Did I mention that I love my Mac? A very long time ago (1997, we thinks), I bought a souped up Dell notebook/laptop. Very nice. Lots of RAM, fast CPU, much disk. It had Windows 98SE on it (the last small but stable of the Windows family). It ran. It did my stuff. And I was happy.
Then it developed a rattle. This was probably 2004. Long life, right? And the hard drive began being unstable. And it crashed ("click, click, click, click . . ."). And I replaced it. And began running Linux (various Red Hat versions). But there was something wrong with the power on this box. It would freeze and require a hard shutdown (the "one-finger salute") to revive. Which would occasionally fry the new disk (just the data, not the disk). Unstable. And I was not happy.
I didn't read my email. I didn't respond to questions. I didn't write anything of note (and still don't). I began relying on my work laptop for most of my personal computing needs. This was a Bad Thing because I work for in a Highly Regulated Financial Company with draconian InfoSec people who forbid using corporate resources for personal use. And this is a good thing because you don't (or haven't yet!) seen Highly Regulated Financial Company in the news for losing a million credit card numbers or accidentally leaking half a million social security numbers. But I still didn't check email (because they actually enforced that part of the policy). And I was not happy.
Said Dell laptop died one more time. As I was making backups. Really bad die this time. Had to format and start over. Very unhappy. And so I approached this family's Budget And Requisition Board for a new computer. "What?! Ten years since your last computer? Go get yourself one." I don't like spending money (specially on myself) and I was still not happy.
After a few days of making others in my family unhappy, said BARB (Budget And Requisition Board) repeated the request. And I drove my youngest son to the Apple store with a list of part numbers. I flumuxed the sales person because she didn't have to sell anything to me, just get me part numbers from the stockroom. Yes, there was a minor transaction having to do with a piece of plastic, but there wasn't a "sell". And we drove home. And I was happy.
And it sat in the box during dinner and some time after. Oldest son was frustrated because he couldn't open it (it isn't his) or touch it (it isn't his) or use it (it isn't his) or watch Dad use it. Dad wanted to read the instruction book. It didn't take long. Something around five little-bitty pages. And I savored all of them. And I was happy.
Getting up and running was a piece of cake. A slice of pie. As easy as falling down. And so I invited Oldest son to help read me the 128-bit encryption key for the WEP on the wireless router. And he messed it up. And messed it up. And messed it up. And I was unhappy. So I took it from him and typed it from my own eye-balls. And it worked and I was happy.
And I remain happy. I answer email. I distribute pictures. I read the news. I write stuff (still poorly). Apple makes a nice product (hardware and software/OS). I've used a ton of OSes and I know what makes a good OS. OS X 10.4 is a great OS. The laptop is a great laptop. (It just better last me 10 years!) And I am happy.
