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Flirting With Mac OS X
An anonymous reader wrote to us with an article on Byte from Moshe Bar about flirting with using OS X. Taco and I are both strongly considering beginning to use OS X as a primary laptops - anyone else looking at doing this? And anyone from Apple that can get me a good price on super TiBooks? *grin*
Kernel Programming Mach Overview
from the article: "Something you will miss when coming from a Linux distribution are tools like apt-get or rpm to easily get and install packages and resolve dependencies. "
well, i most certainly, definitley don't miss rpm, but apt-get for the mac is called fink
For example, he may think he was editing /etc/hosts, but reality is somewhat different. He may copy files with "cp" and discover that some important bits didn't make it. Cocoa looks really nice and descriptive (and I really like Objective-C's named arguments and object model), but it also has its dark sides, for example in the areas of resource management, error handling, and type safety. He'll also discover that there are two different kinds of path names that don't quite mesh and three different sets of APIs, no single one of which gives him complete access to the machine. Carbon and Cocoa applications take different key bindings and handle text differently. A "ps" and some graphics benchmarks will show him that Aqua really has a very hefty footprint and isn't all that speedy. He'll also discover that the Apple file systems (HFS+, UFS) are not all that great compared to what he can get on Linux (ext3, ReiserFS, XFS, ...).
Don't get me wrong: I think it's great that Apple is using a UNIX base, and I think they have done a great job with migrating from OS 9 to OS X. There are some really great programs on that platform. And I think there are quite a number of things Linux would do very well to copy from OS X. But the suggestion that OS X is the heavenly integration of UNIX and GUI that the world has strikes me as not realistic.
You should check out fink.
Excerpt form the start page:
"The Fink project wants to bring the full world of Unix Open Source software to Darwin and Mac OS X. We modify Unix software so that it compiles and runs on Mac OS X ("port" it) and make it available for download as a coherent distribution. Fink uses Debian tools like dpkg and apt-get to provide powerful binary package management. You can choose whether you want to download precompiled binary packages or build everything from source."
I guess that`s pretty much what you are thinking about.
How many times does this have to be pointed out for OS X newbies? There is an open-source, community-driven package manager for the Unix underpinnings of OS X: It's called Fink. It's a port of the Debian tools, including apt. It currently has 1452 packages at various levels of stability, including many of the major applications required for development. It works very, very well, from a command line or via happy little Aqua app called Fink Commander. If you do use Fink, use the CVS tree: the maintainers are very conservative about adding apps to the stable tree, so most of the interesting action is in unstable.
Wordnik, a dictionary project which aims to collect
What in God's name you need a third button for, besides having another part to break, beats the hell out of me.
In a word: Emacs. Emacs on X makes extensive use of the middle mouse button. Also, X-style copy and paste. Especially in an Xterm.
My journal has hot
Do NOT run OS X on an ibook. ibook G3 CPUs are not fast enough to run OS X at a usable speed when doing anything that shows off a lot of 2D stuff (A few days ago I wrote a simple C++ program that finds prime numbers and displays them in real-time, and the terminal updates were using almost as many CPU cycles as the number generator was.). Java is also very slow on the G3 ibooks. Other ibook issues include:
- DVD/CD-Rom flakiness on OS X (The DVD/CD drive doesn't always recognize a CD after the disc has been in a while.
- Power management problems. OS X does not always wake up after the ibook has been closed/opened.
- CPU heat. The G3 CPUs in ibooks put out enough heat to be very uncomfortable when in one's lap.
well, it shouldn't be. If you're expecting a beautiful keyboard on a laptop that's about half an inch thick then you're a loon, if you're upset that Apple's don't have multiple mouse buttons and are too dense to push the Option, Control and Command keys in their stead (hang on a minute, that means you've got - effectively - FOUR mouse click types!) then you're just being deliberately perverse. The modifier key system is GOOD, and gives NOTHING away to the multiple mouse button approach IMHO.
That was classic intercourse!
Really? I just bought a Dell Latitude x200 last night... for my brother-in-law who isn't interested in "switching".
I did some shopping around first - and I just simply couldn't find a laptop as nice as the Mac titanium laptop... light, thin, big screen, built-in DVD. The Latitude was the closest I could find for the money.
