Not quite 10 ways to know you're becoming a Windows user

1. You buy a Dell Inspiron 6000, and then start using it full time, even though you have a perfectly good Apple PowerBook G4 (Aluminum) running OS X.4 within reach.

2. You start moving your files from the PowerBook to the Dell.

3. You buy and install a Netgear wireless router, replacing your Apple Airport Extreme base station. You manage to configure the router successfully even though doing so requires support calls to both Netgear and Dell and the downloading of an update for the Inspiron's ethernet port driver. Who knew that ethernet ports had drivers! It's exciting to learn new stuff.

4. When you have to travel, you worry about whether you should bring the Dell (which now has all your "stuff" on it, so you could actually DO something useful while at the client's offices) or the PowerBook (which it would hurt less to lose).

5. To kill time while waiting in the airport to fly home, you buy - and then read, cover to cover - a copy of PC Magazine (November 22, 2005). You note with satisfaction that the Dell Inspiron 6000 is in PC Magazine's list of top-ten laptops and described as an "outstanding value." You read a review of Norton Internet Security (which came preinstalled on the Dell) with genuine interest and make a note of the fact that, while PC Mag likes NIS, they like ZoneAlarm even better, and you decide to visit Fry's a.s.a.p. to buy ZoneAlarm.

6. When you can't successfully register the copy of SnagIt 7 that you downloaded and have now purchased, you write to SnagIt 7 tech support, and then, all on your own, realize that you need to log into your computer with admin privileges to get the program to accept your licensing key. So you do, and it does.

7. You start moving your photos out of iPhoto into Picasa and decide that you like Picasa better.

8. You make a to-do memo that reads, "Download and install iTunes for Windows a.s.a.p."

9. You find that one of the joys of the Dell is that it allows you to run great non-Microsoft software like Firefox, Google Desktop, Google Earth (wow!) and Picasa (also from Google - seems to be a pattern there) and OpenOffice.org 2. You discover that SnagIt 7 compares very favorably to SnapzPro X, and that As-You-Type is actually better than TypeIt4Me.

Well, if I worked hard, I could come up with 1 more reason to make it an even 10. But you get the point.

I will admit one thing: I'm using my Apple Mighty Mouse, instead of the Microsoft "Intellimouse" that I have.