Once you go Mac, you never go back

This afternoon I was reading the Mac section on the ORA website and noticed a column mentioning how the number of iBooks and Ti Books at ORA conferences has significantly increased in the past year. The author notes that while most users have OS X at the conferences that he, a long-time mac user, sees a much lower percentage using OS X among long-time users of MacOS...and I find this to be an astute observation and distinction. I have OS X on an iMac but for my iBook, I am still happy with OS 9 since I have it configured the way I want and am not eager to upgrade all of my software. Jarkko, on the other hand, has much less of an investment in the platform and is running OS X without much fuss. I'll probably migrate late next year or when I'm forced to, whichever comes first.

It's nice to see Apple really making a push for the PC market with more competitive prices, products and an OS that really is pretty to look at and easy to operate. I think anyone can appreciate having a laptop that just works reliably. In addition to the design the new lower prices are a big driving force in Apple's new popularity since any mac user from the last 15 years can tell you that we always paid far more than our PC couterparts.

I remember when Pudge and I and a few other people brought our Airports to YAPC and TPC to get wireless working at the conferences which seems to be SOP now days. Apple really is tops in the wireless arena. You plug it in. It works. No shit. So, lower prices, more software, awesome design and trivial wireless networking/media applications are making Apple very popular again. I'm not sure, since OS X is still so new, if the Aqua/Darwin OS is that much of a factor since, if you want a Unix OS on your iBook you could run NetBSD which is a lot more pragmatic though without the Mac apps.

Recently, I caved and bought an iPod after years of stubbornly refusing to use my mac as my stereo. The box it came in was a work of industrial art to behold let alone the iPod itself. I plugged it into the iBook and 5 minutes later I had a fist full of music. I don't know if any other mp3 players are this beautiful or this easy to use but I couldn't be happier. Now I just need to buy a 200+GB firewire disk so I can rip all the music to mp3s to have an on-line catalogue of music to listen to and tinker with a few of the mp3 perl modules. Just don't ask Jarkko about his CD jewel cases.....:)