Why I'm Making the Switch to Apple OS X

I'll be the first to admit it: I have Mac Envy. For years I would say "Windows sucks, Linux is too hard for normal people, and Mac is a toy." But secretly, I looked at Mac OS X and said "Pretty!" Okay, I said more that that. I watched Macs change from toys into full fledged workstations. Macs, like the rest of us, grew up.

And Macs are pretty. Beautiful in fact. But more than that, they're functional. Unlike Windows based machines, you plug most things in and they "just work". I've seen it time and time again. The days of SCSI Voodoo notwithstanding, Macs are simply easier. Mac OS has it roots in Unix, and it shows. All the power of Unix is still there, but made simple, and elegant.

So why now? What could have possibly motivated me to switch now? One word: Vista. I don't have Vista installed on any of my machines. I wasn't in the mood to upgrade to a high end graphics card, to add tons of memory, to fight with U.A.C., all to get a system that doesn't work the way it's supposed to. Vista is a great example of Microsoft's dedication to bloatware. Microsoft has single handedly created a beast that slows many of the world's fast machines down to a crawl. Well not here. If Vista is the future of PC's, I want out.

And this is where the Linux evangelists say: Join us, get Linux. Sorry guys, I love Linux, I really do, but when I spend a week trying to get a wireless card to work, and it just won't, that's too much. I'm a programmer, not a techie. I want to turn my machine on and start coding. I don't want to have to spend hours configuring hardware to work. I don't have that kind of time. Linux is great. It's fast, it's secure, it's scalable, but it's not for wimps, and I guess I'm just feeling too wimpy to deal with its idiosyncrasies.

I'll miss accessibility to cheap hardware. I'll miss the plethora of available software. But otherwise, I'll be all right. The future of PC's is Windows consuming as many resources as I can throw at it. I just don't feel like playing catch with Microsoft anymore.

And I'd like to send a special shout-out to Cali Lewis, whose Vodcast Geekbrief.tv is part of what convinced me the time was right. Watching her enthusiasm over Mac made a believer out of me.

If you're not familiar with OS X, you should definitely take a look at the Guided tour at Apple.com