But:
+ To say that you have "run all but dry of understanding for
programmers that willfully pick Windows as their platform of choice" to
me seems to imply a complete disinterest in understanding how other
people make such decisions in the first place. For one thing, I know
plenty of people who have never made the switch out of
cost-consciousness, and I live in New York, not a very cost-conscious
place to begin with.
Interestingly, the last time I bought a computer was two years ago. At
the time, I was looking for a lightweight laptop computer (under four
pounds) that was still powerful enough for my needs -- and fit within
my budget. The Mac that had the power I wanted was far too expensive,
IIRC (this would have included a RAM and hard-drive upgrade, I think),
and definitely too heavy.
It is only *now* that I look at Mac hardware that I think that the
prices are approaching reasonable for the power/weight balance.
My criteria limited me to Wintel machines. I won't use Linux -- it's
not ready for primetime. I despise Gnome and dislike KDE. There is a
striking inconsistency in the usability of Linux GUI applications,
mostly toward the "how can you use this stinking pile of..." sort of
comment. (Interestingly, with my most recent system recovery, I was
looking at doing a dual-boot to the machine I'm talking about; no
Linux out there supported my hardware properly. I would have been
looking at a 70% functionality limit.)
I bought a Tablet PC. It was lightweight (4 pounds with keyboard
attached, 3 pounds without) and powerful enough. I have also upgraded
its memory and its disk space. There's NO regrets here, and I resent
the implication that because I chose bleeding edge hardware that's
*different*, I'm a lesser developer.
-austin
