> We have, I think, become stuck in the notion that
>users need predictability across machines and even 
>across operating systems to some degree, yet how 
>many people do you know who run more than one 
>machine or, at most, two different machines (one at 
>work and one at home)? Vanishingly few.

Hmm. lessee... Powerbook (Pismo)  (everywhere), G3/300 at
work, 7500 at home (as well as my wife and daughter's 
machines and an extra "demo" powerbook (lombard)).

It is very confusing and annoying to me when these
machines are not configured similarly (as in "where
did I save that file?"), not to mention to overhead of 
maintaining them (consistency helps here).

I also run Virtual PC on a few of them and I like to 
keep those systems in step, as well.

And these are all Macs. 

Most of the people I know who have one Mac also
have two or three others.

Predictability and consistency are _very_ important
for the overall computing experience. Which is why
I always told programmers I've trained that consistency
even at a low level (cruddy GUI) is far preferable to 
spotty excellence (engendering inconsistency).

Call me a "small mind" but consistency across machines
lets me focus on the things I want and helps me be more
productive.

Jeff 8-)

--
   **************************************************
   Jeff Szuhay              A randomly-directed 
   www.szuhay.org           chaotical wetware pattern 
   jeff at szuhay.org          recognizer/generator.	

    The wrong sort of people are always in power
    because they would not be in power if they were
    not the wrong sort of people.
     -- Jon Wynne-Tyson