Man, pudge, you're killing me smalls. Do us a favor and don't use the headline "Mega Monday Updates" when we are waiting impatiently for the long overdue Powerbook updates. I nearly spilled my soda on my keyboard as I frantically rushed to load apple.com after seeing this headline in my Slashbox.
If only they would release a linux version of ANYTHING. I'm sick of the hypocrisy from them. They want everyone to code to their OS with it's skimpy little marketshare but they wont do the same in kind for other OS's with skimpy little marketshares. Instead they port stuff half assed over to windows. If Apple would just form an alliance with other OS makers and form a strategy they could gang up on MS and make some headway, but noooooooooooo. Steve wants to have his cake and eat it too.
What hypocrisy? I never read a state from Apple claiming to be the champion of every small-marketshare OS out there. They are in the business of making money, most of which is made by them from selling Macs, not software. Of course they want people to code for OS X. Running OS X is a major selling point of Mac hardware. Compare the number of Linux Macs that Terrasoft sells to the total number of Macs sold. I'm sure the figures are statistically insignificant to Apple's bottom line.
As for "half assed" Windows ports, what are you referring to? The only app I know ported to Windows is Quicktime. I have no idea how well it works on Windows, but I'm sure the reason Apple did it was to make sure that the Windows Media format didn't become a de facto standard like.doc from Word. Face it, Apple will only port stuff to a non-Apple OS when it makes business sense. Quicktime did, and now iTMS does. Once they have iTMS for Windows and Mac, that will cover pretty much anyone who would buy music online. I've met very few people that don't dual boot Linux, either on the x86 or the ppc side. I guess Apple just figures that such a small market isn't worth the dev time. Get over it.
I know why Apple is doing what they're doing... but this is like saying Panther will only run on G5s and up because they're too lazy to make it work with G4s and G3s.
Actually, it is more like saying that Safari will only run on 10.2 and up. Safari and iPod firmware updates are both free pieces of software that Apple has provided, and they only run on certain generations of machines/operating systems.
And before any of you tell me that Apple isn't obligated to make the older iPods work in any way, shape, or form different from the way they were originally advertised... why'd they add AAC support? To make $$, duh! And why aren't they adding the other new features? To entice people to upgrade! Stating the obvious, I know... but it really pisses me off that they'd shit on the pioneering owners just for the sake of planned obsolescence.
Planned obsolence would be if the original iPods were made poorly with the plan of breaking down in the future in order to force an upgrade to a newer iPod. As an owner of the original 5 GB iPod, I must say that it is still running as good as ever. Apple didn't shit on me one bit. In fact, the firmware updates they've released have made it even more functional with a longer battery life.
OH! But my iPod still plays MP3s just fine, you say. Quit playing devils advocate. MY point is that it is SHITTY that Apple has decided to intentionally ignore older iPods... not that I hate capitalism, or Apple trying to make money, or whatever else some of you people like to pull out of your ass for the sake of argument.
So let me get this straight. I bought an iPod from Apple with certain features. After I bought it, Apple, under no obligation, provided me with new firmware that added more features to my iPod at no cost. Repeat this firmware upgrade process twice more. Now it is shitty that Apple has stopped providing me with more free features? Of course, I should go bitching about not getting new feature foo even though they gave me bar1, bar2, and bar3. I got hosed.
Remember - the original iPod didn't have a clock, calendar, or a handful of other random crap, but Apple added it. Asking that they do so for other features shouldn't spark a flamewar.
Asking that they do it shouldn't start a flamewar. However, calling Apple on the carpet and describing their actions as "shitty" should.
Alas, this whole thing is trivial as there are much more important things to worry about in our world, but Apple really dropped the ball on this, IMHO. At the very least, Apple should open up the (old?) iPod API so people can do whatever the fuck they want with their own hardware.
You can do whatever you want with your own hardware. You want Apple to freely give out trade secrets so that you don't have to do as much work to make your hardware do stuff it wasn't intended for.
This issue really only seems to bother people with older ipods. Gee, I wonder why. Then, those that don't have older iPods are angry because they're tired of listening about the issue altogether...
