There's no OS installed, so one could install Linux or even Windows. But that's in the smaller print in the advertisement.
As it stands, all one needs to install OS X on almost any netbook is a DVD drive, an OS X DVD and some software on a flashdrive. And if I'm not mistaken, there are now flashstick only OS X installers, with a patched/hacked version of OS X included on the stick.
As for the "limitations" of ONLY 2GB. My Mac, a 1.42GHZ G4 Dual Processor MDD/FW800 frequently has 10 or more apps running at once, with, I must say, only the slightest observable slowdown in some processor intensive apps. So this whole Windows 7 only 3 apps at a time thing is amazingly stupid.
Sure, most folks only need a few apps at a time on a netbook, but I can easily see situations where having email, browser, graphics editor, text editor, streaming audio, P2P, Skype, etc all going at once could be not at all out of the ordinary. FSM knows that's what's on my Mac right now.
Really, IMHO, the only limitation I see in a netbook is the drive capacity. If they can get 160GB SSD in a netbook capable of running OS X for approx. US$500, I think that would be a very popular and best selling computer.
"Instead of pointing out how you're wrong about everything, I'll just tell you that you're wrong about everything. Here we go.
All your "rebuttals" to my points are wrong."
The lazy wad of fuck proves it's a lazy wad of fuck yet again.
I do believe that you're one of those asshole Libertarians, lazy wad of fuck.
When Shakespeare wrote, "A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing", he was predicting the written corpus of Ayn Rand AND the Libertarian Manefesto.
A very prescient man, old Will!
Anyway, back to you, lazy wad of fuck.
Actually, you know what, screw it. I've got some very important nose picking to get on with, and I'm certain the muck I pull out of my nostrils will be more relevant and informative than all the anti-CFL blathering you pulled out of your ass.
Con: CFLs do NOT last longer - all CFLs I have had (dozens) have died in less than a year.
Sucks to be you! MY bulbs have lasted several years and may last longer, as none have failed.
CFLs will poison you with mercury.
3mg on the floor will not poison you. Throw a slice of bread on the fiddling small pieces of glass and mercury. The bread will absorb the mercury and also help grab the bits of glass.
Oh, and if you FUCKING PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU'RE DOING, you won't drop the bulb, you clumsy wad of fuck.
CFLs require infinitely more effort to dispose of.
Hardware stores, Home Depot, IKEA, et al, etc have bins where you can dispose of dead bulbs. Not hard at all. Unless you're Stephen Hawking. And then, he can have one of his staff drop them off. Oh, right. You're a lazy fuck who can't be bothered to do more than waddle to the curb with the garbage once a week.
CFLs cannot universally be used with dimmers.
However did humanity get along without the ability to dim the lights until the MIRACLE OF SCIENCE known as the "dimmer" came along. Truly, we lived in savage times until then.
CFLs look ugly as ass.
It's called a "lampshade". I recommend them.
CFLs have flicker.
Not the ones I have, nor any of the ones I've seen.
CFLs have comparably long warm-up times.
The bulbs in my bathroom take less time to hit full bright than it does for me to walk the less than 3 feet from the bathroom door (where the switch it) to the toilet.
CFLs may cause some people headaches.
And monkeys MAY fly out of my butt. What flies out of YOUR butt is is all up there in italics.
I have to say, compared to the Apple Aluminum keyboard, the original Bondi Blue iMac keyboard is pretty damned good. Better than the later all white and clear plastic crudcatcher Apple keyboards.
Of course, on that original iMac keyboard, sticking little white characters on black keys was, human factors speaking, bowel-hemorrhagingly stupid!
The original Apple Extended Keyboard. Real key switches, SUPERB "feel", modest audio feedback.
I'm typing this on an Apple Extended Keyboard that was made in 1986. Works just as well today as it did when it came off the assembly line 23 years ago.
The current Apple Aluminum keyboard is absolute crap. It cannot be repaired and, like every other "modern" comes with the computer/cheap replacement keyboard, typing on it feels like I'm poking at a slab of Silly Putty.
