steven n fettig's Jitterin' Thoughts

    I fought it and fought it, but I am finally here... working with WinXP Pro. I never thought I would get to that point until I realized how much work it was taking trying to live in a non-Windows environment. I am ever-faithfully working on my Mac, but ... and this is a big but ... everyone else is working on a Windows machine of one sort or another. I would have been able to battle this one through if it had not been for the fact that I couldn't get anything like Dreamweaver or some web dev software on a Linux or FreeBSD machine that I liked. Yes, I am aware that there are some good programs out there that can probably do a decent job at editing, etc., but I am left with neither the time nor the patience to battle that fight to the end. I love my Mac, but alas, I am back to the world of Windows and my Mac is again outnumbered by slow performing, security-bug ridden machines. Thank goodness that everything important to me is still on a Unix-like machine (no, I won't go into the battle of whether Mac is really Unix, Unix-like or anything like that - I'm obviously not a purist - between all of the 10 computers in my house, there are 5 FreeBSD machines and 5 mishmashes of Mac and Windows). Anyway, before I bore myself to death with this tirade, what are my thoughts?
    I have to admit... I like the chewy interface. It looks especially good on some new 15" LCD panels I bought for home (which are the schiznit, btw). I like OS X's interface, too - in many cases better. I like the over-all design of OS X better (it's simpler... there, I said it. I'm starting to fall for simple -- especially at a time when life is anything but that), but WinXP is nice. The speed of browsing on XP is also nice. Mac's always seem to have a lag when going through browsing - especially the type of 80-pages-are-open browsing that I do. (I really ought take a screen shot one of these days.) I don't mind that so much, though - it is sometimes my only way to slow down - if waiting an extra 450 ms counts as slowing down. I hate the idea, though, that I am going to battle with security flaw after flaw. I know, I know (and so do you if you are honest) - both the popularity and crappy code writing contribute to the security bugs to be found in Windows (I would like to believe it is crappy code writing, but I can't judge that for myself, as I don't code much other than websites). So far, though, I am pretty happy. What this confrontation has really made me learn is that Apple should really get on the Intel bandwagon - or at least get OS X ported to the Intel/x86 platform. I know this would open up Pandora's Box for Apple because they would be subject to the same plethora of driver needs that Microsoft is now and always up against, but they would not force now-turned-loyal-users to buy equipment without OS X - there are some things that Apple just doesn't make and I am too impatient to wait for.
    Anyway, I hope to get more of my thoughts out there on this. My preferred desktop still remains FreeBSD, but reality checks in and I am missing two things that I cannot get along without (in the world I live in) - MS Office and Dreamweaver/Studio. Sorry, that's the truth.