I own the original iPod, and this issue doesn't bother me at all. In fact, I am so satisfied with my iPod ownership experience that I plan on upgrading to a new 30 GB iPod when I get more money.
What's keeping someone from hacking the new software into old iPods? Afterall, the Non-US volume limit was just hacked...
What's keeping you from putting your code where your mouth is?
I suppose I shouldn't be shocked anymore about the kind of lawsuits that get filed, but there are two in this Slashback that did so.
First, I am happy that Tucker Max won his case. While he seems like an arrogrant asshole on his website, he does have the right to be one. I'm just afraid about what kind of precedent may have been set by the judge who ordered him to take down the story in the first place. IANAL, but if the lawsuit had been seen through to the end, wouldn't that have undone the precedent in a way? As it stands now, it seems like the moronic judge has put a bit of legal validation (however wrong it may be) on his actions.
Second, the kid in the Star Wars video needs to get over it. We all have videos floating around of stupid things we have done, although some of us are at least lucky enough to have the excuse of being drunk. Sure the kids who stole the tape should get in a bit of trouble, but suing for $250,000 apiece won't make things any different for Star Wars Kid. All it will do is financially crippled the parents of the other children.
Glad to see that people besides me still attend Universities because of what they might learn, as opposed to who might hire them.
Right now I'm at school in a Computer Engineering/Computer Science degree program, basically giving me the background in EE and CS. I'm probably going to end up getting my Masters after my Bachelors, and I must say that going for a straight EE Masters is awfully tempting as it is much harder to outsource those jobs than. While right now I'm about equally interested in both subjects, I won't deny that potential job markets will play a big role in what I end up doing ultimately.
What games are you playing where your computer is "woefully slow"? I game regularly on my Cube (450 MHz G4 with a stock Rage 128 and 1 GB RAM), and I'm still able to play everything, save UT2k3 which is just a little too slow. Ghost Recon, Jedi Knight II, and Warcraft 3 run just fine on it. Admittedly, it is not a speed demon, but it gets the job done with low settings.
If you bought an eMac you shouldn't have expected that it would be awesome for gaming or upgradeable. Try upping your RAM, as I noticed a nice speed burst when I brought my Cube up to 1 GB. Other than that, you are more likely to harm your eMac by opening it then you are likely to help it by soldering on a new video card (if that is even possible).
I'd read some thread a while back on another board saying that "Macs are cheaper than PCs". I still can't believe anyone would make that argument.
I'll make that argument any day of the week if you want to consider TCO. My family got a Powermac G4 in 1999, and it is still the daily use computer for them. (I have my own Cube, which is basically the same for performance comparisons.) That thing still does everything that they can ask of it and then some. Hell, it can still play all the games that I want to play, save UT2k3. The great part is that it is still humming along perfectly, and I don't see any reason why it won't last two or three more years. Find me a PC that you will still be using daily 6 or 7 years later.
This doesn't even take into account all the time and headaches that have been saved from using a Mac. Taking out the "Did you accidentally kick the power cord out?" type phone calls I've gotten to help them, I can think of maybe twice that they have had to call me and troubleshoot. There is no pricetag on this peace of mind.
They would call the 750GX a G3 because all MPC750 chips have been G3's in Apple's products. Many geeks don't even know the difference between a 750, 7400, and a 970, let alone your average consumer. Apple has no reason to change things now and confuse the hell out of everyone.
While you could make a very good technical argument about ditching the G4 altogether and going with the new G3's in the iBooks, iMacs, and eMacs, I just don't see how it could work in the iMacs and eMacs from a marketing standpoint. Your average consumer would be very confused if they were looking at an older G4 iMac or a newer G3 (750 GX) iMac.
I just hope Apple sticks with the G3 in the iBook. It looks like a dream laptop chip for power usage and heat, and it would still run virtually everything you need mobile when clocked to 1.1 GHz with 1 MB L2 cache. I currently have a 500 MHz TiBook, but I am thinking of getting a new laptop in the next year. I currently have my eyes set on a 12" AlBook, but a 750 GX-based iBook would be mighty tough to pass up.
