Time to jump off of the bus…

Well, after the last couple of weeks, and really cumulatively over the last few years, I’ve decided it’s time to abandon the Microsoft operating system family in favor of a more standards-based OS…namely Mac OS in whatever it’s latest flavor. Honestly, I’m not looking forward to my first trip to the Apple store which is probably inevitable regardless wherever I buy my system. Oh well. Here’s a little background:
Most of you know that I used to be a highly sought after technology instructor. I was paid to achieve expert knowledge of system architecture, programming, networking and web development among other related topics. During this time it was very easy for me to spec my own system to ensure the any system I bought would remain viable for the longest amount of time. Easy, because I spent considerable time keeping myself abreast the latest technologies.
Fast foreword ten years.
I am now the assistant golf superintendent at a municipal course, and the most critical use for my desktop system is editing and otherwise processing my photographs. I really haven’t had the time, or interest in keeping up with the technology advances since I procured my dual-processor Alienware system a number of years ago.
Well, a couple of weeks ago it died, its motherboard fried as the first symptom of what would be a week of funky power dips, spikes and eventually an exploding transformer on the next block.
Not wanting to miss a beat with regards to a real estate transaction we were in the middle of, I grabbed the Acer netbook I bought last year, but it turned out to have picked up a virus that seems to have trashed the boot sector and 30% of the hard drive. The netbook came pre-loaded with Windows 7, which scanned and fixed about 40% of the problems it found, but then told me I needed to upgrade my version of Windows to fix the remaining problems. Really? Seriously?
Over the last few years, when people have asked me whether or not they should buy a Mac, I would point out that they are now standards-based, based on a stable and strictly controlled system architecture, and that the only factor keeping me from adopting the platform was price.
Well, it’s my opinion that with their new business model, Microsoft have pushed their new OS on me, only to demand more money from me to fix my hosed system. Like the heroin pusher of the seventies, it’s cheap at first…until the hooks are in. Then it turns into a beast demanding more money to fix your drive, more money for security subscriptions. Feature bloat abounds, with the most useful bits of a given feature only a paid upgrade away. Buying hardware…especially higher-end video hardware is a crap shoot…but somehow goes smoother on one of the fully upgraded flavors of Windows. I could go on for days.
I have resolved to not spend another dime in supporting Microsoft’s need to keep me hooked on their pay-as-you-go operating system. While I have a great deal of experience with Linux, I do not feel the gimp is a suitable replacement for Photoshop, at least not for my purposes, and Adobe have absolutely no plans for releasing any of their product for Linux.
At the moment, I am writing this blog on the most powerful system I have at my disposal at the moment…my iPhone. Without it I would have been screwed, as I have used it to review PDF documents, take pictures of vandalism on my course, search Angie’s List for contractors, search real estate listings, and electronically sign critical documents in addition to viewing current RADAR, and responding quickly to emails.
The fact is for the last fortnight i’ve successfully replaced my desktop with an iPhone for roughly 85% of my normal usage! If Adobe had a full version of PS for the iPhone, I’d be set!
Suffice it to say that I’ve determined it’s not much of a hardship to save up a while for a Mac. It makes more sense than continuing to throw good money after bad trying to use an OS I no longer believe is worth my time and effort…let alone my money.
I am, as always it seems, a slave to the tools I am using…Photoshop, Dreamweaver, QTR at the moment, but I am hoping my decision will largely liberate me from being a slave to my OS.
As it stands, I’m no help with any version of windows after XP. Pretty soon, if it doesn’t involve a sad Mac, you’ll be on your own.
Resistance is futile…

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