Instead of buying a crap rubber dome USB keyboard to use with my Dual Processor G4 MDD/FW800 Mac, I spent the money to buy the Griffin ADB t0 USB interface, in order to continue using my Apple Extended Keyboard.
If/when I get an iMac or MacPro, I'll be using this Extended Keyboard with it, and sell the crap Aluminum keyboard on Craigslist or eBay to some sucker who doesn't know any better.
As I see it, Dell, for example, likely cannot see any profit in marketing a proper UNIX box. There's just not enough of a market for geeks who want a turnkey UNIX machine. People like us who want a UNIX platform, well, we just buy the parts and build one. Or, if we see a suitable computer in Goodwill, Salvation Army or yard sale/flea market, we'll just grab that and go from there.
Considering the way marketing works, can you imagine the campaign targeting geeks like us? The opportunities for stereotyping boggle the mind!
Do as I do. Buy used CDs. Here in the Greater Boston/Cambridge/Somerville Co-Prosperity Sphere, there are several used CD/DVD shops. Sure, you may have to wait a few weeks to get the latest CD, but RIAA never sees a penny of your money.
And many artists sell CDs on their websites. Yeah, they buy them from the record companies, but they, the artists, get to keep the money from the CD sales.
Finally, local bands almost always have CDs they burn themselves. Supporting local artists with purchases is the best thing you can do to keep independent artists making music.
But there ARE a variety of Apple computers, each somewhat different than the others. The Mac OS installer is smart enough to know which Mac it's being installed on, and configures itself accordingly.
As for Windows. Well, now. HOW many motherboards are out there? How many different video and sound cards? How many webcams and microphones? How many fiddling little DLLs and drivers?
And Windows has to accommodate them all. Or, rather YOU, the users, have to accommodate them all on your own, by seeking out and downloading the latest drivers for some card made in China using FSM knows what revision of onboard firmware.
MS sells HOW MANY versions of XP and Vista? How many versions of Windows 7 will there be?
Mac OS X. One box, one version. Install on as many Macs as you own. Got the last version of Mac OS X and you just bought the latest? Go ahead, SELL the old one or give it away.
Apple Doesn't Care!
Same with their iLife and iWork application suites.
They WOULD rather that you didn't upload the DVD to Pirate Bay or the like. But they don't make anyone phone home or authenticate an install or give you grief if you don't have the serial number from the box.
ALL my installs of OS X have been from previously owned install DVDs. NEVER a problem. NEVER an authentication from Cupertino required.
Office? Feh! iWork, US$80.00 retail, probably less with an academic discount. iLife, same price.
Other software? Photoshop? Please. Graphic Converter uses most PS plug ins and filters. Outlook Express? I can manually infect my Mac with viruses and trojans without any help, thank you very much.
Mail app or Eudora work just fine for me as email applications. And neither will do anything I don't explicitly authorize.
Internet Explorer? Please! Don't make me laugh, I have chapped lips! Firefox makes IE its bitch 24/7.
Mac OS vs. Windows? Two Words: TIME MACHINE!
So, yeah, Ballmer, you sweaty little monkey, shrieking and throwing your feces at passersby, that logo IS worth the extra money to me.
As I said, my contribution to society is that I don't commit assault and battery (I.E., the attack on Charles Priest), I don't sexually molest women (I.E., groping Connie Willis), et al.
In other words, I'm not a dick. One can benefit society by ones inactions, as well as actions.
As for what I've done with my life, aside from being a blood and bone marrow donor, all the software I've written has always been public domain, I volunteer as an instructor/tutor, mainly for elderly first time computer users, donate money on a monthly basis to the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans, et al.
As I said, I'm not a dick. Unlike Mr. Ellison. I'm not famous, I do not seek fame, or fortune, for that matter. My claim to "fame" is simple. I'm not a dick.
So, please, continue to worship the dick that walks like a man. And when he spits in your face, you can then tell everyone, "Look how Harlan singles me out for special favor!"
That IS my real name. I was here a good 20 years before that not all that talented actor person was even born.
So I claim 'prior art'!
