Evolution of a workstation

[bcholmes]

So when I got my Mac Mini last year, I knew it was a bit of an experiment. I generally suspected that I wasn't going to use it 100% of the time. Initially, I liked toying with it. And after I loaded Firefox and Thunderbird on it, I could accomplish all the casual use stuff on the Mac.

But there were a bunch of things I felt sure that I was going to keep returning to the Windoze box for. I mean, we use Windoze at work, so it seemed likely that the things that I do at work, I'll want to do at home as well. In particular, I suspected that I'd want to use the Windoze box for at least:

• Java development
• Printing and scanning
• Graphics manipulation
• Word processing / Presentations

But, one by one, I've crossed many of those things off the list. I've put Eclipse on the machine, letting me work on Java code without having to learn a new IDE (XCode). I've abandoned Paint Shop Pro in favour of The GIMP. I've hooked a printer to the Mac. My camera cable is directly tied into the Mac. Pretty much all I use the Windoze box for is scanning and (rarely) Microsoft Office documents for work (I have OpenOffice on the Mac, and I consciously chose to not buy Microsoft Office for the Mac). I'm not really a video-game playing person, so that wasn't a factor for me.

Two things haven't been entirely fruitful.

1. I haven't really found a newsreader that I like enough to get back on alt.poly; and
2. My ICQ/AIM client, Gaim, doesn't have a Mac distribution, so I haven't really been chatting (I wonder if the name change to Pidgin will affect that).

Today, I moved the USB splitter cable that connects a USB port on the Windows box to the multiple ports on my monitor. And I realized just how infrequently I use the Windoze box (when Ian was visiting, he failed his saving throw versus new technology and started up the PC to check email; his defence was that he lived in Seattle).

All in all, I think I'm a convert.

Comments

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Looks like there's ports available at darwinports.com for gaim2.0beta3 and your choice of slrn or tin... Ooh, and mutt too.

[lovelyangel.livejournal.com]

I don't use a newsreader, but due to external pressures I'm sometimes forced to participate in chat... and for me, Adium (http://www.adiumx.com/) works just fine.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

I've been using Adium lately; I've had some minor stability problems -- they mostly seemed tied to Jabber -- but it generally meets my needs.

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

If I want to I can ssh into my FreeBSD and use trn. I *really* like trn. Even so, alt.poly is three or four infinite time sinks down the list.

[disastrid.livejournal.com]

solution to the chat thing: adium! awesome!

Newsreader

[(Anonymous)]

I use Unison, and it's a fair newsreader (from panic.com) with a $20 or $30 license after trial. But, I use heavily for downloading binaries... Not sure how it is for reading / threading normal text articles.

There's another... Um... HogWasher, that looked interesting but sufficiently different and a higher license, that I abandoned my evaluation of it.

Re: Newsreader

[lovelyangel.livejournal.com]

I love Panic. (I use Transmit.) So if I were looking into newsreaders I'd certainly give Unison a try.

Back on a Mac now too!

[ardasiril.livejournal.com]

Adium is wonderful. It doesn't do IRC, though. Colloquy seems to be okay for that for me so far...though I'd like something that'd let me export chatlogs in a text file and not a proprietary file.

Oh, and does the Mac Mini support Bootcamp?

My iMac does, so I can run windows if for some godsforsaken reason I want or need to. :)

Welcome to the apple side....

[cinnamyn77.livejournal.com]

After years spent teasing people for buying macs, I, too, have joined the club. I got my powerbook laptop two years ago, and I really like it. I've mostly used it for surfing, email, and chat. I have also played a surprising number of games, and done a reasonable amount of coding.

I'd like to cast another vote for Adium.

??

[truffle666.livejournal.com]

adium is based off of gaim and it's basically pretty sweet :O