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Nerds Switching from Apple to Ubuntu?
Mindpicnic writes "The recent switch of two lifelong Mac nerds to Ubuntu hasn't escaped Tim O'Reilly's radar. He cites Jason Kottke: 'If I were Apple, I'd be worried about this. Two lifelong Mac fans are switching away from Macs to PCs running Ubuntu Linux: first it was Mark Pilgrim and now Cory Doctorow. Nerds are a small demographic, but they can also be the canary in the coal mine with stuff like this.'"
Tell me when the nerds shut down Apple, Inc. That's news.
blarg.
I think Firefox might have had some effect in waking people up to Free Software.
I've actually seen far more developers switch from Linux to OS X than vice-versa. I think there are definitely switchers in both directions, but I'm not sure that there are more in one direction than the other, and I'd be doubtful that there are more switching away from OS X than those switching to. (Full disclosure: I run Linux on my desktop PC and OS X on my media center PC and haven't touched Windows in years.)
~ roscivs
* What should happen is that the app's window comes into the foreground; what does happen is that the 2nd Finder window comes into the foreground
I've already seen several comments saying that this is no big deal, obviously thinking that these people only 'recently' switched to Macs. But that isn't the case.
Mark Pilgrim has been a Mac user since 1983. Cory Doctorow since 1984. These people have lived and breathed Macs - and they're now giving up on them, and not just for a whim, but in very well-thought out and carefully explained reasons. You might not agree with them, but at the least do them to justice of reading and considering their thoughts and not dismissing them out of hand.
(And for example Tim Bray is another long-standing Mac using visionary who's recognized that open data is more important than all the very good reasons why staying with a Mac is the easier choice.)
Recently, I've made the opposite migration (from Ubuntu to Mac OS X). Now, while I love Ubuntu, and continue to use it on my desktop, I must say that Mac OS X has a lot going for it. There's nothing really wrong with the platform inherently. However, given the particular people in question, Ubuntu seems better suited for their needs than OS X does. Furthermore, with the latest release, things are quite easy to use on most hardware sold for Windows. Of course, the reason I removed Ubuntu from my MacBook is because I'm familiar with GRUB, which doesn't work on EFI. Perhaps I'll dual-boot the MacBook again when they've had time to work out that particular issue. I'd like to have an Ubuntu environment on here that isn't emulated over Parallels, too.
So honestly, between Ubuntu and OS X, to me, it's an even trade, based on what one needs. If you're doing heavy programming, Ubuntu is the place to be. However, if you're looking for a simple user-oriented Unix-like system, Mac OS X is just fine.
Haec merda tauri est. Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
As a long-time Macophile, I played with Linux for years and was never completely happy with it until recently (read: until I installed Ubuntu). I've always had a Mac around as a back-up, but for the last several months, I find myself using it less and less, and getting frustrated with it more and more. The final straw was when I couldn't get the FreeNX client to work on it so I could use Linux on my nice, big flatscreen iMac. Now the only thing standing between me and putting Ubuntu on the iMac is a lack of free time.
On an off-topic note, it appears to be my Mac background that makes me like Gnome. KDE feels too much like Windows. Cue flames!
What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
What kind of gamer are you that your needs are satisfied on Ubuntu? I recently switched to Ubuntu (Dapper), and yesterday installed vmware-player with a WinXP virtual machine, and then installed 2 games (first is PopCap's Dynomite and the second is Civ4), and although both of them installed, neither would actually play. Maybe I'm missing something, but Ubuntu looks to me as underwhelming as any other distro when it comes to gaming (although overwhelming on everything else).
What's the best way to get games to play on Ubuntu? I still need to dual-boot with Windows because of games, and I would really, really like to get rid of that.
After 3 days without programming, life becomes meaningless
- The Tao of Programming
I run Ubuntu (and Suse on another box) as my main machine. I have VMWare installed, just in case I need to run a Windows program, although that's very rare.
Well, clicking around various links one day, I came upon a torrent link of an OS X 10.4 image to run in VMWare. I thought "Cool! I can try out OS X and see what all the hype is about." Initially I couldn't get wireless networking to work, but I found a fix through one of Maxxuss' patches. I still can't get sound working, but for my purposes, that's OK.
So, I can poke around and play around with OS X now. Guess what? It's OK. But I still end up doing all my real productive stuff under Ubuntu.
I wonder if I had only known Windows and tried this, would have the same impression?