Because once he says G5 notebooks are around the corner -- NO ONE will buy a G4 never mind a G3 notebook
While I agree that Powerbook sales would take a serious hit, I doubt iBook sales would be noticeably affected, if at all. The iBooks are inexpensive but nice laptops. For most college students, they are the perfect computer. If you are shopping for an iBook, I doubt the chip in the high end Powerbook line is going to affect your decision.
Using Quake 3 for game performance benchmarking has its good points and bad points. For the good, it is widely accepted as a good platform neutral benchmark. Platform neutrality is one of the biggest problems in creating a good benchmark. The bad part is that Quake 3 is an old engine. At this point, it is irrelevant that the G5 can get 325 fps vs 275 (?) on a P4. What I want to see is whether or not the G5 has a noticeable advantage on newer games like UT2k3 where the difference between 50 and 100 fps is important.
Hopefully Doom 3 or UT2k3 will succeed Quake as the standard game benchmark, but until then we are left trying to apply Q3 numbers to our current gaming situation.
I can build a comparable PC based system for far less money than what these things will be going for.
Comparable is in the eye of the beholder. I, like many other Mac users I know, wouldn't trade an OS X box for a Windows or Linux machine no matter how much faster it is. To me, paying the extra money for an Apple machine is worth it as it allows me to use the OS where I can be most productive. It doesn't matter how fast your processor is if you don't like working on your machine.
Actually, Apple never has said that it is the first 64-bit desktop, as they know that they would be wrong due to previous 64-bit workstations. They have repeatedly said that it is the first 64-bit personal computer, as shown on their PowerMac page.
At the bottom right corner of the page, it says a little about the *nix side of OS X. One thing is that the X11 client will be built into Panther. I don't know about being able to use other WMs though.
To kinda respond to the grandparent post, I still don't think many novices will venture into X11 apps without some sort of package manager.
If you paid for Puma (10.1) "just in time" to see Jaguar (10.2) released, then you are a fool. The release date of Jaguar was announced at MWNY more than a month ahead of the actual release in late August. Unless you had some dire need that made it worth paying $129 for a month's use of Puma, you should have waited. Don't blame Apple for your failure to budget your money well.
I'm sure you will get a bunch of people coming in here to flame you for that, but I want to say that I agree wholeheartedly. Of the non-Linux users out there, I would consider myself in the top 1% or.1% of people who would feel comfortable using Linux. I'm a Comp Sci student and have had exposure to many different *nix environments. I'm a Mac guy living in a Windows world, so I'm used to having to adapt to new computing environments if need be. I've been using computers about as long as I've been able to ride a bike.
Despite all this, whenever I've tried Linux it has never felt like I could make my computer truly mine. On a few occasions, either due to curiosity, boredom, or a spare HD, I've tried to install and experiment with a flavor of Linux. With any of my Macs, I feel at home on my computer. But with a Linux machine, there is always something little going wrong that makes things a pain in the ass for me. It may be that X11 is throwing a little fit over drivers. It may be dependency-hell. It may be that KDE or GNOME don't feel right from an ease of use standpoint. Whatever the case, while I get most of the stuff done that I wanted, it just caused too many headaches in the process to be worth it.
The other major problem in my opinion is the install. Admittedly, I haven't tried Red Hat/Yellow Dog which is supposed to have the most newbie friendly installer, but I've done Mandrake which I've heard is pretty close. I've also tried Debian and mkLinux. The Mandrake install was nice until something went wrong. I couldn't get X working without some hacking, not exactly the setup I would expect your average user to work through. They just want to be able to click a few boxes and have it work. Debian is actually a pretty nice installer once you get used to it, but the first time can be intimidating.
While this may come across as bashing on Linux, that's not my point. Linux definitely has its strong points, but ease of installation, setup, and use is not one of them. If Linux people really want to see it take over the desktop, this is the area to focus on.
...but I just don't see this happening in the long-term. Up until now, Apple has been reeling from Motorola's catastrophes and leftover problems from the Stone Age (aka pre Jobs' return). On the other hand, Linux is getting great press and has made great strides, both in terms of acceptance and the actual product. Given the abundance of hardware out there that Linux runs on (namely x86 for purposes of this discussion) and being free as in beer, many people have tried and liked Linux. It is also important to note that in the past few years when Linux has gained the most on the desktop have also been coupled with a recession where people haven't been as willing to buy new computers. It comes as no surprise to me that Linux might pass Apple next year.
