After getting into the BSD way of things with OS X I took the plunge and installed FreeBSD on an old pentium system and I'm using it as an ftp server and generaly making it more useful than something that came installed (and still was until I nuked and paved) with Windows 95 version a.
Apple's hardware is not all the expensive, depending on what you look at. Their powerbooks and powermacs are relatively expensive, but the "i" range - iBook, iMac, eMac etc are very good value for money.
Just look at iTunes - Rip, Mix, Burn. Admittedly, this was designed for CDs that you had purchased, but anything you download from an Apple-run music service would be music you have purchased.
If there's going to be any DRM it will be like that of the iPod. Or it will be Rendezvous style streaming (not copying) if you connect to other people's Macs on the network.
Just like the iPod though, it's easy to copy if you so want, but Apple aren't going to make it into a feature.
Windows 95 = x.1 Windows 98 = x.2 Windows ME = x.3 (really x.2.bastard child)
If you had Windows 95 Microsoft didn't hand out the "upgrade" to Windows 98 for free did they?
I think the numbering scheme they have chosen to use doesn't lend itself to their business model - the differences between the versions of OS X are similar to those of the different Windows revisions.
People see it as a decimal rather than a version number, so they see "10.1 to 10.2" as only a 0.1 change, which is a small value, but of course, it doesn't really mean that at all.
I don't think the iBook's logic board can take more than 640 Mb in total, so if they increase the base memory to 256, adding a 512 stick to the user slot would be problematic.
The 256Mb one comes with a 128Mb soldered on and a 128 Mb stick in the user slot.
As will all Apple products, buy it with the base amount of Ram and buy some cheaper stuff from Crucial or someone on ramseeker.com
Isn't it obvious? Your Mac (the 9600/300 is a fantastic machine btw) is suffering a breakdown because it has to deal with you all day, since you post this in every Apple story.
Sell it on eBay to someone who doesn't spend the time that most people are having sex/eating/watching tv/commenting intelligently on slashdot and it will be sprightly and effective again.
The Rio mp3 player most definitely works with OS X. My friend has one, and a Dual 450 G4 tower running 10.2.3 - you connect it to a USB port and it shows up in iTunes staight away just like the iPod. Obviously you can only transfer at usb speeds, not the firewire speed of the iPod, but it does work.
It even shows a little window at to bottom of the playlist when you have it connected showing you how much space you have available.
I don't have experience with the other devices, so I can't comment.
That menu option in the Windows XP help menu is enough to make my Mac worth it regardless of any other considerations. The message is "we think you're a criminal".
There are no such things in Mac OS X.
Oh yeah, and my iBook is the most rugged, best value piece of hardware I've ever bought. There just isn't anything to touch it in the PC laptop world, and I've taken apart my fair share of PC laptops (usually to repair them). The build quality just isn't there. Perhaps with the IBM Thinkpads, but they are still a class below the iBook and Powerbook.
Go and get your hands on an iBook and you'll see what I mean. There's no creaking when you pick it up for one thing, and it doesn't feel like a tacky ABS plastic chassis (probably because it isn't - it's a mixture of polycarbonate and magnesium/aluminium alloy).
From OS X I can manage my FreeBSD box from the terminal while working on an Office document (yes, yes, I had to get Office v.X for work purposes). I can run X11, Virtual PC (if I wanted to - I have no need since I have a w2k box as well). iTunes is far and away the best mp3 software player I have ever used.
There's just no comparison. I've used PC laptops and I'm always disappointed in them. Even new, expensive ones. I always feel content when I get back to my "slow, expensive" iBook. It's priceless to me.
After Effects works with Final Cut Pro/Express to add effects, titles etc etc.
iMovie is free, and isn't all that bad. It holds its own against Microsoft's hastily made "windows movie maker" program, released to be an alternative to iMovie.
What more do you expect from a free app? It can't be too good, otherwise no one would buy FCP/E. iMovie fits its target audience pretty well - home users with camcorders who just want to do very simple edits, titles and sound tracks/effects/VO.
You're right. You get a hell of a lot of bang for your buck (or quid if you're British) with an Apple notebook.
The iBook is insanely good value for money. If you haven't had a chance to see one for real and at your fingertips then I'd get yourself down to an Apple store or a retailer that sells them to get a feel for just how solid it is.
