Out of curiosity, I took the plunge.

If you read my Twitter stream over the past few weeks, you’d think I hate the iPhone. While it’s true that there are a lot of things I don’t like, there are actually a lot of things I really, really like. The following is a list of things I like and dislike about the iPhone, when compared to my previous experience with the Droid. If you want a quick synopsis, here it is: both are great. The iPhone has better apps, but Android has more functionality. Anyone asking me for a recommendation would get a long list of questions about needs before I’d make one.

Anyway, so here we go. Note that these aren’t listed in any particular order.

Annoyances

1. No way of modifying the snooze time on the alarm: I woke up this morning multiple times before I realized there was no way of doing this.
2. No home-screen widgets available: This is especially annoying when it comes to the included weather app, which includes an icon that says it’s 73-degrees outside. It’s annoying because once I thought that was actually the temperature (it’s FL, so 73-degrees in February isn’t exactly odd), so I dressed appropriately. Then I stepped out, and quickly turned around: it was actually 45-degrees. Brrr! A weather widget with the right temperature on the home screen would have prevented that, and would be rather useful. I want it.
3. Jailbreaking is a necessity: I see now why people feel the need to jailbreak their iPhones. By comparison, I never once felt the need to root my Droid. Ever. People jailbreak to use the phone to what is expected of a device this powerful (like a fraking widget). People root in order to gain access to low level functions that most users would never event think of wanting. That’s the difference.
4. Cost: The CDMA iPhone is $100 more than the GSM iPhone, and $100 more expensive than comparable Android or WP7 phones.
5. Safari: I hate it. It wastes screen space and it won’t reformat a page in such a way to make it readable on the phone. Sorry, but the retina display shouldn’t be used to help decrease font sizes. The Android web browser is far, far, far superior. Safari is the Internet Explorer (5 through 8, take your pick) of cell phones.
6. Speech-to-text: A feature I used all the time, speech-to-text was my savior during long drives when I needed to tweet something out, or when I wanted to call someone and couldn’t look at the screen, or when I just didn’t want to deal with a keyboard. In iOS, this is missing. Sure, I can download a Google app that would allow this type of search, but I’ve yet to find a free solution which allows me to turn speech into text for SMS messages.
7. Inability to tweet/Facebook pics directly when viewed: In Android, you can open a picture and immediately, while viewing it, upload it to Twitter or Facebook. Not the case in iOS, which allows you only to MMS or email the image. Want to tweet it? Go to your Twitter app, start a message, and from there select the image you want to tweet. Same with Facebook. So much for uploading on the fly. This makes putting pics up in social media sites a rather cumbersome process. (h/t to Kamigoroshi for pointing this out.)
8. (EDIT 3/14, Pi Day!) Using your own songs as ring tones is a chore: In Android it was easy to make a song into a ring tone. Long-press on the song and select “Make ring tone.” Of course, you could also go into the settings and do the same thing. On the iPhone you have two choices for doing this: you can either buy the ring tone for $.99 or make the ring tone yourself by following some needlessly convoluted procedure. Really, this is utter crap, and the kind of thing that will push me away from a platform, quickly. iOS may be generally more user friendly (and certainly more eye-pleasing) than Android, but Google’s mobile OS is certainly more consumer friendly than Apple’s.
9. (EDIT 3/14) The war against the long-press: This may just be a me-thing, but I expect that if I hold my finger to something long enough on the screen, a menu should pop up, if it makes sense for a menu to be there. Apple seems to have a hatred of this, so this kind of menu is not available anywhere, making for some rather unintuitive, ways to doing things, like leaving a screen and returning to another screen. A great example is adding songs to playlists: there is no easy way of doing it from the song itself, so you can’t just say, “Oh, this song is great for my ‘writing’ playlist, let me add it,” then click a button and have it added. You have to exit out of the song’s screen, go to the Playlist menu, select the play list, click Edit, click the Add button, find the song, then click the small Add button on the song. Talk about a mood killer.
10. (EDIT 3/14) Dropped calls: OK, so the “grip of death” doesn’t present on this version of the iPhone as it does on the AT&T version, but reception problems remain, and dropped calls are more frequent.
11. Full-screen pop-ups: Every time there is some sort of action or message, such as a text, a pop-up takes over the screen. I prefer Android’s method of just having a small info button on the task bar. Much more user friendly.

