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At the time the mac air came out, few people noticed that the case would taper to a thin edge, creating the *impression* that it was thin, when it was actually much thicker.

Toshiba had a laptop that was thinner (in terms of actual thickness, not fake apparent thickness along the edges), and the Toshiba had a real ethernet port, and the Toshiba had an integral dvd player shoehorned in.

The Toshiba was much more impressive from an engineering standpoint, but of course no one cared.

It was the Portege R500:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...

And Toshiba kept coming out with thinner laptops than the mac air:

http://www.mactrast.com/2011/0...

http://www.dailytech.com/Toshi...

Wake me up when the LS command can show hidden files and folders without crazy hacks that go away after you restart the terminal program.

Um, it's really hard, I know: Try typing "ls -a". See, done!

http://www.mactrast.com/2011/1...

Inet last I looked had a program called netinfo

macOS (OS X) hasn't used NetInfo in, well, in a VERY long time. Like TWELVE years...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Apple was the first to make it fashionable to ban init

They didn't make it "Fashionable". They fucking INVENTED it (launchd) in 2005! And then Open Sourced it. But the FOSSies couldn't just accept a gift from Apple. They just HAD to go and fuck it all up. In a LOT of ways, the abomination that is systemd is a microcosm of all that is wrong with the entire F/OSS "Community".

BTW, macOS has been using launchd essentially trouble-free intstead of that retarded init since 10.4 (Tiger). IOW, WELL over a decade.

Read it and weep:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

All MacOSX is is a dumbed down GUI on top of a Mac kernel. It is not Unix like in spirit more than SystemD is.

"Dumbed-down GUI"? YOU write it!

Not Unix? Sorry. OS X/macOS has been a CERTIFIED Unix since at least 10.5 (around 2007), and maybe even before. Wake me when Linux of ANY flavor is a Certified Unix...

https://www.infoworld.com/arti...

In Unix everything is a text file so you can use the terminal tools. Not so in MacOSX.

In macOS, most config files are a flavor of xml, which is a flavor of text.

I know some people can run mysql under MacOSX but is it easy to install?

Yep. I found and used a one-click Installer that gave me an entire LAMP (well, XAMP) stack in just a few minutes.

Ah, here's one now...

https://www.macupdate.com/app/...

Next!

Is the XCode free?

Yep. Has been since OS X 10.0.0. They no longer include it on the Install Disc (but you can get it here) :

http://www.mactrast.com/2011/1...

Apple got rid of CUPS

Bullshit. Apple purchased CUPS in 2007, and STILL kept it Open Source!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

...Samba or rather a strange proprietary fork of Samba

Again, bullshit, at least sort of. Apple got rid of SAMBA because it had become a dumpster-fire of unmitigated proportions, and, because it became GPLv3, which Apple will not abide. They wrote their own SAMBA replacement, whiich, after a couple of revs, is stable enough and full-featured enough that they actually have DEPRECATED their own AFP sharing system in favor of SMB.

http://appleinsider.com/articl...

...a strange proprietary fork of [...], Apache...

I don't know about you; but this seems to be a standard version of Apache, and it shipped with macOS Sierra, which is still the current version of the OS:

https://medium.com/@JohnFodera...

And the version is ships with it (2.4.23) is also reasonabl

Wake me up when the LS command can show hidden files and folders without crazy hacks that go away after you restart the terminal program.

Um, it's really hard, I know: Try typing "ls -a". See, done!

http://www.mactrast.com/2011/1...

Inet last I looked had a program called netinfo

macOS (OS X) hasn't used NetInfo in, well, in a VERY long time. Like TWELVE years...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Apple was the first to make it fashionable to ban init

They didn't make it "Fashionable". They fucking INVENTED it (launchd) in 2005! And then Open Sourced it. But the FOSSies couldn't just accept a gift from Apple. They just HAD to go and fuck it all up. In a LOT of ways, the abomination that is systemd is a microcosm of all that is wrong with the entire F/OSS "Community".

BTW, macOS has been using launchd essentially trouble-free intstead of that retarded init since 10.4 (Tiger). IOW, WELL over a decade.

Read it and weep:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

All MacOSX is is a dumbed down GUI on top of a Mac kernel. It is not Unix like in spirit more than SystemD is.

"Dumbed-down GUI"? YOU write it!

Not Unix? Sorry. OS X/macOS has been a CERTIFIED Unix since at least 10.5 (around 2007), and maybe even before. Wake me when Linux of ANY flavor is a Certified Unix...

https://www.infoworld.com/arti...

In Unix everything is a text file so you can use the terminal tools. Not so in MacOSX.

In macOS, most config files are a flavor of xml, which is a flavor of text.

I know some people can run mysql under MacOSX but is it easy to install?

Yep. I found and used a one-click Installer that gave me an entire LAMP (well, XAMP) stack in just a few minutes.

