Monday, October 11, 2004

If Mac OS X Came to x86, Would You Switch?

Ooooh juicy question posed over on Slashdot:

"I'm not a fan of Windows, and never have been, but I am a fan of the x86 architecture. I really like Linux, but there are still a few issues that are keeping me from switching completely. I really like Mac OS X but I don't want to drop $2000 on a computer that is only as fast as an x86 computer at half the price. Darwin, Mac OS X's unix-ish core, has been ported to x86 and Microsoft's upcoming Longhorn OS seems to be disliked by everyone but Microsoft. If Apple released Mac OS X to compete with Longhorn, would you switch?"

I have to admit: having been a full-time Linux user for about 6 months now, I can say without hesitation that I would try Mac OS X if it were available for my x86 computer. Don't get me wrong; I love my Linux box. There's one program that has me tied to Windows, however, and despite my efforts to find suitable replacements, I just can't. It's Macromedia Dreamweaver (which happens to also be available for Mac). One of my primary functions in life is web development, and I love Dreamweaver. I've tried a few of the Linux web editors, and while they're fine - they aren't DW. I particularly like Dreamweaver's site management and reporting tools, and its syntax highlighting works great for HTML and PHP, my primary languages of choice.

So - if Mac OS X came to the x86 platform, I would definitely try it out. It's *nix under the hood, so I wouldn't *really* be cheating on Linux, would I?

Would you switch?

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