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Rave Reviews for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger
druid_getafix writes "The first mass market reviews of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger are trickling in with a big thumbs up for the release. Walt Mossberg of the WSJ says 'Tiger Leaps Out in Front' but complains about slowness of some applications - notably Mail. David Pogue of NYT says 'But with apologies to Mac-bashers everywhere, Spotlight changes everything. Tiger is the classiest version of Mac OS X ever and, by many measures, the most secure, stable and satisfying consumer operating system prowling the earth.' In related news Mossberg also covers the rising incidence of spam/virii in the Windows world and says '...consider dumping Windows altogether and switching to Apple's Macintosh...'. Previous reviews of Tiger were covered on /. earlier."
From the NYT guy:
"[...] and, by many measures, the most secure, [...] operating system prowling the earth."
Hum. I like OSX just as much as anybody here does, but please, let's stay with verifiable facts instead of hype, OK? Even if you're working for the NY Times.
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
I dont miss this fuzz about crappy drivers, PSUs that goes black, noice...
No ice? Unix-based computers have built-in ice machines? Wow, I'm making the switch today!
I do agree with the article that Mac's updates are a little pricey. What are essentially small enhancements and bug fixes get sold as an all new operating system. If you started with just OS X 10.0, you've had to spend almost $500 just to get to this point. I would rather Apple wait for an OS upgrade every 2 years or so with major differences, and roll the small stuff like a new desktop search to us free.
Or you could just download Apache 2.x for Windows, install Cygwin and get an SSH server, and download either MySQL or PostgreSQL for a database server. All for free and all will run on Windows XP Home.
Karma: Positive. Mostly effected by cowbell.
I think it is really a question of taste, and what you want to do.
I have a G5 Powerbook at work, and I am pretty disappointed with the performance. Partly the problem is the lack of RAM (256Mb) but it should be possible to run a laptop with this..
So.. here are my experiences:
1) I have to use M$ Office for my work, and the native OSX implementation of Office is a pile of **** (thanks M$!)..
2) It is also far from simple to install OpenOffice.org,
3) The X-Server solution (darwin) is a real pig (I would rather use Cygwin quite honestly, the amount of extra overheads it uses).
4) The way Macs keep applications open after the window has been closed is also very irritating since it guzzles RAM like there is no tomorrow...
5) This is to say nothing of the irritation of getting right click to work with a single mouse button...
6) Oh.. Also wxWindows/wxPython is not up to Linux/Windows levels of stability yet, and the built in python implementation is really weird (there is a dodgy workaround to get graphical python apps to appear by using a different python binary).
If you are into Medya stuff, and like flashy GUIs then sure, try the Mac, I am sure your productivity will improve. Otherwise, use Windoze or Linux..
The hardware is cool, and the fact it is so standardised makes driver problems very infrequent. But I am really so close to ditching OSX and installing Debian or Ubuntu... My work laptop is nowhere near as sweet as my desktop at home running Debian sid, and it is all down to the resource drain thar is OSX IMHO.
Gee, what kind of sucker pays $130 for a service pack? Let alone someone who already was duped by this already buying Panther? The level of changes and the kind of changes that were made here, on the windows side, is called a Service Pack, and they are FREE!!!!!
Tiger is the classiest version of Mac OS X ever and, by many measures, the most secure, stable and satisfying consumer operating system prowling the earth.'
I have one Mac user and he made his MAc os x crash big time by applying a patch!! talk about stability, he had to go to a MAC shop fot them to run programms and finally re-install everything.
You cant even ctrl-alt-del or use safemode to restore to a previuosly good config.
Microsoft may have some bugs but at least they have tools to help you restore your desktop 90 % of the time without having to re-install everything.
--Mac user will have only one finger in the future--
The problem is that a Mac Mini isn't just $500.
(I'm in Canada, so prices are upsized here).
Yes, it is $500 US Dollars for the low-end mini.
I don't give a fuck if the high-end model costs 750 Loonies. The real price for it in real money is $599.
I would never consider upgrading to the ($99) superdrive. If I really needed to burn DVD's (and I don't), I would go with an external firewire-based dual-layer burner which I could stow away in a drawer when it's not in use.
It doesn't use SODIMM. It uses regular commodity DDR. $150 gets you a GB out on thah internets.
So that's $649 for a fucking sweet system, which runs whisper quiet, looks good in the media room, and takes up less than a quarter of the space your shitty "Shuttle box" takes up.
One of the hidden costs of a Mac is that all of your existing PC hardware may as well be thrown out, as it's useless now.
Never heard of eBay, fucktard?
I appreciate that the Macs are cheaper now, but the Mac Mini is not as much of a bargain as it appears to be. Certainly not for what you get. I *wanted* to be able to justify the purchase of one, but it's simply too much money right now to get a useful system compared to a PC upgrade.
Well, a lot of Canadians are pretty poor, especially in Quebec. Maybe someday, with a little bit more US aid pouring into your country (there's already a shitload, by the way) you can afford a good computer. I'm sure you can find a way to be productive with the lump of turd you bought in the meanwhile.
Cheers!