I suppose I could be "defended" in the sense that I've never suckerpunched someone and bragged about it like some manner of street thug, lied about the anthology, groping a woman in public, et al.
Buy, hey. HE'S a celebrity, I'm just this guy, you know?
I've never suckerpunched Charles Platt (nor anyone else, for that matter), never had three wives divorce me in a row, I have never lied continuously about the status of a anthology (I.E., The Last Dangerous Visions), I haven't thrown a temper tantrum in public (or private) for well over 50+ years (I'm 57 as I write this), I don't insult my fans by calling them smelly and unhygienic, I don't gleefully perpetuate the stereotype of the greedy Jew, "I don't take a piss without getting paid!", I don't blame the "amateurs" for the woes of the publishing trade. (See the aforementioned YouTube clip) Mr. Ellison forgets that he, too, was once an amateur. I don't pepper my speech with a constant stream of obscenities or vulgarities. I never groped Connie Willis' breast on stage at the Hugo Awards Ceremonies.
I could go on, but, well, you get the picture.
Mr. Ellison has proved himself, time and time again, to be a very petty little man, given to outbursts of temper and violence and obscenity. Certainly not the actions of a responsible adult of 75 years of age.
I, for one, don't see his actions as anything to "respect".
In your dotage, it's easier for you to sue someone, than it is to create and write something of quality.
Have you no sense of shame, you foul-mouthed, angry little man? You've been playing the L'enfant terrible for decades, and now, here you are, 75 years old, still throwing tantrums, still playing the poor victim, still blaming those damned kids and their Internets and everyone else under the Sun for all your woes. Still cursing and swearing and tossing obscenities and vulgarities around like a little child, wanting to shock the grownups.
Well, guess what. The grownups think you're a rude, vulgar, egotistical little shitmonkey. Every time you open your yap to cry that you have been victimized yet again, most of humanity in the immediate vicinity wishes you would just shut the hell up, already.
Mr. Ellison, your time has passed. You are as irrelevant as the ancient typewriters you worship. You are as irrelevant as Spiro Agnew. You are as irrelevant as suing AOL, thinking that would stop ebooks of your works being on the Internet. Mr. Ellison, I hate to break this to you, but AOL does not equal the Internet, despite all those TV commercials from the 1980s you remember.
Mr. Ellison, you are a joke. You have become nothing more than a punchline: "Why do you call an 8 ounce can of Budweiser a 'Harlan'? Because it's a short, bitter half-pint!"
Mr. Ellison, feel free to continue to disgrace yourself in public as much as you like. Just be aware that, like seeing the derelict who has urinated and defecated in his trousers, the vast majority of people just turn away from such a scene of pitiful self degradation with expressions, not of sympathy for that poor man, but of disgust for what has become of that poor man.
Show some dignity. For once in your life, show some dignity!
Slashdot Mirror
"Further, keep in mind that your media costs would be almost as much as your monthly netflix cost."
Micro Center. WinData DVD-R/DVD+R.
Spindle of 50 4.7GB blank DVDs, US$9.95. Box of 50 Slimline Jewel Cases, US$9.95.
50 divided by 14 = 3.57.
So, for that US$20.00 spent on DVDs and storage, you get 3 and a half months of Netflix DVDs ripped.
More if you use Handbrake to rip just the movie to something like 800-900MB avi files.
But you didn't hear this from me, understand?
Could it be this?
Botnets. World wide botnets.
What kind of boxes are on botnets?
Compaq, HP, Dell and Sony, true!
Gateway, Packard Bell, maybe even ASUS, too!
Are boxes. Found on botnets!
All running Windows, FOO!
"...I win again!"
(Title track on the next MC Hawking album.)
Back off, Grim Reaper! The Hawkman has business to take care of.
..."OS X ready!"
There's no OS installed, so one could install Linux or even Windows. But that's in the smaller print in the advertisement.
As it stands, all one needs to install OS X on almost any netbook is a DVD drive, an OS X DVD and some software on a flashdrive. And if I'm not mistaken, there are now flashstick only OS X installers, with a patched/hacked version of OS X included on the stick.
