Well, it took some doing, but Eriq Neale finally convinced me that Macs are not completely evil (pronounced "Eeeee-ville"). Vlad & Chris already got me using Firefox (though I turned them on to Rocket Boom, so we're even). And oddly enough, looking at a penguin is starting to make my eye twitch. Is nothing sacred??
So I decided it was time to stop player-hatin' on Macs and stop being a Windows bigot. Time to crawl out of the relative safety of the Microsoft foxhole (snort) and take my Geekness to the next level.
Scanning my IM list, I pinged Deborah, a dual Mac/PC user friend of mine so I could pick her brain. She gave me a crash course in Mac. She kindly corrected me that the "fruity" ones, as I called them, were the G3 models, the ones with the "handles" were the tower models, and the "60's robot-looking" ones were the G4's. (Side note: I have a new-found understanding and empathy for folks who don't know the right names for PC hardware). Anyway, in no time Deborah helped me get my Mac learn-on. Thanks D!!
Armed with my copy of the SBS Unleashed book so I can add this machine to my network, the FAQ on SmallBizServer.net so Eriq won't ban me from his buddy list for pestering him, and some hard-earned PayPal dollars, I confidently marched over to eBay to snag myself a Mac. And boy, the killing fields were ripe for hunting!
25 minutes and 5 e-mails later, I found my prey: A cutesy curvy plastic Mac with OS X, quietly minding it's own business in San Diego. I looked closer, comparing it against several other Macs in my browser tabs, just to be sure. DVD? check! NIC? check. RAM? check. HD? check. Keyboard, mouse, cables, shipping, feedback, PayPal? check-check. This was it.
Slowly I reached for the "Buy-It-Now" button, took a deep breath, and BLAM! I got it!! (Actually, there was a 'confirmation' button in there too, but I took it out of the story for dramatic effect).
Now, this wasn't some fire-breathing intergalactic planetary Mac I bagged – quite the opposite in fact. Because the way I figure, it's better to take the 'golf' approach. For those of you with one eyebrow cocked, let me explain. See, unless you're Rodney Dangerfield, you don't go out and buy top-of-the-line golf equipment before stepping on the green for the first time. You rent clubs.
Of course you feel like a dork playing 18 holes with 'Rental' stenciled on your bag. Your Nike and Callaway friends laugh in your face when the strap breaks and your clubs go rolling down the hill. Then, once you've found that you love (and simultaneously hate) the game more than life itself, you sell your firstborn child for the Great Big Bertha II X-16 clubs. Likewise, if I turn out to be a justified Mac hater, fortunately this model has a molded build-in handle to make for a spiffy boat anchor.
So, I shot Sal in San Diego an e-mail thanking him for the lovely auction, and asking him to gently lower my "fruity" little Blue G3 in a comfy padded box, kiss it gently on the monitor, wrap it up tight, and send it to Louisville. Nothing left to do now but clean off a spot on the desk, plug an extra CAT5 into the switch, wait by the mailbox, grow a pony tail and drive a VW Beetle (just kidding about the last two).
My Mac friends are busy dislocating their shoulders patting themselves on the back for bringing me over to the 'Dark Side'. They even nicknamed me already: "macdaddy". In all honesty, "Mac Donald's" is more definitely more appropriate, but I finally joined a gym, so who's laughing now?
Stay tuned. The saga continues…
End of support for Windows 98 and Windows Me
Posted by Tim Barrett 
NoGeekLeftBehind.com 
