The Big Jump

I am making the Big Jump! After 28 years of working on DOS and Windows based computers I am going to a Mac. I resisted the move for a long time. I mean I go back to DOS and Windows 1.0.  When I got my second computer, it had double floppy drives: a Leading Edge, Model D. That first word processor was a revelation after 30 years of banging on a Royal Standard. I wanted to write but a typewriter was not easy and my handwriting could be considered encryption.

I put up with Microsoft’s efforts for world domination. After ten years of being a WordPerfect guy, I was forced to jump to MS  Word and the rest of the Office suite. It seemed to be an effort to keep up, however. Menus would suddenly change between editions that came out every year or so. I always felt that WordPerfect was the better system but was beaten down by better marketing and deals.

What I found particularly annoying, however, was the efforts of bad guys to destroy my and others’ computers with viruses, malware, and hacks. These are attacks on personal property. Turns out that there is a serious lack of proper socialization in Cyber World. That and the fact that Microsoft put so much effort at bringing out products that would force one to replace their computers if one wanted to upgrade. 

I mean, it took me a long time to get to XP, then to Vista. They worked very well and were efficient.  They did what I needed for them to do. Yes, there were holes in the security and biggie at first. But I began to feel that I was being pressured to get rid of systems that worked well for something that was not really an improvement. Microsoft demonstrated they were working hard for Planned Obsolesce. 

I suppose that is to be expected.  Evolve or die. Make is shiner, prettier, more novel. Work hard to get the customer to dump their old machines.

From what I can see, Apple does it a bit differently. I have worked on 10 year old machines that update to the newest operating system without pain and suffering. I don’t like dropping a grand on a computer to have it become obsolete in a couple of years. It is clear these days that we are going to have to get away from our throwaway society. And it appears to me that Apple has started to embrace that change in philosophy.

Now, I am going through the pain of learning the bag of tricks that are Mac. To my surprise, it isn’t quite as bad as I thought. It is dizzyingly easier than I expected.

Maybe I won’t have to buy that subscription to Office 365 for Mac after all!