My Post-PC Moment

Since last year, Steve Jobs has been discussing the "post-PC era" and what it might mean for personal computing.  Fresh on the heels of my shiny new iPad 1, I was beginning to see what he was talking about.  However, it took until last night for me to truly have a post-PC moment of realization in just much my computing habits have changed as a result of tablet computing and the advent of "just works" operating systems like iOS and OS X.  Then, I had a second moment today.

Last night, I was weighing a new purchase for a computer.  I have several already.  Three iMacs, a MacBook Pro, and  regular MacBook occupy my desktop.  Another iMac sits elsewhere in the house.  Then, there are those machines I support, such as my wife (she has 3 of her own) and my mother (2 computers).  I realized I barely sit at my desk any longer, preferring largely to use my iPad or, less frequently, a laptop to sit away from the desk.

Thus, I decided I needed only a single, fast, portable, lightweight, and thin laptop to complement my iPad and that would be that.  On a whim, I purchased a RAM upgrade for the MacBook.  Then, today, I installed an SSD hard drive.  The difference was staggering.  My computer suddenly was behaving like an iPad:  nearly instant-on, applications start immediately, and everything happens the moment I tell it to.