Wow! Let me just say that I hope that my story isn't going to be too redundant, but my computer geekness started when I was back in high school.
As a junior in 1988 I fell in love with this machine that the school used for Library functions (it had a whopping 300 BPS modem) and the name on the badge was Apple ][, not (c, or e, or gs). The next year, after becoming familiar with Appleworks (I still use the modern version on my Mac today) I began to write BASIC programs on the Apple ][ and eventually by the end of 1989 (My Senior Year in High School) an Apple ][e. I wanted very badly to purchase an Apple ][e but they were like $3000 and I did not have it. Somewhere between the latter half of my Senior Year (1989) and the middle of 1990, I got into PCs and MS-DOS. I resisted Windows (then version 2, heading to 3) until the launch of Windows 3.1 for workgroups which came on a PC I bought (a 286 clone from Computer Shopper) to go to College. Windows 95 came out and by then I was running a 486DX2 and we were moving our BBS from a Tandy 1000 TX I bought to a newer 486 level clone we bought second hand and moving from Desqview to Windows 95 for our BBS system.
I was also now a bench tech with 2 years under my belt in PC service.
Got really P.O.'d with Microsoft and started looking at Slackware Linux (but too dumb to figure it out then) so I traded my new DX2 box for a Mac LC (which later led me to be considered the Mac expert in the various shops I worked for). 1996, I bought my Macintosh 7500/100 and OS 8 and stayed with Mac until about 1998 when I landed a job as a System Administrator for Windows NT 4 (which I had played with on my bench jobs) and learned AIX (IBM UNIX). I started playing with FreeBSD and though still have not mastered installing FBSD on an Intel box (already installed when I learned it) developed a love for it.
Backing up a bit, when we bought the Tandy 1000 TX in 1992, we were looking at an Amiga and it was just too expensive, though I was very impressed. Not sure today why I bought the Tandy instead of a C64? I believe it was just because we were running a BBS that we already liked and knew the software ins and outs for is most likely the reason :-)
Anyhow, 1998 -- I am back in PC land and using Windows 95 or NT 4 and there is this new Windows OS called "2000" which people were talking about. When I went to work for Sprint in 1999, I was of course using 2000 both server and desktop (Professional). I had a PC and a Macintosh (iMac slotload) at home. Got really mad at Microsoft (recurring theme) and dumped the PC. I later moved and sold the iMac. For a while, I am actually devoid of computer at home (2 months -- January through Feburary 2000). Bought a used Dell and a SGI Indigo with IRIX on it. Sold the Indy and kept the Dell for a while running Win2K. I had steady work even though I was laid off from Sprint in November 2000, until 2001, I had contracts that lasted 3 months at a time and I was now working for myself.
Along the way, I worked for an ISP that supported Amigas (they hired me to support Macintosh) and became good friends with the resident Amiga guru (not the error screen, the support guy) and had a renewed interest in Amiga. In 2003, I was looking for a way to play SpaceQuest and was considering finding an old PC (pentium 1 or pro) to do the job and it dawned on me that Amiga would do this and still actually supported stuff natively... I have old MS-DOS install disks and all, but setting up an old PC just did not appeal to me. I found this community and I am now purchasing more Amigas. I have agreed to buy 2 A2000's and I am still building one A4000. One A2000 is going to be the resurrected "Electronic Oblivion" BBS using CNET. The other is a stand by machine. The A4000 I am building will do Video work and play my retro games... Lemmings and SQ and etc. My main computer is a Macintosh Mini (bought last October) running OS 10.4.7. I plan to go find a used PII or PIII laptop for FreeBSD 6.1 and it will become another "every day" use box. The Amigas are as mentioned.
If there was a way to use my Amiga for everything, I would do it. But there are just certain things (like my PHP development) that require Linux(UNIX) or MacOS ( I use a text editing program called BBEDIT, which is very high dollar on the Mac, and so far, I have found *no equal* to it on any platform, although I am watching an Editor in Linux called Bluefish). So the Macintosh remains my desktop solutuion and the Linux or FreeBSD boxes are normally test servers for my web applications. The Amigas are for my games... I am stuck in retro land because modern games do not give me the feel of the old "adventures" like Sierra On-Line games did and even the later renditions of SpaceQuest (after 4) were less appealing, though definitely technically superior in the areas of controls and graphics. SQ 5 was totally a bomb to me.
So, I have my Macintosh Mini is my main computer, FreeBSD box will be my X-Windows main box and I will find uses for my Amigas as need be.
I guess this exhaustive post boils down to that I agree with "proper tool" approach to computing, but would love to have only one that did it all (natively). Since the "do it all" is highly unlikely, it looks like I will have a minimum of 3 to get done what I want. BTW: iTunes is a major reason that I stay with Macintosh as well, because personally, I am still very anti-Windows! I only use it where I have to, however, I absolutely refuse to own a Windows Machine, if a company I work for deems it necessary, they can (and have) provide[d] a laptop.
Anyhow, my main machine would have to be the Mac.