On the other hand, I see a very bright future for Apple. This article couldn't be more timely as today we Apple loyalists heard some of the best news since OS X came out: the shackles of Motorola have been cast off for pure IBM goodness. With the G5 and OS X, I think Apple is unstoppable. Apple already sports the nicest laptops, and now the desktop offerings are equally awe inspiring. One of the biggest complaints about Apple has been that the are overpriced and underpowered. With the G5 fixing the power problem, I think the economy and IBM will help with the price. IBM reportedly can produce the 970 much cheaper than Motorola could produce the G4, and I wouldn't be surprised if Apple tried to pass on these savings in the process of trying to carve out more than their traditional niche. Also, if/when the economy gets back into swing, more people will have the money and be willing to go for a pricier Mac if they believe it to be a superior machine.
Re:This will be another solid update
on
Jaguar is Over
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
However, there is a very large misconception among CERTAIN MAC USERS (not ALL) that Mac OS is FreeBSD and FreeBSD is Mac OS
There is also a very large misconception among CERTAIN LINUX USERS that anybody who makes a single penny off software they write is a capitalist whore who should be shot and have their code repossessed by RMS. There is also a very large misconception among CERTAIN WINDOWS USERS that IE *is* the computer. Just because a very small portion of any group tends to be out there, it doesn't mean you should hold it against the whole.
As somebody who is a Mac user and knows many other Mac users, from power users to my mother who only reads email and surfs the web, I can't say that a single one of them have this misconception you allege. Spread your FUD elsewhere please.
Slashdot Mirror
Man, pudge, you're killing me smalls. Do us a favor and don't use the headline "Mega Monday Updates" when we are waiting impatiently for the long overdue Powerbook updates. I nearly spilled my soda on my keyboard as I frantically rushed to load apple.com after seeing this headline in my Slashbox.
If only they would release a linux version of ANYTHING. I'm sick of the hypocrisy from them. They want everyone to code to their OS with it's skimpy little marketshare but they wont do the same in kind for other OS's with skimpy little marketshares. Instead they port stuff half assed over to windows. If Apple would just form an alliance with other OS makers and form a strategy they could gang up on MS and make some headway, but noooooooooooo. Steve wants to have his cake and eat it too.
.doc from Word. Face it, Apple will only port stuff to a non-Apple OS when it makes business sense. Quicktime did, and now iTMS does. Once they have iTMS for Windows and Mac, that will cover pretty much anyone who would buy music online. I've met very few people that don't dual boot Linux, either on the x86 or the ppc side. I guess Apple just figures that such a small market isn't worth the dev time. Get over it.
What hypocrisy? I never read a state from Apple claiming to be the champion of every small-marketshare OS out there. They are in the business of making money, most of which is made by them from selling Macs, not software. Of course they want people to code for OS X. Running OS X is a major selling point of Mac hardware. Compare the number of Linux Macs that Terrasoft sells to the total number of Macs sold. I'm sure the figures are statistically insignificant to Apple's bottom line.
As for "half assed" Windows ports, what are you referring to? The only app I know ported to Windows is Quicktime. I have no idea how well it works on Windows, but I'm sure the reason Apple did it was to make sure that the Windows Media format didn't become a de facto standard like
I know why Apple is doing what they're doing... but this is like saying Panther will only run on G5s and up because they're too lazy to make it work with G4s and G3s.
Actually, it is more like saying that Safari will only run on 10.2 and up. Safari and iPod firmware updates are both free pieces of software that Apple has provided, and they only run on certain generations of machines/operating systems.
And before any of you tell me that Apple isn't obligated to make the older iPods work in any way, shape, or form different from the way they were originally advertised... why'd they add AAC support? To make $$, duh! And why aren't they adding the other new features? To entice people to upgrade! Stating the obvious, I know... but it really pisses me off that they'd shit on the pioneering owners just for the sake of planned obsolescence.
Planned obsolence would be if the original iPods were made poorly with the plan of breaking down in the future in order to force an upgrade to a newer iPod. As an owner of the original 5 GB iPod, I must say that it is still running as good as ever. Apple didn't shit on me one bit. In fact, the firmware updates they've released have made it even more functional with a longer battery life.
