This kind of treatment is, sad to say, common. Mac users have bitched about it for years, but in general it affects anyone who doesn't run the current market leader.
They need to understand - most Mac/Linux/BeOS/whatever users know full well that they're on their own with these kinds of things. Even 'trained' Mac support staff are often just Windows guys with a little cross training. If we're calling for a hookup, they could at least just give us the standard 'you are officially unsupported - good luck' and turn it on.
But no, as always, we're second class citizens. Yay.
They're getting ready to roll out ADSL here. I hope they're as good to my Mac/LinuxPPC/BeOS partitions as they are to the Windows status quo.
I believe Dominic Giampalo (the guy behind BFS, the file system underlying the BeOS) has written a book by the name of "Practical File System Design with the Be File System". Despite the name, my understanding (note: I haven't read the book) is that it's a bit more generic than it sounds...
...Nothing like an article about Russia (or any foreign country) designing some super cool sounding uber-technology to bring out the American nationalists in the crowd.
Are you truly so deluded that you think Apple is outside its rights in not supplying some sort of information to Be?
Be is abandoning PowerPC support for their own reasons - probably having something to do with their being invested in by Intel. Apple may not be giving them tons of specs anymore (note that they have cut all sorts of 'other' wasteful spending in the last couple of years), but all Be needs is located in the LinuxPPC and MkLinux source code.
How come LinuxPPC and MkLinux have no problems with Apple?
Apple, Power Computing, IBM and Motorola are largely responsible for the computer I use today. Microsoft is responsible for little more than ensuring that I have trouble finding software to run on it.
Microsoft hasn't done a damn thing for the computer industry, other than keep the hopelessly archaic X86 platform afloat. Yay?
1./. isn't just for Linux users. Although Slashdot's mainstream coverage is about Linux, there's some decent material about BeOS, MacOS, etc. on here. If you can wade through all the idiots who use their CLIs for bragging rights, there's some decent conversation going on.
2. you say 'trivial to use' as if it is a bad thing. I think you're so damned retro thinking and conservative that you'll never move on to anything new. The hacker ethic calls for innovation - breaking the rules and creating the future. The Mac, like it or not, changed things. It brought people closer to technology. As much as you'd have liked to remain in some sort of ivory tower of 'haves' versus 'have-nots', it wasn't meant to be. Get off your high horse and realize that the industry needs to move forward, not stay stagnant.
The idea isn't that a hard to use OS is better. The idea is that a powerful OS is better. Why beat your head against a nail when you can use a hammer? Combine the power of Linux and the elegance and intuitiveness of the MacOS, and you'd have a frightening combination.
MacOS users and Linux users agree that Windows is not the way forward. That's fine. But railing against eachother isn't going to help anything...
This is not a Christian nation - if this were to become official policy, I guarantee that I would be out of the country within 48 hours before someone tries to forcibly 'convert' me w/firearms or something similar.
Sorry, slick, but even here in Amerika there is a concept of seperation of church and state to consider. The founders of the country may have been scared that some *other* religion would try to take over (hence the seperation), but it applies equally throughout.
The last thing we need is a country officially sanctioning something whose background involves a substantial amount of pointless bloodshed and violence. Not to say that all (or even the majority) of Christians out there are of this nature, but I'm still sticking with agnosticism, thank you...
Gee - I seem to remember people saying the exact same thing about Apple. In fact, Apple has been 'going out of business' for about 15 years now, according to pundits such as yourself who for one reason or another wish it were true. Now, Apple's stock has quadrupled and their marketshare is finally growing again. They're not quite out of it yet, but they're 10 times better than they were 2 years back.
I don't know much about Corel other than that WordPerfect for DOS sucked hardcore (which wasn't their fault), but I can say this: It sounds like they're on a turnaround. There's a certain group of people out there who just love to point to one company or another and decree that it is 'already dead' or 'as good as dead', and often eat their words within a couple of years.
...Of course, you rarely see them admit such mistakes.
Here in WA state, a cool program called 'Running Start' allows those of us who are bored of High School to skip the last two years and replace it with community college. I did that, and recommend it highly.