But unlike the Mac, the Latitude has no built-in-DVD and a much smaller display. The performance of the Dell by no mean screams over the Mac (The Dell is a 800mhz P3... not even a P4).
And the price of the Dell with the DVD/CD-RW and the other basics isn't any better than the Mac price. Really.
For a laptop, I like thin & light... I don't want to lug around a big thing on business trips. Unless the market changes radically in the next month, my next laptop purchase will be a Mac. For the first time.
2 months ago. Still using home brew desktops, but since I can't build a laptop, I figured an OS X, and very sweet looking iBook would work well. There was always PPC Linux and Virtual PC if OS X didn't work out. Well its worked out. I can take care of all my remote administration via command line. The FINK project has ported a lot of good GPL apps to PPC OS X, and incorporates apt-get into the iBook's reportoire. The iBook 700Mhx (my purchase) is not a speed demon. It runs well though, and can play Warcraft3 acceptably. The Airport card range and battery life is awesome. Two features the Ti Books trail far behind in. Since wireless is a big factr I decided to save about 500 bucks and stick with the iBook. Don't regret it. I'm not switching my desktop off of x86 Linux anytime in the foreseeable future but an Apple laptop is a great machine to tote around.
I tell people that you don't care about speed benchmarks. The only thing you REALLY care about when using the computer is response time. I define that as the time it takes for the computer to execute the command you just gave it (i.e., file saves, close window, open application, etc.). There are too many other variables that figure into designing a computer too pay attention to, even for engineers.
When I compare the amount of time I spend waiting for my Dell to do something versus my TiBook, I feel it is worth the price difference in saved time (BTW, I am a lawyer and make my living charging for time - less time waiting = more productive lawyer = happier clients). You can always make more money - you can never make more time. I am grateful for the time the TiBook has saved me.
Laws affecting technology will always be bad until enough techies become lawyers.
Rumors coming out of several Mac rumor mills suggest that Apple is going to release a new version of the Titanium PowerBook in early-mid October. It will sport updated CPUs (of course) a beefier video card and (what I've personally been waiting for) a "portable Superdrive" (DVD-R and CD-RW). Not exactly sure yet what "portable" means in this context, but I'm hoping the slimmed down the form factor far enough on the Superdrive to be able to fit it into one of those amazingly thin machines. Hope you switch! frostycellnex
OS/X is very nice for someone wanting to do this. I prefer the behaviours of the Mac interface and applications and always have. So this is the best of both for me, since I often have a terminal window open while working on a GUI app (e.g. 5 mins ago before I took this break, coding in CodeWarrior, running the app from a terminal window and editing something w/ pico)...
The nice big screen is, well, nice and big. Sometimes too big. I have a courier bag for biking around with it, and a soft, snug case designed just to hold it - recommended if you're going to take it anywhere. Even if it's under your arm it seems to want to smack into things otherwise.
However sometimes the nice big screen is too damn big. If I were doing this again, I'd think about getting the smaller iBook. I do some video editing but it's not an everyday thing for me.
It's easy to take from place to place - joining new wireless or wired nets, or switching to a projection display always works very quickly and doesn't screw things up.
Have had a smattering of kernel panics, but not much to get too excited about. Greatest issue seems to be that while that apps are stable and work well, they are not yet mature, but I like them.
I like the feel of the keyboard. I like the trackpad. I've purchased a tiny external USB mouse that I often use as well.
some issues:
case cosmetics: The outer edge of the case (the last 1/4" all around then keyboard, and around the screen as well) is not titanium. It's some cheapass painted crap. The paint wears off and then it looks like your $2,500 Powerbook has a skin condition.
Brittle power supply connector: The AC adapter socket built into this seems designed to snap of. It's very tight and very brittle. Once I heard the motherboard creak a few times, I learned to be plus ultra careful plugging it in.
Do not use if you have a pacemaker: The case is electrically live when plugged into the wall. Go measure one, or if you are sensitive to 60Hz, just run your finger across the titanium surface of one that's plugged in. Wrote to Apple. Wrote to the US gov't agency that oversees consumer safety. No replies.
