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Ars Technica Reviews OS X 10.5
E1ven writes "Ars Technica has published their in-depth review of the newest version of Mac OS X.
John Siracusa both covers the user-visible features such as the new UI tweaks and Time Machine, and dives into the increased use of metadata and the new APIs introduced and what they mean for the future of OS X."
I've got to respectfully disagree. Your original post is overrated, flamebait, a troll and funny (in the way ignorance generally is).
They'll never compete? really? every new mac you can Leopard on is also a machine capable of runing vista. On intel Macs they do compete.
You want to see which is better? Again really? You really expect that one is better. With the vast number of things that an OS might be used for there is no one single metric for better-ness. And why can't you compare them, because one of them is better in regards to the breadth of hardware it supports? It would be cool if we could compare which is better but we can't cause one of them is so bad at meeting my needs to even run it for comparison. Yeah, ok. I can see right now that Vista is better at meeting your needs, now you know.
And what did you do minutes after some one responded to your mail, you responded with a smug, aren't I smart and superior to you response. Hmmm, it's as though that first message was some sort of bait. And since you railed at both the person whose comment you provoked and the mods, you were both trolling and flame baiting.
Oh and you didn't include this but it was essentially off topic too, As it wasn't about the review of OS X, or about OS X, just about how you couldn't compare it to vista cause you wouldn't buy apple hardware.
Personally I think that Apple hardware is very versatile and that they have an OS and software that let you take very good advantage of that hardware. I'm a sys admin and my mac laptops have been like computing swiss army knives for me. I've solved a lot of problems that other people would have and did give up on because I was able to leverage the flexibility of both the hardware and OS. That's not to say that what is good for me is good for someone with different ends in mind for their computer
The MacPro is expensive, yes - but you were talkign ABILITY and not EXPENSE.
You should read versatile less pedantically. The expense of the product makes it an unsuitable platform, even though its technically feasible.
In my experience people either build a cheap system whose needs are met by something like a mini or iMac already, or they are building Uber Expensive Gaming Rig in which case you are talking MacPro money anyway!
Then you don't have much experience. Most gaming rigs clock in the 2k range. Yes, "uber expensive" stuff goes well beyond that, but you can get a fast Core2Duo, 8800GTX, 2GB RAM, with a raptor hard drives, and a 500GB secondary drive, XP Pro or Vista Ultimate, and a premium powersupply for ~2k without really trying. And that's roughly the sweet spot for gamers and value conscious overclockers today. (sure there's variation, OCing Core2Quads Q6600 to 3GHz and beyond is popular too, and the 8800GTS is a cheaper video solution, some people opt for 4GB of RAM, but its mostly in that ballpark of 2k.
500 for CPU/Mobo (E6850 and a reputable mobo from Asus or MSI or your brand of choice)
200 for RAM 2GB (2x1GB)
50 for DVDRW
150 for P/S brand name stuff, good quality
100 for case
600 for vid card say an 8800GTS or upper end ATI 2900XT
500 for Hard drives a pair of 250GB raptors
100 misc aftermarket cooling fan, floppy drive maybe, get a sexier case, whatever...
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2200
As you can see the above system is by no means cheap. Premium parts all round, not 'take my money cuz I'm stupid' (except for maybe the video card, but hey, it IS a gaming rig. You could still build a very serviceable gaming rig for considerably less by dropping into a cheap case/ps, using value ram, dropping to 7200rpm hard drives, and going with an 8800GTS.
Now lets try and build my 'respectable' gaming rig on a Mac platform. imac and mini are right out because the video card upgrade simply is not an option period. That leaves the Power Mac.
So we start with a $2500 machine; remember, my rig was 2200. So were at 300 premium and we haven't even started! Right off the bat the cpu is a problem. 2x 2.66GHz core2duo "xeon". nice on paper, but utterly useless... a single 3GHz core2duo E6850 would benchmark faster in games. But you can't get that. To get close to that on a PowerMac you have to get a pair of 3Ghz 2core Xeons for another $800. ouch.
The apple store doesn't offer fast drives, so we keep the 250GB one, and have to add the raptors or 500GB drives at home. Paying $129 to upgrade to a 500GB is a rip... you can get a whole drive for that much. And Apple charges $329 for the second drive. Robbery. Budget $500 for a pair of raptors for when it gets home.
Next up video: nothing but shit 7300GTs from Apple. So take that and toss it, budget 600 for a 8800GTX when it gets home.
Next up RAM. 1GB on 2x512. WTF who spends that much on a machine and gets 1GB? I want 2GB minimum and Apple screws you there... instead of 2x1GB its 4x512MB. WTF?! There's just no winning with these clowns. And its ECC RAM... so good luck on the OC front. But going with their 2GB option adds another $300 to the price. At least its got 8 slots so we can add more down the road without a total loss on these.
Total cost of a the rig on a PowerMac:
2500 base
800 cpu to 3GHz
500 hard drives added at home
600 vid card added at home
300 memory to 2GB
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4700 total
$4700 for a system that STILL won't benchmark as fast as a $2200 PC in any game. Sure its got an extra xeon sitting on the board that I didn't need, but its not doing me any good and I'd just as soon sell it. But what's the point its $320 new, and would go for maybe $200 used, if I could find a buyer who actually needed one. $4500 doesn't really do me any favors. I suppose I could have gotten the pair of 2.66's and tried selling both of them to fund a single 3.2 Xe