I ran a computer business for many years. It was concurrent with my job, but there were 14 employees when I 'sold' it. Everything was unix based. If I did put in a PC it had terminal software to the unix box.

There used to be good money in that, until people perceived that a computer was a computer.

Now I never needed a refrigerator size computer, but I did sell 2 that looked like filing cabinets and ran 80k, with 20k for me.

But all the employees, the need to do things today, and the stress led me to sell the company.

Those in Canada know it as Good Life Fitness, and the offspring. My wife went with the company and is a senior admin person, they now have 250 clubs. There were 18 or so when I got out in 96.

I know a whole lot about this, and I have always believed that you could get to a 100 buck computer.

But now I need big print, easy setup, I can't run 2 levels down to reset something, and I have an expectation.

If BIAB ran on Linux I might do it, but I have my music room in the basement, and my office upstairs. The old PC was junk, and the one on the computer downstairs is used for just music.

So far, I've decided that there are more advantages to the Mac platform than I gave it credit for. That said it needs some stuff to make BIAB work with it.

Ten years ago I would have thought this a terribly extravagant thing, but right now I just enjoy it. I'll keep you posted.

Another thing that started to eat me was the position and the ease of typing. I'm a bit crabby I guess, notebooks I dragged fingers on and messed up what I was doing, and I like the computer behind my keyboard for practice purposes.

Someday a keyboard will come with it's own mainstream computer built in and proper interfaces for everything. Except as I have said, midi, which I fear will go by the wayside very quickly.

I purchased a book for my camera, it was online download, pdf, and it sure looks very professional yet I know it was not a lot of work to make that way once it was written. Very interesting concept, pdf books on a mac are easy to read and transfer to the iPad easily.

If you said I could have but one computer for everything, right now it would be a pc. But once I get going I may change my mind.

John Conley
Musica est vita