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Apple Climbs Into Third Place In U.S. PC Market
Tibor the Hun writes "According to Gartner and IDC, Apple now has between 7.8 and 8.5% of market share. While those numbers are not astonishing, they are not insignificant, and their growth does not seem to be slowing down. Will the pearly gates of acceptance open up for them once they reach the magic 10%, and will that have a positive effect on desktop Linux adoption? Hard to tell, but it's good to see that normal people (not just us geeks) are choosing to go with a different OS, rather than staying with the headache-inducing Windows."
Try using Darwine (http://darwine.sourceforge.net/), or if you wish for commercial support, use CrossOver Office for Macintosh.
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Sorry, my post was a bit unclear. I want a project that will let me run OSX apps on a linux machine, just like with WINE, we can run Win32 apps on linux machines..
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
That would be GNUstep http://gnustep.org/
It's got a long way to go, but eventually, they intend to make .apps from OSX run natively. Remember mac OSX is really NeXTstep 5 (or something).
Uh...Apple's is the anti-3rd party OS. It's not fun to develop for. It's not fun to use. And Apple as a company is the anti-consumer. Their customer service leaves a lot to be desired, and they go for style above substance. I understand that it's a Unix-based OS, and I understand that it's pretty, but I don't see Mac OS as being the new geek haven for development or usage.
Please give us an update in about a month or so.
Yes, the apple GUI is different. Same with the keyboard shortcuts. Once you get used to them, you won't even notice it.
I went through the same frustration as you, but now I get pissed when I am on windows and can't use the command key like I can on OS X....
Give it time would be my suggestion...
What head aches? like not being able to find drivers for your new geeky toy?
Windows might be bloated, take up resources but an "operating system" is no good if it can't operate all of your hardware. Microsoft is soo good at enabling other companies to write drivers for them, I know it's not because of their technical prowess but because of their army of marketing people. In the end I don't care how they got to that point. Sayinng non-windows OSes are great has merit but only in a very limited context.
That's a pretty bad example. Congratulations, you just learned the UI widget for adding something.
Now, in most every single Mac native application (and the good ports), you know when you are "adding X", there will always be a button with a + symbol at the bottom corner.
Let's take Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac as an example of "you can write FORTRAN in every language". Say you want to set the default format to the old binary one instead of OpenXML.
Word: Hit preferences. It's a System-Preferences like presentation of a matrix of icons. Hit compatibility. Nothing there. Hit "Save". Ah, "Save Word files as ... (dropdown to .doc)"
Excel: Hit preferences. Again, a System-Preferences matrix of icons. Hit "Save". Nothing there. Hit "Compatibility" - ah, a different layout of dropdown box.
Powerpoint: Hit preferences. It's a tabbed interface. Go to the "Save" tab and hit "Save powerpoint files as ... (dropdown to .ppt)"
So, there are 2 layouts of preferences (tabbed versus icon matrix) and two places where this dropdown is hidden (save versus compatibility), and two different styles for the dropdown. No two apps are the same.
But yes, you do get buttons with labels. Just not a consistent GUI...
Okay. I can get windows to run. Really, I can. That doesn't mean it isn't a fucking pain in the ass, a terrible user experience, and a waste of resources. Sorry, I have plenty of reasons to get headaches from windows. Not being geeky enough to handle it isn't one them.
/etc/hosts requires jumping through tons of hoops on the mac just because it's designed to be "easier".)
I've been a Mac user for 2 years now, although I owned a PC for around 14. I've had more headaches using Mac OSX than I've ever had using Windows.
