The first computer I remember using at home was an IBM PC Jr. My mom's boyfriend was working at a computer store, and he brought it over for us one day in 1984. Since then, I've had hand me down PCs (my mom's old Compaq portable - which was anything but portable), PCs put together for me by boyfriends (2 total), and PCs ordered from Dell and bought from Fry's. That's about 23 years of PC usage.

Before I bought my last PC, I briefly considered switching over to a Mac. I had been using one at work for a few years, and it was lovely. I was so used to the PC though, and all my software was for the PC. It just didn't seem economical to switch. I already had a working monitor, all I needed was the "box". The cost was at least half as much to order a new PC, so that's what I did.

That was three and half years ago, and my PC is starting to show its age. It's been running extremely slow, and it was getting cranky if I had more than one application open at a time (Word and InDesign at the same time? I don't think so!) I was talking to a co-worker about the situation and he shoved a catalog from our Mac vendor in my face and said, "Get an iMac!" It actually wasn't a bad idea. However, I had recently purchased Adobe Creative Suite 3 for the PC, and buying a whole new copy was not an option. "Call Adobe, I bet they'll switch it for you," the co-worker said. So I thought about it some more. Buying the iMac meant I would get a new computer, monitor included, that wouldn't have Vista, and would have the capability to run Windows if I wanted it to. This idea was starting to sounds pretty darn good.

So I called Adobe's customer service, and much to my surprise, they will switch your software. You give them the product key, you fill out a form and send it over to them, pay for shipping ($7), and they send you the version you need (don't totally quote me on this yet, I'm still waiting for my mac version to arrive - but I'll be sure to let you know when it does). After I got off the phone with the Adobe guy, I was excited. So excited that I could barely sleep. I had decided to switch and there was no turning back now. I was going to buy a mac.

I ordered it on Monday, and it arrived on Friday. I am completely head over heels with my iMac. Which is a little bit silly, because I've been using G5 machines for work for the past 5 or 6 years, there's really not much of a learning curve. Of course, I wasn't usually the one to set them up and fiddle around with them, so I had no idea how incredibly easy it would be. I plugged the ethernet cable from our DSL modem into the back, and it connects to the internet. I don't have to configure anything, or tell it to do anything, it just works. I downloaded the drivers for my ancient little Wacom tablet, installed them, plugged the tablet in, and it works! I realize that it may not have always been this easy, but I have a feeling it's always been easier on a mac than it was on a PC.

Needless to say, I'm thrilled and I couldn't be happier that I made the "switch". In fact, I can't believe it's taken me this long to do it! I guess better late than never, right?