As for the "limitations" of ONLY 2GB. My Mac, a 1.42GHZ G4 Dual Processor MDD/FW800 frequently has 10 or more apps running at once, with, I must say, only the slightest observable slowdown in some processor intensive apps. So this whole Windows 7 only 3 apps at a time thing is amazingly stupid.
Sure, most folks only need a few apps at a time on a netbook, but I can easily see situations where having email, browser, graphics editor, text editor, streaming audio, P2P, Skype, etc all going at once could be not at all out of the ordinary. FSM knows that's what's on my Mac right now.
Really, IMHO, the only limitation I see in a netbook is the drive capacity. If they can get 160GB SSD in a netbook capable of running OS X for approx. US$500, I think that would be a very popular and best selling computer.
It took me several readings and some other books to "get it".
Talk about an "ahHA!" moment.
Lazy wad of fuck is lazy.
"Instead of pointing out how you're wrong about everything, I'll just tell you that you're wrong about everything. Here we go.
All your "rebuttals" to my points are wrong."
The lazy wad of fuck proves it's a lazy wad of fuck yet again.
I do believe that you're one of those asshole Libertarians, lazy wad of fuck.
When Shakespeare wrote, "A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing", he was predicting the written corpus of Ayn Rand AND the Libertarian Manefesto.
A very prescient man, old Will!
Anyway, back to you, lazy wad of fuck.
Actually, you know what, screw it. I've got some very important nose picking to get on with, and I'm certain the muck I pull out of my nostrils will be more relevant and informative than all the anti-CFL blathering you pulled out of your ass.
The way I see it:
Pro:
CFLs use less energy.
Con:
CFLs do NOT last longer - all CFLs I have had (dozens) have died in less than a year.
Sucks to be you! MY bulbs have lasted several years and may last longer, as none have failed.
CFLs will poison you with mercury.
3mg on the floor will not poison you. Throw a slice of bread on the fiddling small pieces of glass and mercury. The bread will absorb the mercury and also help grab the bits of glass.
Oh, and if you FUCKING PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU'RE DOING, you won't drop the bulb, you clumsy wad of fuck.
CFLs require infinitely more effort to dispose of.
Hardware stores, Home Depot, IKEA, et al, etc have bins where you can dispose of dead bulbs. Not hard at all. Unless you're Stephen Hawking. And then, he can have one of his staff drop them off. Oh, right. You're a lazy fuck who can't be bothered to do more than waddle to the curb with the garbage once a week.
CFLs cannot universally be used with dimmers.
However did humanity get along without the ability to dim the lights until the MIRACLE OF SCIENCE known as the "dimmer" came along. Truly, we lived in savage times until then.
CFLs look ugly as ass.
It's called a "lampshade". I recommend them.
CFLs have flicker.
Not the ones I have, nor any of the ones I've seen.
CFLs have comparably long warm-up times.
The bulbs in my bathroom take less time to hit full bright than it does for me to walk the less than 3 feet from the bathroom door (where the switch it) to the toilet.
CFLs may cause some people headaches.
And monkeys MAY fly out of my butt. What flies out of YOUR butt is is all up there in italics.
Damn!
(and damn the lameness filter, too!)
I have to say, compared to the Apple Aluminum keyboard, the original Bondi Blue iMac keyboard is pretty damned good. Better than the later all white and clear plastic crudcatcher Apple keyboards.
Of course, on that original iMac keyboard, sticking little white characters on black keys was, human factors speaking, bowel-hemorrhagingly stupid!
EVER!
The original Apple Extended Keyboard. Real key switches, SUPERB "feel", modest audio feedback.
I'm typing this on an Apple Extended Keyboard that was made in 1986. Works just as well today as it did when it came off the assembly line 23 years ago.
The current Apple Aluminum keyboard is absolute crap. It cannot be repaired and, like every other "modern" comes with the computer/cheap replacement keyboard, typing on it feels like I'm poking at a slab of Silly Putty.
Instead of buying a crap rubber dome USB keyboard to use with my Dual Processor G4 MDD/FW800 Mac, I spent the money to buy the Griffin ADB t0 USB interface, in order to continue using my Apple Extended Keyboard.