The first impression I get when looking at almost any PC-based laptop recently has been "this looks tacky, plasticy and shoddily built" and often it's true.
The iBook is a solid as a rock, or I guess you could say solid as a pane of bullet proof glass, since that's what the case is made of (polycarbonate with a magnesium alloy frame). It doesn't creak or flex when you pick it up. It feels solid wherever you hold it. There are no doors, switches, latches or other bits that can break off. It slides into my bag easily. The wireless antenna is built into the screen, and it's just $79 to add an Airport card, which is an easy install under the keyboard. No antenna sticking out of the side like some PC laptops. No loss of signal either.
This thing is bomb proof, and the best thing I've ever bought. I upgraded the internal hard drive myself (the stock drive was 20GB, I replaced it with a faster 40GB model from IBM), so I can personally confirm the build quality of these things.
I have a 600MHz 12" model. Battery life is excellent. I can get 4 or 5 hours if I'm careful (dim screen setting, no heavy disk access, no optical drive use).
The battery lasts about 2 hours if I have the screen on about 75% brightness and I watch a DVD - I tested it with LOTR: Fellowship DVD, and it went to sleep just as they came out of the mines of Moria.
My current uptime is 22 days, 23 hours and have had a total of 2 kernel panics in the 11 months or so I've had this machine, both of these were back when I was using 10.1.5 (now on 10.2.4). 10.2 has never crashed on me, and I work this little thing pretty hard, using it for a minimum of 4 hours every day, usually more. Aside from those kernel panics, I have only ever rebooted for system upgrades (and that hard drive replacement, hence my current low uptime).
I sleep the iBook when I'm not using it and it wakes within 2, perhaps 3, seconds when I open the lid and is ready to go again, re-establishing my network connection quickly.
As for the software, well, this is/. If I start waxing lyrical about OS X too much I'll be modded troll and called a Mac Zealot. I'll quote a friend of mine:
Mac OS X is a server strength operating system that your granny could install and use.
It's everything good about FreeBSD, with everything you want (well most things) from a GUI. The terminal is right there if you want to use the command line - it's pretty much seamless with the rest of the OS.
Forget the "PPC is slow and crap" argument, you'll not be disappointed with an iBook. I'd get the top of the range 12" or 14" one (depending on whether you wanted a small and compact laptop or a mid sized one).
I can do everything I need with this little workhorse. Listen to my mp3s with iTunes, burn CDs, watch DVDs, manage my FreeBSD box from the terminal, email, browse the net, connect to windows, unix and mac shared volumes, work on my website and test it on the built in install of Apache, edit simple movies in iMovie (although I don't do this - I have a Final Cut Pro workstation at work). I can even edit Office documents (I had to accept some level of MS software, since most of my work environment is Windows based, and they use MS Word everywhere). I can even program for free (Apple's Developer Tools are free) so I can develop unix and Mac software.
This iBook is the wonder machine. I can't work without it.
The Vorlon ships and the White Star class have self repairing hulls, and the ability to absorb a certain amount of weapon fire without taking damage, but otherwise, yeah, no shields.
All of those things made B5 fantastic - especially the stronger races thing.
Star Trek can be pretty good on occasion, but with the exception of the Borg and Species 8472, Humanity is pretty much the strongest thing there is, and that gets boring after a while.
That's the beauty of Stargate SG1 and B5 - you've got to watch your back and keep the locals happy, since they're evenly matched or stronger than you.
All the Vorlon ships are alive. You never get to see the inside of one, so there could be anything in there. I always liked to think of them as completely organic, with no solid metal parts at all.
Possibly bone or other hard organic material that could deform (we know from seeing Kosh's ship in bay 13 that it can alter the surface markings and poke out various tendrils. Also, there is no door, so to get in and out you have to pass through the wall, or have it open a hole.
The inside would be pretty much a solid lump of whatever the surface is made of - the Vorlons are strongly telepathic, and their ships are alive, there would be no need for controls, dials or displays.
We know what a Shadow vessel looks like inside - a solid black organic mass with a human/alien body as a computer.
The way they animated the Starfuries was the best I've seen of space simulation - they could turn around on the spot while coasting on a given vector.