I ran linux at home for over 6 years. On desktops and laptops.
First, linux requires so much configuration on laptops. Neither debian nor ubuntu could support acpi (aka SLEEP) on my laptop. CD-ROM support was annoying as I switched from kernel 2.4-2.6. I had to recompile the kernel so many times and I could never get acpi to work (not even dell supported it, just some hacker in france that never replied to my email bug report). Other annoying things: getting vpn through a windows PPTP server will take you a long as time.
Linux is a great thing for a desktop though, the hardware is pretty standard and theres less things to worry about.
Linux is best for a server, and best for a beginning sysadmin to run at home to learn more about the operating system that is run at work.
And while I will probably buy a macbook for my next computer, I hope to have the resources to also get a windows vista to play around with.
I really like desktop machines that just work in most cases. I've been running windows xp on my dell laptop for a few months now, and while its not ideal, at least i get easy vpn access, the ability to turn off zeroconf to get my intel wifi card working,although i do miss being able to simply edit my crontab to give me a streaming radio alarm clock that goes off at different times during the week.
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Isn't it really a matter of time before companies such as Adobe recognize that creating a distribution or partnering, and developing a single application port is more cost effective than a Mac and Windows app? I'm a Mac user and a designer, and have to say that the state of the Mac isn't all that great. Linux is ultimately going to move up scale.
The other aspect of this discussion is tools. Increasingly, they are web based. Aren't we really witnessing the beginning of the end for the all-purpose OS? Most of what I do is not related to an OS. I use tools and communicate. How this is accomplished matters little.
Also, most application interfaces suck beyond comprehension. Adobe's various interfaces don't sync between applications. Others, such as Maya, are so radically different from the underlying OS that it is essentially like running a different OS. So why not create one?
I'll try it in Parallels first, which I paid $30 for just to be able to do this exact thing....
/. reading fest on a 'working-from-home' day like today.
Then after finding out that I'm not missing anything (does Ubuntu have thousands of Games I'm not aware of, hundreds of Pro quality apps, tens of document formats unique to it???)... I'll turn off Parallels and go back to using my Mac w/ OS X.
Now OTOH if I was a poor developer who really needed a good development system w/ a free OS on relatively cheap hardware, well I'd probably be all up in Ubuntu's @SS looking for heaven or some x86 compatible version of it.
As it is, I already make a ton of money and can afford a sweet MBP w/ 30in. HD display to dock it with for doing real work... with added bonus of mobility to Diedrich's free Wi-Fi to get Iced Coffee for a good
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
So Ubuntu 6 got all the great buzz, so I grabbed a copy and installed it on a spare Windows box I had.
Gee, I think, this looks pretty good. Finally some attention to nice graphic detail. A good installer. Software install that includes "blessed" prebuilt exes.
But then the rough edges showed up again.
First... this is an nForce2 machine with built-in video, and the default config refused to let me select a screen-res larger than 1024x768. I know, the nerds out there are saying "just edit your x config file", right? OK, but here's the thing:
(1) that's an INEXCUSABLY STUPID AND LAZY way to design operating system software
(2) it's too easy to screw up your x config file and break x (and by "too easy" I mean "remotely possible")
Second... I discovered that the oh-so-lovely disk partitioner has the added feature that on some systems (including mine) it borks the MBR of the resized Windows partition in such a way that Windows will refuse to boot. Even after uninstalling Ubuntu. And even after applying various fixes via UBCD and friends. (Right now this system is sitting disconnected under my desk because I refuse to reinstall Ubuntu, but reinstalling Windows is a horrible half-day affair on its own...)
Look, I know I'm gonna get flamed and burn karma for this, but the whole point is that for a system that I want to use mainly for surfing the web and playing games, it has to Just Work.
Not "mostly work with some crap I have to hand edit", it has to be freakin' bulletproof against a stupid user who neither knows nor cares that "sudo gedit foo" is required for some otherwise-seemingly-trivial configuration options.
No, this is not an apology for Windows, whose install and configuration is a nightmare of its own, but when you're the underdog, you can't just play catch-up, and you can't make boneheaded mistakes like those listed above.
No but they're leading the pack, and Apple will miss the masses when they do the same. Only the masses will not be going to Linux, they'll be going back to Windows.
