Jamie Zawinski Switches to Mac OS X

iskander writes "After a disappointing experience with sound, Jamie Zawinski has finally given up on desktop Linux and switched to Mac OS X. The future of apps like xscreensaver and Gronk is now ``highly ambiguous''. He has already ditched a free/open platform before, but he seems a lot angrier this time. Indeed, twisted by the Dark Side of the Source, young Zawinski has become."

Comments

Sounds familiar

[October_30th]

I gave up and went to Mac. I still have a Linux desktop, but I am sick, sick, sick to death of having to tweak every last little friggin' thing.

I also gave up and went for a Mac for exactly the same reason. It's unacceptable that in 2005 a Linux distribution (FC3, in my case) doesn't recognize a three-button+wheel USB mouse out-of-box or that setting up a TV card requires you to edit some config-files by hand.

Re:Sounds familiar

[generic-man]

If I buy a TV tuner card, I don't want to examine the model numbers of all the chips on it just so I can use it to watch TV. I want to insert it into my computer, toss in a CD, reboot, and then watch American Idol until my brain falls out.

Re:Sounds familiar

[October_30th]

My logitech usb mouse has a windows driver

I don't quite understand why you're using Windows as a reference, when I was clearly talking about Mac. I plugged the mouse in and it just worked.

Oh, I know, it needs you to know what you're doing, and that usually needs some brainwork.

Ah yes, the tired old "If Linux is not good enough for you, it's because you're not good enough for Linux" argument. Ten years ago I used to spout that elitist bullshit, too.

I've lost the count of how many Linux computers I've built. I've set up and maintained Sun and DEC Alpha boxes (running both DEC Unix and Linux) and, quite frankly, I feel like I've done my share of tweaking. Now, all I want is a desktop computer that works for me -- not vice versa -- and Linux just doesn't cut it.

telling

[bwy]

I think it is pretty telling that someone who has a lot of technical expertise has the same problems that a lot of us have had with desktop Linux. The problem is real, folks.

If Linux on the desktop is to survive, I really think there needs to be a major coordinated effort to get lots of things in line. Maybe some type of consortium that would facilitate dialog between different groups and/or state a common direction. It is really hard to build a solid desktop OS when you've got thousands of developers operating independently or in small groups. You might get a few good solid apps, but the OS itself is going to be a patchworked hodge-podge.

Dark Side

[Ed Almos]

No, he has NOT been twisted by the dark side, he has just been pissed off for the last time by Linux software which does not do the job.

We have a printer system that was developed for line printers and never matured.

We have a sound system that works most (but not all) of the time if you are lucky.

We have power management issues on laptops which Microsoft fixed in 1995.

And finally

I have a laptop running Red Hat 9 because Fedora 1, Fedora 2, Fedora 3 and SuSE 9.x all have so many major problems with their basic installation that the machine is unusable. My next laptop will be an Apple machine.

Instead of adding more features I for one would be grateful if the Linux software developers fixed existing software. Bug hunting is not sexy but it might avoid more incidents like this.

Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary

Sound

[ultrabot]

The posts so for have missed the main point. That is, sound in Linux sucks. It just needs to be fixed.

- arts must die, and it will w/ KDE4

- esd must die

- every program should start using gstreamer

- ALSA must learn to do proper software mixing out of the box.

Imagine my "pleasure" when I inadvertly caused a "beep" to emerge from my terminal window, and as a result had to wait a while (20 seconds? can't remember) before I could start playing a video with sound. Or how I had to do "killall -9 artsd" to start playing video in totem after listening to music on Amarok (which is superior to rhythmbox in most ways).

Re:Who the hell is Jamie Zawinski

[shish]

Does anyone want a list of OS I'm running?

Are you the core (sole?) developer of a base app included in every desktop distro?

Re:Who the hell is Jamie Zawinski

[MPHellwig]

"But whining and running off to another OS isn't going to fix them."

Well the problem is fixed for him isn't?