Ah, here's one now...

https://www.macupdate.com/app/...

Next!

Is the XCode free?

Yep. Has been since OS X 10.0.0. They no longer include it on the Install Disc (but you can get it here) :

http://www.mactrast.com/2011/1...

Apple got rid of CUPS

Bullshit. Apple purchased CUPS in 2007, and STILL kept it Open Source!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

...Samba or rather a strange proprietary fork of Samba

Again, bullshit, at least sort of. Apple got rid of SAMBA because it had become a dumpster-fire of unmitigated proportions, and, because it became GPLv3, which Apple will not abide. They wrote their own SAMBA replacement, whiich, after a couple of revs, is stable enough and full-featured enough that they actually have DEPRECATED their own AFP sharing system in favor of SMB.

http://appleinsider.com/articl...

...a strange proprietary fork of [...], Apache...

I don't know about you; but this seems to be a standard version of Apache, and it shipped with macOS Sierra, which is still the current version of the OS:

https://medium.com/@JohnFodera...

And the version is ships with it (2.4.23) is also reasonabl

than they did before.
As a college student in 1990, I could not afford any of this. If I was in grade school now, I could probably find it for free, or if not, make enough money from sweeping up the leaves from a single neighbors lawn to buy it on ebay. It took me mowing close to 200 lawns to afford my first 16kB computer.
Inflation adjusted, an equipped Apple ][ computer cost $10,000 ($3500 in 1980).

No it doesn't. Applications crash all the time in OS X, Windows, and Linux. No fanboi will claim otherwise unless he's really stupid.

In fact, when searching for articles on iOS malware this is what one finds:

http://www.mactrast.com/2012/11/report-android-gingerbread-most-malware-prone-mobile-os/

"much still remains to be done before Android users can sleep as soundly as iOS users do."

and:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/07/05/researchers-say-iphone-users-hit-with-app-stores-first-ever-spam-sending-app/

The first EVER spam app hit the iPhone just this year - and was very promptly removed from the App Store.

"Just as antivirus researchers congratulated Apple for keeping the iPhone free of nasty apps five full years after its release, spammers seem to have finally tarnished that spotless record."

So I think it's fair to say that while not perfect (and who is?) that iOS has really done a remarkable job keeping the malware off it's platform. Android has gotten better and I freely admit that, and it's a good thing. But it's definitely not up to snuff quite yet compared to the competition in that particular area.

Apple is suing samsung for violating their patents some of which are designs. My point is samsung isn't saying they're innocent but their excuse is that Apple did it first therefore it's ok. Which would be but they don't seem to be able to decide who they ripped off the idea from. First Sony and now some guy. It can't be both.

Samsung's problem is that they do go out of their way to make things look like Apple stuff. Even their connectors look the same. http://cdn.mactrast.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Samsung-Apple-Cable-Copy.jpg

And even things like using Apple's icons for their shop displays. http://obamapacman.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Samsung-Mobile-Italy-store-copies-Apple-App-Store-Safari-Icons-Euronics-Centro-Sicilia.jpg

Despite the fact their tablet does actually have a different home screen they don't often show that because it looks more like an ipad when they show off all the icons. So, I'm finding it hard to sympathise with them because they have gone above and beyond to make an ipad-like tablet. Of course that was why they were singled out.

The whole idea that Apple sues anyone making round cornered tablets is ridiculous given that they all look like that and it's Samsung in courts over this.

http://techfragments.com/news/982/Software/Apple_iPhone_Virus_Spreads_By_SMS_Messages.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/iphone-virus-botnet-bank-details,9136.html
http://www.mactrast.com/2010/07/iphone-virus-discovered-be-vigilant-and-seek-advice/
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3573755?start=0&tstart=0

1) A vulnerability with a demo. There was never any malware written to exploit it, and as it was long since fixed, there never will be.

2) Only affects jailbroken iPhones.

3) You're the victim of an APRIL FOOL! From 2 years ago!
http://vimeo.com/10587301

4) Is nothing more than a user with a problem and no tech knowledge blaming his problem on a virus. There is no virus.

While reasonably rare, iPhone viruses and malware do exist in the wild.

No they don't. At least not on non-jailbroken iPhones.

While reasonably rare, iPhone viruses and malware do exist in the wild.

http://techfragments.com/news/982/Software/Apple_iPhone_Virus_Spreads_By_SMS_Messages.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/iphone-virus-botnet-bank-details,9136.html
http://www.mactrast.com/2010/07/iphone-virus-discovered-be-vigilant-and-seek-advice/
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3573755?start=0&tstart=0

http://www.mactrast.com/2011/11/os-x-lion-adoption-still-swiftly-increasing/

Note that it has already passed Leopard, which was itself long ago passed by Snow Leopard. Lion is doing fine.

Well, if you used Disk Utility to create a restore boot disk you use that, if not you ask a friend to make one or go to an Apple store or Mac repair shop.