The Prodigal Son

My first computer was the Apple //e, and boy was I a happy camper. I remember programming in BASIC. An address book program, notepad (with no save functionality), even a "guess the number between 1 to 100" game.

Then along came the 8086XT with its myriad selection of games, I was easily seduced to the "other" side. Long story short, Microsoft won the OS wars in the 90's and together with that, I became a part of the whole Windows clone army, through highschool, college and the early part of my professional career.

Fast forward 2006: Being forced (pleasantly) to be working on a Mac 30% of the time in the office, I have decided to take make the switch back and bought a Macbook Pro last night.

Justifications:
1. Where else can you find a commercial UNIX distribution that is VERY stable and yet very easy to use.

2. Dual core processing in a mobile package -- need I say more?

3. The price. It is a common misconception that Macs are expensive, but in fact, it's not, considering that you'll be getting QUALITY hardware in a well-designed package. Case and point: As of press time, a Dell Laptop with a 1.86 GHz Pentium M (not dual core, mind you) processor with almost the same specs as the base package Macbook Pro will yield approximately the same price. I know it's like comparing apples (pun!) and lemons, but just by that sheer comparison, you'll get an idea on the cost per performance ratio. You get #1 as a bonus too!

Geekier justifications:

1. Dual booting Windows XP and OS X on the MBP will be good exercise. (See www.onmac.net for details)

2. I travel a lot as part of my work, and when I'm on the road, I would love to have access to to OS X-specific or WinXP-specific apps that we run in the office without lugging around 2 laptops.

3. Linux apps are just a compile away!

Apple has gone a long way since the Apple //e (3 platform changes, and 4 OS transitions-- I know there are more, but this is as far as I know). I am extremely excited to be back and see the light again.