The Beginning

The first computer I owned was a Sinclair ZX-81...1K RAM (which I upgraded to 16K with the optional plug-in box), no storage, 2 colours display (black and white), programs loaded through normal cassette tapes; then I moved up to a Sinclair ZX Spectrum with an amazing 48K RAM and sporting a display of 16 colours. That was a long time ago.

Since then, I have been a long term Windows user. I started with Windows 3.1 and moved through Win 3.11 for workgroups, Win 95, Win 98, Win ME, Win XP, Vista, and finally Win 7. In the past few years I have also used various flavours of Linux - Mandriva, PuppyLinux and Ubuntu. I have even used operating systems from command line only, such as AIX, and the fore-runners of GUI OSs like GEM.

But I am not a computer specialist, programmer, developer or other kind of computer whizz/geek/nerd (delete based on your prejudice); these are just the tools I use for work and play. I'm not a computer professional, but a professional that uses computers.
Some tools are good for some things, others are better; I just want the one that makes my life easier.

But you'll see an absence of Apple; I've never used an Apple computer OS, unless you count iOS, which I don't. See, I like Apple products; I still have my first Apple product, a 3rd-gen iPod (20GB), even though the battery doesn't hold charge anymore; I did have a 4GB iPod Mini, but sold it on eBay when I upgraded to a 3rd-gen 8GB iPod Nano. I also have a 3rd-gen 4GB iPod Nano, and (here's the iOS part) I have an iPad and an iPad2.

But I have never used and real Mac OS...until now. iMacs were on sale...and for years I had heard about how easy Macs are to use, how everything just works, how they are so much better than Windows...and now I had 2 iPads and 3 iPods, I couldn't resist. So now I have a 21.5" iMac, 3.2GHz Intel core i3, 4GB Ram, 1TB HDD, runnning OS X 10.6 (they call it Snow Leopard, but it's just another release, but I guess if you give a cool name, it becomes cool).


I wanted to log my experience of using this magical and revolutionary technology that is (so I've been told) so much better than Windows.