OH! But my iPod still plays MP3s just fine, you say. Quit playing devils advocate. MY point is that it is SHITTY that Apple has decided to intentionally ignore older iPods... not that I hate capitalism, or Apple trying to make money, or whatever else some of you people like to pull out of your ass for the sake of argument.
So let me get this straight. I bought an iPod from Apple with certain features. After I bought it, Apple, under no obligation, provided me with new firmware that added more features to my iPod at no cost. Repeat this firmware upgrade process twice more. Now it is shitty that Apple has stopped providing me with more free features? Of course, I should go bitching about not getting new feature foo even though they gave me bar1, bar2, and bar3. I got hosed.
Remember - the original iPod didn't have a clock, calendar, or a handful of other random crap, but Apple added it. Asking that they do so for other features shouldn't spark a flamewar.
Asking that they do it shouldn't start a flamewar. However, calling Apple on the carpet and describing their actions as "shitty" should.
Alas, this whole thing is trivial as there are much more important things to worry about in our world, but Apple really dropped the ball on this, IMHO. At the very least, Apple should open up the (old?) iPod API so people can do whatever the fuck they want with their own hardware.
You can do whatever you want with your own hardware. You want Apple to freely give out trade secrets so that you don't have to do as much work to make your hardware do stuff it wasn't intended for.
This issue really only seems to bother people with older ipods. Gee, I wonder why. Then, those that don't have older iPods are angry because they're tired of listening about the issue altogether...
I own the original iPod, and this issue doesn't bother me at all. In fact, I am so satisfied with my iPod ownership experience that I plan on upgrading to a new 30 GB iPod when I get more money.
What's keeping someone from hacking the new software into old iPods? Afterall, the Non-US volume limit was just hacked...
What's keeping you from putting your code where your mouth is?
Heh, only on Slashdot could a geek call out a guy who nailed Miss Vermont for his luck with the ladies.
I suppose I shouldn't be shocked anymore about the kind of lawsuits that get filed, but there are two in this Slashback that did so.
First, I am happy that Tucker Max won his case. While he seems like an arrogrant asshole on his website, he does have the right to be one. I'm just afraid about what kind of precedent may have been set by the judge who ordered him to take down the story in the first place. IANAL, but if the lawsuit had been seen through to the end, wouldn't that have undone the precedent in a way? As it stands now, it seems like the moronic judge has put a bit of legal validation (however wrong it may be) on his actions.
Second, the kid in the Star Wars video needs to get over it. We all have videos floating around of stupid things we have done, although some of us are at least lucky enough to have the excuse of being drunk. Sure the kids who stole the tape should get in a bit of trouble, but suing for $250,000 apiece won't make things any different for Star Wars Kid. All it will do is financially crippled the parents of the other children.
Glad to see that people besides me still attend Universities because of what they might learn, as opposed to who might hire them.
Right now I'm at school in a Computer Engineering/Computer Science degree program, basically giving me the background in EE and CS. I'm probably going to end up getting my Masters after my Bachelors, and I must say that going for a straight EE Masters is awfully tempting as it is much harder to outsource those jobs than. While right now I'm about equally interested in both subjects, I won't deny that potential job markets will play a big role in what I end up doing ultimately.
What games are you playing where your computer is "woefully slow"? I game regularly on my Cube (450 MHz G4 with a stock Rage 128 and 1 GB RAM), and I'm still able to play everything, save UT2k3 which is just a little too slow. Ghost Recon, Jedi Knight II, and Warcraft 3 run just fine on it. Admittedly, it is not a speed demon, but it gets the job done with low settings.
If you bought an eMac you shouldn't have expected that it would be awesome for gaming or upgradeable. Try upping your RAM, as I noticed a nice speed burst when I brought my Cube up to 1 GB. Other than that, you are more likely to harm your eMac by opening it then you are likely to help it by soldering on a new video card (if that is even possible).
Tell your bosses that they may chose 2 of the above 3 options for each project. If they ask for all 3, you can either A) find a new job or B) pray.