It's always some stupid little things, but it's something stupid in the OS. Like finder will remember the view settings for each individual folder. I can't tell it to use one default view for every folder, someone on a Mac IRC channel suggested I write a shell script that goes through and changes some file in every folder (some file stores the folders view settings.) There should be an easy way to do that
When I purchased my new MacBook Pro I saw it came with a cool little utility that will copy everything over from my old computer. So I hooked up both computers to my gigabit ethernet switch ready to copy, and then it told me it doesn't support network transfers (!!!) I have to hook up the computers to each other using a firewire cable. I don't happen to have spare firewire cables lying around, although I do have tons and tons of ethernet cables (plus the laptops have built in wireless, it can communicate with the other laptop straight out of the box with nothing extra required.) Same thing with Aperture, I can't backup to network storage only an external drive hooked up via USB or Firewire. I can't imagine why anyone would want to rely on an external drive for a backup mechanism.
The single mouse button is often brought up and people are told "You don't need a second mouse button" although every mac program I've ever used has some right click menu, the standard methods of accessing the method with a single button are holding Ctrl then clicking or holding down the mouse button. The problem is, sometimes that doesn't work (like when finder is dying and you need to restart it, which you can only do through the right click menu) so I have to go find a USB mouse, plug it in, hope it works, and then use that to right click.
In contrast I've never found a problem like the ones listed above in Windows that I can't solve. Even if it requires diving into the registry at least there exists a method. Doing anything sufficiently advanced on a Mac seems impossible (even with the unix backend, a simple task like editing
That is a damn LIE!
I can personally say I have tried to install Windows, and failed, badly. But a LFS Linux install? No problems!
Like hell all it takes is "pop it the disk and let it install", I think you are confusing Windows with Ubuntu or other Linux distributions.
No, you're quite incorrect here. A windows install will usually take between 2-4 hours to get it fine tuned, de-virused, etc. Linux install by the same token on the same hardware is usually a fraction of that time.
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
Pardon me, but I'd like to know what version of windows you're using. It usually takes me at least 1.5 hours after installing to get all the drivers installed and not conflicting. The only things that "just work" out of the box are the GUI and my 10-year-old 3-button Microsoft optical mouse.
Its = possessive. It's = "it is"
The point is that the registry is essentially one difficult to edit text file that bloats for the life of your Windows installation. Linux et. al. use application specific text files, each which can be ported, edited, removed, copied, etc. as required.
$ apt-cache stats
Total package names : 32368 (1295k)
Normal packages: 24717
Pure virtual packages: 508
Single virtual packages: 1876
Mixed virtual packages: 234
Missing: 5033
That's a lot of packages, and they are all maintained by volunteers.
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
Like finder will remember the view settings for each individual folder. I can't tell it to use one default view for every folder
Yes you can. Open a finder window, set it to the view type you want to set as default. I use List View (Cmd+2). Press Cmd+J to show the View Options pane. Notice how this pane changes as you cycle through the different view modes (Cmd+1-4). Once you adjust the settings to your liking, simply click "Use as Defaults" on the bottom of the View Options pane.
the standard methods of accessing the method with a single button are holding Ctrl then clicking or holding down the mouse button.
I assume you're using a laptop since you said you have to go get a usb mouse in order to right click. In the Keyboard & Mouse section of System Preferences, under "Trackpad" you can check an option labeled "Tap trackpad using two fingers for secondary click." I use it all the time.
Its = possessive. It's = "it is"
Um.. I'm just going to have to disagree with you on that. You cannot bitch and moan because OS X doesn't behave like Windows or KDE (which are arguably very similar in terms of their needless complexity when it comes to UI paradigms).
Seriously, a + is difficult and somehow unintuitive? How about File -> New, or Command + N?
Or if you'd just prefer a large unwieldy button that ads to the problem regarding consistency and too much shit on the screen with KDE and Windows...
You just can't use a Mac and expect it to be Windows. You'll be frustrated if you can't get over this part. When I got my first Mac in 2004, I used it at the same time as my PC and had similar issues overcoming things I'd expect to behave like Windows. I decided I'd stop using Windows to try to get over the baggage in expectations I'd have, and now 4 years later I go insane having to deal with some of the idiotic UI issues that plague Windows. Just compare System Preferences to Control Panel...
Shouldn't it be... GNUstep?
