In the beginning...
I have had many computers. My first was a TI99 (the page is in French, but it is the best). That machine was great! I could make the screen turn green. And the games... Good times!
Next, my father got a TRS-80. He got this machine because he was afraid that I would come home one day and complain about, "the who-bah-jig on the flamgin rod stopped up the whole print queue today." HA! That was the machine that I learned to touch-type on. The word processor on that machine had no text wrap. So, all the "asdfg"s and "hjkl;"s that I typed became one giant line that just went on and on. That is the sum total of my use of that machine.
Then, we went Apple. We started with a IIgs, not even 3 months before the Mac came out. That machine was my introduction to modern computing. Next came the Macintosh SE. Much of high school was spent on that machine. My junior year we got the Performa PowerPC 6115CD. We got the Windows upgrade card. Believe it or not, almost everything I know about Windows comes from setting it up on that Mac. Then, my dad fell in love with the Color Classic. He says that when computers become antiques, this is the one that every collector will want. I used it for my first year in college. I had the 10baseT adaptor and everything (in fact, it's right here). Next came the first computer I purchased, and my first laptop. I got the PowerBook 520. It is still one of my favorites. The way the screen molded to the palm rests... Wish I still had that one. It was really the machine that started me down the road to geekdom. I hacked my way through many problems and began to learn what a computer was really capable of with that 520.
Honorable Mention
PowerBook Duo 2300c
This computer was known as the FrankenPuter because of the many other Duos that were sacrificed to keep it alive. It has finally gone to a better place. I always wanted to get BeOS (not the Be of old, but here's hoping!) on that beast but never did. That was my writing machine. Many a long, sleepless night was endured by ranting out my demons on that machine.
iMac 233 (512 MB of RAM) running GNU/Linux Debian Woody 1.0.x (testing) PowerPC
The iMac was a lark. I was working in computer retail and had the privilege of working in a store that was closing. They were getting rid of all the old crap that had accumulated in the tech shop. This iMac was sold to a coworker for $50. He had me fix it up (which I did for free) so that his mother-in-law could have a computer. She HATED it. So, I offered him $50 for it and the rest is history.
I loved this computer and I love Debian! (The apt system, the ease of installation, the simplicity of it all!) There is no better Linux than Debian (in my opinion, so flame on!). It died of A/V board failure. I am very sad to have lost it.
Power Macintosh G3 266 MiniTower (320 MB of RAM with the DVD card)
The MiniTower is responsible for my current life. (I mean it!) It was the first computer I put GNU/Linux on (RedHat 6.? for PPC). It is the first computer I ever saw running Mac OS X (the Beta version I got for $60). It held on all the way through Mac OS X 10.2.8. I guess all times I opened it up and swapped around hard disks and added then promptly removed pci cards finally took its toll on the poor thing. It got so buggy and unstable that I had to retired it.
Apple 15" G4 PowerBook (1.5 GHz 1024 MB RAM 80 GB hard disk)
This was the first new computer I've owned since the old Power Macintosh G3. It is now part of my entertainment center with an eyetv running on it.
Apple G3 PowerBook "101" (333 MHz 320 MB RAM 20 GB hard disk)
This machine actually caught fire in my lap. I banished it to the trash, but it was still a fun machine.
Built-by-Bill [tm pending] white-box AMD (1.3 GHz 256 MB DDR RAM)
This machine died one day. It decided to stop powering on. I kept the drives, but banished the rest of it to the trash.
Apple Power Macintosh G3 (Blue & White) (400MHz 768 MB RAM)
I Run Mac OS X Server 10.4 headless on this machine. Mostly, I try out hair-brained schemes on this box, break it, fix it, then implement the fixed solutions on client servers. I am becoming a big fan of Mac OS X Server.
My current machines
Apple 15.4" MacBook Pro (2.5 GHz Core Duo 2048 MB RAM 200 GB 7200 RPM hard disk)
I finally had to retire the old PowerBook. Now, I have Vmware Fusion running on this machine, with virtual Vista, XP, and Ubuntu (64 bit) machines. This machine makes me feel like I can do anything. So much power! So much speed! And it's damn good looking!
I run Mac OS X 10.5 on this computer. With it's speed and Mac OS X's power, I have really cut down the time I spend on the Linux machines. Mac OS X can do just about everything I want.
IBM Thinkpad T42
This thing is running Ubuntu 7.10, because I haven't turned it on in a while to update it. I like Ubuntu.
The Way I Like Things
CLI:
I am a freak for the "command line interface." I started out with bash (Jumping straight over tcsh. Flame to me). However, I have become a zsh convert. My philosophy can be summed up like this, I have a bum right wrist. Using a mouse physically hurts. So, I type whenever I can.
Window Manager:
In Mac OS X, I use the built in wm, Aqua. In Debian GNU/Linux, I switch around a lot. Currently I am switching between FluxBox and Window Maker. I like them both and have a hard time choosing either for very long. Nothing against the "More is Better" approach of Gnome and KDE. I just don't like icons. Right this minute I am in WindowMaker. The link from NeXT to WM makes me feel a little more "at home" in WM.
Browsers:
For web browsing in Mac OS X, I use FireFox. I do not use Safari very much any more. No real good reason, FireFox just seems faster. In Debian GNU/Linux, I use Galeon because I like it.
Email:
In Mac OS X, I use Mail because it is easy, fun, and sorts by thread. In Debian GNU/Linux, I use Mutt. Not to get too weird here, but Mutt is great! It took about two weeks to comfortable with Mutt. And there is the on-going process of tweaking my .muttrc file. But, that's just the MUA. The rest of the story is Mac OS X Server's versions of CyrusIMAP and PostFix for mail, SMTP, and MTA, fetchmail to retrieve my mail from the various places I get it, amavis, spamassassin, and clamav for spam and virus filtering. The benefit of my system is that everything comes into the Mac OS X Server box. The tools I have implemented on that box sort my many emails into the correct folders, including spam. I can then treat the Mac OS X Server box like any other mail server, meaning that I can use just about any email program to view my mail, but I get all my folders and filtering without configuration in those email programs. This system is good for testing out new mail programs, but even better for WiFi hotspots. I can connect to my Mac OS X Server box via ssh and SECURELY read my mail. I can also get around the necessary port 25 blocking at these hotspots.
If you are not doing it now, please consider securing your Internet interaction at public WiFi hotspots. I can (and usually do) sit in these places and sniff out passwords and usernames and credit card numbers. WiFi is not secure. I am not a bad guy. I am checking just to know. Most people get this information to use it. SECURE YOUR INTERNET USAGE or LOSE YOUR IDENTITY to thieves! You have been warned!
Music:
For the record, I am a fan of Ogg Vorbis because mp3 is proprietary. Having said that, I still have a lot of mp3s. In Mac OS X I use iTunes (which supports .ogg again ^__^ ). In Debian GNU/Linux I use a variety of apps. I use XMMS as my GUI music app and mpg123 in the CLI (I use them in Mac OS X as well, just not as much)
Updates:
I am updating this page because my wife got a little ticked off that it hadn't been touched in 3 years.