I know a LOT of people who have switched back, including myself. I'd run Linux for ten years as my desktop OS until I switched to OSX, and I've switched back. Why? Not the ease of use of Ubuntu, although its nice to run Linux and not have to worry about things working or not. I switched back because of the horrid quality of Apple hardware the last few years. I've wasted a large number of thousands of dollars on Apple hardware that died immediately out of warranty. (iBook, two iPods, two Mighty Mice, and my old 17" G4 iMac was flaky but still works most of the time).
Apple is riding a wave of popular hype, but popular trends can switch away from a company as fast as they can switch TO a company. And there's a LOT of people in the last year or two who will start learning about Apple hardware quality as their iPods die, or they talk to people like myself who will be happy to tell them how Apple has such a long history in the 2000's of having known common defects in their hardware and not supporting their owners. (My iBook is dead at 14 months from a failed logic board, a very common problem in all the post-Clamshell iBooks, but Apple has only chosen to support customers when threatened with class action lawsuits)
Not quite, I'd probably be considered a Mac Nerd. You never hear from us because we (Well, I) hate most Mac users. I love OSX, but I'm tired of everyone who has an orgasm every time they see a Macintosh. Computer = a tool. Computer != a religion. It's usually not important enough to talk about. I don't know what it is about the less common operating systems, but they seem to attract the asses. (Free/Open/DietBSD etc. seem to be immune to this, not sure why.)
I hate grammar Nazi's.
I am a Linux user (Redhat/Fedora) exclusively since 99, that tried to switch to Mac and failed. Finally sold MacBook Pro after three months just today.
The problems with Mac:
1. The hardware is beautiful, but the lack of dock sucks. Heat problems and noise are not helping either.
2. The superb OS reliability is a myth. It is fairly okay, but not nearly as solid as it is made out to be. I made it unusable (not intentionally) more than once in short time.
3. The software availability is behind even Linux. The quality of third party software is often very low. Everything, even basic stuff costs money and does not always work.
Having killed 2 nights to copy a DVD (and failed) and several nights to get WMV to play in Firefox (and failed) I said heck with it, I'll just do it on Linux.
4. MacBook is essentially closer to a handheld device: whatever is there works great, if you want something extra, it is going to resist and generally suck.
5. I want my software to be open and to behave during the install. A lot of packages do install in $HOME, but a lot want a root install. And there is no package manager in the OS: you can install a package, but you can not remove it using standard means. A mess.
6. The text-based UNIX tools do not work quite the way I need: no decent raster fonts, no X11 style cut'n'pase, no multiple desktops (expose helps, but...). This is not a showstopper by itself, but a big minus for me. I write code in vim 10 hours a day, I want it nice and comfy.
7. I need a minivan, not a luxury coupe. Especially with the engine compartment welded shut. Especially if it is not running that great to begin with.
Bottom line: I could to give up my OS being free and become dependant on a single vendor if it would be a big improvement, but Mac OS X was not. I can see why a regular user may like a Mac, but it just was not for me. Also, none of the issues alone would have made me drop mac OS X, but all together they just outwight the benefits.
And theres this horde of windows users switching to linux as well
And in fact, with Dapper, this is now default: you now actually run the installer from the GNOME desktop on the live CD. You have to use a different iso image to go through the old install process. It's a good thing, too - it takes all the guesswork out of hardware compatibility.
And the best thing of all - how many distros let you surf the web while you're installing them? I was emailing friends as I installed the system: by far the most pleasant install I've ever done!
When I meet Unix users in numbers (mostly at the LinuxBierWanderung where there is a semi-random sampling of roughly 80 people from a bit all over but mostly Europe), what I see is that people who bring Apple laptops (there are a dozen) do so because they don't want to spend time fighting with the arcane hardware of a poorly documented x86 machine. And MacOS is "Unixy" enough for a secondary machine (the main desktops are still some sort of Unix, mostly Linux, with some BSD and a few Solaris thrown in for variety).
When I talked to all of the Apple users, while they all found their Macs to be "adequate", none were especially fond of them, none seemed to have ever considered getting a desktop Mac. The laptops were stopgap measures until Linux was solid enough on that class of machines (which means, proper suspend/sleep, WiFi support, etc., without spending ages poking at the damn thing). Basically they wanted to have the same thing on laptops as they had on their desktops. A solid, no fuss system they understood.
That's what I wanted too. That's why I too got an iBook. I could have gotten a fairly crappy noname Linux machine (that is, with Linux pre-installed) for about twice the price. In the end I went with the safe option. Like the others. Like them I'm not too fond of the Apple system. Like them whenever I use it I really miss the comfort of a proper Linux desktop. Like being able to browse the network easily in KDE, like having properly integrated virtual desktops, network shares that actually make sense to me, being able to move windows to the front and back with the mouse...
