When Windows XP died on me today, it took the Shuffle with it. My Shuffle is completely unformatted now. I had *all* my work files on there. Fortunately, I’ve been backing this little bugger up every week because when I got it, I read on the Apple forums that people were having a lot of problems with the Shuffle crashing and losing data. Music? I don’t care about that. That’s easy to restore/re-steal/rip/burn/whatever. Data? That’s a different story, especially when calculating the work I’ve done since my last backup.

I thought about tossing the device, then I thought about repairing/replacing it. My iPod Shuffle is only a month old, but according to Apple, if it was out of warranty, they would be happy charge me a $99 replacement fee (or $149 for the 1 gig version… notice how these don’t coincide with the current Shuffle pricing?).

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After reading articles about the best Macintosh software at Andy Budd, Futurosity, Garrett Dimon, Macslack, TUAW, Whitespace, YourTotalSite, and for Windows at Digital Web Magazine about free tools for freelancing, I decided to incorporate some of their ideas into my article. After having just purchased a Mac, I was in search of the best [free] software I could find. I would be starting from scratch, not having ever owned or used a Macintosh, so I figured I could make a nice, usable list for myself and some of my friends who are about to make the same plunge I did. I not only wanted to replicate some of the software on my PC, but I was really aiming to replace the PC with my Mac. In essence, a complete migration. So, here’s the list of the best freeware tools I found:

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Well, it finally happened. I’m going to be the proud owner of a new iMac G5. Primarily for design related reasons, but also part new interest in OS X (v 10.4 Tiger). I’m not ignorant to Macs. My brothers have been fanatics about them since their debut. I, on the other hand have been a PC user since I was about 15. I’ve nothing against Macs (except for their price), but everything I need to do, I can do on a PC for about a fourth of the price. That, and I had a long stint as a PC technician.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to working with this Mac. I have already had an unpleasant experience with Apple which I will detail here later.

Jason: Oh, MAN! You GOTTA check out that Mactracker application. They have one for Windows. It is incredible!

Eric: That’s really cool. I like how they included the “startup Chime”.

Jason: Yeah, me too. And I really like the fact that they included pictures.

Eric: hmmm… looks like they already wasted the “little Big Mac” joke on the Mac II in ‘87.

Jason: little Big Mac?

Eric: A few of us have joked about the Mac mini and how they should call it a ‘big mac’…. but they already did. Most of the Macs have a nickname. The Mac II in 87 was the “little big mac”.

Jason: Ah, ok.