What I Miss

1. My huge, honkin’ screen: I had a Motorola Droid. After that I had a Motorola Droid X. Both had larger screens than the iPhone. In fact, the Droid X had a 4.3-inch screen, which made it a dream to watch movies, look at pictures, and play games. The iPhone has a 3.5-inch screen. That doesn’t sound like much until you realize that, when looking at the thing, one feels like a cramped phone while the other feels like a small tablet. In fact, my Droid X had become my favorite web browsing method. That hasn’t quite carried to my iPhone.

   If Verizon ever gets the Dell Streak I think I may have to grab it. A 5-inch screen? On a phone? It’s more likely than you think. And it looks SPECTACULAR. It also helps if you have big hands, so I realize this isn’t for everyone.

   Because of this, I joked with my wife that if I got tired of the iPhone, I would grab her Droid and she could have the iPhone. Her words: “From my cold, dead hands.”

2. The Android web browser: I think it’s actually Chrome, but I’m not sure. In any case, I rather liked that browser. Of course, my preferred browser across my systems is Google’s Chrome. Safari, while having some nice options, feels cramped, with a lot of wasted space. Not much different than using IE, or stock Firefox. I’ll be looking for a new browser.
3. Moving backgrounds (Live Wallpaper): Minor issue here, but I rather liked being able to select live wallpapers as my background on my Android phones. Someone recently compared to glitter trailers on a pointer in a Geocities page. I contend it’s more like having an extra tool at your disposal, since live wallpapers can be programmed to do things like track the phases of the moon, or change according to the time of day (a rather attractive effect) or, in my case, remind me of the greatest movie of all time (The Matrix, of course).

   Edit: I found a way to do live wallpaper, but it involves jailbreaking.

4. Free navigation software: I used Google’s navigation software all the time. Unfortunately, it’s not available on the iPhone. If I want a comparable navigation package, I have to pay, either $.99 plus a subscription fee for some services or $35 for something like Garmin.
5. No timestamps on texts: There are timestamps on calls. There are timestamps on emails. Why in the name of Woz is there not a timestamp on an SMS?! OK, so there are time stamps marking the beginning of conversations, which is useful, but given the format in which SMS’s are displayed in iOS, timestamps for each message could have been added. To be fair, I can see why they didn’t add them: if you’re looking for a specific conversation, then a timestamp for the conversation is far more useful than a timestamp for every item. Still, I would have liked them there.
6. (EDIT 3/14) Options in how you do things: Apple has always been known for simplicity, and over the past decade a very strong move has been made toward minimalism. While this is good in a lot of ways, it also means that they provide you exactly one way to do things, imposing a sort of “one way or the highway” feel to their products. Don’t like it? Well, too bad. (Unless, of course, you jailbreak, thereby voiding your warranty and any Apple support.) At least on Android you were usually given three or four ways of doing things. This makes it hard because interfaces aren’t as unified, but makes it better because you work like you feel most comfortable.

What I Like

1. Apps. Wait, let me say that again. APPS!: From what I’ve seen, pretty much the only reason to own an iPhone is to have access to its app market. Without its superiority in app availability, the iPhone becomes nothing but a piece of pretty, but ultimately boring and borderline annoying tech. Acquiring apps was the first thing I did when I got the phone. Also, with the improvements to the Android market, I’m not sure the Apple market really has that great advantage it once had. I can’t help but wonder how Palm (WebOS) and Microsoft (WP7) will stack up.
2. More visually appealing: This has always been one of the iPhone’s strongest suits. Too often, Android looks like Windows 3.1 reincarnate. iPhone apps, on the other hand, tend to look like someone sweat over the placement of every pixel. This has a lot to do with the framework upon which the app was built, and Apple’s framework is pretty tight, due to the simple fact that they only really need to support a very limited number of screen sizes.

   Not everything is great with the framework, though: a lot of apps don’t go horizontal on iOS. On the other hand, I can’t remember an app on Android that DIDN’T do horizontal. This bespeaks of something within the framework itself, something I see as a flaw. If I’m wrong about this, someone please correct me.

