I have had a thought running through my head here lately dealing with the way the conventional wisdom has changed since Apple took on IBM. What brought this thought out was an update to iTunes that I seemed forced to install this morning.

When I say I was forced to install it, I mean that iTunes would not play anything when I tried to run it this morning. The program kept freezing up after telling me a new update was available. So I finally gave in and updated iTunes.

Now understand, I only use iTunes to download and listen to podcasts, nothing else. I have another mp3 player I use for all of my music and videos. I have never liked the iTunes heavy handedness in wanting to change the way I store my files. It is probably a reflection of why I have never cared for the Apple operating system.

It turned out I had a hard drive problem causing the stall…But, really, couldn’t a piece of software that’s that bloated tell me that was the problem?

Anyway…Back to the premise of that old add…There was the upstart, independent Apple taking on the massive, hidebound IBM. Apple, the darling of the creatives. IBM the creature of the executives. Both projecting their images onto their machine of choice. Apple leading the fight for creative freedom, IBM leading the fight to restrict the user to just the processes the bosses wanted you to have.

My how the world has turned. Today IBM deals just with the back-end of computing and Apple…Well, let’s just say you either buy into Steve’s vision of the world or you don’t. If you do you are willing to pay more and wait longer to get what you want…Or what you think you want, anyway.

Is it just me or do all of those folks walking in lockstep look like they are lined up for the next limited iPad of iPhone release?