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Obsessive OS Rearranging

The Mind of Bryan Veloso at Age 25

The Web Design Era
Seattle, WA
DISCLAIMER
This is a legacy post written before 2013 . While the content has survived numerous site migrations and content management systems, some formatting and links may be broken. I've done my best to fix things under my control.

While I attempt to write one or two more update posts (one on the recent Revyver release, Django Plugables, and one on the state of Revyver), I thought I’d pose a question that has been in the back of my mind for quite a while.

When you reformat or reinstall your operating system, does the way you use it change?

What I mean by that is quite simple, but I think I can best explain it by answering it. It seems like every time I reinstall OS X, it’s never for a concrete reason that would say, hold up in a geek talk. It’s usually something along the lines of,

Well, I probably have too much crap in my Library folder left by all those MacHeist apps I was “conned” into buying.

But recently, I’ve liked the excuse to start anew. I could have sworn that Spaces would have become a necessary part of my workflow ever since I first saw Chris Messina using Virtue Desktops at the first SuperHappyDevHouse (have there really been like 20 since then?). My foray into Virtue didn’t work so well and, as it seems like during this last refresh, Spaces didn’t quite stick for me either.

I also seem to have an obsession with not wanting to use 3rd-party programs unless they are required beyond a reasonable doubt. Like, I won’t install Quicksilver because I’m perfectly happy with Spotlight’s application launching functionality. A lot of it also has to do with the way applications look. Forget how useful they are, if that logo sucks, I won’t use it. Tell me to get the stick out of my ass, but it’s stuck. But I’ll save that little bit for another post.

So now it’s your turn? Am I the only one who seems to have this obsessive compulsive disorder? Or are there others in the same boat? I hope so, since it feels a bit lonely in here. :(

Avalonstar is the 25-year-old personal website of Bryan Veloso: streamer, professional user interface designer, hobbyist developer, lifelong gamer, and compass of purpose.

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