![]() ![]() At the time, BBEdit cost $200, an amount that was particularly hard to swallow for someone coming from the “everything is free” environment of Linux. I had fond memories of it, especially since I first learned regular expressions from its user manual.īut there was the cost issue. Sometime in the year or two before I left the Mac, I had bought BBEdit and used it to create my company’s web site. Clearly, I needed a native Mac editor.īBEdit was the natural choice. X Windows programs were just ugly on a Mac, mainly because fonts didn’t get anti-aliased. I got NEdit installed and running, but it was clear from the start that it wasn’t right, either. Since Panther came with X Windows, I figured I could get that running and use my fave rave Linux editor, NEdit. I could use TextEdit, of course, but that wasn’t going to be a long-term solution because it didn’t have the programmability I’d gotten used to with Linux editors. ![]() The next step was to choose a text editor. I moved my personalized LaTeX packages and fonts over, and did all the updmap stuff necessary to tie them into the TeX system. One of the first things I did was get TeX installed, which went pretty smoothly with Gerben Wierda’s now-deprecated i-Installer. That 4:3 screen looks weird nowadays, doesn’t it? So I got a 12″ iBook G4 in either December 2004 or January 2005, a wonderful little machine that I just retired this past December after six years of faithful service. But by late 2004, the hardware seemed cool enough and fast enough to be workable. I’d blocked enough airflow out of its “chimney” that it overheated and shut down to protect itself. The first time I saw a Cube, I put my hand over the top of it-not touching it, mind you, keeping at least an inch away-and caused an immediate shutdown. There was no way I could have that sitting on my thighs. I’d lift up a laptop and practically burn my hand on the underside. Most of that time, what impressed me about Macs was how goddamned hot they ran. During my Linux years, whenever I was in a computer store, I’d go over to the Mac section and have a look. I would not move to a non-Unix or substandard Unix platform. This was important because my Linux days had taught me how wonderful Unix was, especially for someone who worked mainly with text files. ![]() OS X’s teething days were over and had become, with Panther, a decent Unix environment.
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