I bought the white iBook right when it came out, which was about the time Apple began bundling OS X with their hardware. I was looking forward to being able to play DVD movies and use a great graphical interface on a super stable Unix base. My experience has not been so great.
At the start I was unable to play DVD movies in OS X. After some waiting and some updates, I was able to get watch movies, but that feature was implied when I bought the machine. Why else pay extra for the DVD model? I cut Apple a little slack because they finally got this feature working.
Next, I was unhappy with the performance so I ran out and upgraded it to 384mb of RAM. That helped some, but I am finding that the processor is still tapped heavily by this Aqua interface. (tuning?) It is simply too slow on this new iBook. Apple should not be releasing an OS on hardware which cannot provide the resources the interface needs. Steve Jobs claims that Apple is the only company left which can take full responsibility for the complete user experience, hardware to software, so I am calling him on it. I bought new hardware and I have a fully upgraded OS so why am I so disappointed in how slow this thing is?
The performance is just horrible. Then I find that when I run Java or PS5.5 in Classic the system gets slow, the rainbow circle begins to appear and I am eventually forced to reboot. That is not stability.
I should note that I have been careful only to use software which I download through the Apple download site just to be certain I am not running some strange shareware which is messing with the OS X internals. It is just that OS X is just flawed in several places. It needs a great deal of work.
Now some of you may be reading this and getting very upset. I just gotta say this is my experience with OS X on a white iBook. I have been a FreeBSD user and administrator for a few years and I also use Windows at work. My choice is to use OS X, but the above areas simply need work. I read reviews which are so gushing with praise for Apple, but I refuse to believe that nobody has encountered the same problems as me.
Now consider supported hardware. Getting a decent webcam, gamepad, scanner, or flash disk reader working with OS X is hit or miss. And most of the time it is a miss. Visit the Apple website in the games section and you will find it recommends the Gravis Gamepad which works with InputSprockets, a driver interface in OS 9 which was not brought to OS X. Apple is recommending hardware which does not work in OS X!!! Read the technical requirements yourself. It is just frustrating. I want to be able to use the OS to practical things, but I am finding that I am spending more time struggling to find decent hardware and tinkering with making something work than actually doing what I set out to do.
In short, if OS X and the iBook are supposed to be a part of the digital hub... a media center for my digital camera (flash disk) and a great gaming platform, then it needs to support that hardware. As yet I have found OS X to remain very lacking. If the third party hardware companies are not making drivers, then Apple has to apply enough pressure to make it happen. Either they make their own hardware to fill the void or sponsor the development of those drivers by companies like Macally, Logitech and Sandisk.
For now, I am finding all I can do with my iBook is the Terminal app and Internet Explorer. Don't even try to look at a collection of photos in iPhoto. It takes forever to render all of images. All of the other magical dreams that use to be OS X are just not true. Steve Jobs, make that dream come true in 10.2, or you will see your 5% userbase shrink to 2% quickly. It does not matter how cool the iMac may seem. People will eventually return to what can fill their practical needs and if OS X does not fill that void, they will seek it with WindowsXP. (the thought makes me sick)
Consider there is no point in migrating Windows users to OS X only to have them migrate back 2 years later. You will not get them back. I have a friend who did that very thing. He bought an iMac under OS 9 and switched back to Windows because he was tired of crashing and rebooting continually. All he remembers of his Mac days is disappointment.
Stop further development of the iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and just get the core OS working. The rest is useless if the core is rotten.
It does not matter if I posted those aliases here. I am already blocking them so the point is moot. I do not plan on opening up those aliases again.
My life is going pretty well and the future looks pretty good too.
You people really need to get a life if pointing out moot arguments is what you do with your free time. I was simply pointing out a strategy to block spam. Why not try contributing instead of trolling?
You do not understand. When I am forced to sign up to some site to do something like download the Java Plugin from Sun.com I do not give up my real email address.
And what do you mean I would not know where they come from? What does it matter? I send mail to that address and know it because I control the alias. If I find an offender, I know what site was the cause. How do you think I determined I was getting lots of mail to my slashdot alias.
