A few comments: On the mac you can program in any keyboard shortcut yourself, i.e. give any menu item any keyboard shortcut. Very flexible. The "omg no second mouse button" hasn't been true for longer than I've been using a mac (2006 IIRC). The cygwin tools perform not too well and don't integrate well with other shell tools and programming environments, such as python. If I'm wrong - please, tell me how to fix it! By all means - kudos to the cygwin team, but they're in for a big challenge with all the underlying windows issues. Symbolic links, anyone? And the memory issue, that's not something I recognize at all - that must be an issue with the software in question, not with Mac OS? (I'd say the same if you were having memory issues on windows.) I tend to run at least twice as many apps simultaneously on my mac than on my windows machine, but then, RAM is plentiful anyway, so I find the GUI on windows more limiting. Finally, SSH is vastly better than both VNC and remote desktop, but I suppose that depends on what you're up to. If only windows could support a decent shell and SSH, it'd be a lot more livable when you're talking to a *nix server.
This, exactly this. Parent and grandparent are spot on. I've been away from windows since 2007, and got reintroduced to Win 7 when I started working in a new company a few months back. Windows 7 is the best windows so far - but windows still is the worst operating system out there, by FAR. I've got nothing nice to say about it, regarding either ease of use, convenience or anything such. Folders and directories are mixed in ways unimaginable for a linux user. The graphics are more Fischer-Price than ever, eating ever more of your precious screen real estate. The list goes on, and on, and on. I won't choose Windows on a machine if I can at all help it.
I've only used VMs on beefy servers, never on consumer desktop or laptop hardware. Is there a performance reason you wouldn't live in the VM full time? The top level OS could be light; the only thing it is doing is handling the VM (and passing off messages between the VM and outside world? I don't know where VMs live on your OSI model.).
I use Ubuntu (to ensure same versions of stuff as Ubuntu servers we have) in a VM (Virtualbox, simple setup, open source, and highly recommended) at work. The VM is way faster than the Windows 7 host, as I've put the virtual hard drive on an SSD, and it's just not windows. I've got transparency, animations and all other kinds of baloney turned on. It's fast enough that, even though I don't need it, I can't possibly be bothered finding the off switch.
tl;dr: You can live in a virtualbox VM all day just fine - you just need RAM for 2 OS'es and applications.
Re:MS Office mewlers and shills, queue here!
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LibreOffice 4 Released
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· Score: 3, Insightful
LibreOffice doesn't read or write the constantly mutating, rubbish file formats of MS Office the way only MS Office can.
True. LibreOffice actually helped me salvage a Word 2003 file into Word 2010, as Word 2010 itself would scramble the whole darned thing. Libre is much better, in my (limited) experience.
...again. Or, heck, Mac OS X for that matter. Give people the command line - it's the most powerful programming environment out there. Teach people simple automation tasks that will save you lotsa time later - change file names of all your holiday photos, convert movies with ffmpeg, copy files over the network, whatever. Simple conditionals, loops, and variables come along for the ride. It's right there when you open your mac/linux box and it's super useful right out of the box. When people see the amazing power of shell script automation, the route to programming should be short enough...
I don't believe that for a second. I have an old machine with Win7 on it, and Win7 ate 50 GB of disk after installation. Mac OS X Lion eats much less - I haven't checked, really, but I'm guessing around 10 GB of disk, tops. Of course, linux can eat as little as you want, depending on what you install. At any rate, 120 GB SSD is fine both on my Macbook Pro and on my arch linux box, but would be a disaster on a windows machine.
Quit using them in your teaching. Graphing calculators are the work of the devil. Kids spend a lot of energy learning something that is obsolete when outside schools, spend money on an overprised product (you can get a much more powerful netbook for the same price, ~ish), and wind up not learning how to do math by hand. That way, you'll stop finding old ones, too.
This is a great idea. You know more about memory problems than most people - maybe you could also consider making an app that's useful for rememebering things? I'm sure the regular TODO apps out there are missing out on what the needs of the handicapped are.
I've spent a year at CERN and, indeed, they do use windows. For secretaries and administration, mostly. Man, I hate their whole windows admin regime (you've sometimes got to dual boot into Windows to fill out a form). Linux is being used for all sorts of technical purposes - control centre, simulation servers and desktops, low-level control stuff, etc. Windows is only used for powerpoint and "typewriter" kind of work, as I expect is the case elsewhere.