3. Uninstalling apps: In Android, if you want to uninstall an app you have to go to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications, then select the application and click the Delete button from the application’s information screen. In iOS you long-press on an icon, then click on the X that appears above the application to delete it. In Android I used to be afraid to add too many apps because I didn’t want to have to deal with the uninstallation process. In iOS it’s as easy as it gets.
4. Better touchscreen: The touchscreen sensitivity on the iPhone is better than any I’ve seen on Android. That’s because Apple holds a patent on the hardware-driven touchscreen, meaning Android screens can only be software-based. The problem with this is especially evident in the keyboard and in gaming, but really only when compared side-to-side. Most people wouldn’t, right off the bat, really notice in most cases.
5. Better software keyboard: My original Droid had a hardware keyboard. Eventually, this became stiff and useless, which is why I switched phones. On my Droid X, I had a software keyboard, something I wasn’t crazy about at first, but which I quickly got used to. Luckily, between then and now the stock Android keyboard improved dramatically. Eighteen months ago it was all but useless, which is why I demanded a hardware keyboard. Now it’s pretty good, if you have enough real estate for your fingers to do their thing. The iPhone’s keyboard, while smaller, has proven far more accurate than Android’s, due in large part to the better touch screen. What really gets me is that iOS auto-correct is also smarter.

   On a side note, the Droid X had this weird bug where symbols would automatically be tacked to the end of a word. For example, instead of letting me type:

   She said “Hi”. By the way, I’m putting in $10.

   The phone would auto-correct to:

   She said” Hi”. By the way, im putting in$ 10.

   This was the single biggest annoyance about the Droid X for me. The keyboard was one of the main reasons I switched to the iPhone. To be fair, the inclusion of Swype on the Droid X was compelling enough that I almost stayed with that, instead.

6. Better call quality: Multiple times I’ve been told by people that my voice sounds a lot clearer now than it did before. Seems the iPhone provides better call quality than either the Droid or Droid X. As for receiving, the call quality is the same, although when putting the phone on speakerphone mode, the Droid and Droid X had a slight edge.
7. Better battery management: This one’s pretty much a universal complaint with Android, but I’ll air it out here, too. With the iPhone’s battery I’m not generally worried about running out of juice half way through my day. Unfortunately, with Android this was a common problem. Maybe, especially in the case of Droid X, it had to do with that huge screen I so dearly loved. (The problem was far more pronounced there.) Or maybe there’s something else, I don’t know. While I tried to curb my battery usage on Android by minimizing things like GPS, wifi, and bluetooth, the fact is that on some days it would run out of battery before the end of the business day. With iPhone I’ve only run out of battery once, during a heavy use day when I was also taking lots of pics.
8. Camera software: I’m not talking about overall picture quality here, I’m talking about the software itself. The iPhone’s picture software is FAR faster than Android’s. While on Android I might have to wait a second or two for a picture to snap after I had clicked the “Take Picture” button, on Android it’s almost as quick as my digital camera. (By the way, I’m looking for a good, cheap one. Any recommendations?)
9. Switching between calls: In Android I was almost always hanging up calls if more than one came in. The Droid X included a better interface than the Droid, but I was always hesitant to answer calls. On the iPhone I’ve yet to hang up a call accidentally. To me, this alone is a selling point.

What I’m Still Unsure About

1. Media: I rather like iTunes, so having access to my library again is pretty awesome. Of course, with the recent improvements to DoubleTwist, this point becomes almost moot, except it serves to remind me that Apple’s overall infrastructure, while sound, attractive, and beautiful in many ways, serves equally well as a pair of golden handcuffs. If I ever switch back to Android, DoubleTwist will be my media savior. (Edit 3/14: Actually I’m pretty sure this one’s about to move to “dislike” territory. I’m not liking the way iTunes works. Seems clunky: too many menus, not enough options.)

Conclusion
So, will I switch back to Android or will I stick with the iPhone when my renewal comes up in a few months? It’s hard to say at this point. Edit 3/14: I’m pretty sure I will switch to Android. Apple’s oppressive thumb is getting to me, and I don’t want to have to break the rules in order to use a product I bought in the way I best see fit. In fact, more than a month after using the iPhone, I’m still feeling like this:

That’s something I definitely don’t like. But that’s just a me-thing, as in “me used to Android” and “me no want to jailbreak to fix Apples mistakes.”
We’ll see if this changes over the next few months, though. End Edit.