The reason is that Mac software works completely differently. The POSIX syscalls are the same, but almost everything in between is completely different. Not like Toyota-Ferrari, different, we're talking Schwinn-Ferrari different.
The Win32 API that Wine implements is a C API, so a clean version can be written from scratch by anyone who knows C and takes the time to do it. Lots of potential users there.
The Cocoa APIs of Mac OS X are written in Objective-C, a language which few people know. They are more expansive than the Win32 API, and since they are object-oriented the specification is quite a bit more complex.
There is a Free sort-of-implementation called GNUStep, which actually conforms to the earlier OPENSTEP specification, plus their own add-ons. The GNUStep people now make tracking changes to Cocoa a priority, so there is source compatibility, and there is something called Renaissance which allows users to create use a single file for user interface design.
However, I don't think GNUStep is binary compatible, even if it's built on top of Darwin and running on identical hardware. But if it's binary compatibility you want, the GNUStep codebase is the best place to start (just watch out for lawyers).
An interesting note, even though the two are binary compatible, because NeXT/OPEN/GNUStep/Cocoa applications are actually directories of multiple files, it's theoretically possible to have one single build that could handle either API, on a variety of architectures.
Yes, but lots of different text files. Windows only has two files for everything.
Unless I misunderstood you, you're confusing Linux with Windows or they've changed the install process considerably since XP. With Windows you must put the CD in, wait in front of the computer of five minutes, enter a very long string of alphanumeric characters including 1s and ls and Os and 0s and Bs and 13s, if you aren't on the internet you really get the "hitting yourself with a hammer" part as you authenticate, talking to a computer on your cell phone and entering another long string of alphanumerics.
Then you have to sit in front of the computer for another hour or two (or even longer) and tell it that it's OK to reboot itself several times.
When you finally get the OS installed you have to go into Control Panel to configure it like you want it (standard Windows or new kindergarten Crayon style, should the start menu pop up or cover part of the screen, etc.)
Then you have to install all your applications.
With Linux (with Suse or Mandriva, ymmv on other distros) you insert the first CD, choose how you want it to act in a single screen (LILO or GRUB, KDE or Gnome, etc) and what apps you want installed, and since it's all your apps as well as teh OS you have to change CDs when prompted. You don't have to sit there like with Windows, you don't have to install any apps (it's part of the installation process), you only have one reboot at the very end of the process, and your computer is able to do pretty much anything you would want a computer to do (except, of course, play Windows games).
IME Suse or Mandriva take less than an hour, while Windows takes all afternoon. It's easy and intuitive.
I'm not sure about Apple, but IINM you just buy one and plug it in.
Anybody who thinks Linux is hard hasn't tried Linux this century. Now I'll probably get downmodded by Linux geeks who want to keep their 133t cr3dz and don't want everyone to know that Linux installation is a piece of cake that your grandma could probably do.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
I agree about the hockey puck but have you ever used the new ultraslim keyboards? This is the best keyboard I've used since the AEK II, which I have always missed since they stopped putting serial ports on Macs... the recent keyboards before the flat ones were abominations, I was always pushing the control key by accident because of the way I hold my hands while typing. These flat keyboards are great though, terrific form factor and just the right amount of clickety click when you type. The wireless one is a little too small -- good for a entertainment center situation but not for a desktop. But the wired one is terrific, and not too pricey either.
As for the earbuds, you're right, but it doesn't matter. There's no point in them including Grados since well over 90% of their market won't appreciate or care about the difference (they're playing mp3s anyway!), and those of us who do care already plan to spend $100+ on something better. Personally I wouldn't want to be locked into an audiophile solution chosen by Apple -- I'd rather throw out the crappy ones they include and use my Shures rather than have to pay a large premium for good earbuds that I probably wouldn't use anyway.
huh, how is prior comment informative?? No details, nada...
In OSX I have to drag it to the Trash Can. Ya... that's a really efficient "workflow".
Apple-Delete, or right-click and choose Delete, or open the folder action menu and choose Delete. I like the keyboard shortcut. And unlike Windows I never accidentally delete anything because it requires two keys, also avoiding a dialog box.