I know all this can probably be done with Mac OS (it could probably be done in GEM with enough time) but it's trivial in KDE, even in Gnome. To me MacOS just feels like a polished Windows sitting on top of a BSD toolset. In the end it's just simpler to cut the middleman and get a vanilla Unix box without the extra crud but with the real goodies.
Of course by sticking with Unix you miss on some of the good stuff the Apple guys came up with. Notably the application installation package trick which is simple and elegant, and some Mac apps that are quite nifty (I know I'll miss CopyWrite when I drop MacOS). This does not really matter, most of us will gladly trade more freedom for a little roughness at the edges. In my case, the main freedom is the freedom to keep my own data. Mark Pilgrim, the guy mentionned in the article above switched for the same reason (among others probably, but it seems that this is what tipped him over).
Disclaimer : Note that all of "us" that I mentionned above are long time computer geeks past the "tinkering stage" (some of us are actually past middle aged) and set in our ways. So the above is in no way representative of the general geek population and is absolutely not representative at all of random computer users. FWIW I also keep a Windows partition for games.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
Not really. Mark Pilgrim, Sam Ruby, and Tim Bray all have very strong influences on an extremely important segment of the market. Cory Doctorow has a very strong influence on a slightly different segment of the market. In the former group's case, we're really talking about the fact that the architects of some major systems are switching to Ubuntu. This will ultimately have virtually zero effect on Apple's market share, and honestly, I don't think anyone believes it will. However, it does mean that Apple may start losing PowerBook market share at certain conferences. Instead of 90% PowerBooks at the next RailsConf, we may only see 80% instead.
At least in my case, I know that ever since Sam and Mark started talking up Ubuntu, I've been wanting to find an excuse to set up an Ubuntu box. I doubt I'll leave Apple for my primary machine, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to explore Ubuntu. But who knows? I might really like it.
And then get {bored with it, tired of all the hassle} and switch to Gentoo.
This crap again, are all Mac bashers as ignorant as you?
WTF are these constant gaping security flaws that are never exploited? I mean, I should have expected to hear something in the news already except of studies by anti-virus companies with a vested interested.
Except on some computer forums, I never mention to people (unless they ask me) why I use a Mac or that I even do. I don't try to sell it or evangelize it but why does every other anti-Mac post have the same f-ing cliches about yuppies in turtlenecks and shit.
I mean, give me a break. iPods, one of the most popular audio players there is right now, makes you think of yuppies? It seems every other college aged kid has one.
Leave the fucking cliches at home, I heard them enough already: I pulled out my Mac once during a break in a college class and some 18 year old punk turned around, squinted, and said "Eww! A Maaaaaaaac!" That's usually the reaction I expected pre-OSX (not that I owned a Mac back then but knew people who did) - but it's one I get from enough users that know Windows (and only Windows). I ended up talking to him and he was on the Comp Sci track: 1st year w/o job experience criticizing me for what tool I use to do my job:/
The world is hetergenuous enough with Windows, you don't have to put down all Mac users as reality distortion victims - there's enough that don't proselitize and don't wanna hear from the other side.
BTW - I use Linux at home on all my computers but as for a notebook - Linux just ain't there yet for notebook but I'd love it to be. And no, Ubuntu doesn't do it for me there. Desktops, yes. Notebooks, no.
I won't be missing it.
First off, while it's a great idea to have a standard archiving format (dmg), it's a terrible idea to have no support for compressing that (without third-party software like StuffIt), and it's an even worse idea to make end-users have to go through that format.
Why? Well, believe it or not, I think Windows usually has Mac beat on installation.
Here ten reasons I hate installing software on OS X:
If you want to manually uninstall a program, there's usually an install log created somewhere, but I'm either really stupid about my Mac, or I've never been able to find that uninstall.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
I switched from Windows to Debian Sid many years ago. It worked OK even though Sid had problems. Then I got my wife a PowerBook. Since I needed to support her (and I like toys) I got myself a Mac Mini. The Mini has been a great, if slow, for web, email and learning about the Mac.
Later I got a crappy laptop (Compaq Presario 2100) and tried Debian on it. That was like stabbing myself in the eye with a fork so I switched it to Ubuntu Warty and it worked great.