I can see why people love their iPhones. I can also appreciate why people love their Android phones. But to be honest, I’ve yet to see anything in the iPhone which would hook me into keeping it. In fact, if anyone asks, here’s my recommendation: Get an Android phone with a hotspot feature and get a iPod Touch. There, now you have the best of both worlds. Of course, if you only want to tote one device around, then either one is fine, although I may have to give the edge to the iPhone just because of the iOS App market. Edit 3/14: Of course, if you value flexibility of any sort, it’s Android all the way.

In all this, one thing’s for sure: using the iPhone has gotten me excited about trying out WP7. It if really is a good balance between the strengths of the iPhone and Android, it may be the perfect phone. Of course, the same can be said for WebOS.

So now, feel free to tell me why I’m wrong.

Edit 3/14: By the way, if anyone’s looking for a Verizon iPhone 4, I’m willing to part with mine if you can offer a good price or trade.

With that in mind, I figured it was time to find out about blogging software. I did some research, grabbed a bunch of packages I found and reviewed them. During the tests, here’s what I was looking for:

• Ease of use/Design
• Cost
• The ability to write while off-line (then again, this one’s a given)
• The ability to upload pictures
• If my blog’s backend can do it, this should be able to as well.
• The ability to edit uploaded posts.
• Code produced must be clean enough to be easily readable/editable.

While this comparison review won’t focus strictly on these criteria (because most of them satisfy it to some extent), they’ll serve the primary determinant factor in what I end up using. Of course, every one of the software packages I tried had its own distinctive features outside of this, and while I’m not necessarily looking for these extras, I’ll be looking at them for the sake of the review.

This review includes the following applications:

• MarsEdit
• Ecto
• MacJournal (and vicariously, WinJournal)
• ScribeFire for Firefox
• Flock

Of course, if you just want to go ahead and skip to the conclusion, by all means do so.

First up…MarsEdit

For a while now, I’ve been buying shows on DVD. Why? Because I don’t want to have to endure one second of a show I can’t stand. It’s been that way for years, which is why I simply don’t watch much television anymore. Add to that the fact that I hate having to watch TV on a schedule and you see my problem: even if there’s a show I like, I’m pretty likely to miss it.

DVDs solve that.

Thing is, finding a DVD in the box, then putting it in, and selecting the episode… well, that’s just too much work. That’s I want an AppleTV.

Right now, when The Wife and I decide to watch television, it goes something like this:

“So hon, what do you want to watch?” I say.

“Whatever’s on.” She says.

“Alright, let’s just flip through the channels.” I Pick up the controller and start channel surfing. “Nope.” Next. “Nope.” Next. “Nada. Nothing. Zilch. Zip. Zero. Na-ah. No way. Negatory. Nein. Rien. Nyet… Yoooou wanna just watch a movie?”

“Sure, which one?”

“Feel like a comedy?” No. “What about romance?” No. “Action?” Maybe. “Sci-fi?” Sure. “Which one?”

“Pick whatever.”

“Alright, then how ’bout this one?” No. “Or this one?” She shakes her head. “This? Any of these? This? This? This? What about this? Feel like… no? This?” Sigh. “You feel like renting something?”

Times like these are why want my television to act like my RSS reader. Seriously, I just want to be able to download all my favorite shows directly, so I never have to turn the channel. (Sort of like if you have a good RSS reader you rarely have to leave it to view a site.) I’d have my own one-person, love-everything-all-the-time network! Imagine how awesome it would be!

“Hey, Hon,” I’d say, “whatcha feel like watch’n?”

“Whatever you want,” she’d answer.

