I know, I know, the title of this article is a bit confusing (and by a bit I mean a lot). But what I am talking about is my recent decision to buy a Mac. As a business owner and (gasp) Microsoft Partner and re-seller for the past several years, it was no doubt a big decision for me to buy a Mac. But as a developer and self proclaimed “tech junkie” for me it was just as hard of a decision to hold off as long as I did. No it was not a clever marketing campaign by Apple (but it is clever).
But lets be clear (After all, I believe in full disclosure) it was not a newfound dislike for Microsoft either. I just felt that with the popularity of Mac’s with people of my generation and owning an IT company locally I owe it to myself and my customers to stay on top of technology. Because although I love developing, the truth is I get very little time to dedicate to it because I stay so busy at work or working on other projects. This new interest started several months back when I was living in New Orleans, a city in which I basically knew no one. A friend had a Mac and I had lots of spare time. Though I was not originally overly impressed or amazed with its ease of use or functionality like so many former windows users are I did enjoy the change in scenery (or in this case User interface). But more importantly I enjoyed the developing environment of textmate and the enjoyment of writing apps for my beloved iPhone. From that day forward I knew it was only a matter of time before I would inevitably come over to the Dark side (or into the light depending on who you are asking i suppose). Of course there are other options as well.
The three major players are to always be considered:
So I did what every good developer should do. I spent more time considering my options. And in doing so I did some pretty fun things (well, fun if you’re a nerd like me) I built an Ununtu Server on the latest release 10.04 Lucid Lynx. I configured about 3 separate Windows 7 PC’s (What? I already told you I was a Microsoft Partner), and obviously that comes with perks (like free or nearly free software for demo purposes) and lastly, I bought a Mac! Specifically a 21.5″ LED Backlit iMac with 4GB of Ram a 500GB Hard drive and a 3.06 GHZ Dual-Core processor. And now I am sure you’re all asking … So What’s the verdict? And unfortunately that is where the vague title starts to make some sense.
In short, i LOVE the new mac, and I have grown so accustomed to my pc setup (and all the annoying and seemingly unnecessary tasks needed to keep it up and running) that although I would definitely call myself a Mac convert, I will still use a pc for some time to come. Visit 0rgb for all the RGB products I use for my PC. Probably at the very least until I no longer have an IT company (in which i support mainly PC’s) to run, and I manage to get to do what I really love on a full time basis (developing). So until one of my crazy startup ideas takes off (see the Wired Like Me page and I no longer have to deal with the hustle and bustle of daily life i will most certainly be a Multi-system user. However as a side note I did recently apply to be a Mac reseller to give my customers a chance to look at something different, so with Mr. Jobs’ approval I may be converting even more users very soon, and who knows maybe I’ll even get that break I have been looking for and call myself a true Mac user even sooner than I think.
I am out for now but please leave comments and tell your friends to check out my blog!