I also agree with much of what you’re saying. I loved my 15″ Powerbook, but my 17″ MBP is by far the nicest computer I’ve ever owned. If you’ve not, you might want to give a search through my archives for a series I did on switching to Linux, open source, and other related topics. They sound like they’re just up your alley.

Thanks again for the catch and for the comment!

As a Mac user (exclusively) since my first Plus in 1988, I was initially unexcited about the Intel transition, but after replacing my 17″ PowerBook with a 17″ MacBookPro, I’m sold. Finally Mac OS X is beginning to approach the performance speed of OS 9, and the Mac’s new ability to easily run Windows (if desired; I don’t) and mainstream Linux (yes, PPC Linuxes exist, but seem like poor cousins) has given it a huge leg up in the computer market. Given that, according to solid rumor, an Intel version of OS X was always in parallel development, I suspect Steve intended this move all along.

I was also not initially entranced by OS X, though its multilingual capabilities were the first thing that really interested me about it. But it’s become clear that by moving to a Unix-based OS, Apple has leapfrogged from being the outsider OS dissed (quite undeservedly) by all the “serious” computer world to a position now more central than Windows. Computer geeks know Windows and work with Windows, but they *love* Unix, and Mac OS is now the Mercedes Benz of desktop Unix, attracting droves of expert programmers.

I’m interested in the potential of open-source software, and have lately been looking at Linux and the various OS applications. Linux can’t really come close to replacing Mac OS for me, but I’m following and cheering its development, and wish Ubuntu especially all success.

I’m particularly excited about the OpenDocument formats, which promise to alleviate a major annoyance repeatedly encountered in the proprietary software world. My favorite apps in the classic Mac OS were AppleWorks and PageMaker; both are now dead, and no current app can easily read their files. And, even if I find current apps to replace them, how do I know they too won’t be killed off in their turn, for reasons having nothing to do with their quality or worth to users, leaving me with yet another bunch of now-useless documents, yet another expense and chore to migrate to yet another pair of apps which in their turn…. I’m tired of it. the Open Source alternatives have some distance to go to reach full usability, but they’re being developed by the people who actually use them, so they will be what users need, and there’s no reason why they won’t continue to live indefinitely — or if they ever die, it’ll be easy to transition to whatever replaces them.

Someday, perhaps, we’ll see a computer world universally based on Unix, with various forms of Linux, BSD or other open implementations used all over the world where Windows now dominates, and Mac OS occupying the same place in the computer market as does BMW in automotive — just as Steve once noted in response to the old “but Apple only has 3% of the market” carp. And then we’ll see if Microsoft can write a good Unix-based OS.