The alarm clock goes off, buzzing insistently until I reach out a hand and groggily slap at the button to silence the sound. I roll out of bed, pause for a few minutes, then head for the shower.
After breakfast, I head down to the office. I've got several different projects in flight. The new Macintosh has arrived, sporting a new operating system revision. Apple's finally broken the silly fixed memory limit for applications, but the new OS still can't multitask worth a damn. Apple's number one market share—about fifteen percent of the PC market—make it a little complacent. Of course, it helps that Apple is unified, and that the other 85% are running a variety of different operating systems.
I sometimes wonder why anyone would be interested in owning a PC. It's not so much the hardware, which has steadily gotten cheaper. You can buy a decent 32-bit system based on an Intel, Motorola, or Zilog processor for only a couple thousand dollars these days. But the software costs are stunning. WordStar 2005 still runs several hundred dollars, though WordPerfect's pricing strategies since Borland bought the company has helped keep it more affordable. Lotus still has a lock on the spreadsheet market, and $695 is too much for most users.
If Microsoft Never Existed... @ extremerfid.com.