Individual Entry: The prodigal returns to the fold
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August 06, 2009

Life : The prodigal returns to the fold

Four years ago (almost to the day - check out the post) I - who has started developing for the Macintosh 2 months after it was release and who worked for Apple for 7 years developing the Mac OS - abandoned the Mac for the PC. You can read the post to see how and why that transition happened. In essence I did not see the value investing my time in learning a whole new OS (Mac OS X) and a new programming language (Objective C) and neither did a lot of the independent developers who wrote the cool programs that made the Mac fun for me.

The news is that I am typing this post up on my new iMac that rests in the place of pride on my desk and my old PC is sitting in the corner, disconnected.

The reasons for my return to the Mac is manifold; but the real game changer is the iPhone. Now that I have a programmable device that I carry just about everywhere with me, the ability to program it for myself (even just utilities for my own private use) is something I can’t resist. What’s more, a cursory examination of the iPhone App Store provides ample evidence that the indie developers have returned to Apple as iPhone developers.

On top of that, the new Macs (being Intel-chip based) can run Windows, and I am setting up this computer to dual-boot, so I can still use Windows on those occasions I need to.

What’s more, I have a sense that God wants me to invest my energies into more creative activities (writing, programming, etc.) and to spend less time playing games, and the Mac is just a better computer for that (with fewer distractions for games).

Now I still have my 12” Sony laptop that I use to read Email (I use that because I can take it on trips easily, and I don’t have to worry about syncing my email archives between different machines); but for the foreseeable future I expect to be using a Mac a my primary computer at home.

Anne (who never left the Mac) is quite pleased.

Posted by Steven at August 6, 2009 05:00 AM