I am not interested in getting into a religious argument, here, about Apple Macintosh versus Microsoft Windows PCs. The two are much more alike than they are different, by now. And make no mistake, it really is a religion with some people. At various times, I have had a Mac desktop and Windows laptop, or one kind of computer at work and another at home. It really is up to you and there is little that you can do with one that you cannot also do with the other, no matter what the brand name. At some point you, too, will start to think it's time for a new computer. Here are some other things to think about when that day finally comes.
See, there are struggles ahead. The path is fraught with terrors that survive long after that new-computer smell has abated. For the last few years, all of my work has been on this computer. All of my work is in this computer. Every computer today is easily customized, personalized, to your own liking. Out of the box, most Macs have the main programs they run visible on the bottom of the screen. Me? I have mine over on the left side. Why? Because I like it that way, and because I can. If I get a new computer, I will need to spend some measure of time fiddling with it so that I can operate it without thinking too much about what I am doing.
I am going to have to move that bar of programs again. It's going to take some time, and I may have to go looking for help as I try to remember how it was done, years ago. If not for the bar, then for any of dozens of other tweaks I have performed over the years. Carried to an extreme, there are utility programs that will re-map keyboard shortcuts and automator doo-hickeys that will fire off various scripts and jobs at various times. You can "build" a computer today that is so personalized that you may be the only person who can use it.
Again, you can do all of this with PCs and Macs and probably to some degree with Linux computers, too. And once you get the computer set up to your liking, you then have to mess with all of your programs. Set aside even more time to get your word processor tuned-up the way you like. Plan on a few minutes to get your Web browser settled-in. Each program today seems to feature a Preferences section where you can choose a favorite font or color or size of type, or how things will print. All of that will have to be moved to, or replicated on, the new machine. Got a custom dictionary? An address book? Everything must go!
And then of course, there is the work. The whole reason for all of this exercise. Each of the files you have so lovingly hand-crafted since your last upgrade needs to be moved from its home in the dusty old computer to the new computer of your dreams. You need to be able to get into all of your old Web sites. You need to be able to get into all of your old word processing documents. You need to be able to get into all of your old calendars.
The result of all of this effort is that as our careers age, we tend to make both our computers and our programs ever more personalized, and we tend to make increasing use of more programs, resulting in settings files and data files that need to be transported. Any computer available today is going to be better than any computer you could get three years ago, but you have to be willing to cross off a whole day or more, it seems, to begin to use that new speed, that bigger monitor, etc.
Maybe this is A Good Thing. Maybe it puts the brakes on upgrading every six months or every year. I know I am not looking forward to the move. I am looking forward to a newer computer, but I don't relish the process of moving everything over so I can get to work. As a kid, we moved a lot and every time something got lost and something got broken. Today, with new computers, it's exactly the same.
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