So, the title of this post is a little misleading. It’s not that I am completely without, it’s just been relegated to occasional home use only, since I have to bring my clunky PC everywhere, because I can’t run Outlook and sync calendars & todo lists on my pre-intel apple… but that’s another story.
I started up my 4 year old iBook (sub-ghz!) last night to shoot off a modified resume (yes, a computing platform affects my employment decisions). I hit the power button, went to get a drink of water, then I came back, and to my astonishment, I was at my desktop, ready to go. I’ve been gone from my computer so long that the possibility of productivity astonishes me!
Compare this to my daily bootup grind with my pc at work. I arrive, hit the on button, fill up my french press with hot water, return, steep some tea, then I finally hit my login window, 2 minutes later. After entering in my critical information, it takes another 3 minutes, two crashed programs and one error report to finally open my Outlook. Yes, if I really knew Windows, I bet I could fix that nonsense. But it came configured from the IT department like this…
Anyway, I start to move around my apple desktop, recognize that I need to open InDesign to modify my resume, and find it’s not in my dock. Oh no! It could be a command-shift-a away in my applications folder, but instead, I utilize quicksilver without thinking, type in ‘ind’+enter and off I’m going to inDesign. I’d still be waiting for my PC to get to the login screen, much less slogging through the start>programs>adobe tree.
I begin to eye gaze my non-Leopard desktop and all the little things I take for granted. Fixed menu bar, flexible and consistent sidebar, large, friendly icons, non-linear alt-tab interface… Then I realize that things are FAST. Navigation and web surfing are speedy, enjoyable activities. Rarely am I waiting for my computer to catch up with my mental processes.
Realize that I am working on a 933 mHz machine with 640 mb of ram. Hardly a workhorse, but compared to my 2.2 gHz, 2 GB of RAM windows xp box, it’s snappy!
This is the way computers should be, reliable, friendly servants working for us, not another machine overlord to take up my time, frustrate my life and become another boss!