“SWEET! Let’s just put it on random. I don’t really want to have to think about it, and because I like all these shows, anything’s fine.” I’d put it on random, and a show would come up. “Hey, I love this show! Buuut I hate this episode.” Next. “No, not that, either.” Next. “Not that. No, not that. Not that. Not.. Maybe, but let’s see what’s next. Not that. Why do I even have that? Not that. Not that. I forgot about that, but not now. Not that. Not that. How about.. Not that… Yeah, let’s go back to that other one. No not that one, the other… no, not.. Not that one. Not that one… The one before. The one before. No. No. No–THAT ONE! STOP! RIGHT THERE! No, the one before. The one before…”

So basically it’d be like having cable without all the crappy, useless networks. And it would be awesome.

No one would guess this was a refurb. I got this for $1099, $200 cheaper than normal.

The best part? It just works.

I wish I could say that about every other pre-built, pre-loaded system I’ve ever worked with, but I can’t. All too often, whether in Linux or Windows, I’ve had to go through various steps in order to become truly productive. With this, it took me an hour to run the software updates needed, install the software I wanted (it detected the network automatically, and connecting was a snap) and get to work. Really, it’s a thing of beauty. Only when you realize that you’re working in a sickeningly proprietary environment do you even get a hint of the ugly, but this isn’t something most people run into. Hell, I haven’t really run into it, and don’t anticipate running into it: I’m not screwing around with the interface, I’m not messing around with the internal configuration files, and I’m not planning on recompiling any of the programs, since they all seem to run rather quickly already (the only reason I ever really recompiled anything).

Anyway, but enough with the heady stuff. What’s it like actually using this?

To be perfectly transparent, at first it sort of felt like I was working with two left hands. Not quite uncomfortable, but not quite comfortable, either. Some of the things I took for granted on PCs — like right-clicking, or quitting applications by closing the windows, or actually having both Delete and Backspace keys — I started to quickly miss. However, that feeling soon faded, and I started to appreciate Mac OS X for the way it does things. “Just another way of thinking,” as I tell people when they first start using Linux. Just another way of thinking. Not complicated. Very simple, in fact. Retardedly so.

Having used the Gnome desktop environment in Linux for the past… however many years, it wasn’t particularly difficult for me to switch gears. I tell you, those Gnome guys (especially the folks in the Ubuntu team) really know how to but not quite almost copy and then surpass. And if I had a choice, and I may in the near future, I’d probably switch back to the Gnome interface. Then again, I may not be saying that in a week, since it may simply be the case that I just need some time to get adjusted.

The computer itself is a thing of beauty: all white, with smooth corners, silent as a ninja’s church fart… and then there’s the keyboard. Wow. I find it interesting that I should so have fallen in love with the keyboard, since it was the thing which almost convinced me not to buy a MacBook. The keys are flat and feel weak to the touch. At first. Once some time is spent with them, the realization dawns that typing is easier, requiring less effort; their design even seems to increase typing speed, idiotic spelling mistakes notwithstanding. (I don’t know whether that’s the case or not, but it certainly feels that way.) Finally, for those of us who spend a fair amount of time typing (those of us who push the average time spent typing up) the keyboard is a blessing due to its low-impact design. Not pressing as hard means less chance of developing any type of repetitive stress disorder.

An interesting note on the MacBook’s keyboard — and I can only presume this is also the case with the MacBooks Air and Pro — is the use of the Function keys (all those F# keys along the top of the keyboard). By default, these keys are used as application launchers and system controls, instead of keeping their quasi-esoteric, not-truly-defined purpose from the PC world. Great design move. And, of course, that’s what Apple excels at: great design.

Speaking of which, I came to a realization just recently, as to the biggest difference between Linux and Max OS X, licensing aside. It’s all about how things are constructed. Engineers are fond of saying that things should work before they’re made pretty. (“Make it work, then make it pretty,” my programming teacher used to say.) Open Source software — and yes, I’m using Linux and Open Source interchangeably here, but once you see where I’m going at, I’m sure you’ll agree it was the right call — lives and dies by this: first make it work. Make it work so well that not even your overtly critical mother-in-law could find fault with it. Then, if there’s time, and if there’s interest, make it pretty. In the Apple world, things are completely different. There the rule of thumb is “Make it work, but as you do so make sure it’s pretty. It’s OK if it doesn’t have all that many features, so long as the ones that are there are purposeful and beautiful.” Here defined then is the big difference: on one side you have engineers and hackers, on the other you have designers and artists. If Linux companies would embrace this — and Ubuntu is well on its way — neither Microsoft nor Apple could stop its even more rapid ascendancy. As it is, they barely can.