If/when I get an iMac or MacPro, I'll be using this Extended Keyboard with it, and sell the crap Aluminum keyboard on Craigslist or eBay to some sucker who doesn't know any better.
Thank you for that, Buzz Killington!
As I see it, Dell, for example, likely cannot see any profit in marketing a proper UNIX box. There's just not enough of a market for geeks who want a turnkey UNIX machine. People like us who want a UNIX platform, well, we just buy the parts and build one. Or, if we see a suitable computer in Goodwill, Salvation Army or yard sale/flea market, we'll just grab that and go from there.
Considering the way marketing works, can you imagine the campaign targeting geeks like us? The opportunities for stereotyping boggle the mind!
Sometimes, it's a great benefit to be ignored.
Curse your indisputable logic!
"I consciously don't buy music anymore."
Do as I do. Buy used CDs. Here in the Greater Boston/Cambridge/Somerville Co-Prosperity Sphere, there are several used CD/DVD shops. Sure, you may have to wait a few weeks to get the latest CD, but RIAA never sees a penny of your money.
And many artists sell CDs on their websites. Yeah, they buy them from the record companies, but they, the artists, get to keep the money from the CD sales.
Finally, local bands almost always have CDs they burn themselves. Supporting local artists with purchases is the best thing you can do to keep independent artists making music.
As the clever sig says:
"OS X...because making UNIX friendly was easier than fixing Windows."
If I was even 20 years younger, UNIX would be my OS of choice.
Hell, I have a SPARCserver in the bedroom with NetBSD on it. However, as I'm 57 years old, I've gotten to the point where I LIKE easy.
OS X is easy. It works. That's all I ask of an OS these days.
And, if I may quote myself from a different context, and with NO INTENT WHATSOEVER to insult or belittle you:
You are not the target audience for OS X.
You have never been the target audience for OS X.
You will never be the target audience for OS X.
Please stop using the Internet.
You're getting your stupid all over everything.
Thank you.
I notice that you refuse to address the diverse assaults perpetrated by Mr. Ellison.
Why is that?
But there ARE a variety of Apple computers, each somewhat different than the others. The Mac OS installer is smart enough to know which Mac it's being installed on, and configures itself accordingly.
As for Windows. Well, now. HOW many motherboards are out there? How many different video and sound cards? How many webcams and microphones? How many fiddling little DLLs and drivers?
And Windows has to accommodate them all. Or, rather YOU, the users, have to accommodate them all on your own, by seeking out and downloading the latest drivers for some card made in China using FSM knows what revision of onboard firmware.
MS sells HOW MANY versions of XP and Vista? How many versions of Windows 7 will there be?
Mac OS X. One box, one version. Install on as many Macs as you own. Got the last version of Mac OS X and you just bought the latest? Go ahead, SELL the old one or give it away.
Apple Doesn't Care!
Same with their iLife and iWork application suites.
They WOULD rather that you didn't upload the DVD to Pirate Bay or the like. But they don't make anyone phone home or authenticate an install or give you grief if you don't have the serial number from the box.
ALL my installs of OS X have been from previously owned install DVDs. NEVER a problem. NEVER an authentication from Cupertino required.
Office? Feh! iWork, US$80.00 retail, probably less with an academic discount. iLife, same price.
Other software? Photoshop? Please. Graphic Converter uses most PS plug ins and filters. Outlook Express? I can manually infect my Mac with viruses and trojans without any help, thank you very much.
Mail app or Eudora work just fine for me as email applications. And neither will do anything I don't explicitly authorize.
Internet Explorer? Please! Don't make me laugh, I have chapped lips! Firefox makes IE its bitch 24/7.
Mac OS vs. Windows? Two Words: TIME MACHINE!
So, yeah, Ballmer, you sweaty little monkey, shrieking and throwing your feces at passersby, that logo IS worth the extra money to me.
If only because YOU don't see a penny of it.
At least I'm NOT an asshole like Mr. Ellison.
Which makes my contribution to the betterment of society worthy indeed.