And since I know that I specifically requested that CDNow.com not send me any mail, I simply black hole that alias.
So I hardly think that makes me an idiot. The system works.
When I use Yahoo Instant Messenger and a new user tries to contact me I have to OK that new user. Why can't email be the same way?
Sure it may not actually be the same email that we know today, but if the Jabber system was extended to support mail which is stored persistently, then it would be possible to actually check your mail in that way. And if a new sender wants to communicate with you, you could OK their messages. Over time the people who need to contact you on a regular basis would have the ability to get right into your inbox. The rest will have to sit in a sort of limbo.
I would also suggest that you could put in an access list to allow in domains that you trust, such as myschool.edu, mywork.com, etc.
Such a system would not work easily within the SMTP protocol, but why do we need to stick to SMTP. Why not migrate to a new method which takes into account the way spammers make their money.
I noticed a massive increase in the amount of spam that I was getting. Fortunately I am running my own FreeBSD server for mail and I simply updated access lists for the frequent offenders. That blocked some, but I was still getting a great deal of mail coming in.
Finally I was told that I can identify countries by their IP block. Now that I block Korea, Russia and other countries I am not back down to my normal daily allowance of 2 pieces of spam a day.
I also have a spam blocking strategy others may want to use. Since I run my own domain I create an alias for every website which wants me to register. For example, here I have an alias for slashdot@offwhite.net which is posted along with my comments. I also have one for cdnow.com@offwhite.net, cnn.com@offwhite.net, etc. When I sign up for a newsletter or post comments I will know where the incoming spam originated. Unfortunately I found that my slashdot alias was the culprit for much of the mail. Spammers are obviously scraping this site.
After I put my spam blocking lists in place, in addition to the normal RBL features you can do with spam I am block tons of mail for me and all the users on my server. And in a single day the daily report that FreeBSD sends out shows that I blocked 111 pieces of mail just for my offwhite.net domain.
Perhaps eventually I can release some of these offending domains from my access/blocking list, but for now I am simply returning an obscure message that the user was not found. It is my hope that they simply remove my name from their lists. One can only hope.
Ok, before this new update the Java Runtime was already at 1.3.1. This update just made that faster and more stable in some areas. It is my guess that Apple will also have 1.4 coming out around the time MacOS 10.2 is released.
That said, I am running Netbeans to do Java development on my white iBook and it works great. With this new update it makes it much more reasonable in terms of speed and responsiveness. And I am glad to have an alternative to Windows for Java.
As for applications being released for Java 1.4, that is just stupid. It just came out and there surely will not be applications already based on 1.4. Most will safely lag behind at 1.3.1 where it is stable while 1.4 becomes more established. It also takes time for developers to take advantage of the new features in 1.4. From what I read of your post, you do not understand the nature of software development.
Being the most up to date with the latest Java spec is not always an advantage for an application. Often is bases it on a loose foundation which is not proven. And from what I have seen of 1.4, it just integrated several Java frameworks which you can simply include as Jar files with 1.3.1 level applications. Nothing will keep someone from deploying an application with the same abilities to a 1.4 vs a 1.3.1 level runtime.
At the time Apple did not have the Developer Tools available for download. I actually waited for a few weeks and finally resorted to Darwin, which is the same tools anyway, minus the Project Builder apps.
But after 10.0.4 came out they also made many of the tools available to ADC members. Regardless, the tools I got from Darwin already worked.
This will hopefully help in several areas, especially insecure third-party applications in the ports collection. Quite often the FreeBSD security team sends out warnings about some ports that have a root compromise but is they implement Manditory Access Controls in a Trusted OS, that should cut back on that big time.
Does anyone know much about all of this? From what I have read before, you can limit access of an application using control lists, but since I have never worked on a system with this feature I have no idea what it can do.
Good read...
http://www.securityportal.com/closet/closet20010 50 9.html
Anybody have an opinion on whether corporations would find FreeBSD to be more viable after these features are in the system?
