My Almost Three Years with Mac OS X
Published on 29 Mar 2006 · Filed in Personal · 474 words (estimated 3 minutes to read)A blog entry by Giles Turnbull a few days ago titled “My five years with Mac OS X” got me to thinking about my own experiences with Mac OS X. As I started thinking about it, I realized that it’s been almost three years for me.
Like Giles, I was more of a lurker than a switcher as the news and coverage surrounding Mac OS X grew in intensity. I had followed the development of Mac OS X, watching with interest as a platform I had once used (back in the System 7.x days) was transformed into something completely new. I had tried switching away from Microsoft Windows a couple of times (to various distributions of Linux), but kept coming back—primarily because using Linux just took too much time and too much effort for me to get my job done.
It wasn’t until the release of “Jaguar” (Mac OS X 10.2) that I really started paying attention. Linux had matured quite significantly, but still had issues (at least for me) as an everyday use OS on a laptop. Windows, on the other hand, was bogged down in Windows XP, and the next version of Windows was (and still is) quite a ways off. Further, with Microsoft’s track record of cutting features during product development (can anyone say WinFS?), there was no telling what would actually make it into the final product. There was also the strong upswing in malware (that rise still continues).
Despite Linux’s limitations, I loved the idea of Linux, and the power that it offered. Could it be that Mac OS X would be the answer? Fortunately for me, Apple had opened a retail store not too far from my house, and I started making regular visits there to get some hands-on time with Mac OS X. I started conducting extensive research online, looking up feedback and reviews and impressions of the product. Most importantly, I took a hard look at the tasks that I do on a day-to-day basis, and I made sure that Mac OS X had applications that allowed me to get my job done.
Finally, I took the plunge. I bought a 15" PowerBook G4 1GHz and a copy of Microsoft Office X for the Mac. From that point forward, I don’t think I’ve looked back. Since that time, I’ve uncovered so many fabulous applications that I use everyday to make my life easier.
So, here I am, almost three years later, and still loving being a Mac OS X user. In fact, as I am sitting here writing this entry, I am connected to two different networks (one wireless, one wired), uploading files to two different servers via SFTP, logged into several IM networks, running multiple Remote Desktop sessions to Windows-based servers, and pulling e-mail from multiple e-mail accounts simultaneously. How could I not love it?