I have 2 main computers that I use at home (beyond my work laptop, my home server and my firewall proxy box).. One is my super uber game machine, and one is my catch all play around machine. The game machine is a windows box because I don’t have much choice — you want to play games, you use windows. Go Win-tendo!

The play machine was an Ubuntu box until last weekend when a thunderstorm killed it. We have surge protectors on all our machines and a dedicated circuit for this part of the house, but for whatever reason this machine didn’t weather the storm. It was a very old machine and it had been rebuilt many times over so really it was due.

So, I figured it was time to get a new machine. Originally I was going to get a “shuttle” machine which is a small PC but then someone else pointed out that the MacMini’s are perfect for what I am wanting to do..
I was intrigued. Firstly, I wanted to do some iPhone SDK stuff and didn’t have a mac, plus I wanted to get a small machine that wouldn’t be the huge honkin box it was replacing. The mini would be perfect!
I figured what the hell and made the splurge. It was only $600 after tax with my IBM discount so really I couldn’t complain — and let me tell ya, this little machine is great!

I really haven’t ever been a full time mac user, so I didn’t really know what to expect. Most of my mac experience comes from a machine I used for about a year back in 1994.. Quite a different animal, trust me. Leopard is fantastic. It really is very simple and intuitive. Plus now that it’s just a BSD machine it is amazingly simple to get stuff working.

My very first challenge was to get Synergy up and running so I didn’t need a keyboard/mouse attached to the box. Yeah.. that took about 20 minutes. The hard part was figuring out the “launchd” system which I wasn’t used to. But once I got that sorted out, it was cake!

So far everything just works. It reminds me of Ubuntu in that way.. I really have to wonder how Windows is still around.. And you’re reading the blog of a LONG TIME windows user.. I mean I went from Amiga to Windows 3.1.. I continued to use Windows NT long after it was popular to do so, and then used Win2k pro well beyond when XP was the standard..

I can honestly say that at this point, I’ll never go Vista. Why would I?! XP does everything I need for games, and for anything else I’ll use linux or now Mac. So far I’m very happy with the MacMini.

I do have one complaint about the hardware: it comes with Wifi and frankly, it’s not very good. The mac mini wifi seems to drop it’s connection or atleast work intermittently at best, even when the receiver is less than 3 feet away. I was pretty underwhelmed by that one aspect of the device.. Other than that its great!

And I do have one complaint about the software: the home and end key don’t work the way I think they should and no amount of remapping or fixing seems to make them work like they do on the PC. It’s annoying.

I would highly recommend it.

Why can’t people discussing intelligent software solutions from different paradigms agree to disagree on this point.. and move the hell on?!

It drives me insane that you always have these hard core zealots that spout about how their OS is the best and that Microsoft sucks. You should use Linux cause it is better than Microsoft.. No no.. You should use a Mac because a “Wintel” machine sucks.. No the Amiga was the best! (I miss my Amiga).. etc etc.

I hate it.. Everyone hates Microsoft..

Do a search for “windows sucks” on Google and see what you get.. Good luck sifting through it all.. Everyone of them hard core Microsoft fans.. All of them are completely unbiased I’m sure..

Firstly.. ALL OSes are crap. None of them have got it right. They all have problems. It bothers me though that any time I have any kind of problem with my computer, which may or may not be completely unrelated to the OS, some sycophant from another flavor of “craptacular” will chime in and tell me that the problem is due to the OS I’m using, and that specifically Microsoft sucks.. if I just switched to {enter other shitty os name here} all my woe’s would be solved.

Ya know what there sport, if that were true don’t ya think it would have happened already? I’m pretty sure I don’t need you to tell me which way the wind blows. If your OS was so much better, I bet I would have noticed by now..

I use Linux, everyday.. No thanks – it doesn’t fit the bill, I don’t like it.. and I find it largely a pain in the ass..

I’ve seen and used a Mac.. No thanks – it doesn’t do what I need. Again, good for some things, but doesn’t do everything I want.. Etc..

No no.. that’s not enough.. They must convert me!

Even now some asshat is reading this just waiting for the end so they can dive off into their pre-scripted rant about how if I just tried their OS it would be better.. OR, even more infuriating, about how I just don’t understand and I must be some drooling sub-par computer half-wit who barely knows how to flip the I/O button to make the flashy lights go..

Clearly since I like Microsoft or in my case because I tolerate it, I must be one of those sad pathetic people who don’t know better. Pity me – For I am lame.

Here’s the 411 people..

I don’t “like” Microsoft or Windows. I use it. I use it because it’s all I got. At best, I tolerate it. And when something stupid goes wrong for no reason what so ever, I have same psychopathic desire to kill small animals just like everyone else.. It’s what I got.. So I use it.

Linux has stupid, crappy and jacked-up issues with it, just like the Mac.. just like Windows.. Get over yourself.

But to keep it simple for you people, I can sum it all up to ONE reason. I have ONE reason why I use Microsoft over any other OS – One reason that NO OTHER OS can beat; GAMES.

That’s it. I believe I have won that argument. You lose.

The games that I play, I can only play on a windows machine.

Dos, Linux, BSD, AIX, Mac, IRIX, Solaris, FreeBSD, BeoS, CP/M, CLI, LCARS. Whatever operating system you choose.. they don’t have the games..

None of them do.

Stop telling me that my OS sucks.. Thanks.. I got it.. Shut the fuck up..

My OS may suck, but I got the games baby..

And until your OS, whatever it may be, has those same games.. It’s with windows I’ll stay. Suck or not.