Heh, indeed. But when shooting on film, under or overcranking the camera will change the speed of the shot, since it must be played back at 24fps on the screen in the end.
I guess if you start getting computers involved it gets hairy, but the output format is fixed.
As a general rule on the resultion front, twice what you need is usually sufficient.
And it will be shown at 24fps in the cinema anyway, unless something has changed!
Re:Let's hear it for legacy free!
on
Legacy-Free PCs
·
· Score: 1
No one is forcing you to buy "legacy free" hardware.
I was just pointing out to the parent that Apple sells legacy free hardware.
Apple's path is obviously not yours. You use rs-232 and all the other ports that Apple has decided it no longer wants to use. Good for you; so don't upgrade to Apple - keep buying PCs, and installing MS-DOS and NT4 on them.
I'm all for the right tool for the right job, and just because rs-232 is being eliminated for the desktop market doesn't mean it will go away if it's still useful.
We use an rs-232 interface to control a U-Matic SP edit deck, via a USB converter, so the options are still there for us when we need them.
No one said anything about forcing hardware on you.
Re:Let's hear it for legacy free!
on
Legacy-Free PCs
·
· Score: 1
Choice of hardware: Dell: everything Apple: little
Err, what are you saying here? That I can't go out and buy a hard drive and hook it up to my Mac? I can - an IDE one that would also (last time I looked) work with a PC too.
Anything with a USB connector - works on both Mac and PC
Anything with a firewire (1394/iLink) connector - works with Mac out of the box, might need firewire card on a PC, but will work.
Anything that conforms to memory standards (DDR, PC133 etc, depending on motherboard) - will work on both PC and Mac - I have swapped PC133 modules from my PC over to the Mac since I don't use the PC any more.
I can take the IDE-equipped drive (HD, CDRW, DVD etc) drive out of my PC and connect it in my Mac and it will work.
Hell, I can even use floppies if I buy a usb equipped floppy drive (I'll admit that the Mac lacks an internal floppy connector, but big deal!)
Monitors - anything with a VGA connector will attach to a Mac or a PC with a VGA port. Anything with a DVI port will connect to a DVI-equipped Mac or PC (you might need an adapter if the Mac has an ADC port instead of a DVI port)
Again, I have used my 17" Sony Trinitron with both my PC and my Mac with no special connectors needed.
Mice - any usb mouse will work on the Mac, so if you reallyreallyreally want two buttons on your mouse, rather than bitching about it on/. for karma you can buy one and connect it to the usb port. The Apple keyborad has two usb ports on the side to allow you to do this without using up an extra usb port on the back.
Printers, Scanners - ok, some don't work, but most do now. Nearly all Canon, Epson, HP and Lexmark printers work, along with a host of others. Also, no drivers need to be installed, they're already there (but you can delete them if you need the space).
Gee, I'm running out of common hardware to compare.
I bought a 2.5" laptop hard drive the other day - a 40Gb IBM Travelstar 40GNX. A bog standard 2.5" IDE laptop hard drive, bought from a PC-centric online store. I installed it in my iBook and put OS X 10.2.4 on it and I now have 20Gb more space than I did last week.
The old 20Gb drive that I took out is in an external firewire enclosure - guess what, I connect it to my PC and use it to keep large files I need backed up for short periods.
Pray tell, where does this "almost none" come from in my choice of hardware for the Mac?
Oh, I see! Processors! You have a choice of Intel or AMD (and minor others). We have a choice of Apple (Motorola/IBM, depending on G3/G4), and we only have one motherboard manufacturer.
Well, to be honest, that doesn't bother me all that much.
Slashdot Mirror
heh, true, true.
After getting into the BSD way of things with OS X I took the plunge and installed FreeBSD on an old pentium system and I'm using it as an ftp server and generaly making it more useful than something that came installed (and still was until I nuked and paved) with Windows 95 version a.
Apple's hardware is not all the expensive, depending on what you look at. Their powerbooks and powermacs are relatively expensive, but the "i" range - iBook, iMac, eMac etc are very good value for money.
I don't know if Apple would go this way.
Just look at iTunes - Rip, Mix, Burn. Admittedly, this was designed for CDs that you had purchased, but anything you download from an Apple-run music service would be music you have purchased.