For a while I mostly left the Linux box idle except for some games (NWN, Guild Wars, UT2004). After a while Sid finally did something to tick me off after Sarge was released and I installed Breezy and it was a whole lot better. I'm finding myself using the Ubuntu box about as much as the Mac. So I haven't really switched back. I just use them both.
It may change again when I get a Intel Mac. The performance of the mini gets annoying after a while. I'll still keep the Ubuntu box around because some things are just easier under Linux. Especially web work and programming.
The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. - Edward R. Murrow
As part of the Mac initial bootup, you link the new Mac to the old Mac with a firewire cable. It automatically transfers all the user accounts and anything new in
I've done this 3 times at this point. The only time I had to do anything else, it was because I had placed games in a directory I had created,
For me it really was a painless upgrade process. (Here's where
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
Actually I can almost guarantee that:
{{Playstation Games}+{PS2 Games}+{DOS Games}+{Native Linux Games}}>{Windows Games}
Probably because I suspect {Playstation Games}>{Windows Games}, or is at least pretty close.
Actually, I've wondered whether there isn't a market for a bootable Linux distro that could run off of a removable disk that would contain a minimalist system set up with emulators for a lot of other games platforms (if you don't mind the questionable legality, with loads of ROMs?). All the older consoles, up through NES/SNES/PS1/PS2. I think there are a lot of people who would like to be able to just stick something like that into a Windows computer's drive and play, without having to worry about installing all the emulators onto their system.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
While I won’t even attempt to address specific numbers, the service life of a Mac is markedly longer. Five times as long? Frequently, yes. Both of my Macs are about that old, a G4 tower and a G3 iBook dating from 2001. And my previous desktop machine was a 7500 that orginally shipped with a PPC601 chip that I later replaced with a 604 and then a G3 chip when I moved to OS X. Granted, I’m not typical, but then again neither is the typical Mac user. I find that ten year old Macs are not uncommon in the real world. In fact, my girlfriend is hoping I’ll get one of the new Core Duo iBooks later this year and give her my G4 tower. I’ll either do that or put dual G4s in it, not quite sure yet. But it’s still a great machine even if it’s used primarily for running Opera and doing Access development work under VirtualPC. I would appreciate more than a single 533mhz G4 for using Canon’s RAW software, but Photoshop runs just fine, even when I start going all layer-whore on high-res photos.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
So yeah, maybe some ubergeeks I've never heard of switched. Whoopie. Back in the real world, the rest of us are pretty happy not having to screw around with configuration files for every little thing, because it leaves us more time to play with our children.
It's a very dark ride.
I'm told that Coke frowns on their employees publicly drinking Pepsi, too. Or try showing up to work at GM with a Honda.
More likely solely 'cause of the stylish design. CS professors/students are not beyond getting something 'cause it looks cool---without thinking too much about how it works
I used Linux religiously for 10 years (I was the first Linux user of India - stuck with it when the kernel did not even have networking built in). I used Mac OS once in 2003 summer, switched and haven't used anything since. The interface _is_ intuitive, and I don't have to worry about rpms not matching with libc versions all the time (and variations of the same problem with different linux distributions). I have bought 6 different Mac machines since then and am very happy with it and have no plans on going back to any other OS in the near future. Yes, I am a computer science professor and no, I didn't buy it for the "coolness" factor, but for it's usability. I get a nice GUI and most applications "just work", and MS Office compatibility becomes important in one's life at some point.
-Vishal
>OS X is really just UNIX + a Mac style GUI.
Plus a non standard filesystem layout. That IMO makes it unnecessarily harder to
use for unix people. And its not like the Macs tradition user base is ever going to
delve into the command line filesystem so I'm not 100% why they had to mess about
with the layout compared to "normal" unix or linux.
It's also interesting that the Mark Pilgrim blog article linked to from the main one can be summarized thus:
I don't like Apple anymore because:
1) There are some open source apps that I like better than the ones that come with OS X. I am going to mention how great they are without noting that Apple also think they're great enough to list them on their web-site together with links via which they may be downloaded.
2) I have been writing open source apps for Macs since 1993, when MacOS was entirely proprietary and closed source. They are much more open now, so I am abandoning them because they aren't open enough.
3) After over 20 years advocating Macs, I have discovered that Apple are more expensive than some other PC manufacturers, especially as they refuse to give me an IBM employee discount. Of course, they used to be massively more expensive rather than merely a bit more expensive, but I supported them then even though it sometimes meant paying thousands of dollars more instead of a couple of hundred.
