Shanghai Yummy

I have decided finally to Switch back to the Mac.

Yesterday, I called my broker and sold a bunch of stock, the proceeds from which will go toward a new Apple PowerBook G4 12". The plan right now is to get the Airport Extreme card with the machine (at no effective cost after rebate from MacWarehouse), plus a 512 MB SODIMM, to bring the machine up to 640 MB total. I do not plan on getting the SuperDrive, because I honestly just don't see myself needing to burn DVDs in the next couple of years, which is how long I expect to use the machine. If someone wants to try to talk me into one, please feel free to do so. Just remember that I do plan on writing plenty of CD-Rs, which the SuperDrive burns more slowly than the ComboDrive.

Later on, when I can no longer stand 1024x768 (this could happen very quickly), I plan on getting a flat panel LCD monitor and do the dual display while I'm at home. This should solve the largest major concern I have with going with the tiny AlBook -- I'll have maximum portability for the road, and plenty of desktop real estate at home. Please feel free to offer suggestions as to which LCD flat panels I should look into. Minimally, I require 1280x960, and a VGA (analog) input. That's my biggest complaint to Apple on the 12" PowerBook: lack of a DVI output. Ideally, I'd like to get a 1600x1200 panel, but budget constraints may prove that out of reach.

It feels good to have finally made this decision. It's almost like coming home, coming in from the cold. I don't expect this is going to make my computing life easier or better, necessarily. This isn't really a technical decision, although I did research pretty meticulously what exactly I'd be gaining and what I'd be giving up. I believe the app I'll miss most will be Trillian; as far as I can tell, there is no chat client that remotely approaches the quality of this Windows app. Another thing I plan to do once I get the machine is hack it apart and void the warranty. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't make it easy to change the hard drive on their machine, and to boot they give you a hard drive any serious user would want to replace. So I'll be replacing the existing 4200 RPM drive with a 5400 RPM, 8 MB cache model as soon as I get it.

In the end, this decision wasn't really about anything practical. I expect that after a brief reacquaintance period, I'll be able to do pretty much everything that I do now in Windows just as easily. The decision really came down more to philosophy and emotion. Let's face it: the PowerBook 12" is the coolest looking notebook out there. It's ultra portable, and it'll do everything I want. And it makes me feel good about myself. Maybe something like trying to get back to a more innocent era... but let's not get too overly sappy and philosophical about it.

Also, this isn't really to say that I'm permanently abandoning Windows. I fully expect to continue using Windows at work, and I might eventually finally live by a philosophy I've preached for quite some time: the best of all worlds being having a Windows desktop for mad gaming, and a Mac laptop for to be suave and sexy on the road.

PGP Signed Entry