7 You have to tipe commands
I can see how this would be a problem for you.
I'd read some thread a while back on another board saying that "Macs are cheaper than PCs". I still can't believe anyone would make that argument.
I'll make that argument any day of the week if you want to consider TCO. My family got a Powermac G4 in 1999, and it is still the daily use computer for them. (I have my own Cube, which is basically the same for performance comparisons.) That thing still does everything that they can ask of it and then some. Hell, it can still play all the games that I want to play, save UT2k3. The great part is that it is still humming along perfectly, and I don't see any reason why it won't last two or three more years. Find me a PC that you will still be using daily 6 or 7 years later.
This doesn't even take into account all the time and headaches that have been saved from using a Mac. Taking out the "Did you accidentally kick the power cord out?" type phone calls I've gotten to help them, I can think of maybe twice that they have had to call me and troubleshoot. There is no pricetag on this peace of mind.
Homer: Uh...it's like...did anyone see the movie "Tron"?
Hibbert: No.
Lisa: No.
Marge: No.
Wiggum: No.
Bart: No.
Patty: No.
Wiggum: No.
Ned: No.
Selma: No.
Frink: No.
Lovejoy: No.
Wiggum: Yes. I mean -- um, I mean, no. No, heh.
They would call the 750GX a G3 because all MPC750 chips have been G3's in Apple's products. Many geeks don't even know the difference between a 750, 7400, and a 970, let alone your average consumer. Apple has no reason to change things now and confuse the hell out of everyone.
While you could make a very good technical argument about ditching the G4 altogether and going with the new G3's in the iBooks, iMacs, and eMacs, I just don't see how it could work in the iMacs and eMacs from a marketing standpoint. Your average consumer would be very confused if they were looking at an older G4 iMac or a newer G3 (750 GX) iMac.
I just hope Apple sticks with the G3 in the iBook. It looks like a dream laptop chip for power usage and heat, and it would still run virtually everything you need mobile when clocked to 1.1 GHz with 1 MB L2 cache. I currently have a 500 MHz TiBook, but I am thinking of getting a new laptop in the next year. I currently have my eyes set on a 12" AlBook, but a 750 GX-based iBook would be mighty tough to pass up.
Because once he says G5 notebooks are around the corner -- NO ONE will buy a G4 never mind a G3 notebook
While I agree that Powerbook sales would take a serious hit, I doubt iBook sales would be noticeably affected, if at all. The iBooks are inexpensive but nice laptops. For most college students, they are the perfect computer. If you are shopping for an iBook, I doubt the chip in the high end Powerbook line is going to affect your decision.
Using Quake 3 for game performance benchmarking has its good points and bad points. For the good, it is widely accepted as a good platform neutral benchmark. Platform neutrality is one of the biggest problems in creating a good benchmark. The bad part is that Quake 3 is an old engine. At this point, it is irrelevant that the G5 can get 325 fps vs 275 (?) on a P4. What I want to see is whether or not the G5 has a noticeable advantage on newer games like UT2k3 where the difference between 50 and 100 fps is important.
Hopefully Doom 3 or UT2k3 will succeed Quake as the standard game benchmark, but until then we are left trying to apply Q3 numbers to our current gaming situation.
I can build a comparable PC based system for far less money than what these things will be going for.
Comparable is in the eye of the beholder. I, like many other Mac users I know, wouldn't trade an OS X box for a Windows or Linux machine no matter how much faster it is. To me, paying the extra money for an Apple machine is worth it as it allows me to use the OS where I can be most productive. It doesn't matter how fast your processor is if you don't like working on your machine.
Apple states they are the first 64-bit desktop.
Actually, Apple never has said that it is the first 64-bit desktop, as they know that they would be wrong due to previous 64-bit workstations. They have repeatedly said that it is the first 64-bit personal computer, as shown on their PowerMac page.
Actually, the G5 only uses 42 bits for address space currently.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/panther/
At the bottom right corner of the page, it says a little about the *nix side of OS X. One thing is that the X11 client will be built into Panther. I don't know about being able to use other WMs though.
To kinda respond to the grandparent post, I still don't think many novices will venture into X11 apps without some sort of package manager.