I believe that if Microsoft actually follows through with porting.NET to FreeBSD and that if Oracle releases their Oracle client software for FreeBSD, others would follow. It is a solid platform that works very well. The best thing about FreeBSD project is that it is lead by developers, not number crunchers who push out beta code into consumer releases. Perhaps FreeBSD will start getting more credit on it's merits and rise above the buzz that popularized Linux.
Linux is also a good OS, but when you have companies like Corel and others packaging any half-baked software projects into the distribution you end up with a dis-jointed environment. The opposite is true for MacOS X. Apple took some Open Source (FreeBSD, OpenSSH, etc) and packaged it with code that they wrote (Aqua, Quartz, NetInfo) to create a complete system.
The fact that Apple should be able to incorporate most of the changes to FreeBSD into Darwin/MacOS X is good news. Apple should add some money to the pot to help take it a little further, perhaps add more more developers and reduce the time it takes to complete some key features.
The Linux boom is leveling off and people are realizing that there are other systems like FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD which are all rather nice.
Sure the BSD's do not focus on being desktop workstations but that does not mean the Gnome and KDE developers cannot make it work nicely as one. At times it is hard setting up X under BSD, but once it is running it is pretty sweet.
I use FreeBSD since it seems well rounded with tons of ported applications and many performance enhancements for the x86 platform while the other two main branches are happy producing a great server OS which runs on all kinds of hardware. I am unsure how well X and Gnome runs on those systems. I doubt many NetBSD users would feel bad if someone said XFreeBSD is hard to install onto NetBSD. One place that I know is using NetBSD has it running several large printers. I think they manage them through SNMP.
Pick the right OS for the job. I am glad FreeBSD works well as a server and can do the job as a workstation so long as I do not mind tinkering with it till the sound works.
FreeBSD continues to improve nicely. I cannot wait to see when 5.0 is released sometime in the next year or so. The integration of BSDi features like fine grained SMP will be great, even for a single processor. A nicely threaded kernel will be good for everything. Take that along with more development on KQueues and you will have a fine desktop platform and a database/web server.
MS is very desceptive and they do not really see Linux as the real threat. Apple just announced the changes they made to MacOS X after the public beta has been updated and it is pretty amazing. It has full multimedia features and yet has the power of Unix, just like you want for a server. Add ease of use to that system. That is a double threat to both the MS desktop and server market. I realize the 2.4 kernel was also just released, but that has been a long time coming and will not suddenly sweep over user desktops, not as Balmer is suggesting.
Linux with KDE or Gnome is still quite nice, and the system should convert several users, but by saying Linux is the threat is cleverly deceptive. It draws attention away from the MacOS X system.
You may say that people will not be switching to MacOS since they will have to purchase a new computer just for an OS, but as Steve Jobs explained, the computer is now just a centerpiece to the whole digital experience. For $800 you can get an iMac or spend more and get a G4 with a the new standard CD-RW drives while you already spent $600 for that new Canon Powershot digital camera and over $1000 for the digital video camera and scanner. Since the MacOS supports USB these perepherals will work with Windows or the MacOS. They get driver support more readily that Linux does. The Mac will provide a powerful multimedia base for your new tech toys and will have strong driver support to boot. That is the true top threat to MS and Windows.
Still, I would like to see Linux excel as well. But I do not think we should fall for this deception. By pushing more for Linux driver support we will soon see Linux on par with Windows as a desktop system and once average users convert in droves and more OEMs offer to bundle Linux, we will be able to claim Linux as the threat Balmer is now touting.
Don't agree with this line of thought? Visit the Apple website a while and see what they are now offering. Watch the demos and if you can, try out a Mac with the public beta. Also read about Darwin, the Unix base for MacOS X.
Even if you still do not agree, maybe you will get some ideas for your Linux/BSD project.
I am on a team which produces a city guide and we work with various government and business organizations in the area. I find that often government and business websites go the cheapest route due to budget limitions but there are ways around that.
For starters, given a big enough community you can have local web development and ad agencies bid on the design for the site. You will likely get a very good deal, perhaps even free if that firm is allowed to take credit for building the site. They are motivated to produce the most useful and attractive site possible as it is going to a major part of their promotion once they win the project.
