I'm a switcher, but my switch happened so long ago as to be lost to history. Against that, I can offer you the fact that I use Windows XP at work every day, so I live in both worlds.
iBooks do not support extended desktop
This is something I can speak to: they do support it. I have a iBook G4 12", and it's a very simple hack to fix this. Apple has created a setting in OpenFirmware which prevents it, but the hardware can do it. Run the hack, and voila: mega-desktop goodness. I run a 19" external monitor when I decide to chain myself to a desk.
On the subject of annoyances, I'm scratching my head. I can talk for hours about the annoyances that I have when working with XP, but usually, the Mac annoyances come down to compatibility issues
Web sites that only work in IE. Sometimes even IE 5.2 for Mac doesn't cut it, but this whole situation is becoming rarer every day.
Brainwashed corporate people who believe that everything should be a Word document (but you can $choke out for a very nice Mac version of Office). Exchange/Outlook/Entourage is the same deal.
Finding out a particular piece of software isn't available. With OS X, though, this is not usually an issue, not like in the System 7.x to 9.x days.
Come to think of it, that's the same list you'd have for a Linux box, except the Office solution in that case is OO.o. As long as you can be flexible, you're okay.
On the hardware front, you have to deal with the fact that you can't plunk PC graphics cards in a G5 and expect it to work, but ATI and nVidia both churn out quality cards for Macs. Hard drives and other (CD-R, DVD) drives for x86 are variously possible to put in a Mac, but check with the Mac hardware geek community first.
I think that's the one thing that would make me upgrade my old m105 to something more modern: if someone figured a way to run NewtonOS on modern Palm hardware. I'd be all over that.
Camino is a good browser, which I started using at 0.4. It seduced me with its beautiful anti-aliased text rendering when the only alternative was IE 5. There were big issues in the day: I never bookmarked anything, because bookmarks were as permanent as writing in sand. Below the tide line. Even so, I used it over IE (mmm... beautiful fonts) and the laughable Mozilla 1.0.
But I was seduced by Safari. It loaded quicker. It was faster. It was simple and elegant, which were things that Camino was going for, but wasn't there yet. I've used Safari ever since. Even as I did so, I was saddened, because I thought Camino would die because it was too late to the party.
However, because Camino leverages Gecko, and Mozilla/Firefox are starting to kick some butt, Camino has had forward momentum even when it was standing still. I use Firefox every day at work (right now, in fact), and it is to Windows what Camino can be to Mac. I've installed Firefox on my web server (the current version of Safari doesn't support OSX 10.2.8). As the interview points out, Firefox is good, but it's not a Macintosh app. Camino is.
There are now two excellent open-source HTML rendering engines which are actively being developed on the Mac platform, which is a much better position than it was when I was playing with Chimera 0.4. With the exit of IE, Apple still has a healthy competitive environment, thanks to projects like Firefox and Camino.
I beg to differ, although this argument can have no resolution: it all depends on how you define intelligence
Language skills are primarily built through reading and speaking, not writing. If you never read anything other than "Go Dog Go" and "Yo Mama!" is accepted as conversation, you shall never attain a greater skill at language in general.
Without the firm base of language, how can one build the theoretical framework wherein to store the facts and relationships which we would construe as intelligence? Without the framework, persons who achieve a narrow skill in areas such as creating spreadsheets are nothing more than an idiot savant.
Case in point: a software developer who lives in their mother's basement with a Grade 12 education (or worse, a C.Sc. degree). Great skill in memory managment or network protocols may be attained, but any clue as to how to connect these skills to everyday life or commerce is lacking. We used to have a guy with a C.Sc. college degree working here. He could argue all day long about the inefficiency of a solution, but could not communicate with any of our clients in an intelligent manner.
Therefore I define intelligence as more than a narrowly-focused skill. It requires a breadth of knowledge which comes from reading and communicating with others who have differing experiences and viewpoints. These communication skills will manifest themselves in writing ability.
Now, I don't agree with the original article's methodology, but I would agree on principle that if one is a clear communicator and accustomed to such, one would prefer an OS which endeavors to distinguish itself through a superior user experience (i.e. clearer communication to the user).