If there's going to be any DRM it will be like that of the iPod. Or it will be Rendezvous style streaming (not copying) if you connect to other people's Macs on the network.
Just like the iPod though, it's easy to copy if you so want, but Apple aren't going to make it into a feature.
Puma = 10.1
Jaguar = 10.2
Panther = 10.3
Windows 95 = x.1
Windows 98 = x.2
Windows ME = x.3 (really x.2.bastard child)
If you had Windows 95 Microsoft didn't hand out the "upgrade" to Windows 98 for free did they?
I think the numbering scheme they have chosen to use doesn't lend itself to their business model - the differences between the versions of OS X are similar to those of the different Windows revisions.
People see it as a decimal rather than a version number, so they see "10.1 to 10.2" as only a 0.1 change, which is a small value, but of course, it doesn't really mean that at all.
I don't think the iBook's logic board can take more than 640 Mb in total, so if they increase the base memory to 256, adding a 512 stick to the user slot would be problematic.
The 256Mb one comes with a 128Mb soldered on and a 128 Mb stick in the user slot.
As will all Apple products, buy it with the base amount of Ram and buy some cheaper stuff from Crucial or someone on ramseeker.com
"All your *BSD are belong to us" ?
never mind..
Isn't it obvious? Your Mac (the 9600/300 is a fantastic machine btw) is suffering a breakdown because it has to deal with you all day, since you post this in every Apple story.
Sell it on eBay to someone who doesn't spend the time that most people are having sex/eating/watching tv/commenting intelligently on slashdot and it will be sprightly and effective again.
"User Error: replace user"
The Rio mp3 player most definitely works with OS X. My friend has one, and a Dual 450 G4 tower running 10.2.3 - you connect it to a USB port and it shows up in iTunes staight away just like the iPod. Obviously you can only transfer at usb speeds, not the firewire speed of the iPod, but it does work.
It even shows a little window at to bottom of the playlist when you have it connected showing you how much space you have available.
I don't have experience with the other devices, so I can't comment.
That menu option in the Windows XP help menu is enough to make my Mac worth it regardless of any other considerations. The message is "we think you're a criminal".
There are no such things in Mac OS X.
Oh yeah, and my iBook is the most rugged, best value piece of hardware I've ever bought. There just isn't anything to touch it in the PC laptop world, and I've taken apart my fair share of PC laptops (usually to repair them). The build quality just isn't there. Perhaps with the IBM Thinkpads, but they are still a class below the iBook and Powerbook.
Go and get your hands on an iBook and you'll see what I mean. There's no creaking when you pick it up for one thing, and it doesn't feel like a tacky ABS plastic chassis (probably because it isn't - it's a mixture of polycarbonate and magnesium/aluminium alloy).
From OS X I can manage my FreeBSD box from the terminal while working on an Office document (yes, yes, I had to get Office v.X for work purposes). I can run X11, Virtual PC (if I wanted to - I have no need since I have a w2k box as well). iTunes is far and away the best mp3 software player I have ever used.
There's just no comparison. I've used PC laptops and I'm always disappointed in them. Even new, expensive ones. I always feel content when I get back to my "slow, expensive" iBook. It's priceless to me.
Why not be happy with one of the best looking and best performing laptops that has a DVD burner?
The optical drive is connected to the IDE bus anyway, so whether the PB had USB 2.0 or not, it wouldn't affect the DVD-R.
After Effects works with Final Cut Pro/Express to add effects, titles etc etc.
iMovie is free, and isn't all that bad. It holds its own against Microsoft's hastily made "windows movie maker" program, released to be an alternative to iMovie.
What more do you expect from a free app? It can't be too good, otherwise no one would buy FCP/E. iMovie fits its target audience pretty well - home users with camcorders who just want to do very simple edits, titles and sound tracks/effects/VO.
You're right. You get a hell of a lot of bang for your buck (or quid if you're British) with an Apple notebook.
/. If I start waxing lyrical about OS X too much I'll be modded troll and called a Mac Zealot. I'll quote a friend of mine:
The iBook is insanely good value for money. If you haven't had a chance to see one for real and at your fingertips then I'd get yourself down to an Apple store or a retailer that sells them to get a feel for just how solid it is.
The first impression I get when looking at almost any PC-based laptop recently has been "this looks tacky, plasticy and shoddily built" and often it's true.