Excellent marshmallow toaster: WHen it was new, it was quiet. When it was less new (6 mos) it started to be very warm when running. Now it runs extremely hot - the fan comes on a lot. I bought these nice ventilation stands for laptops, and they help a lot (and swivel -too cool), but the whole heat up thing is screwed up.
heat
ln -s versus alias, what the hell? A minor point, or is it. If I `ln -s` to create a link, the Finder is perfectly fine with it. If I create an alias via the Finder, it puts the info in the resource fork rather than doing the Right Thing in the file system. What the hell is that all about?
And my battery died From the start, the promised 5 hours never materialized. Ever. More like 2 hours 45 minutes of runtime on a full charge. Then one day (after about 9 monhts) the battery decided that a full charge would mean 45 minutes of runtime, and that's how it stands now.
I am sending it in for warranty work next week. They can't promise it will come back with my data on it, so I have had to purchase an external hard drive to back it up to ($300) which sucks (yes, i was backing it up regularly to one of my Linux boxes via Retrospect, but I wanted a LIVE backup as well - this is my life and livelihood we're talking about!). It will be gone for a week. Not sure what I'm to do for a week while they have it. I hope that goes okay.
And I am going to have to purchase an Applecare warranty (another $300) for two more years of warranty coverage, considering the record of this thing.
In summary: Buy an iBook if you just want a nice portable computer that integrates nicely with *nix and other systems. Save the extra money for women, booze and Ticketmaster service charges.
then why can't I put OSX on my IBM clone
Well, you can and you can't. OS X is coded and compiled for PPC processors not x86, so going out and buying a copy and installing it on your x86 PC is out. You can however get the underlying OS Darwin, it is free for the download, there is even a port to x86. The problem here is, first Darwin does not come with the pretty OS X GUI, it is command prompt only, you must get the Darwin port of X Windows for a GUI and second, the x86 port of Darwin supports a very narrow band of hardware. If you are considering this, goto the Darwin site and read the hardware compatibility list and build your system accordingly, otherwise you will be very disappointed.
"Our products just aren't engineered for security,"
-Brian Valentine,VP in charge of MS Windows Development
Warcraft 3 works perfectly fine on OS X. Every single copy sold is a copy that works on OS X.
I used Linux (RH 6.2, RH 7.1) for over 2 years, and I think it's a great OS. But it's not an OS that regular users can use like OSX 10.1.5 and 10.2. It's harder to be productive in Linux than OSX. I've said it before, but the fact remains that OSX is significantly easier to set up and use on a daily basis than Linux.
Want some reasons that regular people like OSX better? All the control panels are in one place and follow a consistent design. You can get Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer, Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Flash MX, and AOL for it.
Want some reasons that many geeks like us like OSX better? Excellent free development IDE (ProjectBuilder & InterfaceBuilder) that makes native apps with an audience of 5 million paying customers. Great commercial tools like BBEdit, Oracle, Sybase, SQLGrinder, and JBuilder Enterprise, that make developing for production systems as easy as developing on Linux.
The DVD issue is really a money issue. With Linux, there's no one willing to pay the money to legally play DVDs. When I worked at ZapMedia, we had a software-only DVD player working under Linux. We had to pay for it, but it can be done. With MacOSX, a small portion of the purchase price covers the R&D and licensing required to have this feature.
I have a 600MHz iBook/DVD that I carry to work every day. The office is all-Windows, but thanks to OSX's built-in SMB browser and CUPS printing support, I can do everything that the Windows machines can do. I might be able to make that happen with Linux using a compiler and a lot of free time, but my experience with Linux in the past is that it's not nearly as simple or obvious.
- Vincit qui patitur.
Well for a start the Cocoa libraries aren't open source, nor are the Carbon ones, and you can forget classic!
:-)
So no that stuff CAN'T run on OS X on Intel. Aqua isn't going to work either (though I don't see that matters given the above).
However what IS open source can be (has been) ported onto Intel. That's called "Darwin" (a stupid name to be sure). It works and is complete, this gives you a full Unix (of the BSD style) with compilers and lots of toys. There is stuff you'd probably not expect there too - how about a free mpeg4 steaming server? (I know!)
To this you can add X-Windows, and a WindowManager of your choice (personally I like WindowMaker). Now if you want a OS X experience take a look at GNUstep - an open source implementation of the OpenStep API and tool set (Cocoa is based on this). I don't know if anyone has done this yet (but it seems like an obvious thing to do - so I'd not be suprised).
