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I've been called various things in the past with regards to my personal likes or dislikes with technology. I've been called an Apple Fanboy, a Linux Nut, and various synonyms for each. I'd like to take a few moments to correct people's misconceptions about me, and perhaps people who think like me.
About Me
The early years
First off, you have to know the kind of person I am, before you can appropriately judge my opinions. I grew up loving technology. I'd love taking apart random things and attempting to reassemble them. I've always had a fondness for computers, partially because I was mystified by their companion-like nature: they're something to play with, learn from, or talk to your friends with. They're just great.
I grew up using Macs in my elementary school's "computer lab" (I use quotes here because it consisted of a meager dozen computers, no Internet (obviously), and that's about it). However, I grew to dislike them from their lack of reliability. That, coupled with their annoying location of the power button, made rebooting these all-in-ones a terrible chore. I was excited, when a little after 1995, the school's new technology person decided to replace the aging Macs with IBMs running Windows 95. "Finally", I thought, "we'd have computers that wouldn't freeze!".
My first computer(s)
Fast forward a few years, to November of 1998. This is when my family got their first computer. Since my parents spent the 80's overseas, and missed out on the whole "technological revolution" thing, they weren't to eager to get a computer. I remember the feeling, like Christmas had come early. We had gone to the then-new Gateway Country stores, and picked out a beauty of a machine. A 450 MHz Pentium II, 128 MB of RAM, a Voodoo 2 with an ATI and hardware MPEG decoder for the (then-new) DVD-ROM drive, a 19" Hitachi monitor, and awesome Boston Acoustics speakers (which I still have, and still use, they just have an amazing sound). It was --awesome--. It came with Windows 98 (first edition), and I loved that computer to death.
I spent most of my adolescent life fiddling with that Gateway, until a couple years later I got my very own Walmart-sold HP. It was faster, had more RAM (after a trip to Staples), and it ran Windows Me. Now, I'm probably the only person in the world to say this, but I thought Windows Me was a great operating system. I never had any problems with it (or the 100 MB Iomega Zip drive from the Gateway, a drive notorious for problems). To me, it was the most amazing thing in the universe. Coupled with our local-yocal dial-up ISP (and subsequent second phone line), I felt like the king of the world.
A few years later, I really got into computers. All I did, and all the money I made in high school went into my computer. I didn't really like video games (except for the few on the PC), so it got 100% of my attention. I bought motherboard after motherboard, DIMM after DIMM, and of course, power supply after power supply. I remember transitioning from Voodoo to GeForce, and when a gigabyte of RAM was expensive. I memorized all the different Pentium 4 models, their speeds and costs, RAM prices from online and local stores, cache latencies, CPU voltages, the best heatsinks and cases. At one point, I even bought case lights to make it look "cool".
At this point, me and Microsoft were pals.
Then along came Linux
It was at this point that I started expanding my geekiness. I started hearing about this thing called "Linux", a completely different operating system you could run on your computer!? Around this time too, I started looking at what Apple was doing, now that its operating system had moved to OS X. I gave Knoppix a try, and eventually Red Hat 8 (9, and all the Fedoras). I was so amazed at how different Linux was; how odd it felt to use, weird it was to install programs (what's this compiling thing again?), and how X-window-y it looked (or UNIX-y, if you prefer). But, when I started playing around, I started understanding all the little subcomponents, and discovered services like FTP, telnet, and then SSH. The fact that Apache was available too boosted my interest. And to think, all of this is free!
Enter Apple
When it came time to head to college, I really wanted a laptop. As you can't really build your own laptop, I decided to look around at what was available. I did my homework (well, at least when it came to computers), compared models from HP, Compaq, Dell, Gateway, IBM, and my favorite: Apple. Oddly enough, what drew me into Apple wasn't their operating system (it was the second biggest thing), but their hardware. I, even to this day, adore the PowerPC G4 processor. The entire concept of the processor, from its conception to its implementation astonished me. For me, the 'Velocity Engine' (what real geeks refer to as the AltiVec instruction set) is what sealed the deal. To think, all the supposed power of the Pentium, and my little 1.5 GHz PPC G4 could smite it. I ordered my first Mac, the Aluminum PowerBook G4 15". It was one of the first laptops Apple shipped with Panther, a fairly large upgrade of OS X. I remember hijacking the FedEx guy when he stopped at my high school. I was eating lunch, and grabbed my package and opened it in the cafeteria. "It probably doesn't have a charge" I thought as I took out the gorgeous laptop and hit the power button. A few seconds later, a welcome video was playing, and I had a grin on my face larger than my face itself. From then on, I fell in love with Macintosh, and slowly stopped using my frankensteinian PC until I got to college. The PC had, at any given time, 5 different combinations of Linux and Windows on it. I found myself relying more and more on the Mac to get things done. Inevitably, the PC had problem after problem until one day in my sophomore year, I just said "screw it", and gave up on it. It was the best thing that ever happened to me. I was forced to use my laptop fully for the next couple of years.
Maturity
I kept up-to-date with the latest Linux distro, and was there for the Ubuntu uprising. I followed what Microsoft was doing with XP, advances in Direct X, the latest Intel and AMD processors, and random hardware components and their new specs. I had grown tired of tinkering with my computer, putting it all together, and constantly upgrading components. It was time that I settle down and just use a computer for computing, and stop worrying about all the little bits inside of it. I bought the first Intel-based iMac, and was blown-away again. Tiger showcased even more improvements, EFI provided quick-as-hell startup times, and the computer looked gorgeous. Not letting my geekdom stagnate, I was constantly looking at new Apple-like things, from Quicksilver to (now) MacPorts. I was pleased that my Intel Mac could just download the source tarballs of my favorite Linux applications and compile them with little hiccuping. In the meantime, my friends and I collected old computers the university was throwing out. We threw Vector Linux on them, and donated their computing time to projects like Folding@Home and later BOINC projects.
To this day...
I have 4 Macintosh LC-775s, a G3 all-in-one, two Apple ][s, a Tandy (complete with plotter), a dual-CPU Pentium II-based server (in its really tall case), 3 or so Apple printers, a few more HP printers, and the components with which to build 3 or 4 functional PCs. I have an endless supply of random computer cables and peripherals, the mini-CD Compaq iPaq music player, a Sony Clié PDA (with infrared keyboard), and a 5-foot box of floppy disks with random commercial software (like Autocad v1). Add to that the nearly 800 burnt CDs, zip disks, and hard drives, and I have quite a collection -- and these are just the bits that I don't use anymore (though they all work).
My original PowerBook, Athenia, still gets used today as a guest laptop at my apartment. It's fully up-to-date, but needs a new DC/sound board after a recent accident left it unable to play sounds. My frankensteinian PC still boots, and was its own domain for a while, but motherboard faults have left it a collection of outdated parts. My iMac is my main desktop, and as for a laptop, I am very happy with my unibody MacBook Pro. Oh, and then there's the hundred or so Linux boxes I use at work.
So, I hope that this is enough of a background to stand on to deliver the next bit of rant...
I'm only biased in favor of quality. If it causes problems, it's not for me.
