A new chapter of my computing life begins today. I now have the latest addition to my computer kingdom. It's not an iMac, it's not a Mac Pro, and no, it's not a MacBook. It's this:

Yes, I'm stepping a little back into the PC world. It took a lot of thinking, but I think it's the best thing to do. Why?

1) I'm sick of being told my site looks crappy on IE or something doesn't look right on Windows. I can't be bothered to test on Windows because it's been too much effort to use Windows. Having a reasonably quiet, easy to use PC at my disposal will help this. I want an easy Windows desktop to hand.

2) OS X isn't Linux. Don't get me wrong, OS X is amazing, but I'd rather be more in sync with my favourite deployment environment, Linux, than have to worry about DarwinPorts, wondering why MySQL is so slow, and hacking around to get memcached working nicely. Using OS X's UNIX features for anything beyond the basics is a waste of all the Linux knowledge I have (sorry BSDers). I want access to a Linux desktop (though OS X is way better in the desktop department).

3) Apple's hardware selection is crap. I could easily solve the above two points by getting a Mac Pro or a Mac Mini and installing Boot Camp and/or Parallels. Being able to jump between three or more operating systems on a single machine is extremely alluring. It doesn't fit with my sense of redundancy though. I'd rather have multiple machines so that if one decides to flake out, I have alternatives. Getting another PC is a lot cheaper than buying, say, two Intel Macs (so I have one spare).

4) My PowerBook is more than fast enough for everything I use a Mac for. With a PC to take the server / Linux strain, as well as Photoshop (which is way faster than on the Mac nowadays), my existing Macs are way fast enough for everything I'll continue to use them for. I won't be switching e-mail to Windows or Linux or my blogging tools or, well, very much really. My life revolves around the Mac, still, but I'm not buying into Apple's crufty hardware selection any longer.

5) I get the benefits of being able to run 99.99% of all modern software. Rather than tie myself to one platform or another, I can run and play with almost anything. I can even develop software for everything. Perfect.

For me it's all about choosing the best tools for each job. Setting up Windows on this machine so far has reminded me how sloppy and crappy Windows really is for day to day work (Windows users never realize this until they move away and come back later, I didn't), but it has its plus points too. If I can use OS X, Windows, and Linux collectively and be even more productive, excellent! I'll keep you informed as to how this goes..