*This assumes having fink installed, but I can't imagine running X11 apps in OS X without having fink or darwinports.
I guess we know where all the 2449 votes for "GP-who?" came from now.
If you paid for Puma (10.1) "just in time" to see Jaguar (10.2) released, then you are a fool. The release date of Jaguar was announced at MWNY more than a month ahead of the actual release in late August. Unless you had some dire need that made it worth paying $129 for a month's use of Puma, you should have waited. Don't blame Apple for your failure to budget your money well.
I'm sure you will get a bunch of people coming in here to flame you for that, but I want to say that I agree wholeheartedly. Of the non-Linux users out there, I would consider myself in the top 1% or .1% of people who would feel comfortable using Linux. I'm a Comp Sci student and have had exposure to many different *nix environments. I'm a Mac guy living in a Windows world, so I'm used to having to adapt to new computing environments if need be. I've been using computers about as long as I've been able to ride a bike.
Despite all this, whenever I've tried Linux it has never felt like I could make my computer truly mine. On a few occasions, either due to curiosity, boredom, or a spare HD, I've tried to install and experiment with a flavor of Linux. With any of my Macs, I feel at home on my computer. But with a Linux machine, there is always something little going wrong that makes things a pain in the ass for me. It may be that X11 is throwing a little fit over drivers. It may be dependency-hell. It may be that KDE or GNOME don't feel right from an ease of use standpoint. Whatever the case, while I get most of the stuff done that I wanted, it just caused too many headaches in the process to be worth it.
The other major problem in my opinion is the install. Admittedly, I haven't tried Red Hat/Yellow Dog which is supposed to have the most newbie friendly installer, but I've done Mandrake which I've heard is pretty close. I've also tried Debian and mkLinux. The Mandrake install was nice until something went wrong. I couldn't get X working without some hacking, not exactly the setup I would expect your average user to work through. They just want to be able to click a few boxes and have it work. Debian is actually a pretty nice installer once you get used to it, but the first time can be intimidating.
While this may come across as bashing on Linux, that's not my point. Linux definitely has its strong points, but ease of installation, setup, and use is not one of them. If Linux people really want to see it take over the desktop, this is the area to focus on.
...but I just don't see this happening in the long-term. Up until now, Apple has been reeling from Motorola's catastrophes and leftover problems from the Stone Age (aka pre Jobs' return). On the other hand, Linux is getting great press and has made great strides, both in terms of acceptance and the actual product. Given the abundance of hardware out there that Linux runs on (namely x86 for purposes of this discussion) and being free as in beer, many people have tried and liked Linux. It is also important to note that in the past few years when Linux has gained the most on the desktop have also been coupled with a recession where people haven't been as willing to buy new computers. It comes as no surprise to me that Linux might pass Apple next year.
On the other hand, I see a very bright future for Apple. This article couldn't be more timely as today we Apple loyalists heard some of the best news since OS X came out: the shackles of Motorola have been cast off for pure IBM goodness. With the G5 and OS X, I think Apple is unstoppable. Apple already sports the nicest laptops, and now the desktop offerings are equally awe inspiring. One of the biggest complaints about Apple has been that the are overpriced and underpowered. With the G5 fixing the power problem, I think the economy and IBM will help with the price. IBM reportedly can produce the 970 much cheaper than Motorola could produce the G4, and I wouldn't be surprised if Apple tried to pass on these savings in the process of trying to carve out more than their traditional niche. Also, if/when the economy gets back into swing, more people will have the money and be willing to go for a pricier Mac if they believe it to be a superior machine.
However, there is a very large misconception among CERTAIN MAC USERS (not ALL) that Mac OS is FreeBSD and FreeBSD is Mac OS
There is also a very large misconception among CERTAIN LINUX USERS that anybody who makes a single penny off software they write is a capitalist whore who should be shot and have their code repossessed by RMS. There is also a very large misconception among CERTAIN WINDOWS USERS that IE *is* the computer. Just because a very small portion of any group tends to be out there, it doesn't mean you should hold it against the whole.
As somebody who is a Mac user and knows many other Mac users, from power users to my mother who only reads email and surfs the web, I can't say that a single one of them have this misconception you allege. Spread your FUD elsewhere please.