Over Thanksgiving, I made my first Facebook application. Unlike most of the applications on Facebook, it is a desktop application (both because it does not make any sense for it to be a web application and because there is already a web-based application that does the same thing). I built it in wxPython so that it would be cross-platform.

When I was done, the code worked wonderfully in Ubuntu. I went to test it in Windows and OS X ... but then realized that I did not have access to a computer running OS X. Normally I would just shrug and decide that people running OS X did not really deserve my application. In this case, it was not an option, since the friend who asked me to develop it uses OS X.

Advice of buying a MacBook, from http://guides.macrumors.com/MacBook_Buyer%27s_Guide
As I pondered what to do, it occurred to me that if I had a MacBook with Windows installed through Parallels Desktop, I would have access to both OS X and Windows. While I have been previously been caustically dismissive of MacBooks in the past, a number of circumstances have aligned to make them attractive:


More careful readers have, by this point, seen a flaw in my plans. Not only have I had serious issues trying to get Linux to recognize external displays in the past, but I previously wrote that "it would be hell to get everything [on a MacBook] properly working in Linux." I still believe this, which is why I plan to switch to OS X as my primary operating system.

More on the reasons why later on in the week.
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[1] I am reasonably sure that I have referred to it as "craptastic" at some point in the past.

[2] I also almost bought a 26" television, but was glad that I did not while I carried it home from Inman Square.