4) Having bought a laptop from Lenovo, I am pissed off to discover that nasty old Apple won't let me run MacOS X on it. Of course, I've been happily supporting Apple since 1983, despite the fact that they did everything possible to stop people from running MacOS on Atari STs and Amigas which had compatible hardware but lacked Apple ROMs, sued anyone that dared to attach a mouse to something vaguely graphical, and generally behaved like arseholes. I used to justify it on the grounds that Apple weren't obliged to support people whose computers weren't made by them; this time however it's me that's affected, so I'm going to condemn Apple for it.
5) I don't like iTunes and iPhoto, and have said so for years (well, one and-a-bit years actually, but longer in reality, as my wife will tell you if you could ask her, which you can't). My main reasons for this are that they lost some of my settings, but not my songs or photos. Of course, I completely neglected to make any backups because alpha geeks don't do that sort of crap, but now put all my photos in other directories _on the same machine_ as well, despite the fact that iPhoto didn't lose any photos, only some metadata that my cleverly constructed directory system also completely lacks. These directories are organized by date because despite my alpha-geek status and all the amazing software I've written, I cannot write a small program to read the date information in each photo's EXIF header and automatically display them in that order despite the fact that there are libraries in a variety of languages that do most of the work for me.
Meanwhile, the Doctorow blog in the link says he's _going to switch_, but so far has only ordered a machine (again from Lenovo!). He has not yet actually tried installing or using Ubuntu, but intends to do so on his Lenovo, apparently because Mark Pilgrim's done it on _his_ Lenovo.
So the sequence goes thus: Mark Pilgrim gets pissed off at Apple for behaving just like they always have during the many years that he defended and justified their actions. He buys a Lenovo, and after discovering that he can't run MacOS X on it, decides to use Ubuntu instead. Cory Doctorow reads Mark's blog, and buys a Lenovo because that's what Mark has. He already knows he can't use OS X on it because Mark's told him, and therefore decides to use Ubuntu because that's what Mark is using. He's never actually tried it out for himself, and has no idea if there are any better distros out there for his purposes -- Ubuntu is for him because Ubuntu is what Mark's using, and Mark is so clever that he never needs to back stuff up at all.
If these are what pass for influential Alpha geeks in the Mac world, then their versions of Gamma and Phi geeks must have trouble pulling their knuckles of the floor to wipe away the drool that constantly run down their chests.
I'm not going to change your sheets again, Mr. Hastings.
Hard-core geeks use Debian.
:)
Nay hardcore geeks probably still like Slackware =D
And you might find the oddball who likes Mandriva...
JMO of course... You might find the odd one who actually prefers Peanut Linux ( aka aLinux) or something goofy too
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
"Hardly. Any reported hardware problem with Apple hardware makes it onto the Slashdot front page within a matter of days. People complain about the Macbooks overheating ALL THE TIME. Dell can have far worse problems with their hardware, but it takes a laptop battery exploding and starting on fire before it's news here. You will still get modded down if you troll, however, which makes me think what's really going on is you guys miss the days when any factually challenged, Dvorak type quip would get you an automatic +5 Informative."
Yep but you can't mod parent level posts so your point is invalid. Also, with PC hardware it's a different ball of wax entirely since there are thousands of possible combinations. Consequently, if Samsung builds a bum hard drive it effects everyone (not necessarily just Windows machines). There's no PC manufacturer to point fingers at. Consequently, your comparison is apples to oranges (no pun intended). There is also no inherent sense of quality except with very specific PC brands. Nobody gives a shit if an e-machines boxes regularly die after one year because they are cheap pieces of shit. Apple always tries to pitch the quality of their products so they have an obligation to deliver.
"No, they aren't. The only place you'll find DRM is on the iTMS store, which nobody forces you to use. There is no product activation, and not even a serial number unless you are buying OS X Server."
Lock-in can come in more than just DRM form. For example, Apple has no intention for you to run OSX on non-Apple hardware. If you want OSX, you better buy from them as far as they are concerned. Of course hackers will continuously try to get around this limitation but the point is still valid. I can assure you that people would be even more pissed about a totally Apple dominated world than they are about Microsoft dominated world because Jobs is even a bigger cock than Gates (hard to imagine, I know).
Thanks, but I'll take the flexibility I have right now. Enjoy your closed, Jobs run, world.
Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood. -- H. L. Mencken