ties I can with the greater non-iOS world: running Windows in boot camp, jail breaking my iPhone, the usual techno-hedonism.

I have to concede, though, that in a lot of ways it’s nice to have my main weapon and side arm in such direct compatibility with each other. With surprisingly little finagling on my part, my phone is more or less a miniature echo of my computer. I can access things on each from both devices, and even control one device from the other.

The one overarching thing Apple products do really well is interact with each other. The reason I think iThings are so popular is that everything is very neatly syncopated: all e-mail can be funneled through Mail, iPhones and iPods speak very plainly with Apple computers, and it all gets consolidated, organized and refreshed in your music library. I personally think iTunes is the most important thing Apple has ever done in their recent history, but that’s just my non-iPad carrying opinion.

The truth is, though, that not everything in the world is compatible with the most popular hardware. Sony cameras, for example, are intentionally incompatible with OSX, and Apple itself has cut off possible connections with lots of popular peripherals. In and of themselves, Apple things operate pretty seamlessly, but they don’t do everything, and they’re actually not as close as they would have you think to achieving a monopoly (I mean, outside of the University of Missouri – Columbia).

Hardware and software alike are evolving at a pace that makes it difficult for consumers to keep up. I thought it was odd that, as a freshman journalism student, I was already being told that I was required to have a certain computer with certain software installed, not to mention a portable video-media player. I have yet to use anything more sophisticated than Microsoft Word in my classes, and I’m afraid that the investments I made will be obsolete by the time I actually get around to doing real projects with them.

I can see it now — “Sorry, but you have to have this year’s thing in order to pass. Last year’s edition totally sucked and doesn’t perform the one obscure function that the newer one can. Plus, how cool is the new box, eh?”

To be fair, if you’re going to be doing something often and at high levels – say, graphic design – you probably need to go ahead and pony up for CS5, for the sake of both functionality, and, let’s face it, your professional image. But until that day when your very livelihood rests on the performance of your digital tools – or your classes just absolutely require it – there are plenty of ways poor college students can avoid pricy software (to avoid pricy hardware, two words: Newegg Dot Com).

There’s a wealth of really excellent resources available online, if you know where to look or what you’re looking for.

OpenOffice, for example, is an excellent alternative to Microsoft Office. If you didn’t buy a Windows-based computer and are looking to save a solid $150, it has all the features and programs the average student needs: word processing, spreadsheets, databases, presentations, etc. OpenOffice is even fully compatible with Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

However, especially at a school so heavy in media and design, sometimes it’s difficult to avoid the programs that the very courses are taught in. Even though software like Gimp is a sound, free competitor with Photoshop, I doubt I will be able to, as a journalism student, skirt by without throwing some money Adobe’s way.

But if one feels they can accomplish things well enough without the best and most expensive instruments, there’s no reason to have to shell out prematurely.

Using cheaper computers and open-source software doesn’t make you archaic or a cheapskate. Rather, it means you have good business savvy and the ability to pull off a solid product with tools that are less mainstream. Producing work on a budget is an acclaimed skill, and it’s a testament to your abilities as a photoshopper/graphic designer/essay writer that you can branch across to unpopular platforms and still produce good work. Anyone can agree that resourcefulness is a skill to be admired.