It’s getting to be that time of the year again. The “shopping days until” countdown starts just one week from today. It’s a time when we look back and reflect, look forward to the New Year to come, and start making our “resolutions”. Now, we all know that most New Years resolutions don’t outlive the actual time it takes for the ball to fall in Times Square. But they don’t have to. Here are some computer resolutions for the New Year, and some sure-fire ways to keep them.

“I’m going to spend the New Year free from worms, viruses, spyware, adware, and pop-up windows”. Now, you could spend a ton of time and money on anti-everything-software to protect you from techno-terrorists, egomaniacal hackers, fanatical marketers, purveyors of “adult entertainment”, and the like. Or, you could get a Mac. Not a single virus on Mac OS X since its release three years ago. Not one. No such animal on a Mac as spyware or adware. Where you surf is your own business. With the click of a button, the Mac’s blazingly fast browser, Safari, banishes pop-up windows, never to be seen again. And did I mention built-in Google searching, tabbed browsing, and the Snapback button that saves you from “carpal Back button syndrome”?

“I want to spend less time in the New Year making my computer work right, and more time using my computer as the productivity tool it was meant to be”. In other words, “I don’t want to be an auto mechanic, I want to drive the car”. Tired of DLLs, illegal operations, general protection faults, CTRL+ALT+DELETE, disappearing modems and printers that were there just minutes ago, and “plug and pray”? Get a Mac. Did I mention that Mac OS 10.3 “Panther” automatically “defrags” your hard drive as it does its everyday business? That’s right. Whenever a file on a Panther Mac is accessed, a check is made to see if it’s fragmented (split into several different sectors on the hard drive). If the file is less than 20MB in size (as are almost all your data files, even digital photos), Panther (behind the scenes) copies the file onto a contiguous (all-in-one-place) area of the drive, thus defragging on the fly.

“I want my computer to be an extension of me, not the other way around”. Tired of doing it Microsoft’s way, rather than your way? Get a Mac. It’s evident that Windows was designed by software engineers who know a lot about computers (although they must have slept through the antivirus and security classes). On the other hand, Mac OS X seems to have been designed by software engineers who know a lot about people. Why do I say that? Window’s task-based, “wizards” interface tries to do everything for you. It’s like a Boy Scout on speed, a façade of simplicity covering up a lot of underlying complexity. But once the Boy Scout lets go of your hand, finding your way across the street can be painful.

“I want to make a computing investment that won’t be outdated this time next year”. Want to see where PCs are going in the future? Look at Apple today. Award-winning industrial design and style (the iMac, iBooks and PowerBooks). Tightly integrated digital lifestyle applications (iPhoto, iTunes and the iTunes Music Store, iMovie, and iDVD). Peripherals like the iSight camera and the iPod portable music player. First to market with integrated wireless networking. 64-bit desktop computing. Why wait for the Microsoft/Intel “Catch-up Cartel”?

Finally, resolve to make your computing life more fun this year. How? Get a Mac!

© 2003 Peter F. Zimowski