• Hi \
• Hey \
• So, you have had a Macintosh for some time now. How do you feel about it? \
• I think it is very sexy. \
• Yeah? \
• Absolutely. The one I have is a Mac Mini. It gets so much attention, from everybody who sees it, if it was your wife, you should get jealous or she should divorce you. \
• Well, that’s just a slick-looking box. How big deal is it? \
• Huge. This “box” is lighter than my Compaq laptop used to be. It is, definitely, quiter and cooler. I put it in my backpack and carry to work, so I do not need to deal with M$ crap, at work, either. That’s a big deal once you get used to a Mac… \
• Speaking of that. What’s this addiction you guys have with Macs? Lack of apples when you were kids? \
• Well, we touched the coolness of the hardware a bit, but mostly - it is the software. Mac OS X is great. \
• Why? \
• To begin with - it is beautiful. Some people may enjoy the simplicity of black screens with green letters (and you do not even get much of that on Windows) but I want the interface, that I spend a huge part of my day with, to be attractive, nice and kind on my eyes. Call me an aesthete. \
• Well, beauty is a relative term… \
• Yes, but most of the people do agree on what UGLY means. Also, Mac OS X is very, very intuitive and easy to use. It takes me much less time to do the same on Mac, compared to Windows, leave alone Linux. I like when things are done the way I would want them to be, not the way some bighead wanted somewhere up in the state of Washington. \
• Fair enough… \
• Well, also, I find it very convenient not to be afraid of “spyware”, “viruses”, “trojans” and all kind of dirt like that. I do not want to spend my time haunting them, neither do I want my top-notch computer to suddenly become a slowly crawling, half-dead beast. \
• You mentioned Linux… It is quite resistent to the “dirt”, too, no? \
• You know… If anybody is a supporter of open-source, that’s me. If anybody admires Linus Torvalds and the whole community behind Linux - I do. But, seriously - Linux is not a desktop OS, yet and I do not see when will it become one. I tried switching to Linux several times. Even managed to stay there whole of 3 weeks. It sucks. And not so much that you almost have nothing there - OpenOffice is nowhere near a decent office, media support is less than good etc, etc, etc - you may get away with that, if you try real hard. The point is very simple - every minute that I spent on Linux, as my desktop, I was missing Windows UI, and when I finally gave up and returned to Windows - I was literally experiencing pleasure of working as a normal human, not some shadow-headed geek. It is a shame how crappy X11 is, considering how long it has been around. Neither KDE or Gnome add anything valuable to it - just more bugs and uglier design.

On the contrary - every minute I spend with Mac OS X, I feel literal pleasure to be working with a responsive, intuitive, beautiful, smart system. I never, even for a second, had a desire to go back to Windows and at several occasions that I had to work with Windows, on other people’s computers, it really felt unpleasant and wrong. Once you go Mac, you do not want to go back.

And Mac OS X has wayyyyyyyy better support than Linux, for sure. Consider drivers, programs - anything, the situation is much better than for Linux. I also find it very amazing that a Mac feels much more comfortable in Windows networks than even Windows computers :) You gotta admit - most of us have to deal with WinNet at work and this compatibility is a big deal.

• Well, that was some speech :) Don’t even know what to ask next. \
• Don’t, get a Mac and get a life. Gotta go now. Take care. \
• Hm, thanks…
  :-)