Locally, here in Milwaukee, a national web firm actually paid 1 million dollars for the rights to produce the Brewers website. They wanted to have the exposure through doing multiple sports sites.
Also locally, we have the annual Summerfest which is a large 2 week event which features all kinds of music. It is promoted nationally and every year they allow local companies to submit designs for the site and each one is reviewed and a firm is then chosen over the course of a few months to do the site.
And after you do have a site, you may want content to enhance what you initally offer. The site I work on is OnMilwaukee.com and we offer event information and reviews and previews of various things around the city. A government site typically draws visitors looking for this information but does not have the resources to produce it. So they either provide links to our site for information or we develop a co-branded solution for them. It then benefits us both.
One site is www.Ride.MCTS.com, the Milwaukee County Transit System website. They have several vistors and have a very nice site but wanted to offer more information. We set up a co-branded version of our site for them so that the following link goes to our site,but styles the header graphics to be a part of our website.
http://www.ridemcts.com/cityguide/index.asp
But our site usually looks like this...
http://www.onmilwaukee.com/index.html?cb_id=1
The co-branding offers content to their site in a way while it sends traffic to our site. The custom header for their site also provides navigation back to their website.
As far as content for the government site, that would depend on the organization. Typically contact and address information is very useful. (maps too) History of the organization and a calendar (agenda) is also very useful to see what the organization has done historically, recently and what it will do soon.
It is also nice to have a way to route people's comments and complaints to the proper department and person. This is basically a web form which sends an email, but the destination of the email is determined by the selections they make in the form. A form also allows for a short survey to collect some info. Then an automatic reply either by email or regular mail is sent. I sent a web form message to my congressman once. I got a letter in the mail with a business card. It made me feel like I was being heard and the adminstration was responsive. Email may work as well, but does not provide that real action is being taken.
It is not like the printing methods for Unix systems is a standardized system. It is a real pain. Maybe that update to X11 6.5 will help with the new printer protocols.
I see this happening. When new people come out of college they are fresh and full of energy. They may have to learn skills, but that is easier then UN-learning bad habits. It is best for someone who has been in the field a while, like I have been for 3 years now, to learn a few key skills and learn them very well, perhaps picking up new skills now and again. Be sure not to dilute yourself. After some time, you can either move into management or become a consultant. You may also start your own company, as I have.
I grew up on Unix these past 7 years, learned HTML, Javascript, Perl, MySQL and other skills and use them to make money for myself. I spent the last few years grooming these skills with a few different companies who allowed me to learn. Use the system to your advantage, don't be afraid of it.
http://www.house.gov/writerep/ This address will let you enter your zip code and contact your local representative. Send them a pleasant email explaining that you want the Digital Millenium Copyright Act erased from law or at least revised to that it does not walk all over the previous rights we are supposed to be guaranteed. Let them know the goverment should be making laws to protect and serve the people, not large corporations.
The moron who started this thread talks like he/she knows everything about apple and software in general but obviously does not really get it.
Compiling many Linux/Unix applications from source code is quite simple. I run apache, bind, sendmail and tons of other application on my FreeBSD box and can do the same by compiling the same exact source code onto a Linux box. And since Darwin is a knock-off largely from FreeBSD 3.2 it should be able to compile those kinds of applications.
As for device support, there is a large base of drivers for BSD and Linux which apple could absorb into the Darwin source tree. And don't forget that many hardware companies are jumping on the bandwagon. Didn't Seagate announce plans to support Linux this year? Western Digital drives are already well supported. And video driver development can be extrapolated from existing xfree86 and MacOS VGA driver code.
And think of what Apple is trying to do overall. There is now a market for servers. I have worked for companies who have moved away from Sun and SGI hardware to cheaper x86 hardware. If companies could reuse that hardware with an easy to use MacOS X Server, they would be happy to do so. Not many people can handle the complex sys admin work needed to maintain Linux or BSD, but MacOS X changes all that. It gives companies the option to get away from NT and Win2000.