The iBook is a solid as a rock, or I guess you could say solid as a pane of bullet proof glass, since that's what the case is made of (polycarbonate with a magnesium alloy frame). It doesn't creak or flex when you pick it up. It feels solid wherever you hold it. There are no doors, switches, latches or other bits that can break off. It slides into my bag easily. The wireless antenna is built into the screen, and it's just $79 to add an Airport card, which is an easy install under the keyboard. No antenna sticking out of the side like some PC laptops. No loss of signal either.
This thing is bomb proof, and the best thing I've ever bought. I upgraded the internal hard drive myself (the stock drive was 20GB, I replaced it with a faster 40GB model from IBM), so I can personally confirm the build quality of these things.
I have a 600MHz 12" model. Battery life is excellent. I can get 4 or 5 hours if I'm careful (dim screen setting, no heavy disk access, no optical drive use).
The battery lasts about 2 hours if I have the screen on about 75% brightness and I watch a DVD - I tested it with LOTR: Fellowship DVD, and it went to sleep just as they came out of the mines of Moria.
My current uptime is 22 days, 23 hours and have had a total of 2 kernel panics in the 11 months or so I've had this machine, both of these were back when I was using 10.1.5 (now on 10.2.4). 10.2 has never crashed on me, and I work this little thing pretty hard, using it for a minimum of 4 hours every day, usually more. Aside from those kernel panics, I have only ever rebooted for system upgrades (and that hard drive replacement, hence my current low uptime).
I sleep the iBook when I'm not using it and it wakes within 2, perhaps 3, seconds when I open the lid and is ready to go again, re-establishing my network connection quickly.
As for the software, well, this is
Mac OS X is a server strength operating system that your granny could install and use.
It's everything good about FreeBSD, with everything you want (well most things) from a GUI. The terminal is right there if you want to use the command line - it's pretty much seamless with the rest of the OS.
Forget the "PPC is slow and crap" argument, you'll not be disappointed with an iBook. I'd get the top of the range 12" or 14" one (depending on whether you wanted a small and compact laptop or a mid sized one).
I can do everything I need with this little workhorse. Listen to my mp3s with iTunes, burn CDs, watch DVDs, manage my FreeBSD box from the terminal, email, browse the net, connect to windows, unix and mac shared volumes, work on my website and test it on the built in install of Apache, edit simple movies in iMovie (although I don't do this - I have a Final Cut Pro workstation at work). I can even edit Office documents (I had to accept some level of MS software, since most of my work environment is Windows based, and they use MS Word everywhere). I can even program for free (Apple's Developer Tools are free) so I can develop unix and Mac software.
This iBook is the wonder machine. I can't work without it.
I thought Apple's Inkwell handwriting technology was first in this area?
Didn't the newton have hadwriting regognition?
The Nostromo itself was quite small - 800 metres or so in length according to the features on the DVD.
The mining/refinery platform that it towed was the big mother, but the crew never go into it at all, it's just attached to the ship.
The Vorlon ships and the White Star class have self repairing hulls, and the ability to absorb a certain amount of weapon fire without taking damage, but otherwise, yeah, no shields.
All of those things made B5 fantastic - especially the stronger races thing.
Star Trek can be pretty good on occasion, but with the exception of the Borg and Species 8472, Humanity is pretty much the strongest thing there is, and that gets boring after a while.
That's the beauty of Stargate SG1 and B5 - you've got to watch your back and keep the locals happy, since they're evenly matched or stronger than you.
All the Vorlon ships are alive. You never get to see the inside of one, so there could be anything in there. I always liked to think of them as completely organic, with no solid metal parts at all.
Possibly bone or other hard organic material that could deform (we know from seeing Kosh's ship in bay 13 that it can alter the surface markings and poke out various tendrils. Also, there is no door, so to get in and out you have to pass through the wall, or have it open a hole.
The inside would be pretty much a solid lump of whatever the surface is made of - the Vorlons are strongly telepathic, and their ships are alive, there would be no need for controls, dials or displays.
We know what a Shadow vessel looks like inside - a solid black organic mass with a human/alien body as a computer.
The way they animated the Starfuries was the best I've seen of space simulation - they could turn around on the spot while coasting on a given vector.
