I'm a?

I’m a Mac user, but I definitely “grew up” on a PC. I think having used a PC for over 10 years was the strongest reason that I switched to Mac. Stability was one of my biggest reasons, but also because of better applications for the things I do most, as well as access to X11 (e.g., Linux) applications.

My question is: how many of you are using the same platform you started out on, and how many of you are using a platform because of your bad experiences with the platform you started on?

I started out with the best, the TRS-80 Color Tandy Computer. I remember that cassette drive was sweet. I still have the Basic program handbook, Goto line 2, Lol! Soon after that, I had my first date with a Commodore 64 back in August of 82’. 64 kilobytes Ram and superior to the IBM.

Then came the first kit project, the 8088 PC clone. Damn thing never did work right so I purchased a Packard Hell 286, I mean Bell. Sweet little machine that ended up in the dumpster. Spent days putting that 386 together and finally figured out that the P1 cable was upside down.

I admit most of my computer problems were operator error. So, I will skip the story about the piggy backed 486, that upgraded to a Pentium, and all of the other PC desktops and laptops that demanded weekly reboots, and security downloads. My Mac G5 has only been rebooted four times in three years, and that was because of power failures. Had to reboot after OS upgrade from Panther to Tiger. It is simple to use and it works when I need it.

Guess what I am trying to say, “is that the Mac is user friendly for the average user”.

I grew up on PC’s, (not counting the ol’ Sinclair computer). They are what my college used in addition to the mainframe Digital VAX11, so I just used them. Now, PC’s with Windows are the only platform that supports any number of CAD/CAM softwares we use at work, so there really is no choice there. I have my home computer dual boot between WinXp and Ubuntu Linux and I have an old laptop with a fully installed Ubuntu 8.0 distribution in an attempt to force myself to use it. (Just because I guess) I always wind up coming back to Windows. Linux in its many flavors can make a fine system, but just trying to install software and have driver compatibility without using NDisWrapper or something is frustrating and not for the casual user. Trying to understand where everything has to go and why, takes more than the average computer user’s knowledge even though as time goes on mainstream Linux is slowly getting easier in these areas.
I have to say I have absolutely no Apple knowledge whatsoever unless you count the few times I fooled around in the Apple store at the mall.
As far as stability goes, I run memory and graphics intensive programs (Solidworks / Surfcam) all day long and rarely have to reboot or have a crash. My home PC runs for weeks and weeks on XP without having to be reset, and usually that’s due to a software installation or other update. For whatever reason I don’t seem to be having enough problems to even come close to wanting to switch to another operating system (or processor). For the record, I’ve had just as many lock-ups and crashes in Linux as I’ve ever had in Windows, though neither has been very frequent.
(I still have a complete Commodore 64 in my basement that I rescued from a dumpster if smcbride wants to go back to a computer that boots up in 1 second.)

I have to say I’m a PC / Windows user. Certainly not out of any loyalty to Microsoft, but mainly because it was the most convenient. I started out using DOS back around 1990—which despite it’s problems, I really liked. DOS didn’t do anything until you told it to, unlike Windows which is always doing mysterious things in the background.

I started learning a little bit about UNIX in high school, but outside of that course, I never had much opportunity to use it, so I never really got into it. So, I graduated through Windows 98, NT, 2000, and XP, which I still use (I won’t touch Vista, at least not yet—like all windows versions, it needs to be out on the market for about 5 years to get all the kinks worked out—and there’s still Windows 7 soon to contend with).

I did use Macs for a couple of years at work, mostly using Adobe InDesign; but I found them awkward to use. Maybe it’s just because I was too used to windows, but I’ve always found it easier to poke around in windows and learn what I needed to learn. The Macs always made me feel hobbled. I have a friend who swears by them, however.

In the end, I miss the simplicity of DOS, just waiting for me to tell it what to do like a loyal pet. Sit DOS. Stay DOS. DIR DOS. CD.. DOS

Ah, memories…