long time listener first time caller

Man oh man!  I have been using windows for as long as I can remember.  And I have been professionally writing software in a windows world since I got out of the military.  I have heard several times that Linux is better. I have heard several times that Apple is better.

And I have tried to hear this advice.  I have gone so far as to pause my windows use and go head long into linux.  I have also gone so far as to attempt to use an MBP at my first Dell job.  They bought it for me – so why not?

I hated it!  I was spoiled by what I knew and usually just didn’t have it in me (time or otherwise) to take on a learning curve while taking on many other learning curves. And I always went back to the PC in some form or another.

Now I have 6 people in my house in addition to me that are all on a computer of some form all day long.  And being a PC support guy is a full on part time job.  And I hate it.

Additionally, while I am a windows developer I am not a golden hammer developer.  I pay attention to the open source non-windows world every day.  I see all the shiny toys out there.  And I try to use them…on windows.  And in the open source world getting these tools to run on a PC isn’t usually very easy.  I first have to make windows look like linux.  Then I can someone get a hobbled version of something running.  This experience is off putting when using these otherwise great tools.

NO MORE!

At the last MVP Summit (2014) I saw Microsoft saying “we love Linux” and “we are trying to be more open”.  That was great progress but I didn’t have faith it would stick.  While I was at the MVP Summit last week I have to say I was very impressed.  I saw just as many macs as I did PC’s.  I saw just as many Microsoft updates on tools and features as I did on non-Microsoft support of oss tools and features.  And almost everything was open for contribution. I was amazed.

I was also using an older Dell laptop while at the summit that I had recently migrated to windows 10.  It wasn’t running so well (the hardware).  It still had a spinner in it.  And it was semi sluggish. I love Windows 10!  Best OS they have ever released in my view.  I won’t stop using it.  But I was done with Windows as my default running on PC’s that just didn’t perform well.

I was with my friend who had recently migrated from PC to the entire Apple platform.  And he loved it.  Towards the end of the first day I told him I had been thinking about MBP for a few weeks.  And that I had actually shopped for a machine an hour ago.  I was seriously thinking about getting a MBP.

He jumped on the opportunity.  We had 30 minutes before going to our first party of the evening.  He assured me not to worry.  It would be a great experience.  In and out in no time.

For the most part this was true.  We went in.  We were nicely greeted by a non-smoozzy metro/lumber sexual (I forget which..there were many skinny jeans there).  I applied for credit and was immediately approved.  We collected the bits I needed to work from this machine.  Then we checked out.

Uh oh!  I was from Texas buying a not so cheap item from Washington.  This caused a hick-up in the application process.  But that was ironed out quickly.  And we were off with a new toy in hand. Great experience over all.

The next day I was able to quickly get node.js running.  And I have spent a fair amount of time getting to know my MBP and the terminal.  Everything just works great.

Don’t get me wrong!  There is a learning curve migrating from PC to mac.  Scroll is opposite the experience in windows.  The close button on a window is in a different place (I used to say “in the wrong place”).  Maximizing a window seems to have some weird ramifications to it (like I can’t drag a chrome tab into its own window if the current window is maximized…why not?). But I am learning.  And I am enjoying the fact that everything just works.

Now it is time to install a VM manager and get my windows 10 back so that I can use some of the tools that I am used too.  But I took stock of what apps I use regularly now in Windows…and the number is small.  Visual Studio is a big one (have you played with Visual Studio Code yet? It runs on a mac.).  Office is generally in google drive these days.  Notes are in workflowy and evernote. Visio is important to me.  I have a photoshop license for windows still.

More to come.  Exciting.  Give it a try!