Slashdot Mirror
I bought the white iBook right when it came out, which was about the time Apple began bundling OS X with their hardware. I was looking forward to being able to play DVD movies and use a great graphical interface on a super stable Unix base. My experience has not been so great.
At the start I was unable to play DVD movies in OS X. After some waiting and some updates, I was able to get watch movies, but that feature was implied when I bought the machine. Why else pay extra for the DVD model? I cut Apple a little slack because they finally got this feature working.
Next, I was unhappy with the performance so I ran out and upgraded it to 384mb of RAM. That helped some, but I am finding that the processor is still tapped heavily by this Aqua interface. (tuning?) It is simply too slow on this new iBook. Apple should not be releasing an OS on hardware which cannot provide the resources the interface needs. Steve Jobs claims that Apple is the only company left which can take full responsibility for the complete user experience, hardware to software, so I am calling him on it. I bought new hardware and I have a fully upgraded OS so why am I so disappointed in how slow this thing is?
The performance is just horrible. Then I find that when I run Java or PS5.5 in Classic the system gets slow, the rainbow circle begins to appear and I am eventually forced to reboot. That is not stability.
I should note that I have been careful only to use software which I download through the Apple download site just to be certain I am not running some strange shareware which is messing with the OS X internals. It is just that OS X is just flawed in several places. It needs a great deal of work.
Now some of you may be reading this and getting very upset. I just gotta say this is my experience with OS X on a white iBook. I have been a FreeBSD user and administrator for a few years and I also use Windows at work. My choice is to use OS X, but the above areas simply need work. I read reviews which are so gushing with praise for Apple, but I refuse to believe that nobody has encountered the same problems as me.
Now consider supported hardware. Getting a decent webcam, gamepad, scanner, or flash disk reader working with OS X is hit or miss. And most of the time it is a miss. Visit the Apple website in the games section and you will find it recommends the Gravis Gamepad which works with InputSprockets, a driver interface in OS 9 which was not brought to OS X. Apple is recommending hardware which does not work in OS X!!! Read the technical requirements yourself. It is just frustrating. I want to be able to use the OS to practical things, but I am finding that I am spending more time struggling to find decent hardware and tinkering with making something work than actually doing what I set out to do.
In short, if OS X and the iBook are supposed to be a part of the digital hub... a media center for my digital camera (flash disk) and a great gaming platform, then it needs to support that hardware. As yet I have found OS X to remain very lacking. If the third party hardware companies are not making drivers, then Apple has to apply enough pressure to make it happen. Either they make their own hardware to fill the void or sponsor the development of those drivers by companies like Macally, Logitech and Sandisk.
For now, I am finding all I can do with my iBook is the Terminal app and Internet Explorer. Don't even try to look at a collection of photos in iPhoto. It takes forever to render all of images. All of the other magical dreams that use to be OS X are just not true. Steve Jobs, make that dream come true in 10.2, or you will see your 5% userbase shrink to 2% quickly. It does not matter how cool the iMac may seem. People will eventually return to what can fill their practical needs and if OS X does not fill that void, they will seek it with WindowsXP. (the thought makes me sick)
Consider there is no point in migrating Windows users to OS X only to have them migrate back 2 years later. You will not get them back. I have a friend who did that very thing. He bought an iMac under OS 9 and switched back to Windows because he was tired of crashing and rebooting continually. All he remembers of his Mac days is disappointment.
Stop further development of the iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and just get the core OS working. The rest is useless if the core is rotten.
(that is my two cents)
It does not matter if I posted those aliases here. I am already blocking them so the point is moot. I do not plan on opening up those aliases again.
My life is going pretty well and the future looks pretty good too.
You people really need to get a life if pointing out moot arguments is what you do with your free time. I was simply pointing out a strategy to block spam. Why not try contributing instead of trolling?
You people are lame.
You do not understand. When I am forced to sign up to some site to do something like download the Java Plugin from Sun.com I do not give up my real email address.
And what do you mean I would not know where they come from? What does it matter? I send mail to that address and know it because I control the alias. If I find an offender, I know what site was the cause. How do you think I determined I was getting lots of mail to my slashdot alias.
