You Can Pick My Next Computer

I need your help with an important decision that will affect my future. Should I stay the course with my personal technology or change it up? You, dear readers, will decide.

 Here’s the story.

 When it comes to computers, I’ve always been a PC kind of gal. I was content to go with the mainstream, investing in Windows software because that was the standard for business. I needed my machine to talk to everyone else’s.

Those Mac people were troublemakers. Their e-mails came through as garbage and prompted endless angst about “compatibility.” Why don’t they just give in? I thought. Apple had their chance to grab the market, but they refused to share their code. Windows won the battle and had saturated the market. It was time to surrender.

Surrender? Never! The MacAddicts swore we’d have to pry their fancy trackballs from their cold dead fingers.

Secretly, I envied them. They were a kind of secret society of “artistes,” cool cats who didn’t mind if their quirky requirements wreaked havoc in the business world. To be a Mac Person was to belong to a cult, fronted by the charismatic Steve Jobs, that guru who could bring crowds to their feet with the click of a mouse.

Poor Bill Gates, one of the most generous men on earth as well as the richest, just didn’t have the cachet, and neither did his software. Windows has always been a poor imitation of the graphical interface pioneered by Apple.

The business world moved slowly ahead, plagued by forced PC “updates” that messed up their machines and operating systems rushed to market while still buggier than a Wisconsin summer night.

When I went out on my own, unchained to a PC network and a company policy that strictly forbid Macs, I flirted with the idea of changing teams.

After all, I’m a kind of artist, right? OK, I work with pronouns, not pixels. Still, “freelancer” DOES contain the word “free.” Now that I was free of the mandates of the company IT department, I began to seriously consider jumping out of Windows.

What had held me back, besides that fact that I had a fairly new machine, was that I also had a major investment in Windows-based software. My hard drive was full of a few thousand dollars’ worth of applications that would only run on Windows.

Then I found out that the new Mac can run Windows applications. Well, now. That’s another story.

Switching was an idle thought until my PC broke down yet again. My e-mail is hosed (to use a technical term) and I can’t open a message without Outlook terminating itself. My documents are printing out with the letters backwards. I am not amused.

Here’s where you come in. I need you to help me make my decision. Do I stay with the same-old, same-old? Or do I opt for Change with a capital “C”? Consider this vote a warm-up for the November election.

 I will abide by the decision of the majority, and promise not to petition the Supreme Court if I don’t like your decision. The voting will take place on my web site. (See poll at left)

To help you make your decision, I’d like to share the list I made comparing the virtues of each platform.

User Knowledge

PC: Know my way around with my eyes closed.

Mac: Would need a guide dog.

Reliability

PC: In my personal experience, not so great

Mac: Legendary

 Design

PC: Always the imitator that doesn’t get it quite right

Mac: Wow factor

 Software

PC: Lots

Mac: Harder to find

Commercials

PC: Jerry Seinfeld?

Mac: The guy who dated Drew Barrymore

Iconic Founder

PC: White shirt, tie

Mac: Black turtleneck

 Coolness factor

PC: None

Mac: Oh, yeah

 Should I stick with Windows or switch to a Mac? Cast your vote at left.