I heard a presentation from VTech on why they selected the G5 over the Itanium (for scientific calculations, with lot of floating poing operations, both are faster than AMD chips; not a big problem for AMD, of course; how many of us need to simulate nuclear explosions in our desktops? well, at least until the next generation of strategy games, of course).
At the time - this was a study done in July/Aug 2003, remember - the speed of the G5 and the Itanium2 were similar for the same clock speed (for scientific calculations; before someone flames me with something off topic, remember that this is a very particular kind of application); then what happened was that Intel was simply "out-clocked"! Kind of funny when Intel was the big champion of "clock-speed" over AMD, Motorala and IBM.
This was in a presentation by VTech at an O'Reilly conference; coverage for this with several articles (including/. discussions) can be found here: http://www.macdevcenter.com/mac/osx2003/
I couldn't agree more. Problem is good UI design is actually difficult but not commonly recognized as such. That's why lots of people actually think "easy-to-use UI" are those horrible Windows Wizards... It's more than time that books on UI design like Tog's or Alan Cooper ("The inmates are running the asylum" is a jewel) be seen as important as books on algorithm design!
Actually, you are wrong. it was called Raphsody and it ran on x86. Also, before Mac OS X was called Mac OS it was called NextStep/OpenStep.
OpenStep was commercially available for several platforms, including x86. But the only company that makes $$ selling OSes is in Redmond, Washington. Maybe if they had open sourced OpenStep, they could have made a "Linux before Linux".
Also for math (especially floating point) calculations, the G5 (PPC970) is much superior to the Intel IA-32 (not really a big thing if all you do is run Word, of course). According to a talk by "Dr. BigMac" (from VA Tech) the only other high-volume CPU approaching it was the Intel Itanium, and here (quite an irony) Intel was under-clocked! (The G5, last year, was shipping at 2Gh, the Itanium less than that).
As for price, you can't compare a Dual G5 with a $200 walmart pc; but check the prices of any dual Dell Xeon system.
check yellow dog Linux: http://yellowdoglinux.com/ for Macs pre-installed with Linux. Besides their list of Universities & Corporations using it, last year the US Navy bought a few hundred Xserves with Linux.
Yes, but this was discovered by a researcher when still in beta and become public knowledge, generating a big outcry. Would MS have removed it if it wouldn't had become public knowledge? or not?
info on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DR-DOS
There is a difference between bug fixes, that shouldn't contain new features, and a new OS version with new features. If you just want to keep running your older version, you should get the fixes free (and Apple sends them free by Software Update); if you want new features, it's fair to charge for them.
I agree. XP is really a good improvement (over 9x) to play games (w2k w/ games). But, the constant naggings "do you want to sign up for hotmail? NO??? how come???", plus the "1984" style activation. etc, make it very frustrating.
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I heard a presentation from VTech on why they selected the G5 over the Itanium (for scientific calculations, with lot of floating poing operations, both are faster than AMD chips; not a big problem for AMD, of course; how many of us need to simulate nuclear explosions in our desktops? well, at least until the next generation of strategy games, of course).
/. discussions) can be found here:
At the time - this was a study done in July/Aug 2003, remember - the speed of the G5 and the Itanium2 were similar for the same clock speed (for scientific calculations; before someone flames me with something off topic, remember that this is a very particular kind of application); then what happened was that Intel was simply "out-clocked"! Kind of funny when Intel was the big champion of "clock-speed" over AMD, Motorala and IBM.
This was in a presentation by VTech at an O'Reilly conference; coverage for this with several articles (including
http://www.macdevcenter.com/mac/osx2003/
I couldn't agree more. Problem is good UI design is actually difficult but not commonly recognized as such. That's why lots of people actually think "easy-to-use UI" are those horrible Windows Wizards...
It's more than time that books on UI design like Tog's or Alan Cooper ("The inmates are running the asylum" is a jewel) be seen as important as books on algorithm design!
Like in the WiFi market? Or with Quicken???? Does someone still uses Money?
Lots of companies succeed against MS. Not that it's the easiest thing to do in the world, but it's doable. Google might be another Intuit.
Actually, you are wrong. it was called Raphsody and it ran on x86. Also, before Mac OS X was called Mac OS it was called NextStep/OpenStep.
OpenStep was commercially available for several platforms, including x86. But the only company that makes $$ selling OSes is in Redmond, Washington. Maybe if they had open sourced OpenStep, they could have made a "Linux before Linux".
(remember things like BeOS, OS/2 Warp, etc)
You can get a G5 with Linux pre-installed from Yellow Dog Linux. Or from IBM, a blade server with Linux and the PPC970 (G5).
Also for math (especially floating point) calculations, the G5 (PPC970) is much superior to the Intel IA-32 (not really a big thing if all you do is run Word, of course).
According to a talk by "Dr. BigMac" (from VA Tech) the only other high-volume CPU approaching it was the Intel Itanium, and here (quite an irony) Intel was under-clocked! (The G5, last year, was shipping at 2Gh, the Itanium less than that).
As for price, you can't compare a Dual G5 with a $200 walmart pc; but check the prices of any dual Dell Xeon system.
Note to self: add disclaimer "This is a joke" at the end of slashdot posts...
DIsclaimer: this post is not the official or unofficial policy of myself or any other organization, real or imaginary. And this is a joke.
check yellow dog Linux: http://yellowdoglinux.com/ for Macs pre-installed with Linux. Besides their list of Universities & Corporations using it, last year the US Navy bought a few hundred Xserves with Linux.
Yes, but this was discovered by a researcher when still in beta and become public knowledge, generating a big outcry. Would MS have removed it if it wouldn't had become public knowledge? or not?
info on the subject:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DR-DOS
it works well with seed 7B85. And this in ADC for everyone now (or will be soon)
There is a difference between bug fixes, that shouldn't contain new features, and a new OS version with new features.
If you just want to keep running your older version, you should get the fixes free (and Apple sends them free by Software Update); if you want new features, it's fair to charge for them.
I agree. XP is really a good improvement (over 9x) to play games (w2k w/ games). But, the constant naggings "do you want to sign up for hotmail? NO??? how come???", plus the "1984" style activation. etc, make it very frustrating.