...Linux just has no
feng shui.
In Linux, I had plenty of Unix power, but very little enjoyment. And my wife was getting tired of hearing me swear at the computer. Half a year before, I had written
a piece for Byte on Mac OS X, about how pleasantly impressed I had been with my early exposures to it. My conclusion in that piece was that OS X might be destined to become the BeOS that never was.
Both BeOS and OS X were designed to address shortcomings in Mac OS (OS <9). BeOS was designed and built by a team of mostly ex-Apple engineers, and Be's CEO had been head of product development at Apple for many years. Both offered Mac-like grace coupled with a Unix shell. Both were committed to providing a great user experience. Both put the goals of media content creation and consumption high on the list of priorities.
In October 2001 I took one last look at the Linux box, then reached for a kitchen cleaver, cut off its head, and bought a Mac.