[Ivan Krstić] My theory is that technical people, especially when younger, get a particular thrill out of dicking around with their software. Much like case modders, these folks see it as a badge of honor that they spent countless hours compiling and configuring their software to oblivion. Hey, I was there too. And the older I get, the more I want things to work out of the box.

While Ivan’s post is regarding the turmoil around the OLPC (a good read, IMHO), the same could be said for my own history with computers – both hardware ands software. This isn’t a pro-Mac or anti-Windows post, but rather a small observation of my own relationship with hardware throughout the years.

18 years ago (holy crap!) I used to get a kick out of getting Computer Shopper, going to the local computer show once a month when it came into town, and buying parts to build my own lightning fast 386sx/16 box. For some reason, maybe it was just the challenge, I never really wanted to buy a preassembled system like a Dell or a Gateway. Instead either me and my dad or a group of friends would truck to a random computer show that was in town to get a faster video card, bigger hard drive, CPU, tape backup system, etc. There was no Internet or Fry’s to run out to at any time to get stuff – you just had to wait.

And boy, putting those machines together was fun. You could also always tell right after I was in machine-assemble mode – my fingers had had little cuts all over, but there was always a great sense of accomplishment when things finally worked. Sure, sometimes (rare) things would just boot and be fine on the first try, but often there was hours of tweaking investigating involved.

Flash forward to 2008 – I’m 37 now, have 2 kids, and frankly just don’t want to bother with it any more. Sure, I feel incredibly comfortable in taking these things apart, working with embedded devices (still debating the Pico-ITX) and doing silly things like ripping apart a laptop to remove thermal grease on a CPU (much to my friends chagrin), but most of the time I just want to turn it on so I can start doing something.

Heck, I don’t even own a desktop anymore for my day to day computer usage. Ok sure, there’s a Mac Mini in the closet storing my media and an iMac in the kids playroom (would you trust a laptop that wasn’t a LeapPad to a 4 year old?), but I’m in a mode where I just want to be mobile – it’s laptops only for me and my wife for now on.

It’s interesting though, while Ivan’s post made me reminisce about those old days, I’m not sure if I miss them…