I want to go to www.google.com. So I type it out but accidently type www.boogle.com. Now if I want to delete the B, I have to put the cursor after the B and press backspace. I can't put the cursor in front of the B and press Delete. WTF is up with that? Everyone knows... Backspace moves the cursor to the left and deletes text to the left of the cursor. Delete keeps the cursor in place and deletes text to the right of the cursor. What is so hard about that? Is there a solution to that?
The standard Apple keyboard has two delete keys, one is like the backspace and in the same location. The other is below the Help key and deletes text to the right. You would only have one if you're on a laptop, where space is precious, and therefore Function-Delete will delete to the right.
Developers: We can use your help.
In OSX I have to drag it to the Trash Can.
Command (the apple-symbol key) + Delete.
Delete keeps the cursor in place and deletes text to the right of the cursor. What is so hard about that?
Nothing, and as a matter of fact that's what OS X does in any standard Carbon or Cocoa text edit widget. Perhaps you could provide some context? That is, what program you were using and precisely what you were doing when you found that delete didn't work the way you think it should?
Also, I sincerely hope you're not tripping up over the fact that Apple uses different names for these keys. The key labeled Backspace on PC keyboards is labeled Delete on Apple keyboards, but it performs the same function as Backspace. The key labeled Delete on PC keyboards is Forward-Delete on Apple keyboards (the label is the word "Delete" or "Del" with a symbol indicating it deletes to the right), and, once again, performs the same function as the key in the same location on a PC keyboard.
Every OSX geek I've talked to just brushes me off like I'm stupid for wanting to use the Delete key.
I'm afraid it's more likely they were brushing you off because they think you're loony; you're saying that OS X doesn't do something which it does actually do.
The major tenet here is complete bollocks, of course. It's easy to distribute open-source apps for the iPhone.
Last night, I finally got my personal iphone development environment set up. I downloaded the 'accelerometer' example source (which graphs the accelerometer in real-time) - there's nothing special about this source code, I just wanted something a *little* more complex than 'hello world'. Any other source-code distribution would have illustrated my point just as well.
So, I went through the various certificate-signing things, and created development, distribution, and ad-hoc certificates. I compiled the code and dragged my ad-hoc certificate and the application onto itunes, then synced with my phone.
I now have some-random-program whose source-code I downloaded installed and running on my iphone. It needs the ad-hoc certificate at *compile-time*, which authorises my iPhone to be able to run the app, but if you're distributing open-source code, that's just fine and peachy - any recipient will want to compile it themselves anyway.
So, here's the choices if you want to code open-source stuff:
The *only* barrier to #2 is the cost of the developer program, ($99) which isn't much of a barrier...
Simon.
Physicists get Hadrons!
Macs have never had (unless a particular application was specifically written to override the default functionalityâ"usually a Windows port) a maximize window to full screen button. Wellâ¦maybe before OS X, but my memory has holes in it regarding that tidbit. The window is coded to open to fit the content, not take up your whole screen. However, if you have a window that you like to have full screen, the system will usually remember that and return it to the full-screen size when you reopen the application.
Same with Apple products (ipod and iphone)... what's your point?
I don't buy those products. I don't have an iPod Touch or an iPhone or a Zune. I have a cheap Samsung cellphone that's just as locked down, but I sure wouldn't have spent hundreds of dollars on one. I prefer Microsoft keyboards and mice to Apple keyboards and mice. I don't buy brand names, I buy products.
The point is Microsoft doesn't have a locked down and rigid approach to using their software.
Sure they do. It's in a different area than Apple, but if you start messing around and replacing parts of the Vista kernel you'll eventually hit a "tilt switch" and it'll stop working. Apple ships the sources to almost all the kernel, and don't have anything even close to the tilt switches and time bombs and heavy-handed copy protection in Vista, or even XP.
The "MS is worse" line
What "MS is worse" line?
you can't deflect criticism by saying it's ok because someone else does it...