If you're really into this idea - take a look at Apple's Darwin pages, and www.dawinfo.org and www.gnustep.org.
Hope this helps
You'd be surprised. The 12.1" iBook is a pretty good bargain for a small laptop. I'll use Canadian prices for comparison, since that's what I have to deal with myself.
Most Windows-based slim laptops are actually quite expensive. The closest I've really found to the iBook is Sony's Superslim Pro, which is a full $300 more than the iBook 700 - and it's debatable whether the Sony is faster. CPU arguments aside, the iBook has dedicated video (a Mobility Radeon); the Sony has a chipset with shared video memory, and I can tell you from personal experience that nothing kills video performance like needing to use system memory.
What's more amusing is that the Toshiba Portegé 2000 is actually a popular laptop, but it's $900 more than the same iBook 700... and it's not only slower, it doesn't even come with a docking station. You're paying for chic alone, and really the iBook does a better job of that.
I won't deny that Apple is expensive, but they can make a convincing case in the portable world. I'm looking to replace my clunky Toshiba with an iBook, but heck - if I weren't in university, I'd probably be considering a Powerbook!
The first generation of TiBooks use the PPC 7410, which is a first-generation G4. More recent TiBooks are equipped with processors from the 7455 series, which are significantly different from the 7410.
Firstly, the L2 in the 7400/7410 series is not mounted inside the chip. Thus, 7400/7410 based Macs have a larger L2 cache (the 7410 allows for up to 2 MB) than the 7455, but it can't access the L2 as quickly. The 7455 has 256 kB of on-chip L2 and support for up to 2 MB of L3 cache. However, the 7410 can't prefetch data to the L2 since it only serves as an evacuation space for the L1. The 7455, on the other hand, may use the L2 and L3 caches to prefetch data.
Secondly, the 7455 has more functional units than the 7410. The first generation of TiBooks have two integer units (32 bit), one 64-bit FPU and dual 128-bit SIMD units (AltiVec units). The newer 7455-equipped TiBooks have twice the amount of integer units and SIMD units, but the number of FPU:s still is the same.
Was a windows user (had tried linux (RH|Mandrake) on a number of occasions but it didn't stick) for about 8 years or so I guess.
:)
...) is often hidden and sometimes not standard (Preferences in apps: cmd + y or cmd + ; or nothing)
Switched in May 2002 to a 667 DVI G4 PowerBook w 512MB RAM and 60GB HDD. I added an airport afterwards. Bought Jagwire.
Good Stuff:
*nix goodness - I'm studying comp sci externally (work full time) and I need a *nix machine for that, I also need a box that I can do the usual PC stuff with (word docs, spreadsheets, etc), the PB is that.
No, really, it just works. The other thing it does is just not work! It basically ignores stuff that it doesn't understand. For example I installed a 3COM nic PC Card in the card slot. It tells you that it's there but there are no drivers for it so you can't do anything with it. I would love to get a *nix driver for an extra NIC if there aren't osx drivers but I'm using multi-homing for now. Point is that it doesn't crash or complain.
MS software - Like it or loath it, MS software is a requirement for some people, I am one of them (yes that's right I don't want to worry about compatibility with open office or apple works).
Stress level - gone way down when using my PB as opposed to my PC at home or work. (I've sold my PC)
Bad Stuff:
One button - personal preference of course but the one button just annoys the hell out of me.
No Drivers - now that is annoying, I want to add an IR port (BT just works thank goodness) but I can't find anywhere that has drivers for any IR on OSX.
Waiting - waiting for new versions of stuff that has been out for a while is just annoying.
UI - some of the GUI is a bit evil (those damn window buttons are too small for my liking). Button combinations for different stuff (shift + opt + cmd +
Mhz - 667 G4 != 2.0Ghz P4m, no marketing (lies perhaps) please, it's just plain wrong. It might be like a 1Ghz PIII if I'm lucky, perhaps a little more but that's it.
Summary:
Overall the performance is excellent. I only have the 667 but it really does run fast enough at the moment. Of course of if you put me infront of a quad 3Ghz+ Hammer I'm sure I'd notice, but I don't care. Battery life rocks, Try playing a whole DVD and then still having 30% battery life (I had 52% left once but I'm ignoring the outlyers). The TiBook is an excellent machine, if you can spare the $$$(^3) of course.
