Losing my microsoft virginity

My whole computing life until now has taken place in the safe and sheltered world of Apple. After all, publishing and design are the only fields I know of where Macs are the norm.

But the law school IT people won't support Macs and the test-taking software is not available for them, and so I have crossed to the other side and acquired a new Dell laptop loaded with Windows XP. It played cheesy new age music for me when I turned it on for the first time.

It just seems slightly not quite right, like an alien invader who has taken over the body of your next door neighbor.

I've just contributed to the personal fortune of Bill Gates. That's one clever dude with a genius scam.

But I guess I can take comfort in thinking that at least some of my money might end up with the Gates Foundation, which does a lot of good work, and seems to do it much smarter and more efficiently than any government or UN agency.

And it's not like Apple represents some virtuous ideal of computing--does it?