Hey Art:
Well, the reasons were many. For one, I had been counting on having a real job when I bought it, and then it took me a lot longer to get any work. I needed the money, first and foremost. Second, it took up more space on my desk than the PC that I also owned. But third, and perhaps most importantly, was that I just didn't like the "feel" of the GUI and OS. I know that you swear by that, and hey -- if that is your thing, then cool. I don't begrudge you the chance to use what you like.
Understand some things about me. I'm not a hard-core programmer, but I have lived around that kind of atmosphere. I used to go to my dad's work with him, to hang out while he programmed at his VT100 terminal. I had no idea what he was doing most of the time, but I got into the idea of how he did it.
I was about eight years old when he brought home a Digital Equipment Corporation PDT-150. I remember it fondly -- despite its 8.5" floppies, the insane amount of heat generated by its CPU's giant 200 cm fans (not to mention the resultant noise) and, even for its time, outdated character cell display. But I came to quickly understand how to use it. Heck, I was the first kid on my block with a VIC 20 and C 64 (one after the other -- not simultaneously, of course).
Windows has been good, for the most part. I have few problems with the little tricks that you have to do to get things working sometimes. Interestingly, Windows is E-Z compared to Linux -- and yet, I have begun to understand how to configure audio in Linux as well. But I have grown tired of being marketed to. I want to DO the marketing now, and Linux offers that chance.
Configurability is a big deal to me. I am not an end-user, really. I am more of an entrepreneur. Every product that I have owned for the last twenty years has prepared me to learn how to not just use it -- but to improve upon its design. This is what I am in the process of doing as we speak.
As is so often stated elsewhere -- watch this space.
Later!
Sammy
P.S. And before you say "you can develop stuff for Mac!!! Don't you want to take advantage of their superior hardware...?!" The answer, in short is
NO WAY.
Macs are NOT superior to everything else. They are good for home computing, for the most part. Macs are no more ergonomic than PCs for such scenarios as how you sit at a screen, how your hands work with a keyboard, and when it comes to mice -- I hate to say it -- but the Mighty Mouse is the WORST MOUSE EVER. Period. This is not even debatable. Having to clutch at that stupid mouse made my knuckles bleed. (Okay -- definitely exaggerating here -- but my arthritis was on FIRE after about one hour of trying to navigate with that piece of crap.)
Artemiy -- I respect your views on computing. I hope that this doesn't drive a wedge between us, but I also hope that you might come down a tad from that "Mac Evangelist" precipice that you are currently flirting with. And anyway -- I think that Apple already has that postition covered...
Yes we did.