Something intruiging...
LOL, you ever hear of Windows 286 and 1.0? Yeah, I was networking that crap back in the Netware 1.x days.
i just bought my first apple machine since my apple 2. i bought an ibook. the determining factors for going apple for me was the low power consumption (i get around 5-6 hours of battery life while using airport), the beautiful looking yet completely reliable os, and its a lot smaller and looks far better than any pc laptop on the market. i mean lets face it ibooks and tibooks are dead damn sexy. i had some concerns about it at first.
i hated the idea of a 1 button mouse but my one of my long mac-loving friends explained it to me this way: macs have evolved without the second button. there is no need for it in macos and its true just borrow someones mac for a week and try it out.
the second concern i had was development. before the ibook i did all of my coding on my linux box (perl and java), and i wasnt sure if i would be able to easily switch between the 2 machines to do and test my stuff but again i was wrong.
third concern was how well does it play with my windows machine. well it has samba preinstalled and needless to say it plays fairly nice and with office for X i can take my stuff on the road with me and the integration with my windows machine is fine because its all made my the same ppl.
so in the 4 weeks that i've had my ibook i can say that i am 100% satisfied and also that OS X is oh so sweet.
i would just say if you are unsure about buying the mac find someone that has one and borrow it for a day or something and try it out. I think you will be pleasantly suprised.
unix-style cut and paste would be a nice option. I've been forced into a "standardized" ssh client for win32 at work... man I miss putty.
The MacOSX gui may be pretty, and fairly functional, however it's missing 1 *great* thing X11 has in it's favor - network transparency. It comes builtin, native, with X11. You have to use VNC or a commercial remote desktop soultion to come anywhere close (and those only do the whole desktop, not just individual applications!)
I was in the business for a lap about six months ago. When I happened to pass Singapore, I decided to buy one. I went through all computer shops I could find there (alot!) and got prices for lots of models. It ended up with specs and prices for about 10 PC laps and the Apple iBook.
Pitching all against each other, price versus performance, I came down to two: One NEC Versa and the iBook. They were about the same price (about US $1800) and performance. I then decided to jump the MS ship and go for the iBook. I bought the 12" iBook 600Mhz w/ DVD and CD-RW.
It was a killer buy, and I have been extremely happy with it. As most switchers here point out, it just simply WORKS.
Things I love about it:
- Amazing battery time, 4hr+
- Real UNIX. Just './configure && make'...
- Complete development environment included
Today the decision would have been a no-brainer. I've never had any regrets. And the iBook was actually the cheaper of the two!
I had some doubts that I would have to spend $$$ on software if I got a Mac. But the Mac community is changing with the influx of Unix and OSS users, and nowadays you can get all your usual OSS apps on OS X.
On a side note: I installed OS X 10.1.5 on a friend's iBook (500mhz, 64mb) , and it became quite sluggish. Mine has 384mb ram, and OS X flies. I often have multiple compiles running in the background - no probs. Don't cheap out on the memory!
Good things:
Bad things
The quote you are thinking of is here: http://www.jwz.org/doc/linux.html:
:)
But as we all know, Linux is only free if your time has no value, and I find that my time is better spent doing things other than the endless moving-target-upgrade dance.
For what it is worth, that is *exactly* why I switched from Linux to OS X for my primary desktop.
Besides, Apple hardware really is drop dead sexy.
Tyler's words coming out of my mouth.
>1. focus follows mouse
m l
>2. multiple desktops
>3. key bindings to avoid the necessity for
> using the mouse, i.e. -- "warp"ing to
> different apps / desktops, etc.
1 and 2 can be solved by using the latest "beta" of CodeTek's VirtualDesktop software.
http://www.codetek.com/index.html
3 can be solved by using Objective Development's LaunchBar which offers VERY quick launching/switching to apps. Just type the first few characters of what you're looking for: 'term' for Terminal, 'moz' for Mozilla, 'ps' for PhotoShop, etc. It presents a pulldown menu of items matching your input, and learns which you use most to present as the default. It also launches your browser bookmarks (in browser), address book entries (mail client), documents, c library header files, etc. Highly configurable.
http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.ht
Most of the functionality people want that's not there "out of the box" in MacOS X is available either as freeware or shareware. You'd be pleasantly surprised.
