Hell Freezes Over...

OK - it's official. I'm now a Mac.

I'm writing this entry from my brand-spanking-new 15" MacBook Pro. 

Really. I just got it. Like an hour ago.

Those of you who have had the courage to read this rant for long enough know that I started out as a die-hard Mac fanatic. I was the typical Mac fanboy - long before the word existed.

I would even spell Windoze wrong and made fun of all those people who used it.

Then, I became a PC.

Why? Well, all of my customers had dumped the Mac and had gone with Windows - and when you're focusing on integrating desktop databases with SQL - you had better get yourself a Windoze box (still the case today).

Then, I don't know what happened... I slowly actually became that PC guy in the Apple ads.

I started to think PCs as more capable than Macs (at least in some areas) - and I just accepted the complete B.S. patches and upgrades as a way of life. I just grew to accept the 5-8 MINUTE boot times, the crappy auto-restarts, the sheer insecurity and fragility of the Windows OS as a fact of life...

Well - that's past. I've been ranting about how much Windoze sucks for so long - that it was time to either put up or shut up (or both). So, I literally arrived back from Australia less than 5 hours ago - and I dragged my jet-lagged ass to the Apple Store in Thousand Oaks.

I had my MacBook, mini-DVI-VGA adapter (for my 26" Dell monitor), a neoprene cover and I was out the door in less than 15 minutes.

I got home, unpacked the box, entered the WEP address of my router to get on the Internet - and that's it folks... done deal.

I've downloaded Firefox, and I'm now downloading the 650+ MB of updates to the OS (no worse than the typical MS patch cycle!). But the thing about this Mac is that (so far) everything just works.

I'm still getting used to the glass trackpad and the 20 finger gestures - but everything else is pretty natural. I've configured some settings, changed the dock location and size - and have started to hit my favorite websites and store them as bookmarks, etc.

I can't tell you the number of times I've reformatted my PC hard drive over the years - and have had to "start from scratch" like this. Only - this time - if I need to transfer stuff to a new Mac it will just do it for me automatically.

What's the fate of my trusty (albeit slow) Dell D430 laptop? Well, for the time being it will be my trusty companion until I get all the stuff off of it, and have a chance to re-buy all my favorite software for the Mac (assuming I can get all my favorite software on a Mac)...

So, we'll see. I'm sure I'll have to use the PC for some stuff - and it will be a great testing machine for all the Servoy development work I'm doing - but, starting today - the Mac will be my primary platform.

Considering the last time I had a Mac as my primary platform - OS 9 was all the rage - there will be a learning curve, to be sure... and I also have to now go and read all the online sites that I've never really cared about (Mac-centric ones) to see what all the best goodies are... but all-in-all I'm excited about the process of becoming a Mac again.

If you have suggestions for your favorite Mac utilities and stuff - let me know...

I'm Bob Cusick... and I'm a Mac...