Saturday, February 24, 2007
The Next Computer
I'm starting to think about what sort of laptop I should get next. I've been a Windows user for the last ten years, after being an Apple fan throughout my educational career.
Professionally, most of what I've done has been on the Microsoft platform. And because of that, I felt it was best to work with the same platform at home. But I'm most interested in web-based technologies where the desktop platform is increasingly less relevant, and I'm very tempted by the design of the Apple laptops, and the Macintosh OS seems to generally be superior to Vista. And considering my biggest complain about my current laptop is the power cord connection, the Mac's magnetic-connection cord is a huge, huge win for me.
The idea of a Mac running Vista -- either through Boot Camp or Parallels -- is very appealing to me as well. I'm not sure if it is something that I find worth the greater expense of buying the license -- especially considering the licensing hassles of running Vista in Parallels.
A Mac will probably be more expensive than any Windows laptop that I'd likely purchase. I've been relatively happy with my HP purchases, and would almost certainly go that route with any future Windows purchases.
I'm not quite forgetting Ubuntu -- but I'm not really sure that the Linux route is something that I want to spend my life on, and I'll admit it, I've invested enough time on iTunes that I'm sort of locked into platforms that support it. So my pragmatism really rules that out at the moment. Sometime I'd like to find a spare box or virtual pc image to throw it on, but I've said that about Linux since it first came around and I've never really gotten around to it.
I'm still several months away from any final decision. And I'm going to wait a bit until Vista stabilizes a little and the next version of the Mac OS comes out. But there is more to an operating system choice than just picking the best tool, even though I believe that the operating system is going to be less and less important in the future.
Professionally, most of what I've done has been on the Microsoft platform. And because of that, I felt it was best to work with the same platform at home. But I'm most interested in web-based technologies where the desktop platform is increasingly less relevant, and I'm very tempted by the design of the Apple laptops, and the Macintosh OS seems to generally be superior to Vista. And considering my biggest complain about my current laptop is the power cord connection, the Mac's magnetic-connection cord is a huge, huge win for me.
The idea of a Mac running Vista -- either through Boot Camp or Parallels -- is very appealing to me as well. I'm not sure if it is something that I find worth the greater expense of buying the license -- especially considering the licensing hassles of running Vista in Parallels.
A Mac will probably be more expensive than any Windows laptop that I'd likely purchase. I've been relatively happy with my HP purchases, and would almost certainly go that route with any future Windows purchases.
I'm not quite forgetting Ubuntu -- but I'm not really sure that the Linux route is something that I want to spend my life on, and I'll admit it, I've invested enough time on iTunes that I'm sort of locked into platforms that support it. So my pragmatism really rules that out at the moment. Sometime I'd like to find a spare box or virtual pc image to throw it on, but I've said that about Linux since it first came around and I've never really gotten around to it.
I'm still several months away from any final decision. And I'm going to wait a bit until Vista stabilizes a little and the next version of the Mac OS comes out. But there is more to an operating system choice than just picking the best tool, even though I believe that the operating system is going to be less and less important in the future.
Labels: computers
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I actually did give Ubuntu a chance at home for the month of January, and I have to say that I just did not take to it. I'm sure not everyone's experience would be like mine was, but I don't think you're missing anything not putting it on your short list.
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