My conversion to Appleism

I used to make fun of Apple lovers. Pretty computers? Come on! Give me a shiny black case with a window so I can see the guts of my computer as it works.

Cool web developers use Macs

I suppose the biggest convincer for me was watching all those video tutorials of cool web developers with their MacBooks. That, and the constant Mac vs. PC debates on Slashdot and other sites. The Mac vs. PC commercials helped a bit too.

These things sparked my interest enough to inspire me to do some more research. My first question was, Will my software work? So far, I haven’t found any program I used on Windows that doesn’t have a Mac version or at least an equivalent, if not better, Mac counterpart.

Where’s the legacy code?

As I learned more about the OS X architecture, I went from interested to incredulous. Really? It’s not like Windows, which still contains 20+-year-old legacy code? And it’s based on a UNIX operating system? Wow, I was impressed. The next logical step was to see how much these things cost.

My Hackintosh

My interest in Macs diminished to almost zero when I saw the price. I gave up the notion of ever being able to own a Mac–that is, until I read about installing OS X on a PC. I downloaded an OSx86 torrent and easily installed OS X on my PC. It was wonderful. I was still using XP at the time; I refused to touch Vista. Installing apps was disgustingly simple. In fact, most things seemed too easy. I began to question whether my apps were even being installed. Just drop the icon into the app folder? Where are my wizards? Shouldn’t there be more things to click: “Next, Yes, Next, Next, Next, Finish”? It was hard to believe how flawlessly my Hackintosh setup worked. My M-Audio hardware worked superbly and Pro Tools worked perfectly as well. It just worked, period.

There was only one recurring problem with my Hackintosh setup. Updates usually screwed everything up, forcing me to reinstall. This was unacceptable. I can’t suffer that kind of downtime, so I was forced to switch back to the gloomy world of Microsoft. But now I was hooked. I had tasted the Apple, and I liked it.

It’s the iPhone’s fault for being so wonderful!

My next major step in converting to Appleism was the iPhone. I was determined to get some sort of data plan for my phone once I graduated and got a job. I researched Windows Mobile (lol), Blackberry, Android, and Apple.  After numerous weeks and months of reading various reviews, I was ready to make my decision. On August 28, 2009, I purchased an iPhone 3GS from Best Buy on Fido’s network with 6GB of data per month.  It was the happiest day of my life… after my wedding, of course (my wife edits my blog–love you, honey!). My iPhone and I became fast friends. We went everywhere together. I played with it every chance I got. I even used it for a phone call or two.

But then I had a problem. My iPhone got lonely. I wasn’t enough for it, and it never did get along that well with Windows 7. They’d sync okay, but I just knew it would sync much better with an Apple.

The 27″ iMac is a thing of beauty

It just so happened that around this time Apple announced the 27″ iMac. I knew it was time. I ordered the Quad Core i7 version on November 30, and it didn’t arrive until the 16th of December. Those weeks of waiting were horrible. I kept reading about all the problems people were having with the 27″ beauties. I even bought the Apple care protection plan just in case. I was expecting to unpack my new friend and have to repackage it the next day to send it back. Well, I’ve had it for 2 months now and it still works perfectly. The updates work too! My iMac is just great. It may have cost a small fortune, but wow, was it worth it. My biggest complaint at the moment is that I keep losing track of my mouse because the screen is so huge. I had intended to use my old 22″ LCD as a second monitor, but there’s just no room on my desk for the 27″ beast and anything else.

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