I notice that you studiously avoid addressing Mr. Ellison's several documented assaults, both physical and sexual.
Why is that? Is there some obscure codicil to the Hugo awards that grants legal immunity to such actions that I am unaware of?
LEDs are NEVER a "good idea"...
IN BOSTON!
As I said, my contribution to society is that I don't commit assault and battery (I.E., the attack on Charles Priest), I don't sexually molest women (I.E., groping Connie Willis), et al.
In other words, I'm not a dick. One can benefit society by ones inactions, as well as actions.
As for what I've done with my life, aside from being a blood and bone marrow donor, all the software I've written has always been public domain, I volunteer as an instructor/tutor, mainly for elderly first time computer users, donate money on a monthly basis to the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans, et al.
As I said, I'm not a dick. Unlike Mr. Ellison. I'm not famous, I do not seek fame, or fortune, for that matter. My claim to "fame" is simple. I'm not a dick.
So, please, continue to worship the dick that walks like a man. And when he spits in your face, you can then tell everyone, "Look how Harlan singles me out for special favor!"
"You're defending someone named Chris Tucker?"
That IS my real name. I was here a good 20 years before that not all that talented actor person was even born.
So I claim 'prior art'!
I suppose I could be "defended" in the sense that I've never suckerpunched someone and bragged about it like some manner of street thug, lied about the anthology, groping a woman in public, et al.
Buy, hey. HE'S a celebrity, I'm just this guy, you know?
Well, lets see. What HAVE I done with my life?
I've never suckerpunched Charles Platt (nor anyone else, for that matter), never had three wives divorce me in a row, I have never lied continuously about the status of a anthology (I.E., The Last Dangerous Visions), I haven't thrown a temper tantrum in public (or private) for well over 50+ years (I'm 57 as I write this), I don't insult my fans by calling them smelly and unhygienic, I don't gleefully perpetuate the stereotype of the greedy Jew , "I don't take a piss without getting paid!", I don't blame the "amateurs" for the woes of the publishing trade. (See the aforementioned YouTube clip) Mr. Ellison forgets that he, too, was once an amateur. I don't pepper my speech with a constant stream of obscenities or vulgarities. I never groped Connie Willis' breast on stage at the Hugo Awards Ceremonies .
I could go on, but, well, you get the picture.
Mr. Ellison has proved himself, time and time again, to be a very petty little man, given to outbursts of temper and violence and obscenity. Certainly not the actions of a responsible adult of 75 years of age.
I, for one, don't see his actions as anything to "respect".
...it's come to this.
In your dotage, it's easier for you to sue someone, than it is to create and write something of quality.
Have you no sense of shame, you foul-mouthed, angry little man? You've been playing the L'enfant terrible for decades, and now, here you are, 75 years old, still throwing tantrums, still playing the poor victim, still blaming those damned kids and their Internets and everyone else under the Sun for all your woes. Still cursing and swearing and tossing obscenities and vulgarities around like a little child, wanting to shock the grownups.
Well, guess what. The grownups think you're a rude, vulgar, egotistical little shitmonkey. Every time you open your yap to cry that you have been victimized yet again, most of humanity in the immediate vicinity wishes you would just shut the hell up, already.
Mr. Ellison, your time has passed. You are as irrelevant as the ancient typewriters you worship. You are as irrelevant as Spiro Agnew. You are as irrelevant as suing AOL, thinking that would stop ebooks of your works being on the Internet. Mr. Ellison, I hate to break this to you, but AOL does not equal the Internet, despite all those TV commercials from the 1980s you remember.
Mr. Ellison, you are a joke. You have become nothing more than a punchline: "Why do you call an 8 ounce can of Budweiser a 'Harlan'? Because it's a short, bitter half-pint!"
Mr. Ellison, feel free to continue to disgrace yourself in public as much as you like. Just be aware that, like seeing the derelict who has urinated and defecated in his trousers, the vast majority of people just turn away from such a scene of pitiful self degradation with expressions, not of sympathy for that poor man, but of disgust for what has become of that poor man.
Show some dignity. For once in your life, show some dignity!