Who(or what)is a MacTexan?

Joe KelleyI’ve recently (2006) crossed over from the “dark side” and become a full-blown Mac enthusiast. After administering, managing and developing on the the Windows platform for over twenty years I switched to a Mac five years ago and haven’t looked back. I immediately fell in love with my newly discovered platform and to this day I regret not having made the jump sooner. I feel like a real hammerhead for not realizing earlier what a wonderful operating system OS X is. Water under the bridge.
I’m an independent IT consultant and software developer and I do work on all platforms, but OS X is by far my favorite. I’m told my once Windows-only prowess now extends to Apple and OS X. I’ll leave that judgement to others. Commercially, I still do more Windows work, but that’s because I focus on business clients.  (They’re the ones with the money.) I am seeing more and more Macs in business environments though and I’m hoping that trend will continue. I just prefer working with Macs.
I’ve spent countless hours learning and practicing with OS X by listening to podcasts, watching instructional video, reading and participating in multiple blogs and forums and I’ve even bought (and read) a few books on the subject. I attended the last three Macworld Expos and WWDC and plan to make both regular events. Logically, the center of the Mac universe is northern California and most media coverage of Apple originates in Silicon Valley. The rest comes from more traditional sources, mainly on the east coast. I’ve spent plenty of time in both places and, quite frankly, don’t appreciate my fair state being referred to as “fly over” country. Others have told me that I’m loud enough to be heard by someone flying over, so I’m going to put that to the test. I know there are lots of smart people in the media business, but sometimes I think they’re all reading from the same playbook when it comes to reporting and commenting on Apple. I often disagree with their assessments and I’m often correct. We’ll see.
When I first started my consulting business, I didn’t offer any Mac services, but I feel perfectly comfortable doing so now and I find the demand is growing rapidly. From the looks of Apple’s earnings, that trend should not only continue, but accelerate. If the iPhone and iPad continue making inroads into the enterprise environment, the much ballyhooed “halo effect” could convince more businesses to consider other Apple offerings. If all goes as I’m hoping, being both an enterprise and Apple expert could be a gold mine. Again, we’ll see.
MacTexan.com is all about looking at Apple through un-jaded eyes. I won’t be unduly influenced by the popular west and east coast technorati and I absolutely have no agenda that might bias my opinions. I simply love my Macs and want to put in my two cents. Besides, this is still a semi-free country and we can say most anything we want to anyone except a TSA agent...

...until the black helicopters show up.