A few days after High School graduation, I started a job at a government-run institution doing Macintosh computer support, and was soon making around 30k a year in an area with a fairly low cost of living.
However, despite the occasional foray into something more interesting, this gets boring after a while and it seems that advancement here is not very likely. Help desk techs here are quite underpaid, and even talented troubleshooters are considered fodder (burn-out is a given - they just replace us every 18 or so months).
I've been working on my Associate's degree, and am about ready to finish it up. It's not a BS or Masters degree, but it's the first step in showing that I have initiative outside of work. I've been teaching myself Perl, MySQL, DHTML, C++, etc. and have a great degree of familiarity with MacOS, BeOS, Linux, Windows, etc.
My point is, the degree certainly doesn't hurt. Where I work, degrees are required to get anywhere. Although I don't plan on being here forever, I understand that many other places are the same. If anything, get *somewhere* before dropping out. Having been involved in the hiring process on a few occasions, I understand that 'putting college on hold' looks much better than never starting.
But as a counterpoint, I'll exhibit the following webpage for a very talented Mac coder who has done quite well without a traditional educational background:
http://www.nwlink.com/~colen/
(you might want to click on his 'resume' link for the details, although Colen is an interesting kind of guy as is)
Slashdot Mirror
This kind of treatment is, sad to say, common. Mac users have bitched about it for years, but in general it affects anyone who doesn't run the current market leader.
They need to understand - most Mac/Linux/BeOS/whatever users know full well that they're on their own with these kinds of things. Even 'trained' Mac support staff are often just Windows guys with a little cross training. If we're calling for a hookup, they could at least just give us the standard 'you are officially unsupported - good luck' and turn it on.
But no, as always, we're second class citizens. Yay.
They're getting ready to roll out ADSL here. I hope they're as good to my Mac/LinuxPPC/BeOS partitions as they are to the Windows status quo.
- Darchmare
- Axis Mutatis, http://www.axismutatis.net
I believe Dominic Giampalo (the guy behind BFS, the file system underlying the BeOS) has written a book by the name of "Practical File System Design with the Be File System". Despite the name, my understanding (note: I haven't read the book) is that it's a bit more generic than it sounds...
- Darchmare
- Axis Mutatis, http://www.axismutatis.net
...Nothing like an article about Russia (or any foreign country) designing some super cool sounding uber-technology to bring out the American nationalists in the crowd.
- Darchmare
- Axis Mutatis, http://www.axismutatis.net
Are you truly so deluded that you think Apple is outside its rights in not supplying some sort of information to Be?
Be is abandoning PowerPC support for their own reasons - probably having something to do with their being invested in by Intel. Apple may not be giving them tons of specs anymore (note that they have cut all sorts of 'other' wasteful spending in the last couple of years), but all Be needs is located in the LinuxPPC and MkLinux source code.
How come LinuxPPC and MkLinux have no problems with Apple?
- Darchmare
- Axis Mutatis, http://www.axismutatis.net
Um, no.
Apple, Power Computing, IBM and Motorola are largely responsible for the computer I use today. Microsoft is responsible for little more than ensuring that I have trouble finding software to run on it.
Microsoft hasn't done a damn thing for the computer industry, other than keep the hopelessly archaic X86 platform afloat. Yay?
- Darchmare
- Axis Mutatis, http://www.axismutatis.net
For the last time:
BeOS is not based on Mach/MacOS/Unix/Linux/Amiga/whatever.
BeOS is a 'new thing'.
- Darchmare
- Axis Mutatis, http://www.axismutatis.net
Dude - BeOS isn't built on Unix. It was written from the ground up.
- Darchmare
- Axis Mutatis, http://www.axismutatis.net
1. /. isn't just for Linux users. Although Slashdot's mainstream coverage is about Linux, there's some decent material about BeOS, MacOS, etc. on here. If you can wade through all the idiots who use their CLIs for bragging rights, there's some decent conversation going on.
