Mac, PC, Leopard, Vista, Lust, Hype and Love

It was a long struggle. I was undecided between a Mac and a PC. This was probably somewhere back in Aug'07, when I realized that Sara has not been reading any of my emails.

Just about a little more than a year before that, I sold off my desktop PC. We were all relying on my 'free but restricted' corporate laptop. It was given free to me to use, but highly restricted. I don't even have Yahoo! Messenger on it. And it even ran a 'Corporate' licensed Skype version, which was deprived of cool emoticons.

Anyway, other than Sara's illiteracy on the concept of Instant Messaging, it was clear that I needed to buy a computer for the house. My instant choice was a Mac. Superb design. Practically virus-free. All made more amusing with its Mac-PC internet ads. I wanted it. But the forum buzz was that the new all-alu Mac and Leopard OS will be out somewhere in Oct'07. Goodie, I had 2 months for further research.

I started to play buddy with Apple's software. I downloaded the Windows version of Safari and iTunes. I started to fiddle with my sister's MacBook and spent more time adventuring my brother's Mac. I struggled.

See, back in '04, I had a Palm T3 PDA. At its time, it was THE PDA. It was ahead of time. Windows Pocket PC was a rookie. Or so I thought. Until a friend got a Toshiba PPC. It blew my head off to know that the bloody PPC could actually multi task! And what's more, there was so much more adjustability that I could play around with. Yes, Palm was uber-friendly, but it was just not me. In short, I sold off the Palm within 2 weeks and got myself an IPAQ 4150, which is still functioning well today and is of necessity to Marsha's boredom.

I know there's a lot of Apple fan out there, in fact, I'm one of them too. Just a fan. When iPod was the craze, my simplistic logic got the worse of me and I failed at running iTunes software. So, I never bought an iPod. And bought a Windows friendly 30Gb Creative instead.

When the new Leopard Mac was released, I was first to stick my butt in an Apple store. It was lovely. Mac 20" was selling at RM5.6K with protection plan. I immediately sold some of my stocks, ready to fund it. I returned to the shop a few times to play with it. Damn. It was a struggle each time. Though my friends were mighty impressed when I played some video stuff on the demo machine, courtesy from my time with my siblings' Tiger OS, I was actually sweating my brains out to comprehend Apple's interface. Damn Windows, you've brain-washed me to the last noodle.

Vista was out around that time too. Windows were not too shy to show once again that, what they lack in Apple's innovation, they thrived in creative-duplication. They wanted to be a Leopard. They wanted to be a Mac. And just like the Palm and PocketPC dilemma; Vista was a much familiar sight to me. And it's much cheaper too.

So, the headaches ended by end '07 when I decided that I was not ready for a Mac yet. I finally bought a Vista PC in Jan'08. It was an Core 2 Duo Acer Mac Mini wannabe in iPod piano black. It's got 1Gb RAM - which, I'd like to stress here - is not enough to run a Home Vista. I soon upgraded it to 3Gb, and it's just lovely now.

In my denial state of mind, I dressed up my PC like a Mac. I bought a Samsung Crystal-Brite 22 incher and Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse. I even reduced the Microsoft factor by using Firefox, instead of IE. 3 months on, I'm beginning to love this machine.

Just now, I dropped by Apple store again, to check out the 32Gb iPod Touch and Macbook Air. And when I shouldered over to check out a 20" Mac; the love was gone. There was not a minute of lust on it anymore. My Vista turned up to be the best choice for me and my hommies. And I even managed to keep RM1K in balance too.

Man, this is probably the longest blog I've written in a long while. And, I know, you skipped almost everything and is reading this line. So, I'll save you the time and state my point here: If you're running Vista, 1Gb RAM is NOT enough.