And since I know that I specifically requested that CDNow.com not send me any mail, I simply black hole that alias.
So I hardly think that makes me an idiot. The system works.
*insert insult here*
When I use Yahoo Instant Messenger and a new user tries to contact me I have to OK that new user. Why can't email be the same way?
Sure it may not actually be the same email that we know today, but if the Jabber system was extended to support mail which is stored persistently, then it would be possible to actually check your mail in that way. And if a new sender wants to communicate with you, you could OK their messages. Over time the people who need to contact you on a regular basis would have the ability to get right into your inbox. The rest will have to sit in a sort of limbo.
I would also suggest that you could put in an access list to allow in domains that you trust, such as myschool.edu, mywork.com, etc.
Such a system would not work easily within the SMTP protocol, but why do we need to stick to SMTP. Why not migrate to a new method which takes into account the way spammers make their money.
I noticed a massive increase in the amount of spam that I was getting. Fortunately I am running my own FreeBSD server for mail and I simply updated access lists for the frequent offenders. That blocked some, but I was still getting a great deal of mail coming in.
Finally I was told that I can identify countries by their IP block. Now that I block Korea, Russia and other countries I am not back down to my normal daily allowance of 2 pieces of spam a day.
I also have a spam blocking strategy others may want to use. Since I run my own domain I create an alias for every website which wants me to register. For example, here I have an alias for slashdot@offwhite.net which is posted along with my comments. I also have one for cdnow.com@offwhite.net, cnn.com@offwhite.net, etc. When I sign up for a newsletter or post comments I will know where the incoming spam originated. Unfortunately I found that my slashdot alias was the culprit for much of the mail. Spammers are obviously scraping this site.
After I put my spam blocking lists in place, in addition to the normal RBL features you can do with spam I am block tons of mail for me and all the users on my server. And in a single day the daily report that FreeBSD sends out shows that I blocked 111 pieces of mail just for my offwhite.net domain.
Perhaps eventually I can release some of these offending domains from my access/blocking list, but for now I am simply returning an obscure message that the user was not found. It is my hope that they simply remove my name from their lists. One can only hope.
Ok, before this new update the Java Runtime was already at 1.3.1. This update just made that faster and more stable in some areas. It is my guess that Apple will also have 1.4 coming out around the time MacOS 10.2 is released.
That said, I am running Netbeans to do Java development on my white iBook and it works great. With this new update it makes it much more reasonable in terms of speed and responsiveness. And I am glad to have an alternative to Windows for Java.
As for applications being released for Java 1.4, that is just stupid. It just came out and there surely will not be applications already based on 1.4. Most will safely lag behind at 1.3.1 where it is stable while 1.4 becomes more established. It also takes time for developers to take advantage of the new features in 1.4. From what I read of your post, you do not understand the nature of software development.
Being the most up to date with the latest Java spec is not always an advantage for an application. Often is bases it on a loose foundation which is not proven. And from what I have seen of 1.4, it just integrated several Java frameworks which you can simply include as Jar files with 1.3.1 level applications. Nothing will keep someone from deploying an application with the same abilities to a 1.4 vs a 1.3.1 level runtime.
I am that guy...
At the time Apple did not have the Developer Tools available for download. I actually waited for a few weeks and finally resorted to Darwin, which is the same tools anyway, minus the Project Builder apps.
But after 10.0.4 came out they also made many of the tools available to ADC members. Regardless, the tools I got from Darwin already worked.
This will hopefully help in several areas, especially insecure third-party applications in the ports collection. Quite often the FreeBSD security team sends out warnings about some ports that have a root compromise but is they implement Manditory Access Controls in a Trusted OS, that should cut back on that big time.
0 50 9.html
.NET to FreeBSD and that if Oracle releases their Oracle client software for FreeBSD, others would follow. It is a solid platform that works very well. The best thing about FreeBSD project is that it is lead by developers, not number crunchers who push out beta code into consumer releases. Perhaps FreeBSD will start getting more credit on it's merits and rise above the buzz that popularized Linux.
