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About this site

For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Thursday, June 10, 2004

First Avalon 3D demo... and a reflection on my PC/Mac history

Halfbrite: "Having my roots in the Amiga platform it should be no surprise that my first Avalon 3D demo would be inspired by the famous [Amiga Boing] demo by RJ Mical. Over the extended weekend I found some time to scrub the code a bit and post the binary (runs on Longhorn build 4074) and source. There are a few things I really like about this demo (aside from the excuse to link the Amiga History Guide)."

I'm linking to this because of the Amiga references, not because of Longhorn: As an Amiga user from way back (1990 through 1994, I believe), I watched the rise of Windows, frustrated, from the sidelines, and sure that the computing platform I had chosen was superior and would ultimately prevail. That isn't what happened, of course, and I watched, frustrated again, in the mid-1990's, as many Amigans flocked to OS/2, only to adopt yet another dying (but technologically superior) platform that would wither in the face of Windows. Of course, by that time, things had changed: I was on the Windows 95 beta, and knew that that release of Windows would finally be one that was worth getting excited about. The rest is history.

But since we're talking history, consider the following: A few days after Christmas 1987, my house burned down, taking my Commodore 64C with it. So I needed a new computer. Throughout 1998, I researched various Apple, Mac, and Commodore systems and finally settled on a ... Apple IIGS. Yes, seriously. I purchased the machine at an Apple dealer, now long gone, right here in Dedham, for a whopping $3000. It had two floppy drives (one 3.5 and one 5.25) and 768 KB of RAM. Over the year or two that I owned the machine, I spent at least another $3000 on add-ons, like a Vulcan hard drive (that also replaced the power supply) and a cool RAM disk thing that would let the system boot instantaneously. Oddly, my choices at the time, for the same $3000, boiled down to the IIGS I bought or a Mac Plus; I chose the IIGS, literally, because it had color. I skipped out on the Amiga because the small Commodore dealer in Norwood didn't offer financing.

Now imagine whether things might have turned out differently had I chosen the Mac Plus at the time. Because of the weaknesses of the IIGS, much of the money I spent improving the box was done to make it more like the Amiga, which was a waste of both money and time. Would I have stuck with the Mac? Would I still be a Mac guy today? Would I have scoffed at, rather than embraced, Windows when Windows 95 shipped? It's hard to say. It really is.

Since then, I've watched the Mac community in a semi-fascinated fashion. There is something incredible about Apple and its products, and while I've read every book ever written about Microsoft, I've done the same with books about Apple as well. I've criticized Apple here when I think it's necessary, but then I also feel that the Mac community is far too lenient on its mothership. Far too lenient. But, hey, I behave in the same fashion toward Redmond, though the Apple-loving folks who read this blog for some reason don't seem to notice that. In the end, I'm just trying to right the ship, and set the record straight. Apple isn't perfect, though you'd think it was if you only read the "I love Mac"-type sites. I'm just seeking a balance.

In any event, it's unlikely that I'll ever switch completely to the Mac at this point, and I'm just trying to be realistic about that. But I did have a dream when I first started blogging on this site, and that dream is still alive. Someday, perhaps soon, I'll write about it. You might be surprised.

[ Posted at 9:41 AM | Permalink ]