2. you say 'trivial to use' as if it is a bad thing. I think you're so damned retro thinking and conservative that you'll never move on to anything new. The hacker ethic calls for innovation - breaking the rules and creating the future. The Mac, like it or not, changed things. It brought people closer to technology. As much as you'd have liked to remain in some sort of ivory tower of 'haves' versus 'have-nots', it wasn't meant to be. Get off your high horse and realize that the industry needs to move forward, not stay stagnant.
The idea isn't that a hard to use OS is better. The idea is that a powerful OS is better. Why beat your head against a nail when you can use a hammer? Combine the power of Linux and the elegance and intuitiveness of the MacOS, and you'd have a frightening combination.
MacOS users and Linux users agree that Windows is not the way forward. That's fine. But railing against eachother isn't going to help anything...
- Darchmare
- Axis Mutatis, http://www.axismutatis.net
Ah -
I see. If it's pro-Mac, it's 'bigotry'. If it's pro-Linux, it's 'advocacy'.
Thank you for setting me straight.
- Darchmare
- Axis Mutatis, http://www.axismutatis.net
Um.
This is not a Christian nation - if this were to become official policy, I guarantee that I would be out of the country within 48 hours before someone tries to forcibly 'convert' me w/firearms or something similar.
Sorry, slick, but even here in Amerika there is a concept of seperation of church and state to consider. The founders of the country may have been scared that some *other* religion would try to take over (hence the seperation), but it applies equally throughout.
The last thing we need is a country officially sanctioning something whose background involves a substantial amount of pointless bloodshed and violence. Not to say that all (or even the majority) of Christians out there are of this nature, but I'm still sticking with agnosticism, thank you...
- Darchmare
- Axis Mutatis, http://www.axismutatis.net
Out of business within a year?
Gee - I seem to remember people saying the exact same thing about Apple. In fact, Apple has been 'going out of business' for about 15 years now, according to pundits such as yourself who for one reason or another wish it were true. Now, Apple's stock has quadrupled and their marketshare is finally growing again. They're not quite out of it yet, but they're 10 times better than they were 2 years back.
I don't know much about Corel other than that WordPerfect for DOS sucked hardcore (which wasn't their fault), but I can say this: It sounds like they're on a turnaround. There's a certain group of people out there who just love to point to one company or another and decree that it is 'already dead' or 'as good as dead', and often eat their words within a couple of years.
...Of course, you rarely see them admit such mistakes.
- Darchmare
- Axis Mutatis, http://www.axismutatis.net
Try RealBASIC and FutureBASIC. Forget that bloatware...
- Darchmare
- Axis Mutatis, http://www.axismutatis.net
Here in WA state, a cool program called 'Running Start' allows those of us who are bored of High School to skip the last two years and replace it with community college. I did that, and recommend it highly.
A few days after High School graduation, I started a job at a government-run institution doing Macintosh computer support, and was soon making around 30k a year in an area with a fairly low cost of living.
However, despite the occasional foray into something more interesting, this gets boring after a while and it seems that advancement here is not very likely. Help desk techs here are quite underpaid, and even talented troubleshooters are considered fodder (burn-out is a given - they just replace us every 18 or so months).
I've been working on my Associate's degree, and am about ready to finish it up. It's not a BS or Masters degree, but it's the first step in showing that I have initiative outside of work. I've been teaching myself Perl, MySQL, DHTML, C++, etc. and have a great degree of familiarity with MacOS, BeOS, Linux, Windows, etc.
My point is, the degree certainly doesn't hurt. Where I work, degrees are required to get anywhere. Although I don't plan on being here forever, I understand that many other places are the same. If anything, get *somewhere* before dropping out. Having been involved in the hiring process on a few occasions, I understand that 'putting college on hold' looks much better than never starting.
But as a counterpoint, I'll exhibit the following webpage for a very talented Mac coder who has done quite well without a traditional educational background:
http://www.nwlink.com/~colen/
(you might want to click on his 'resume' link for the details, although Colen is an interesting kind of guy as is)
- Darchmare
- Axis Mutatis, http://www.axismutatis.net