I’m writing this column on a brand new computer. It’s eight days old now, and just perfect. And beautiful. And so special.

My very first Mac.

It’s a white MacBook, with 2 gigabytes RAM and a 200 GB hard drive, with all the usual goodies that Apple always packs its products with: iTunes, iPhoto, i-Everything. Oh, and, did I say it’s gorgeous?

This is the end of a long process that began in the late 1980s. I remember talking to my college buddy about buying a Macintosh (we’re talking about the original Macintosh that had the 12-inch black and white screen). He talked me out of it by promising me that I could copy all the DOS programs from him. And then he sold me his old Amstrad.

About a year and a half ago my PC broke and while it was in the shop for five weeks (a story in itself), I was left with my father-in-law’s then-three-year-old Powerbook. It was slow, and the battery was if not dead, in life support at least, and yet I felt kind of … how should I put this … cool.

So this time around when I decided to buy a new computer, I also decided to buy a Mac. I had to. There was no reason not to.

For one, I can afford to buy software to this computer. And second, with the the development going towards the Internet, the incentive to have everything on your desktop isn’t as big. If all I need to write a document is a browser, Google account to access my text docs and spredsheets, and a WiFi connection at a cafe, what matters most is the ease of use, the operative system’s reliability, and yes, how cool the computer is.

I had no problems organizing the 7300 photos I had on the external backup disk, iPhoto did that for me. My music’s in great shape with iTunes which also seems to work a little better with my iPod now that they’re both in the Mac format. And let’s face it, my kids love PhotoBooth. OK, I love it too.

Just check this out.

iLove it.