I was thinking the same thing. Most ISP's software doesn't include Mac versions either, so a Mac would have been in exactly the same situation.
If only she'd just invested in a decent wireless router, with a web interface, all this hassle could have been avoided.
I think the manufacturers of netbooks who offer Linux would be well advised to invest in the development of LogFS, because that would probably pay dividends in terms of improved performance, seeing as it's designed specifically for flash memory.
Isn't LogFS designed specifically for flash memory? At present most flash drives seem to come with FAT, purely because anything can read that, but that's sure as hell not designed for flash. Seeing as portable music players seem to be heading towards using flash memory, they could do with something like that.
I certainly think the iPhone OS's GUI would make quite a good basis for a netbook. OS X in its current incarnation wouldn't work well on a netbook - the dock just takes up too much screen space for such a tiny screen, you'd have to lose it or have some way to hide it. But turn the iPhone onto its side and you'd have something similar to the Eee PC's GUI. And it's no mystery why the Eee PC is easy to use - the GUI is a modern classic, it's simple and easy to use, even if you've never used Linux before.
While I agree with you about OS X compared to Linux (I especially hate the installer, it's not a patch on apt-get), it would be handy for dual-booting if you want to do something that's Mac-specific (such as port an application to it), or wanted to test websites in various browsers on different operating systems, without having to buy a new computer.
I think Damn Small Linux is perfect for this. It's very fast to boot on most machines, can easily be carried around on a CD or USB pendrive, it has a GUI that's reasonably easy to use though minimal, it has Nano and Beaver for text editing, and can be extended easily thanks to MyDSL. It's also possible to install it to HD. As long as you're comfortable mounting devices from the command line, it should be a good choice.
I recently upgraded to Kubuntu Hardy. After much agonizing, I eventually decided reluctantly to stick with KDE3.5 - for me it's just not ready yet in Kubuntu. But since Intrepid Ibex will include KDE4.1, I'll be very glad to switch to that.
KDE4 is brilliant - just not yet.
It is very good, the David Lynch film. Whoever directs the new version will have a real task on their hands.
How about Peter Jackson? Lord of the Rings was of similar scope and he made that into an incredible trilogy, so he would be a great choice.
Also, a lot of asteroids are a LOT more mineral rich than the Moon. I've heard that a small metallic asteroid would be worth a trillion US$, and that's apparently quite a conservative estimate. Moon rock, by comparison, is roughly equivalent to the slag left over after mining an asteroid. Also, if you go for one of the near-Earth asteroids, it takes no more fuel to reach it than to reach the moon. If anything, it's easier to rendezvous with an asteroid because it's got far less gravity.
So, a mission to an asteroid makes more commercial sense. There's even the possibility of mining it out, spinning it to generate artificial gravity and cutting out a cylindrical cavern in the middle and setting up a colony inside. Obviously, something like this is just the first step, but an asteroid mission is a much better idea than a moon mission in many ways.
I agree with your comment about 'They should use what they'll use at work'. Ultimately, you can't tell what kids will end up using at work - in some industries Macs are more prevalent, and in others Linux is, even if the majority use mostly Windows.
As far as I can see, there's a similar level of difference between different versions of Office as there is between OpenOffice or other office suites and MS Office. If you can use one, you can generally use others with little change. I managed to adapt to OpenOffice after having used MS Office, and I don't see why anyone else wouldn't be able to adapt either.
These days, I don't really see the difference between a Mac and a PC. Macs now use Intel processors instead of PowerPC, and you can run Windows on a Mac, so how is it not a PC? For that matter, when I switched my Dell laptop to Kubuntu, did it cease to be a PC? And if you were to get OS X working on a PC, would it become a Mac?
As far as I can see, a Mac is just a PC that looks nice, costs more and comes with a different OS installed by default.
Slashdot Mirror
I was thinking the same thing. Most ISP's software doesn't include Mac versions either, so a Mac would have been in exactly the same situation. If only she'd just invested in a decent wireless router, with a web interface, all this hassle could have been avoided.
