A few memory lane paragraphs ...

My first experience with a Macintosh was back in the mid 80's in grade school. We would program the Logo robot using our Apple II's. I still remember that robot turtle coming online and saying in it's classic computerized voice, Logo Logo Logo Logo, Heeeello. Back in the turtle programming days we didn't have a GUI. We would just type forward 100, right 20, the turtle would wiz to life and the computer became the coolest, most powerful thing in teh school. At home we never got a Mac, they were too expensive. It wasn't until college that I had a pretty much unlimited expense account and bought myself a G3 in the school store. OS 9 was slick. But the machines were slow and I always found myself waiting. I think that's why I started smoking in college, the progress bar on my Mac waiting for something in Bryce to render or just for another program to boot up.

I ditched the Mac for a while and went to Linux. Fast Intel PC's were cheap and hey, Linux was free. I started tweaking Linux installs and fell in love with Linux for work. I was coding, messing with databases and browsing the web. There was no need for anything more. And KDE got to be pretty slick over the years. All this on top of the cool factor of being a Tux warrior, I was glad to give up something here and there to be a die hard Linux geek.

I ditched the Mac for a while and went to Linux. Fast Intel PC's were cheap and hey, Linux was free. Linux was cool and an easy way to learn about Unix like operating systems. I started tweaking Linux installs and used it exclusively for work. I was coding, messing with databases and browsing the web. There was no need for anything more. And KDE got to be pretty slick over the years. All this on top of the cool factor of being a Tux warrior, I was glad to give up something here and there to be a die hard Linux geek.

Then I started getting serious about FreeBSD. FreeBSD was the most efficient, strongest operating system I had ever used. Support for non standard hardware was challenging and there were several sacrifices to be made for using FreeBSD in a desktop environment, but it was obvious this was the ultimate core.

OS X came out. A bunch of friends hopped on the band wagon right away. I was already running FreeBSD for any server stuff and Mandrake for my desktop. The most attractive thing about OS X was the FreeBSD core. But I had sold my G3 and saw on other's G3's how darn slow OS X was running. I had no desire to switch. But I admit, even at that time, the possibilities for OS X looked really cool.

Time went on and the tables turned. I started having a bit more disposable income and I got married. I really wanted my wife to enjoy computers as much as I did. I'd sit her down in front of a Linux box every now and again. She could use Firefox, she'd use OpenOffice Writer with a little coaxing, but that was about it. She still liked her Win2k box. And on neither platform would she attempt to create anything original. I wanted this to end.

I bought a 20in iMac G5 with OS X Tiger for her. I began to set it up for her and realized how fun OS X had become. I ended up taking the iMac off of our desk and moving it down to the coffee table for its first few weeks at home. I was always playing with it and getting my wife excited about using a computer.

Since then, the G5 has moved back upstairs and my wife has been using a 13in white Macbook with 2 gigs of RAM. My wife gave me our daughter Georgia, and I gave her the Macbook. (See image). I think it was a fair trade, that's my favorite computer in the house.

I've given up doing my work on SuSE linux and have moved to a 17in Intel Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro. The speed is amazing on this machine. The hardware has certainly caught up with the OS and now there's no stopping me. Better yet, there's no stopping my wife. OS X on these Macbooks have become an extension of our lives.