I can see the odd stutter here and there in Camino 0.7 on 10.2.4, iBook 600Mhz, 384Mb
If my humble iBook can manage it, everything should be able to!
Looks good.
Heh, indeed. But when shooting on film, under or overcranking the camera will change the speed of the shot, since it must be played back at 24fps on the screen in the end.
I guess if you start getting computers involved it gets hairy, but the output format is fixed.
As a general rule on the resultion front, twice what you need is usually sufficient.
And it will be shown at 24fps in the cinema anyway, unless something has changed!
No one is forcing you to buy "legacy free" hardware.
I was just pointing out to the parent that Apple sells legacy free hardware.
Apple's path is obviously not yours. You use rs-232 and all the other ports that Apple has decided it no longer wants to use. Good for you; so don't upgrade to Apple - keep buying PCs, and installing MS-DOS and NT4 on them.
I'm all for the right tool for the right job, and just because rs-232 is being eliminated for the desktop market doesn't mean it will go away if it's still useful.
We use an rs-232 interface to control a U-Matic SP edit deck, via a USB converter, so the options are still there for us when we need them.
No one said anything about forcing hardware on you.
It does, in fact, run Linux.
It's not that much more expensive for what you get for your money, but let's not get into that one!
Choice of hardware:
/. for karma you can buy one and connect it to the usb port. The Apple keyborad has two usb ports on the side to allow you to do this without using up an extra usb port on the back.
Dell: everything
Apple: little
Err, what are you saying here? That I can't go out and buy a hard drive and hook it up to my Mac? I can - an IDE one that would also (last time I looked) work with a PC too.
Anything with a USB connector - works on both Mac and PC
Anything with a firewire (1394/iLink) connector - works with Mac out of the box, might need firewire card on a PC, but will work.
Anything that conforms to memory standards (DDR, PC133 etc, depending on motherboard) - will work on both PC and Mac - I have swapped PC133 modules from my PC over to the Mac since I don't use the PC any more.
I can take the IDE-equipped drive (HD, CDRW, DVD etc) drive out of my PC and connect it in my Mac and it will work.
Hell, I can even use floppies if I buy a usb equipped floppy drive (I'll admit that the Mac lacks an internal floppy connector, but big deal!)
Monitors - anything with a VGA connector will attach to a Mac or a PC with a VGA port. Anything with a DVI port will connect to a DVI-equipped Mac or PC (you might need an adapter if the Mac has an ADC port instead of a DVI port)
Again, I have used my 17" Sony Trinitron with both my PC and my Mac with no special connectors needed.
Mice - any usb mouse will work on the Mac, so if you reallyreallyreally want two buttons on your mouse, rather than bitching about it on
Printers, Scanners - ok, some don't work, but most do now. Nearly all Canon, Epson, HP and Lexmark printers work, along with a host of others. Also, no drivers need to be installed, they're already there (but you can delete them if you need the space).
Gee, I'm running out of common hardware to compare.
I bought a 2.5" laptop hard drive the other day - a 40Gb IBM Travelstar 40GNX. A bog standard 2.5" IDE laptop hard drive, bought from a PC-centric online store. I installed it in my iBook and put OS X 10.2.4 on it and I now have 20Gb more space than I did last week.
The old 20Gb drive that I took out is in an external firewire enclosure - guess what, I connect it to my PC and use it to keep large files I need backed up for short periods.
Pray tell, where does this "almost none" come from in my choice of hardware for the Mac?
Oh, I see! Processors! You have a choice of Intel or AMD (and minor others). We have a choice of Apple (Motorola/IBM, depending on G3/G4), and we only have one motherboard manufacturer.
Well, to be honest, that doesn't bother me all that much.
It's a shame that you're going to dismiss them for one faulty powerbook.
Of course they're going to try to repair it first, and only if it's really knackered give you another one.
You were unlucky to get a broken one. Give them another chance with a new one.
This company sells machines with only modern ports on its motherboards.
audio I/O, USB, Firewire, 10/100 ethernet (10/100/1000 on powerbook/powermac), VGA, DVI/ADC, modem.
No sign of those rs-232, or parallel ports. No ps2 or keyboard ports either.
As much as I dislike the PC platform, I have to admit, Sound Forge is an excellent audio program.