Does anyone know much about all of this? From what I have read before, you can limit access of an application using control lists, but since I have never worked on a system with this feature I have no idea what it can do.
Good read...
http://www.securityportal.com/closet/closet2001
Anybody have an opinion on whether corporations would find FreeBSD to be more viable after these features are in the system?
I believe that if Microsoft actually follows through with porting
Linux is also a good OS, but when you have companies like Corel and others packaging any half-baked software projects into the distribution you end up with a dis-jointed environment. The opposite is true for MacOS X. Apple took some Open Source (FreeBSD, OpenSSH, etc) and packaged it with code that they wrote (Aqua, Quartz, NetInfo) to create a complete system.
The fact that Apple should be able to incorporate most of the changes to FreeBSD into Darwin/MacOS X is good news. Apple should add some money to the pot to help take it a little further, perhaps add more more developers and reduce the time it takes to complete some key features.
The Linux boom is leveling off and people are realizing that there are other systems like FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD which are all rather nice.
Sure the BSD's do not focus on being desktop workstations but that does not mean the Gnome and KDE developers cannot make it work nicely as one. At times it is hard setting up X under BSD, but once it is running it is pretty sweet.
I use FreeBSD since it seems well rounded with tons of ported applications and many performance enhancements for the x86 platform while the other two main branches are happy producing a great server OS which runs on all kinds of hardware. I am unsure how well X and Gnome runs on those systems. I doubt many NetBSD users would feel bad if someone said XFreeBSD is hard to install onto NetBSD. One place that I know is using NetBSD has it running several large printers. I think they manage them through SNMP.
Pick the right OS for the job. I am glad FreeBSD works well as a server and can do the job as a workstation so long as I do not mind tinkering with it till the sound works.
FreeBSD continues to improve nicely. I cannot wait to see when 5.0 is released sometime in the next year or so. The integration of BSDi features like fine grained SMP will be great, even for a single processor. A nicely threaded kernel will be good for everything. Take that along with more development on KQueues and you will have a fine desktop platform and a database/web server.
MS is very desceptive and they do not really see Linux as the real threat. Apple just announced the changes they made to MacOS X after the public beta has been updated and it is pretty amazing. It has full multimedia features and yet has the power of Unix, just like you want for a server. Add ease of use to that system. That is a double threat to both the MS desktop and server market. I realize the 2.4 kernel was also just released, but that has been a long time coming and will not suddenly sweep over user desktops, not as Balmer is suggesting.
Linux with KDE or Gnome is still quite nice, and the system should convert several users, but by saying Linux is the threat is cleverly deceptive. It draws attention away from the MacOS X system.
You may say that people will not be switching to MacOS since they will have to purchase a new computer just for an OS, but as Steve Jobs explained, the computer is now just a centerpiece to the whole digital experience. For $800 you can get an iMac or spend more and get a G4 with a the new standard CD-RW drives while you already spent $600 for that new Canon Powershot digital camera and over $1000 for the digital video camera and scanner. Since the MacOS supports USB these perepherals will work with Windows or the MacOS. They get driver support more readily that Linux does. The Mac will provide a powerful multimedia base for your new tech toys and will have strong driver support to boot. That is the true top threat to MS and Windows.
Still, I would like to see Linux excel as well. But I do not think we should fall for this deception. By pushing more for Linux driver support we will soon see Linux on par with Windows as a desktop system and once average users convert in droves and more OEMs offer to bundle Linux, we will be able to claim Linux as the threat Balmer is now touting.
Don't agree with this line of thought? Visit the Apple website a while and see what they are now offering. Watch the demos and if you can, try out a Mac with the public beta. Also read about Darwin, the Unix base for MacOS X.
Even if you still do not agree, maybe you will get some ideas for your Linux/BSD project.
I am on a team which produces a city guide and we work with various government and business organizations in the area. I find that often government and business websites go the cheapest route due to budget limitions but there are ways around that.
For starters, given a big enough community you can have local web development and ad agencies bid on the design for the site. You will likely get a very good deal, perhaps even free if that firm is allowed to take credit for building the site. They are motivated to produce the most useful and attractive site possible as it is going to a major part of their promotion once they win the project.
