Why a Macintosh?

I must admit I touched my first Apple computer a long time ago. Like a lot of computer fanatics who discovered their hobby around the same moment I did, The Apple II computer will stay graved in my memory. I can't remember all the long hours I spent in front of their black & green screens, I even bought an Apple IIc when prices dropped.
In fact, my first experience with a Macintosh was in 1988, 4 years after their creation. Macs were too expensive to even dream of one!
In 1988, graphical GUIs were all but common on PCs, maybe Windows 1 was out there, but who remembers this joke from Microsoft. The first Mac I used was a Macintosh Plus, with the standard software package. I was amazed, I had not the manuals but I was able to use everything with self confidence.

Now, things are a little different; Microsoft decided to catch up with Apple, Unix boxes are more friendly than they used to be thanks to KDE and Gnome. I have to work with different flavours of OSes, including Win 95/98/NT and UNIXes. But, I still prefer the Macintosh. Of course, I'd like it to be more robust, more reliable, but I have never been able to do things as quickly with Win 95 than I do with my Mac... Even if it crashed during the work... And, maybe the most important thing, my Mac is _my_ Mac, I hate others Macs because they are not looking as I'd like them to look and I hate PCs because you can't change much things but the colors/fonts of the interface.

I sometimes think people forgot what the computer is supposed to do... Let's have a look at Microsoft Office 97, it's bulky, it's a memory hog. Most people don't use more than 5% of the features provided. How many persons are still trying to center some text using some spaces?
I'm still using Word 5 and I know I'll never use some of its features. Why should I upgrade for a software I don't know and which will provide me new features I'll probably never use?

I'm very happy with my Mac, because I know I can't be more productive with another OS. Anyway, I can't wait to play with MacOS X, true multitasking is something I really miss from other modern OSes.

Last Update -- August 21, 1999