I'm not "deflecting criticism", I'm pointing out that you're in the same trap no matter what company you pick.
Look, the problem is that you're looking at companies as if which company you do business with is a huge ethical or moral decision or something.
The problem isn't that Apple is evil, or Microsoft is evil, or Google is evil, the problem is that corporations are amoral. They're legally required to be. They all screw somebody, some of the time. Buying a product from a company isn't picking sides. Even working for a company isn't picking sides. There's no sides to pick.
To me Apple looks like this: "OS X is decent and they've been reasonably open with it so far, the hardware is anemic and I wish I didn't have to put up with it... c'est la vie, the iPod sucks (yes, really, I hate the click-wheel), their keyboards suck, their displays are decent, their mice are horrible...", and Microsoft looks like this: "Windows is a toxic swamp of badly designed APIs, their mice are pretty good, their keyboards are decent, Excel is pretty good but Word is horrible and the rest of Office is just mediocre crap, Outlook and IE are the biggest virus distribution system in the world, and I wish they'd really unleash Microsoft Research...", and so on.
You can't say ANY organization as big as these can be characterized by ANY simple sentence.
Hell, I just slipstreamed SP3 onto the XP install disk. I can get it up and running and completely patched in about 1 hour and 15 minutes from a blank drive. No sweat! No reason to re-invent the wheel every time. The biggest thing is make sure you know what kind of hardware you have and locate all the drivers BEFORE you get started. Or at the very least, have another working machine with an internet connection while you are doing the install.
"But this one goes to 11!"
The fullscreen thing is a different design philosophy, one that isn't based in a world where users are assumed to be so dumb that they're running their 256-bit quad-core 6GHz machine with a Geforce13900GTXS++ graphics card and a 42" LCD monitor in 800x600.
Basically, "maximize" is IMO a horrible legacy of the days when the average cheap-ass user had to run apps in full-screen mode to be able to be productive, these days there is no sane reason for just about any everyday app to run in fullscreen (why would you want Safari/Firefox or Mail.app running fullscreen on a 1920x1200 monitor?), and the few that have good reason to run in fullscreen generally have a "real" maximize button (like Maya).
It's simply the preferred default that apps don't just grab all available screen real estate.
/Mikael
Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
Then you really don't understand what Unix is.
The user-level UI stuff (for example, all the frameworks that make Mac OS X way much more than just another Unix) is completely orthogonal to whether an OS is Unix. While these days everybody seems to think that Unix means X11, that's only the . CMU's Andrew project's wm, SunWindows, NeWS, and others (including NeXTStep) all competed with X11 years ago, and they were all Unix - back then, they all tended to even have fairly incompatible sets of system calls (which inspired the creation of Posix compliance).
Mac OS X is Unix. It just happens to be much much more than just Unix, and it's the widest deployed desktop Unix in the world today.
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
My issues with el Mighty Mouse:
1. The stupid trackball gets clogged very easily and is very hard to clean.
2. The stupid trackball is too small for fine control. Great for whizzing the cursor along vast expanses of screen, bad for little adjustements.
3. If I don't have the mouse perfectly aligned, I can't get the "right mouse" button - I get the "side button" which defaults to Expose, which is useful, but isn't the right mouse button. It's just over designed and not overly well executed. They could have just put a blasted button in there instead of getting all fancy.
4. The whole thing is hard take apart and clean. I'm sorry, mice and keyboards need to be periodically cleaned or tossed and the MM is a little pricey to toss routinely.
5. The ergonomics aren't very good, I much prefer the Logitech mice. Easier to use for extended periods of time.
Of course, it's all quite subjective. I'm just glad that there are good third party options.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
OK, I have three linux boxes at home (1 x86_64 ubuntu laptop, 2 debian arm systems) and 5 at work, alongside an HP box and a solaris workstation.
I was actually impressed at the short install time for win2k8, it's really quite snappy.
