I started a long time ago on CP/M. Later I owned a C64. After that one of the first IBM PCs and a Amiga. In school we worked on a Apple IIe.

I continued only using PCs, because there was no real alternative for me. The IBM PC got upgraded to 386SX, later it was a 486DX-100 and a Pentium II 266Mhz and finally a Pentium III 400 Mhz. And two no name notebooks 350Mhz and 800Mhz.

Regarding the OS, I mainly used DOS, never used Win311 because it was just a addon for DOS. I went to OS/2 and was happy. Everything I want was fine. I took a loook at Win95 but only Problems and so continued to use OS/2. But there was no new software for OS/2 and bad hardware support, so finally I switched to Win98SE. Never ran stable like OS/2 did. NT Workstation was never an option becasue of the bad multimedia and driver support.

For serveral times I installed Linux, looked at the desktop and software, laughed out loud and removed it. I still do this.

As Windows2000 came out I made my peace with Microsoft and accepted the small problems. I upgraded to XP, encountered other problems but I accepted them.

My Pentium III 400Mhz was too slow at last and I had to move to Switzerland. I didn't want to take the old PC with two large CRTs with me. Time for a new system.

I checked Dell and Apple. At the time (August 2002) Dell was not able to sell me a compact System, with 16:10 flatscreen, DVD Burner, Firewire and so on. It was increadible exprensive. Then I checked out various Apple dealers. And there was it: the 17" iMac G4 800Mhz... I new this is my new machine. I took the "biggest" one, an 20GB iPod, a Canon Lide 30 scanner, a Canon S9000 printer and an external 120GB firewire drive. In addition I bought a Netgear 314MR router/wireless access point and an airport card. All as leasing for 3 years because I did not had the money for new system and want upgrading peace for a few years.

From the start I had some problems with OS/X 10.2 because I am a power user and did not know the system and what software was available for the Mac. Few months passed and I will NEVER EVER go back to a PC. Only drawbacks: The resolution on the 17" screen could be a little larger and the display has ONE pixel error (red point in the middle) and of course so 5.1 sound output.

The magic word here is USABILITY. I am 40% more productive on the Mac as I was under Windows. It's the small things that matter. And of course that the OS and the hardware are from the same manufacturer.

I never liked MacOS < X, because it was worse than Win95 in my opinion. I ran the severs for a large advertising company and saw that Macs were not better that Wintel machines.

But OS X was different. It gave me easy usability and the power of a Unix, which Windows is still missing today. But as a server I still prefer W2K or better W2K3 over Apple's servers.

The one button mouse and the Apple pro keyboard were horrors for me. So I bought a Ligitech MX700 multi button mouse and an Macally Icekey keyboard.

Last month I change the 2x Superdive with an original 4x Superdrive from Apple and Upgraded to a 120 GB 7200rpm Maxtor HD. Added another external 300GB harddisk, a bluetooth dongle, an iSight. Firewire and USB hub are present, too.

This machine will last for the next 2-3 years. And then I will buy the "G5 iMac" or whatever the next model will be.

I wanted to buy a new notebook during the last year because the flatscreen was damaged on the 800Mhz PC notebook. But Dell and other are again not able to sell me what I want. Processor to small or s creen resolution to small or no firewire and so one. Always one thing was missing from the notebook I need.

I finally made the decision to buy a Apple 17" Power Book during spring. I will wait a litte more to see if there are rumors about putting a "downsized" G5 in them. If not the price went down and again I'll go for the biggest model.

The only thing that bothers me, is that my wireless USB print server cannot be used with the Canon S9000 because the driver does not support LRP network printing. It wants that the printer is directly connected to the Mac. That's a thing I can live with it.

That's my story and how 10.2 was my first MacOS on my first Mac.