Nepotism: Favoritism shown on the basis of {fleshly} relationship, e.g., in granting an appointment of responsibility, or in rendering a biased judgment.
Very close, but wrong... you must use a PC, right?;-)
I installed YDL 3.0.1 on my 12" iBook G4, and had very similar results:
No graphics hardware support (could only use command line, no graphical desktop)
No AirPort Extreme support: the company which manufactures the card is not currently discussing the possibility open drivers.
I can't comment on the sleep thing, since I didn't actually get to try to use YDL as a working OS, but I can add that you can't non-destructively repartition the hard drive. Hours of reinstalling the system and restoring files (twice) did not sit well with me since I never got a usable YDL system out of it. The graphics support should be on its way soon, but without the 802.11g, YDL is not an option for me.
Okay, we have a difference of opinion. After years of "banishment" to the home office when I was working on the computer (a frequent occurrence), I welcomed the ability to move into the center of my home with my wife and daughter and "be there".
From the assumption that the Powerbook will be in the living room to the conclusion that I approve of using the outstanding GUI of iTunes as a controller isn't that big a leap.
Truly, I have two occasions for playing music in the living room: I want to play something in iTunes, or as background for a party. Either way, I'm either at the Powerbook already, or all I want is a long, uninterrupted mix of music that runs without intervention. If I need to adjust the volume or mute the music, I would use the remote from my stereo.
Have you considered a Powerbook or iBook? I took the plunge three years ago and got a TiBook instead of a G4 tower. Now both my wife and I have one. It seems so very quaint to have to "go to the computer room" to check your email or look something up on the Internet.
Considering that Apple sells almost as many portables as towers, perhaps they see a Powerbook as the ultimate "remote control". I know that's how I see it, and I foresee an AirPort Express in my immediate future as an add-on to my existing AirPort WLAN.
It felt pure. I am not using BeOS anymore (I boot to it once every 1-2 months or so) but I will always keep with me this feeling, a feeling that no other software ever given me.
When we met, there was a surge of electricity that sent shudders through me. He was attractive, but not in that finished, generic way: he was rough around the edges, the kind of guy you wanted to take and tame. I introduced myself, and he let me know he was a single-user OS^H^H^H^H^H^Hone-woman kind of guy and he was available.
The next few days were incredible, as I explored his depths and he took me places I'd never seen before. Later, in the quiet of the evening as we lay breathless with my hand on his mouse...
Check your Applications directory. I downloaded Xcode as well, thinking that I hadn't received the developers tools. Turns out there's a 600 MB installer for them sitting in the Applications directory, along with the installer for AOL.
Of course, that installer would be moot now, since Xcode has been revved to 1.2, but I wish I'd known it at the time.
I applaud you, sir or madam, on the insightfulness of your post. However, the last paragraph concerning Apple is arguably invalid.
Apple is a hardware company. It makes the OS because it has to in order to maintain its market differentiation. Apple generates revenue of between one and two billion dollars per quarter. At most, it sells two million boxed copies of Mac OS X per year (I don't have figures, but Steve Jobs was triumphant when OS 8 sold 1.2 million copies), the rest are given away with the purchase of a new Mac. At $99 per, minus correction for Family Packs, that brings in approximately $150 million per year, or less than 3% of the gross revenues of the company.
Apple may not be as big as Microsoft, but I don't believe it to be hooked on the software upgrade cycle like Microsoft.
I don't care if this Bruce Sterling person is Albert Einstein, Gandhi or Jesus. Nobody in the entire world can critique anything like that and sound intelligent.
Not only is he just sitting there with the debating sophistication of five-year-olds saying "I'm rubber and you're glue and what bounces off me sticks to you", he is confusing the issue of nuclear energy generation with nuclear weapons. Nuclear energy can be safe, if treated properly. Nobody will argue that nuclear weapons are anything but dangerous. "Painted with the same brush" is the phrase that pays, here.
Having said that: he has the right to say what he wants. We have the right to laugh and point.
That is one way of looking at it. A way which is shared with most people, I would wager. This is why the relative budgets for medical research and space research are huge and tiny, respectively.
