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I got my first computer when I was 12– a Commodore 64 for Christmas in 1984. It wasn’t that I wanted a Commodore 64, I just wanted a computer. Don’t get me wrong though, I was very happy with it for the many years I used it. I learned BASIC, I learned machine language and even a little Pascal. I tore through every memory address on that thing, wringing it for what it was worth and more. I modified the floppy drive with all sorts of switches for extra features and I wired in a second SID chip for stereo. A friend and I even built a sound digitizer for it, with parts we gathered from my uncle and Radio Shack.
In 1989 I received a 386/25MHz PC for Christmas. I thought the jump to 1MB of RAM and a 40MB hard drive was absolutely incredible. In 1993 I purchased Windows 3.1 and another 4MB of RAM. The thought of multitasking and the graphical interface was very tempting. But actually using Windows 3.1 turned out to be not so good. I wanted to like it, I tried so hard, but I was a command line addict that couldn’t break his habit. Not until a year later when I wanted to use Netscape did I finally give in to Windows. I got used to it, especially with the help of 4DOS.
In early 1995 I became very curious about Windows 95. I hoped it would be more “fun” as well as usuable. Upon its release I was hooked. Though it had some quirks, it did indeed offer the multitasking I was after. However, I was still a command line addict and preferred 4DOS’ new brother 4NT in place of Explorer. By the time Windows 98 was released I knew Windows quite well, digging through the registry with ease and manipulating the system with the best to get what I wanted. I skipped ME. It was horrible from what I’d seen, a big flop for Microsoft.
Windows XP, on the other hand, was truly the OS from Microsoft that drew me in. I enjoyed it. It was powerful. Maintenance seemed to require a whole lot less of my time. Within a year after the release of XP I was MCSE, A+, i-Net+ and Network+ certified. I’d been working on my own doing computer upgrades, repairs, etc for small businesses around town on the side and finally had the certifications to back it up.
However, there was something else that had caught my eye in 2001. That was Mac OS X. Previous to OS X I wasn’t much of a Macintosh fan. But OS X had something special about it. Everything I read about OS X proclaimed it the 2nd coming or at least something close. It was a GUI that looked extra sharp– the asthetics were top notch. But in there, under the interface was power– bsd power. But I was deeply entrenched in the PC world and wasn’t ready to move to OS X just yet. OS X 10.2 came along and my curiousity got me again. Those amazing iBooks and iMacs didn’t help. But the prices… I never had a prepackaged computer since my first PC … and while everyone was saying Macs were just as cheap as a Dell, I was pointing out that Dell computers were almost 50% more than what I could build for myself.
With the release of 10.3 in the end of 2003 I was still telling myself it was ridiculous to want a Mac so much, that the UI may look better, but it was a lot of money to give up on Windows for OS X. But yet, I was looking at the Apple website many times a week, drooling over what I saw. Wanting it so badly. By the spring of 2004 I was reading Mac news sites and Apple’s web site daily. The desire was becoming unbearable. I still couldn’t fathom why I was feeling such a strong pull though. An iMac wasn’t enough for me and a Power Mac? Whoa! I’d never spent that kind of money on a computer no matter how great it may be. But my wife walked in me one too many times while I stared at pictures of Mac computers and daydreaming. She told me to buy one because I was driving myself crazy. I told her she was insane. She said it was my fault. I asked if she was sure… about the Mac, not me, and she said yes.
That’s all it took. My order for a Power Mac G5 DP 1.8GHz w/ 1GB RAM was placed as soon as I could click through the online order form. Now the agony of waiting kicked in. As the days of waiting for my Mac to arrive passed by I was daunted by how much money I’d just spent. Would it be worth it? How could it be worth it? Was I crazy? I didn’t really know anything about Macs beyond what I’d read online. Had I been suckered by pretty graphics? Would I be terribly disappointed? The worries were becoming a real burden.
But then it arrived. I took pictures of the boxes. I took pictures of the computer in the box, of the computer out of the box, of the cords and things and manuals and everything that was there. What was I doing?
I got it put together. I turned it on. It blared at me. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. Then I saw the Apple logo. Wow. So simple, so unextraordinary… but it was powerful. The setup process was a snap, even rather quick, but I wanted to get through it faster. And there I was… facing a new desktop and not sure what to do with it. So I got online. It worked. I mean, Safari loaded and found the home page. But I’d never used OS X before… sure I knew a whole heck of a lot about Windows and general computer terms but I still didn’t expect it to work. But it did. And so did everything else I tried. All my fears of changing quickly left me. There was something else too… At the time I figured I would use Finder as much as I used Explorer, ie. never. Boy was I wrong. Whatever it is about Finder, the design, the speed (in most cases), or whatever… I use it. I like it.
I was in heaven.
There was this and that and oh look, WOW! I can do that!? It will do that!? What if I… yes! That happened every day for a long time. It still happens pretty regularly, almost a year later.
I was in 1984 again. I felt like I was sitting before my first computer. I wasn’t just using a computer any more, I was enjoying using a computer. My Macintosh! Whatever I had lost over the years was back. It’s still here. I didn’t realize it while I was using Windows, but I had been stuck in a routine. The real spark was gone. New versions caught my interest, but it would always turn out to be like seeing a spectular trailer for a bland movie. I can’t stand working with Windows any more. Everything I do on my Mac is easier. I thought I’d have a hard time finding new apps. I found them and so many more. Games? I could do with more, but that’s my only complaint. Yeah, that is all this 20-year PC veteran can come up with to complain about after a year of using a Mac.
My friends that still use Windows liken me to an ex-smoker warning everyone around them about the dangers of smoking. But are they really all that far off? I did quit using Windows after all. The Mac OS X experience is what using computers should be. It’s easy. It’s powerful. It’s amazing. It draws me to new places. It’s got me wondering just what took me so long to switch.
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