There are printers which can mix materials out there. Not sure if they're up to 3, but certainly not far from it. Also, I'm not sure if anyone is planning to take on the toaster industry; their mass production is probably more efficient anyway.
I don't disagree as such; however, I don't see the point in speculating over all sorts of conceivable future scenarios. In my book, the App Store, which requires signing and sandboxing, is a good idea in the same way that signed packages in your average linux package manager is a good idea - as long as there's an option to overriding that by manually downloading a program. If apple kill that option, it's going to hit them hard in the dev community, so I'm not betting on that happening anytime soon. These possible scenarios are certainly not proof of apple's evilness NOW.
Yeah, well, Microsoft lets you do things with your computer that are UNSAFE, like install software NOT APPROVED by them.
I've got mod points, but I'll rather point out that on my mac I often compile and install software that has never been approved by anyone. Mac OS X is unix, so./configure; make works rather often. I'm not a "fanboi" but I'm not too impressed by claims not supported by facts, either.
Apple's automator does exactly this. Heck, the icon is a robot carrying a pipe. Now, I prefer the command line, but I suspect that it can be a useful tool for someone proficient in the GUI world and who has a logical mindset.
If someone wants all their files to have to upload over their ADSL and then download again over the same link, just to be able to access them from across the room (and give some otherwise-unnecessary third party the perk of scanning the data (or at least filename) for keywords to sell to advertisers or law enforcement or whatever), sure, they should be allowed. But if that's "normal" then it's got fail written all over it, because that's usually a stupid, slow, insecure, and generally unpleasant way to do things.
Can you please go to owncloud.org and read up on it? It's truly awesome.
If that's true, then it is really remarkable. I have my doubts over that keyboard thingy on buses and trains, though. But who knows, maybe I'll be proven wrong and the surface is the Future:)
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I'd take OS X over Windows any day of the week, but by all means, it's your pain.
A few comments: On the mac you can program in any keyboard shortcut yourself, i.e. give any menu item any keyboard shortcut. Very flexible. The "omg no second mouse button" hasn't been true for longer than I've been using a mac (2006 IIRC). The cygwin tools perform not too well and don't integrate well with other shell tools and programming environments, such as python. If I'm wrong - please, tell me how to fix it! By all means - kudos to the cygwin team, but they're in for a big challenge with all the underlying windows issues. Symbolic links, anyone? And the memory issue, that's not something I recognize at all - that must be an issue with the software in question, not with Mac OS? (I'd say the same if you were having memory issues on windows.) I tend to run at least twice as many apps simultaneously on my mac than on my windows machine, but then, RAM is plentiful anyway, so I find the GUI on windows more limiting. Finally, SSH is vastly better than both VNC and remote desktop, but I suppose that depends on what you're up to. If only windows could support a decent shell and SSH, it'd be a lot more livable when you're talking to a *nix server.
This, exactly this. Parent and grandparent are spot on. I've been away from windows since 2007, and got reintroduced to Win 7 when I started working in a new company a few months back. Windows 7 is the best windows so far - but windows still is the worst operating system out there, by FAR. I've got nothing nice to say about it, regarding either ease of use, convenience or anything such. Folders and directories are mixed in ways unimaginable for a linux user. The graphics are more Fischer-Price than ever, eating ever more of your precious screen real estate. The list goes on, and on, and on. I won't choose Windows on a machine if I can at all help it.
I've only used VMs on beefy servers, never on consumer desktop or laptop hardware. Is there a performance reason you wouldn't live in the VM full time? The top level OS could be light; the only thing it is doing is handling the VM (and passing off messages between the VM and outside world? I don't know where VMs live on your OSI model.).
I use Ubuntu (to ensure same versions of stuff as Ubuntu servers we have) in a VM (Virtualbox, simple setup, open source, and highly recommended) at work. The VM is way faster than the Windows 7 host, as I've put the virtual hard drive on an SSD, and it's just not windows. I've got transparency, animations and all other kinds of baloney turned on. It's fast enough that, even though I don't need it, I can't possibly be bothered finding the off switch.
tl;dr: You can live in a virtualbox VM all day just fine - you just need RAM for 2 OS'es and applications.
LibreOffice doesn't read or write the constantly mutating, rubbish file formats of MS Office the way only MS Office can.
