From NeXT to Cocoa This is the third part of a four-part series describing how one developer became disillusioned with the Windows platform and was reinvigorated by the bright lights of Mac OS X.

In part 1 of this series, I described how misfortune and adversity left Apple with a new OS platform free of legacy constraints; in part 2, I discussed how Microsoft had failed to do the same, choosing instead to hobble its new OS with way too much legacy baggage. In this part, I look in more detail at what Apple has done with its platform to make it so appealing.

Of course, if you're already writing software for the Mac, then I'm not going to tell you anything you already don't know. But all of this was new to me, because it wasn't until I became so thoroughly disappointed with Windows that I really looked in earnest at what the Mac had to offer. My mistake.