More Switching Stories

serendigital writes "Unix guru Simon Cozens wrote about his "conversion" story in the UK Unix User Group Newsletter. He touts: OroborosX and XDarwin. This gives you a rootless X server and Aqua-like window manager. He also seems to like the libraries: the NeXT approach of separating libraries off into their own subdirectories and separating out library versions makes for a much tidier filesystem arrangement than simply bundling everything in /usr/lib. One of the more controversial "differences" in OSX." And on the other side of the switch, there's Wil Wheaton does Mandrake.

Comments

Like a one legged cat burying a turd

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

And, incidentally, no, I don't find it a problem having only one mouse button.

Well, now we know he's been paid off. ;)

Seriously, the more I hear about OSX, the more interested I get in trying it out. Who knows - my next PC might be a Mac :)

Re:this is all well and good

[BlueGecko]

Apple will almost certainly never port to generic x86. Ignoring every other argument about whether or not it would be profitable for them to do so, Apple still needs Microsoft Office, and I promise you that the second that Mac OS X runs on generic x86 boxes is the second that Office development stops and the Mac's life support lines get pulled. (Don't get me wrong; the Mac's user base has been revitalized and the software lineup is infinitely better than four years ago when Office 98 was the rage, but if you think that the Mac would run without Office v.X in the business world, you've got another thing coming. As long as the Mac continues to have this dependancy, I will consider it on life support systems that are run by Microsoft.)

Meanwhile, if the idea of a very OS X-like environment on your box is highly appealing, stick your coding where you mouth is and go help the GNUstep project. They are improving every day, and ever little contribution that brings them more in line with OS X will help tremendously. Recently, two projects --LinuxStep and Simply GNUstep--were even spawned to create GNUstep-centric Linux distros. I am very hopeful that these will mature into a fully open-source desktop OS that is just as easy as OS X from a user standpoint and also returns the Mac's kickass development system to the Linux world. Go check them out, give them a hand if you can. And don't say, "It's not nearly complete enough"; it's a circular argument. The only solution to that is to go help.

Re:the underlying OS is irrelevant

[MoneyT]

And so Apple has made a system then for all users. For the most users, there's a nice easy to use, intuitive GUI. For the other people who do care what's underneith, there's BSD and darwin.

24th Century OSes

[DarkHelmet]

And on the other side of the switch, there's Wil Wheaton does Mandrake.

Stuff like this makes me wonder what some of the names of 24th century operating systems.

Microsoft apparently gets more powerful over the years, and decides to name it and all the companies it acquires "The Federation." Galaxy Class Starships run Windows 2.35k Service Pack 4.

(FYI: Klingons run Linux 3.5.7 kernel. Not much work has been done on it since the 22nd century, where the kernel dev team finally went bonkers and decided to started growing ridges on their heads. The penguin has been replaced by a Targ, and every year there is a festival which commemorates the burning of plush penguins).

This is the true reason Wesley left. He got tired of all the Computer Lockouts and Copyright protection. So he travels back in time to try and push Mandrake, changing the course of history into something that looks more like Firefly.

Oh God, all this acid is making my head hurt. I'll stop now.

So what?

[CoolVibe]

Buy a three button USB mouse, and plug that in your Mac. I have this Logitech Mouseman+ (the one with a wheel) and all buttons function and the wheel works too. No problems at all.

Stop spreading FUD already :)

Re:the underlying OS is irrelevant

[MoneyT]

1)
commercial != bad

I hardly see people bitch and moan when a new game like UT 2k3 is released. Never mind that it's all closed source and you can't change it at all, linux users rejoice when a game is ported to their machines.

commercial software when done right provides a quality that is hard to match let alone beat with free software.

2) I'm not even going to get into this debate.

3) Sluggish if he last time you used or saw (I doubt you've ever used) was OS X Beta

Re:Urgh

[norwoodites]

Wrong, on Darwin, NeXT STeP, OpenStep and Mac OS X, the /usr/lib/dyld (which is like /lib/ld.so) can find the libraries if there are in /System/Library/Frameworks/XXX.framework/XXX, /Library/Frameworks/XXX.framework/XXX, ~/Library/Frameworks/XXX.framework/XXX, and /Network/Library/Frameworks/XXX.framework/XXX (not in that order though), so the LD_LIBRARY_PATH (actually DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH on Darwin/Mac OSX) does not need to be touched at all.


read dyld(1) and ld(1) for more information on how this is done.

Re:Two powerful commands on the OS X command line

[MalleusEBHC]

My two favorites were:
rm -rf /Applications/Internet\ Explorer.app
rm -rf /Volumes/OS\ 9/Applications\ \(Mac\ OS\ 9\)/Microsoft*
Then I just used an .smi and a CD to install Appleworks and Mozilla. Nothing better than removing all traces of M$ from my system with the shiny new command line (this was when I first got OS X) and then getting to still use my lovely GUI to put on better, cheaper (or free) alternatives.

I'm on an iBook now....

[SwedishChef]

Ok... normally I use SuSE Linux with Gnome for everything. But we do schools and schools do MACs so here I am with OS-X on my (messy) desk. Right next to me is my LCD monitor which can show me my Linux GUI or my Windows GUI. I can compare all of them with little effort.

What do I like about OS-X?

1. I like the size and convenience of the iBook. It has Unix on it and that makes it useful for me to carry to clients' sites and check out their network. Normally I carry a Linux laptop for this but the P-120 laptop (my wife's old machine) is too slow for a useful GUI.

2. I like the GUI. Heck, I was laying in bed the other night playing games on this thing and it was damn fun. (Well, fun for me, my wife was annoyed at the bleeps and whistles... sheesh.)

3, I like that it's Unix... BSD rocks (although I generally prefer Linux).

What do I not like???

1. Yeah, the mouse. One button. I like to surf using new windows for links and then close 'em down to go back for more links. A single-button mouse doesn't do this and it's a pain in the butt to carry a mouse with me.

2. One desktop. Damn! How can I work with only one desktop? On my Linux box I have 4 desktops; one for email/calendar (Ximian Evolution), one for web browsers, and two for misc apps I pull up (Open Office, GAIM, etc.). How anyone can do useful work without having multiple desktops (accessible with alt-F keys) is beyond me. Is there a way to do this on the MAC. I dunno yet.

3. The keyboard on this iBook bounces... some letters in words appear twice in a row. This annoys me. Although, to be frank, it might be just my untrained fingers on a new keyboard.

Generally, however, I like the iBook and I like OS-X. I would recommend this product to any client as long as the apps they need are available. But I'm not switching yet.