I'd heard of Btrfs, but I didn't know it had an SSD optimised mode. That could be REALLY handy for music players and netbooks.
I think the manufacturers of netbooks who offer Linux would be well advised to invest in the development of LogFS, because that would probably pay dividends in terms of improved performance, seeing as it's designed specifically for flash memory.
Isn't LogFS designed specifically for flash memory? At present most flash drives seem to come with FAT, purely because anything can read that, but that's sure as hell not designed for flash. Seeing as portable music players seem to be heading towards using flash memory, they could do with something like that.
I certainly think the iPhone OS's GUI would make quite a good basis for a netbook. OS X in its current incarnation wouldn't work well on a netbook - the dock just takes up too much screen space for such a tiny screen, you'd have to lose it or have some way to hide it. But turn the iPhone onto its side and you'd have something similar to the Eee PC's GUI. And it's no mystery why the Eee PC is easy to use - the GUI is a modern classic, it's simple and easy to use, even if you've never used Linux before.
While I agree with you about OS X compared to Linux (I especially hate the installer, it's not a patch on apt-get), it would be handy for dual-booting if you want to do something that's Mac-specific (such as port an application to it), or wanted to test websites in various browsers on different operating systems, without having to buy a new computer.
I think Damn Small Linux is perfect for this. It's very fast to boot on most machines, can easily be carried around on a CD or USB pendrive, it has a GUI that's reasonably easy to use though minimal, it has Nano and Beaver for text editing, and can be extended easily thanks to MyDSL. It's also possible to install it to HD. As long as you're comfortable mounting devices from the command line, it should be a good choice.
Yeah, but I'm trying Chrome at the moment, and that annihilates IE8. And that's a beta, and probably less mature than IE8.
I recently upgraded to Kubuntu Hardy. After much agonizing, I eventually decided reluctantly to stick with KDE3.5 - for me it's just not ready yet in Kubuntu. But since Intrepid Ibex will include KDE4.1, I'll be very glad to switch to that. KDE4 is brilliant - just not yet.
It is very good, the David Lynch film. Whoever directs the new version will have a real task on their hands. How about Peter Jackson? Lord of the Rings was of similar scope and he made that into an incredible trilogy, so he would be a great choice.
Also, a lot of asteroids are a LOT more mineral rich than the Moon. I've heard that a small metallic asteroid would be worth a trillion US$, and that's apparently quite a conservative estimate. Moon rock, by comparison, is roughly equivalent to the slag left over after mining an asteroid. Also, if you go for one of the near-Earth asteroids, it takes no more fuel to reach it than to reach the moon. If anything, it's easier to rendezvous with an asteroid because it's got far less gravity. So, a mission to an asteroid makes more commercial sense. There's even the possibility of mining it out, spinning it to generate artificial gravity and cutting out a cylindrical cavern in the middle and setting up a colony inside. Obviously, something like this is just the first step, but an asteroid mission is a much better idea than a moon mission in many ways.
I agree with your comment about 'They should use what they'll use at work'. Ultimately, you can't tell what kids will end up using at work - in some industries Macs are more prevalent, and in others Linux is, even if the majority use mostly Windows. As far as I can see, there's a similar level of difference between different versions of Office as there is between OpenOffice or other office suites and MS Office. If you can use one, you can generally use others with little change. I managed to adapt to OpenOffice after having used MS Office, and I don't see why anyone else wouldn't be able to adapt either.
These days, I don't really see the difference between a Mac and a PC. Macs now use Intel processors instead of PowerPC, and you can run Windows on a Mac, so how is it not a PC? For that matter, when I switched my Dell laptop to Kubuntu, did it cease to be a PC? And if you were to get OS X working on a PC, would it become a Mac? As far as I can see, a Mac is just a PC that looks nice, costs more and comes with a different OS installed by default.