The main reason for switching back to MacOS is the switch back to Intel. That had been the main inhibitor for a long time. I have a few sotwares that only run on Windows and with Parallels, this looks like it is going to be easy to run them. So for father’s day, I got a shiny new 20” iMac (Thank you!). I have been quite impressed with Apple lately, both from a Design perspective, but also from their overall strategy and execution of that strategy. What a change from that near death experience. The iMac is really a neat machine. The screen quality is outstanding, and the speed is great; I haven’t done any benchmarks, but just judging by how Firefox behaves, that’s pretty impressive.

Over the years I’ve used computers, I have probably used the whole spectrum of personal computers. Primarily Windows and Linux for the past 10 years. Macs for the 5 years before that. I was never quite out of the Mac altogehter since my wife insisted that she needed a Mac (having worked at Apple and all that…), but that wasn’t mine, I was just doing the support if something went wrong.

My first Mac was a Mac IIx, with a whopping 1Mb of RAM, courtesy of Apple France, back in 1989. That wasn’t my first computer, that one was a ZX81 from Sinclair, with 2Kb of RAM. Seems hard to imagine now. Especially now that my shiny new iMac came with 512Mb, and I felt that wasn’t quite enough, so I had to go to Fry’s and get 2Gb. Now that’s better!

Installing the RAM was a no brainer. I only found that Apple article after the fact, but it was easy to figure out, plus underneath the base, there are some instructions too. There are only 2 apparent screws on the whole things, plus a couple or torx ones, but I started with the regular ones, and bingo, there was the RAM.

So now I’m off with my hair on fire running around and setting things up. I’ve got quite a long list of things to install, figure out and tinker with. Things like updating Ruby, install TextMate, get an Rails app running, … I’ve already scoped out a few pointers in case I run into trouble.

Oh, there’s one more thing I could not stand for very long: the single-button-no-wheel-mouse! As part of the same trip to Fry’s, I got a bluetooth mouse from macally, the BTMOUSEJR and I can now scroll, and context click right from the mouse. The Apple mouse is really slick looking, and totally unpractical too! Steve, do something please ;) I have had some trouble with that mouse after the system came back from sleep mode, because it was no longer paired, but after reading the FAQ, it was just a matter of clicking the left and right button for a few seconds, and the mouse wakes up and everything is fine.

So over the upcoming weeks, in addition to Debina/Ubuntu stories, you can expect to also see quite a few Mac related posts.

Now, back to my long list, starting with Windows and Dapper Drake… I’ll keep you posted!