Locally, here in Milwaukee, a national web firm actually paid 1 million dollars for the rights to produce the Brewers website. They wanted to have the exposure through doing multiple sports sites.
Also locally, we have the annual Summerfest which is a large 2 week event which features all kinds of music. It is promoted nationally and every year they allow local companies to submit designs for the site and each one is reviewed and a firm is then chosen over the course of a few months to do the site.
And after you do have a site, you may want content to enhance what you initally offer. The site I work on is OnMilwaukee.com and we offer event information and reviews and previews of various things around the city. A government site typically draws visitors looking for this information but does not have the resources to produce it. So they either provide links to our site for information or we develop a co-branded solution for them. It then benefits us both.
One site is www.Ride.MCTS.com, the Milwaukee County Transit System website. They have several vistors and have a very nice site but wanted to offer more information. We set up a co-branded version of our site for them so that the following link goes to our site,but styles the header graphics to be a part of our website.
http://www.ridemcts.com/cityguide/index.asp
But our site usually looks like this...
http://www.onmilwaukee.com/index.html?cb_id=1
The co-branding offers content to their site in a way while it sends traffic to our site. The custom header for their site also provides navigation back to their website.
As far as content for the government site, that would depend on the organization. Typically contact and address information is very useful. (maps too) History of the organization and a calendar (agenda) is also very useful to see what the organization has done historically, recently and what it will do soon.
It is also nice to have a way to route people's comments and complaints to the proper department and person. This is basically a web form which sends an email, but the destination of the email is determined by the selections they make in the form. A form also allows for a short survey to collect some info. Then an automatic reply either by email or regular mail is sent. I sent a web form message to my congressman once. I got a letter in the mail with a business card. It made me feel like I was being heard and the adminstration was responsive. Email may work as well, but does not provide that real action is being taken.
It is not like the printing methods for Unix systems is a standardized system. It is a real pain. Maybe that update to X11 6.5 will help with the new printer protocols.
I see this happening. When new people come out of college they are fresh and full of energy. They may have to learn skills, but that is easier then UN-learning bad habits. It is best for someone who has been in the field a while, like I have been for 3 years now, to learn a few key skills and learn them very well, perhaps picking up new skills now and again. Be sure not to dilute yourself. After some time, you can either move into management or become a consultant. You may also start your own company, as I have.
I grew up on Unix these past 7 years, learned HTML, Javascript, Perl, MySQL and other skills and use them to make money for myself. I spent the last few years grooming these skills with a few different companies who allowed me to learn. Use the system to your advantage, don't be afraid of it.
http://www.house.gov/writerep/ This address will let you enter your zip code and contact your local representative. Send them a pleasant email explaining that you want the Digital Millenium Copyright Act erased from law or at least revised to that it does not walk all over the previous rights we are supposed to be guaranteed. Let them know the goverment should be making laws to protect and serve the people, not large corporations.
The moron who started this thread talks like he/she knows everything about apple and software in general but obviously does not really get it.
Compiling many Linux/Unix applications from source code is quite simple. I run apache, bind, sendmail and tons of other application on my FreeBSD box and can do the same by compiling the same exact source code onto a Linux box. And since Darwin is a knock-off largely from FreeBSD 3.2 it should be able to compile those kinds of applications.
As for device support, there is a large base of drivers for BSD and Linux which apple could absorb into the Darwin source tree. And don't forget that many hardware companies are jumping on the bandwagon. Didn't Seagate announce plans to support Linux this year? Western Digital drives are already well supported. And video driver development can be extrapolated from existing xfree86 and MacOS VGA driver code.
And think of what Apple is trying to do overall. There is now a market for servers. I have worked for companies who have moved away from Sun and SGI hardware to cheaper x86 hardware. If companies could reuse that hardware with an easy to use MacOS X Server, they would be happy to do so. Not many people can handle the complex sys admin work needed to maintain Linux or BSD, but MacOS X changes all that. It gives companies the option to get away from NT and Win2000.