Today marks a milestone in computer ownership for me.
Up till today, I have invariably been one of the last people to install any new operating system. It’s got a lot to do with my unwillingness to be an unpaid guinea pig, lack of interest in being a first responder, and profound lack of money to spend on expensive hardware and software. I am not the kind of person who stands in line at the computer store or waits till the clock ticks past midnight online to grab the newest whizbang whatsis. Never have been. Heck, my Commodore 128 was my main computer well into the mid 1990s. I just installed Windows 7 last year.
I am also a devotee of printed manuals, or, failing that, good solid books that explain stuff. The Missing Manual series has gotten a lot of business from me over the years, as have For Dummies and Visual Quickstart Guide. I want to know how to do things before I do them. I want to have the directions in front of me, and not in some stupid PDF or un-helpful Help. I want someone else who already knows what they’re doing to explain everything so I don’t mess up.
I never owned a new Mac till this year, when I finally saved up enough to buy a Mac Mini. Before January 2012, I had two Macs that were handed down to me by kind and generous friends, which got me off the hook for buying new software because the hardware was so old it wouldn’t run any of it. Which was OK with me. But now I’ve got a new Mac. And Apple released a new operating system. And they’re only charging $19.95 for it.
Reader, I bought it. And I installed it today.
Maybe I need to sit back and fan myself. There aren’t any books about Mountain Lion available yet, although I’m #1 on the list for OS X Mountain Lion for Dummies at the Pasadena library. And yet I went ahead with this. (OK, so I downloaded the OS and backed it up on a flash drive first and waited till the next day to make that fateful click… but I did it.)
I bet my kids are wondering where their Mesozoic mom went and who’s sitting here typing in her place. I doubt it’s the beginning of a trend. 🙂
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