I’m Not a PC
I have been using a PC since the Windows 3.1 days and bought an Apple Powerbook G4 12′ Laptop to start my college “career” almost 4 years ago. I loved the mac experience and even sort of became a bit of a fanboy, promoting Apple to all my friends. You could even call me Eve. But as much as I loved the mac OS, I always figured I would maintain a PC desktop while running Mac with my laptops, just for those ‘PC only’ apps, and keep myself in line by using the same OS as the majority of the rest of the world. So when my PC desktop died, it was natural for me to pick up another PC. My friend graciously gave me his for a below market price and after playing around with it for a while, it looked good. Now all I had to do was reformat it to erase his things and start putting in my own.
Simple enough, or so I thought.
I was 20 minutes in when I did my first ctrl, alt, delete. It was followed briefly by the second, third, and fourth of which rebooted the computer. By the time I finally got into the familiar Windows screen, I was greeted with jagged motion and a lack of an internet connection. I didn’t get it. I plugged in the ethernet in the right slot. A quick call to my friend and I was reminded that I needed to install the internet and video card drivers. It’s in the box, I was told. I then flipped opened the box and was welcomed to 20 different CDs. “Sorry, but when can you pick it back up?”
And that was the dramatic end of Sam the PC User. Sorry Bill. I’m not a PC but I wear glasses too. I’m not trying to bash Windows – it’s customizability is second to none and its hard to argue with 2.0 ghz dual core and 4gb of ram for less than 500 while a measly Mac Mini with 1.6 ghz and 1 gb of ram will run you well over 650.
But it’s not for me. It’s ironic because the computer world has done a complete 180 on me. It wasn’t so long ago in Elementary School that the teacher threw us in a room with a bunch of molding ‘Apple Macintoshs’. Those things only had two uses: All the Right Type and Oregon Trail, and they only worked (sometimes) when you put in a napkin sized floppy disk. Back then, we longed to go to the high-tech PC lab, having heard all these stories about Solitaire and Minesweeper. ‘All those PC only’ apps no longer exist anymore (and I can run Bootcamp if I really needed to) and as for the rest of the world? Well, I can deal with being a minority.
ps – Here’s Mac Solitaire.
OREGON TRAIL!!!! LOVED that game!!!
=D
you = epic win with that post!
omg hahaha I remember loving Oregon Trail too… but I can’t really remember what the game was about…
WOW…2 ppl beat me to saying “I love Oregon Trail” HAHAHA
I don’t remember what that game was really about either, but I remember playing it lots
of course….in grade 3 I upgraded to “Math Blasters” and some “Tank Wars”(I believe)…both on apples. The tank game was the best =)
changed for you
oregon trail!!!!
i never made it past the river
oy, how did i miss this post? I like. who woulda thunk it, but i now partially agree that Windows is kind of…well, crappy. what is happening to the world!
Nice post…my windoze days are pretty much done. I was all about building my own computer and helping others, but those days are lonnnnggg gone. I have VMWare Fusion installed but I haven’t pulled the trigger to install XP yet because I don’t need to. Computing is a joy again!!!