Anyway, back to the Mac. As I sit here writing this, I’m ripping a DVD so I can view it on my iPod using Handbrake (also available for Linux). I’m also accessing my site using Safari (I haven’t yet decided whether I want to switch back to FireFox, or even Opera, though I’ll likely end up downloading both soon enough), editing some work using NeoOffice, putting together a storyboard using Scrivener, and downloading my podcasts via iTunes. I’ve yet to touch a configuration file, or worry about whether a plugin will work right. Everything “just works”, and that’s exactly what I wanted.

If you have any recommendations for software I should try, extras I should pick out, or if you have any pointers to give me, I’m all eyes. I’ve already stared asking around, and gotten some phenomenal responses, but I’m still looking for more.

By the way, if you’re wondering, I’ll be adding pictures later, when I upload them from my camera. I took a few shots of the unpacking, so if you’re considering getting a refurb, you’ll know what to expect. Here’s a hint: it’s not what I expected. Seriously.

For years — almost a decade now — I’ve been using Linux almost exclusively at home. I’ve downloaded and installed countless distributions, and have lived with nothing but open sourced and free software, which has served my needs as well as any (Well, I will admit to the guilty pleasure that is the Opera browser. Not open sourced, but man, is it sleek!) And unlike most folks who download and install Linux, I’ve actually paid for open sourced software, paid for the operating systems, paid for support, and donated to the incredible work being done by people bringing all manner of modern functionality to GNU/Linux (including the marketing geniuses who figured out that “Linux” looks and sounds better than “GNU/Linux”) and the free software and open source movements.

The fact of the matter is that free and open sourced software has served me well for 95% of what I normally do. For most people, this would easily be 100%, since 95% of my work is made up of things like browsing the web, getting email, syncing with my MP3 players, viewing DVDs, streaming and recording music, using word processors and spreadsheets, and even doing a little programming. In fact, my productivity on Linux is higher than on Windows because I can tweak the system to work exactly as I want it, and to react to me when I want it to do so. Most people wouldn’t do two-thirds of what I do. They wouldn’t need to, nor would they have the patience to.

But it’s that other 5% that has truly become a hindrance.

See, much of the work I do is design oriented. I’m not talking about graphic design: I’m sure you can see by the look of this site that graphics aren’t exactly my forte. I’m talking about document design, since my documents are more often than not more complex than simply writing a bunch of text on a page, pasting a bunch of pictures, and printing it out. You can’t do that if the tools most people use aren’t available to you, and if they refuse to use your tools.

Another issue has been whether things “just work.” The fact is that on Linux, most stuff does. It really, really does! But that depends on whether you’re willing to give up something for it. Here’s what I mean:

If I’m using Windows, 9 times out of 10 things will “just work” because I wasn’t the one to touch the installation. I wasn’t the one to put the hardware together, to wrestle with the hardware drivers, to spend hours updating all the security patches, or to install all the extras. That last time out of 10, when I’m the one doing the work, installing Windows is pretty much a nightmare. (I may be wrong when it comes to Vista.) In other words, Windows doesn’t “just work”, despite what hardcore Microsoft fans will say. (Note that this does not include the Microsoft development tools, which are another matter entirely. If everything MS did was that effective, it would be dominant without needing to resort to monopolistic practices.) However, when things don’t “just work”, there is usually an easy enough installation route. For example, if I run into a page which requires Flash and I don’t have it installed, a little pop-up will ask me if I want to install it, regardless of whether I’m using Firefox or Explorer (or Opera, or Safari, et al). Click, install, restart the browser and I’m done.

