So if you've been paying attention, you probably know how we've been going on and on about how Mac OS X is attracting hardcore development nerds to our platform like bug zappers attract despondent insects with nothing left to live for-- only, you know, with what we hope to be a much lower incidence of sudden electrocution. Well, if you want further anecdotal evidence that Apple's latest operating system is luring in programmers that formerly considered Macs to be about as useful from a development perspective as two sticks of chewing gum and a piece of string, look no further than Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. Or prepare to, at any rate, because it won't actually start for another three weeks or so, which means it's not terribly useful for anecdotal anything just yet.

In the meantime, though, feel free to scope out Macworld UK's passing coverage of the upcoming event, which quotes Apple's director of developer technologies as saying that "former UNIX, NeXT, and Java developers are moving in" in droves, and the mass migration "has exceeded [Apple's] expectations by far." Maybe it's just us, but we get this distinct mental picture of vast herds of migratory geeks sweeping majestically across the veldt towards Mac OS X's verdant hills and welcoming climate. Anyone else getting that? Anyone? No? Ah, well... that's why we get paid the big bucks.

Still, check it out-- a production house called Tweak Films has "deep UNIX roots," but the president of the company states that "months of careful evaluation proved that Mac OS X is the best choice" for the company's future in-house development efforts. Meanwhile, David Cook of an outfit called Cookware originally hated Macs because "they seemed prone to crash and didn't multitask" (preemptively, we assume he means), but he stepped away from his Wintel long enough to take Mac OS X for a test drive, and was "shocked" by what he found. The man has since seen the light and completely "stopped using his PC." He's a recovering Wintel user, twelve months clean, and reportedly in all that time his Mac hasn't crashed once. This is some seriously good stuff, people.

So, yeah, if Mac OS X is really drawing all these formerly non-Mac developers to next month's WWDC, it's probably going to be one massively successful show. Apple claims it's going to be "the best [it's] ever done," which, until we read about all these new Mac developers getting geared up for the event, we assumed meant that the company had rented out a Moonwalk for the occasion so the attendees could engage in a little sock-footed bounciness in between conference sessions. Instead it apparently means that Apple will be "working aggressively to take developers into areas they've never seen before in [Apple's] operating system and way of doing things." That doesn't necessarily rule out the Moonwalk, though. Heck, with a $1295 price of admission, you'd think that the least Apple could do is rent an inflatable carnival attraction.