A new computer
You're reading Mikko Saari's blog Life and opinions. This entry was written 05/ 3/2005, at 08:52.
If you want read more of my entries in the same topic, this entry belongs to the category of Geek stuff.
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Today I'll march in and place an order for our new computer; with good luck, I'll get it today, but I'm trying to constrain my expectations. This time it'll be slightly different, as I'm going to get my first Apple computer.
Back in the days of DOS and older versions of Windows, things were tolerable. My biggest grief with DOS was the imbecile 640 kilobyte memory. I mean, if I have a computer with whopping eight megabytes of memory, why I must struggle with the 640 kB limitation? That was way stupid.
Windows's 95 and 98 have been a bigger struggle. Well, not struggle, but a constant source of annoyance. Computer that goes down when you're not actually doing anything is just too unstable. These days Johanna mostly laughs at the computer when Opera crashes after she has closed it.
I've tried Linux and found the base solid, but the user interface lacking. Xwindows might be great, but it's not for me. Too patchy, there's too much trouble just to get it work the right way. I've long felt drawn towards Mac OS X, with it's solid Unix base and well-designed GUI.
Our new computer will be a PowerBook. It's a secondary computer, in a way, and thus needs to be small when it's not in use. We don't expect to carry it around much, but just like small things in our small apartment. If it turns out well, I'm quite sure our desktop computer will be one day replaced by an iMac.
I'm trying my best not to became a raving Apple cultist. I don't like that. All the iPod hype, for example, when iPod clearly isn't the only or necessarily even the best MP3 player in the world. I know I'm not switching from my Pontis player.
Anyway, Mac OS people: hit me with the software I must have. As we are library types, Delicious Library is a must, but what else? I know I'll be needing an editor with syntax highlighting for Java (and perl and PHP).
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Comments
I dislike the cult of Mac - why tie yourself into a hardware vendor at the same time as an operating system, but I respect people's frustrations with Windows. I have been very happy with Windows XP, but I am dabbling with MEPIS Linux. So far Linux is bearable, but hardware problems are frustrating.
This is a good place to find out about Mac software:
http://www.lifehacker.com/software/mac-os-x/
Textwrangler is supposed to be a good editor.
http://www.lifehacker.com/software/mac-os-x/textwrangler-free-fullfeatured-text-editor-035580.php
Posted by: Iain 
at May 3, 2005 2:35 PM