If I’m using Linux, 9 times out of 10 things will “just work”. I mean truly “just work”: printers, scanners, cameras, USB thumb drives… the list goes on. Even with video and sound cards, things will usually “just work”, unless you want to get the high-end stuff going, then you’ll need to do some work. Sometimes this is relatively painless, as is the case with most nVidia video cards. Other times it’s like pulling teeth, like in the case of most ATI cards, or like some browser plugins. With web browsers, however, it’s not always that easy. Because of the diversity inherent in the Linux world — a world where you can pick up an operating system tailored for a brand new user, and where at the same time a more advanced user doesn’t have to acquiesce to it — installation of some software isn’t always guaranteed, nor is it simple. That, of course, depends on whether you can even find the software you need for your platform. Don’t get me wrong, equivalence is great, and if using, say, PDF creation software which does not require complex document security requirements doesn’t get in your way, then by all means, use it. But what happens when you need a certain software, or two, or three? You could, of course, start with virtualization services, such as Parallels or VMWare, which would run the OS you need in order to run the software you need. Or what about something like CodeWeavers Crossover, which will allow you to run some software natively on Linux? Again, for most scenarios this is fine, but then there’s that last 5% where virtualization isn’t really an option. In short, in the Linux world, when you have complicated, specific needs, things can get down-right complicated. You can always get it to do what you need, however, if you’re willing to get your hands a bit dirty.

But what if it isn’t that your needs are complicated? What if it’s just a matter of you trying to punch a nail in with a screwdriver? What if you’re using the wrong tool for the job? Isn’t getting your hands dirty then simply a waste of time?

Enter the Mac. I’ve wanted one for as long as I can remember, but have never been able to justify paying for what I believed was overpriced hardware. Now, I’m in a position to buy pretty much whatever system I want, within reason. Imagine my surprise when I spec’d out a Dell system (running Ubuntu) similar to a MacBook and found out that they cost about the same. I guess they’re not as overpriced as I’d once thought.

I need a system that won’t get in my way, which will allow me to work with the software I need, and that is aimed towards my particular field. Linux does this about 95% of the time. But I need this 100% of the time, and a Mac, I believe, will do that. (I’m not at all interested in using Windows: I use it every day at work and I have not intention of using it at home.) I need a system with a strong community, something both Linux and Mac have in common, so in case I do have questions I have somewhere to go for answers (and because I enjoy being a part of a community, I’d also help others out whenever I could). I also need a system which will allow me to split my time between the command line and the GUI, since I work fastest when I have access to and can control the system with both. Again, something both Linux and Mac have in common. And I need a system which will allow me to run the software I need, natively. Linux and Mac, in this case, don’t have this in common.

As you can probably tell from the tone of this piece, I’m not really dissatisfied with Linux. It has served me extremely well, and I will heartily recommend it to just about everyone. But for me, I need something more, which is why I’ve bought a Mac.

Now, will this be my long term solution? Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows, I may wipe out Mac OS X from this thing in a year and use nothing but Ubuntu again. After all, Mac OS is beautiful and useful, but it doesn’t even come close to the Beryl/Emerald combo available for the GNOME interface. (Spaces is a piece of crap compared to Beryl/Emerald.) But I’m more interested in working than I am in playing, and if a Mac will let me do that, then that’s what I’ll chose.

I expect to get my Mac this Monday. I picked up a refurb MacBook from Apple.com for $1164.00 (including tax, with free shipping), so hopefully it’ll get here with at least almost all the parts. I’ll blog about my experiences with it.

As for Linux… well, that’s an interesting question. I’ve bought the MacBook to be a complete desktop/laptop replacement, so I now have two computers leaving my house. The first is my desktop, a small form factor PC I put together about 3 years ago. It’s currently running Fedora 8, but I’ll probably end up installing Freespire on it, since it’s going to my in-laws, who are in their late 60′s and early 70′s. The second is a Dell Inspiron 8000 I’ve had since 2001. It still runs well, though it is definitely showing its age. I’ve installed PuppyLinux on it, though I may install Antix instead. That one’s going to my own mother.

After all is said and done, this will be the first time in a decade I haven’t run Linux at home as my primary computing platform. Weird. Mind you, I’ll still be keeping up with the Linux world, just not as much. I expect, however, to still be using more than my fair share of open source software, and donating my fair share to these groups. But I what I expect to happen and what will happen may end up being two totally different things.

So let me ask, has anyone reading this used Linux and switched to Mac? What where your experiences? What did you like or hate? Did you switch back?

I’ve already started doing research on Macs, some of which you can read on 9Rules Notes (Should I Get a Mac?, and Recommended Mac Software). Wish me luck.