True. LibreOffice actually helped me salvage a Word 2003 file into Word 2010, as Word 2010 itself would scramble the whole darned thing. Libre is much better, in my (limited) experience.
...again. Or, heck, Mac OS X for that matter. Give people the command line - it's the most powerful programming environment out there. Teach people simple automation tasks that will save you lotsa time later - change file names of all your holiday photos, convert movies with ffmpeg, copy files over the network, whatever. Simple conditionals, loops, and variables come along for the ride. It's right there when you open your mac/linux box and it's super useful right out of the box. When people see the amazing power of shell script automation, the route to programming should be short enough...
Anyway, the point is that 128GB is plenty for most uses.
I agree fully with any other OS, but I'm surprised that it's even possible to get Windows 7 in on less than 40 GB.
I don't believe that for a second. I have an old machine with Win7 on it, and Win7 ate 50 GB of disk after installation. Mac OS X Lion eats much less - I haven't checked, really, but I'm guessing around 10 GB of disk, tops. Of course, linux can eat as little as you want, depending on what you install. At any rate, 120 GB SSD is fine both on my Macbook Pro and on my arch linux box, but would be a disaster on a windows machine.
Ordered mine recently, took 2 weeks from farnell.
Oh, and obigatory xkcd.
Depends a lot on the field. There are probably a lot more errors in medicine than in physics.
This is a great idea. You know more about memory problems than most people - maybe you could also consider making an app that's useful for rememebering things? I'm sure the regular TODO apps out there are missing out on what the needs of the handicapped are.
You guys already have a stick that's as big as everyone else's combined. How big do you really need it to be?
You can't be too rich, too thin, or have a too big stick.
They've actually got their own flavor - Scientific Linux CERN (SLC). Most annoying distro I ever used, but that's another story.
Why isn't this modded funny rather than insightful?
I've spent a year at CERN and, indeed, they do use windows. For secretaries and administration, mostly. Man, I hate their whole windows admin regime (you've sometimes got to dual boot into Windows to fill out a form). Linux is being used for all sorts of technical purposes - control centre, simulation servers and desktops, low-level control stuff, etc. Windows is only used for powerpoint and "typewriter" kind of work, as I expect is the case elsewhere.
I was wrong - they're up to 14 simultaneous materials, at least: http://www.objet.com/Objet%20Connex350/
There are printers which can mix materials out there. Not sure if they're up to 3, but certainly not far from it. Also, I'm not sure if anyone is planning to take on the toaster industry; their mass production is probably more efficient anyway.
Right, so I have an arch linux box, too. pacman > App Store, for so many reasons I can't begin to list them.
I don't disagree as such; however, I don't see the point in speculating over all sorts of conceivable future scenarios. In my book, the App Store, which requires signing and sandboxing, is a good idea in the same way that signed packages in your average linux package manager is a good idea - as long as there's an option to overriding that by manually downloading a program. If apple kill that option, it's going to hit them hard in the dev community, so I'm not betting on that happening anytime soon. These possible scenarios are certainly not proof of apple's evilness NOW.
Yeah, well, Microsoft lets you do things with your computer that are UNSAFE, like install software NOT APPROVED by them.
I've got mod points, but I'll rather point out that on my mac I often compile and install software that has never been approved by anyone. Mac OS X is unix, so ./configure; make works rather often. I'm not a "fanboi" but I'm not too impressed by claims not supported by facts, either.
Apple's automator does exactly this. Heck, the icon is a robot carrying a pipe. Now, I prefer the command line, but I suspect that it can be a useful tool for someone proficient in the GUI world and who has a logical mindset.
Well as it turns out, for the US, War spending is the driver of the economy.
If someone wants all their files to have to upload over their ADSL and then download again over the same link, just to be able to access them from across the room (and give some otherwise-unnecessary third party the perk of scanning the data (or at least filename) for keywords to sell to advertisers or law enforcement or whatever), sure, they should be allowed. But if that's "normal" then it's got fail written all over it, because that's usually a stupid, slow, insecure, and generally unpleasant way to do things.
Can you please go to owncloud.org and read up on it? It's truly awesome.
The Surface replaces both my iPad and my laptop.
If that's true, then it is really remarkable. I have my doubts over that keyboard thingy on buses and trains, though. But who knows, maybe I'll be proven wrong and the surface is the Future :)