I must say the same to you ... I don't know what you're talking about. In the scientific community I've only seen Software Eng. / Comp Sci. researchers happy with (for example) Linux. I'm in no way saying scientific computing can't occur in a Linux environment, I'm just saying from experience the options are far greater and the user experience much smoother by comparison (this is for Electrical, Mechanical and Civil Engineering, as well as Physics / Mathematics). As a quick example, FEKO works under Linux, but the company recommends using Windows if you have the opportunity due to performance and stability issues running under Linux. Nothing inherently wrong with Linux, just a fact that Windows is the native OS. I'm very much into the hard sciences (physically building, measuring, testing) so I'm not much for open source or coding things when there's more tangible things to be done. I can, however, see how open source software is a veritible wet dream for S/W Eng & Comp. Sci. folks.
You missed one.
If you are resting your left finger on the shell and you right click, it left clicks.
meh
The $150 million was not a bail out as you've put it. It was a settlement for a win-win for both companies. MS had "accidentally" used source code from QT in Windows Media Player and was being sued by Apple. But they had the Office for Mac card to play. So rather than being destructive, both sides traded. 5 years shared tech between both companies, IE on Macs as default browser, $150 million invested in AAPL and Office 98 for Mac. That $150 million investment in AAPL in 1997 served up profit when MS sold it around 2004. A large profit was made for MS. Had they held it and sold on last business day of December 2007â¦
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/592FE887-5CA1-4F30-BD62-407362B533B9.html
On a Compaq Presario V5201US.
(2GHz, 2Gb RAM, 128Mb shared VRAM, Intel chipset, WiFi, ExpressCard 34/54, USB2.0)
Starting at around 0800Hrs Saturday morning.
From booting from the DVD, formatting the 40Gig HD, ejecting the DVD & rebooting to a usable desktop took just under 30 minutes.
Downloading all the updates (still using 7.04, but everything else is current) took longer (1h45m) but that was STILL less than Windows XP SP1 trying to pull down & apply SP2.
Configuring FF (importing bookmarks, setting up the GUI like I like it, etc), Thunderbird (importing the address book, configuring the GUI, etc), Pigdin (importing all my contacts, fiddling with the GUI, etc), and making sure OOo was configured the way I prefer it to be, took less than 15 minutes.
Finished around 1115Hrs Saturday.
So in under three hours I had a secure, working system with Ubuntu.
That includes the video, WiFi, and Intel chipset support.
This was after having spent two DAYS installing XP to the same system, using a different HD.
Started Thursday of last week, around noon.
It took nearly 3 hours to format the fresh-from-the-shrink-wrap 40 Gig HD.
(Finished around 1445-1450Hrs.)
It took nearly 2 hours to copy all the files from the cd to the HD, reboot, & finally tell me I could eject the disk.
(Finished around 16:45Hrs.)
Applying all the drivers (video, WiFi, Chipset, Audio, etc) from CD that I had compiled & burned earlier for just this purpose.
(17:30Hrs)
It took another hour to apply SP1, reboot, SP2, reboot, SP3, & reboot again.
On a bare installation of XP (no other programs installed).
(18:50Hrs)
Installing Office XP, Antivirus, Firewall, Firefox, Thunderbird, & Spybot (all from a cd) took another hour (including the required reboots).
(1945Hrs)
THEN I attached it to the network & pointed it at the Windows update site. /FOURTEEN HOURS/ downloading all the updates to the bits that MS determined were "out of date", rebooting multiple times, continuing to download more updates, rebooting, etc until it finally told me that it was completely patched.
It spent the next
It finished just before 0900Hrs Friday morning.
So, granted this is only my experience, but an "old" copy of Ubuntu managed to nuke a drive, copy itself over, find the proper drivers, install said drivers, update itself from the main Repo, & hand me a usable computer in less than 3 hours.
Windows XP took two DAYS to get to that same point, and it took an EXPONENTIAL more amount of hand-holding, preparation, & work to get it there.
How did you manage to get Windows to be functional in under an hour?