Cheers
The Macintosh platform is an entirely different beast, with an entirely different target group. Even the professionals that use the Mac are, in my six years of experience in the graphics field, less technically inclined on average (there are always exceptions, of course.) They are artists, not computer science gurus, hence the general fondness for the Mac platform amongst them.
Taking an application that was intended to be run on an operating system that is designed for advanced users, and running it on an operating system that is designed for less advanced users -- and calling said software crap because it relies upon conventions that advanced users are used to, is just silly.
V
Huh. So you do CAD work on a laptop trackpad with two buttons? I thought those things were unusable for web browsing, let alone CAD design.
You do realize that no laptop manufacturers include a five button mouse as a standard option, right? We were talking about laptops, right?
Mice, on Apple machines, like mice on all machines, are typically an option. When you buy a dell, you can get it with a crappy mouse, or with a good mouse. When you order an Apple, you also have to choose a mouse. It's on a different page of the order form, which may be confusing. It might *seem* like Apple is only selling single button mice.
But you're a computer expert. Apple was concerned with making this less confusing for computer novices. Their mouse input concept is perfect. Admit it.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
XNU is the kernel. Its a mix of BSD and Mach. BSD stuff is kicked into kernel space to get rid of the message passing overhead. Also, the Mach Kernel has been around in NeXT for quite some time
Basically, there are three levels of Mac OS now:
/etc and /bin, there are traditional UNIX tools, there's the file system, the Hardware Abstraction Layer and all this stuff is open so that it can be scoured for bugs, and so that this vital software layer that is the spine of the computer can't be held hostage by a single party, or be made deliberately incompatible with other technologies, or run tasks without the user's knowledge. Darwin is also progressive and modern, with XML configuration files, a simplified directory structure, and ZeroConf networking that makes small, industry-standard IP networks configure themselves.
... they are picking the single icon called 'Mozilla' that is in their Applications folder. Whole layers of complexity are just not there to trouble you or to decay as the software installation matures. The Mozilla icon is actually a folder with all of the files and images and whatnot that Mozilla requires, and all you have to do to 'install' it is to place it in the Applications folder, provided your user account has the right to do so. Most apps just come as a single icon on a CD or a Disk Copy image (Macs mount disc images as if they were really on media ... basically, you open a disk image and it is made into a RAM disk and mounted).
Darwin - Core OS
This is the software layer between the hardware and the rest of the software on the computer. Darwin runs on Macs and on some Intel systems. It's not some loose pieces of Mac OS X that fell under a particular license; it's the core OS, the really technical part of the operating system that you interact with from the command line. This would have been the whole operating system before graphical interfaces, but now it's the geeky filling inside the candy coating of Mac OS X. Transparency is really valued in this core part of the Mac OS, and ease-of-use often takes a back seat to maintaining traditions and functionalities that have been proven to work. So, in Darwin, there are folders with names like
Mac OS X - Professional and Consumer Desktop
Darwin for PowerPC plus closed-source software from Apple and other vendors, including a great graphical user interface. The emphasis in this version of Mac OS is ease-of-use, simplicity, and good looks. Huge features of the machine may only be exposed to the GUI in one little easy-to-use widget, enabling the user to understand and harness a lot of technology quickly and easily. Huge simplifications benefit the non-technical or new user: an application and all of its files go in a single folder that is presented to the user as a single icon that they can run, move, rename, or peek inside with the use of a contextual menu. There are hundreds of features, but they're presented to the user in such a simplified and friendly way that you can take it all in very quickly. I just read the instructions today for making Mozilla your default browser, and on Mac OS X it is "Go Apple Menu > System Preferences > Internet > Web > Default Browser, press Choose and select the Mozilla icon in your Applications folder." Figure out what it is on your platform and compare. Note that the user is not picking the browser off a list, whether stock or generated
Mac OS X Server - Media, Web, Workgroup Servers
Mac OS X optimized for server use instead of desktop use. It's particularly suited to serving QuickTime, MPEG-4, and other streaming media. Apache is the Web server, and all the UNIX stuff you'd want is there or can easily be added. The GUI layer has a number of easy-to-use configuration and administration tools. Licensing compared to Windows is very cheap thanks to use of open source software, and there is also no client access license.