I invite you to attempt a "thinking outside the box experiment". Close your eyes. (Well, open them so you can read this, then close them) Ready? If there is a medical advancement from Folding@Home, what do we get? A group of people who would have been afflicted with the targetted ailment will live longer/be happier. Note that these people will still die. When they die, what is the net result? Zero, plus or minus the impact they have on society. For most people who "just want to live in peace", this means zero plus their economic impact modifier.
Now let's try again, this time with SETI@Home. There is an advancement, which in this case is the discovery of intelligent life outside our solar system. Philosophically, that is an enormous leap forward, on par with discovering that the earth revolves around the sun and that matter isn't made up of earth, fire, water and air. Humanity is knocked out of its navel-gazing and arguing over oil.
Granted Folding has a better chance of making a breakthrough (mostly an issue of the size of the problem space), but if you argue that the odds of SETI succeeding are essentially zero, I can argue that most conceivable benefits of Folding are zero.
To paraphrase Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, society goes through three fundamental stages:
Survival
Inquiry
Sophistication
or:
How can we eat? (or live longer)
Why do we eat? (what is our place in the Universe)
Where shall we have lunch? (I don't know, maybe an interstellar hockey league)
Right now, we can characterize Western civilization as being mired in Survival, with a few enlightened individuals straying into Inquiry.
A lot of our developers are gradually picking up VB.NET and applying them to our existing products. However, I can guarantee that locally the name of the game is quickly becoming Java. Good thing some of our customers haven't caught on yet.
After four years of almost exclusively Visual Basic development since a switch from PowerBuilder and un*x, we are now officially in "catch up to our competitors" mode. I warned my boss a year ago that our main clients were going to a Java J2EE model of application deployment. Not just going: completely overhauling and rewriting all their old apps. Where before VB/Windows solutions were happily accepted, today they are rejected outright. Just today, I was working out specs for a small project, and I could see it working either way: VB or Java. The answer was "Well, I suppose we could accept a Visual Basic solution under certain extreme circumstances."
Needless to say, my boss is freaking, with a stable of VB developers and only three (including myself) with Java experience. The change has come quickly, but we could have been better prepared than this.
The reason that Windows/VB is rejected: too much of a headache deploying and maintaining when compared to a J2EE solution.
As a representative of abused Hampsters everywhere, I would like to register a formal complaint against the parent poster. As a simple experiment shows, any small, fuzzy animal could be used, including gerbils, guinea pigs, mice or rats.
Although I wonder if things were flipped and if Apple had the 90% share would companies/governments/people be suing them for including iPhoto/iTunes/iMovie, etc?
As with all questions: it depends. In this universe, iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, and iPhoto are all bundled with the OS. They are not tied to the OS. I can take iPhoto, and drag it to the Trash, and be done with it. No more iPhoto.
Since Apple is not a monopoly, they gain nothing by tying the apps to the OS, and even if they did tie them, they would not be in violation of the laws governing monopolies.
In this Apple-monopoly alternate universe of which you speak, it is entirely possible that Steve Jobs would have similar strategies as Gates and Ballmer. The iLife apps in this universe might be tied to OS X, in which case, they are a monopoly involved in anticompetitive behavior.
So, to wrap up:
current behavior + alternate universe = no lawsuit
monopolistic behavior + this universe = no lawsuit
That's an interesting question, and apparently there is no answer. Both pronunciations are considered correct. I say lie-nux, and my buddy says li-nux. Yet we manage to have (semi-)intelligent conversations without arguing. I know what he means, and he knows what I mean.
My personal opinion is that since the original idea for Linux came from the not-free OS Minix, the original name might have been a play on that, and the tie to Linus' name considered a witty double-entendre. Today, however, we consider the etymology of Linux to be Linus, with an x.
I recall them taking out a back-cover ad on either Macworld or MacAddict magazine a few years ago when they offered their first PPC distribution. The text of the ad was something like:
SuSE (pronounced Soo-sah) Linux. Now for Macintosh.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm a switcher, but my switch happened so long ago as to be lost to history. Against that, I can offer you the fact that I use Windows XP at work every day, so I live in both worlds.
This is something I can speak to: they do support it. I have a iBook G4 12", and it's a very simple hack to fix this. Apple has created a setting in OpenFirmware which prevents it, but the hardware can do it. Run the hack, and voila: mega-desktop goodness. I run a 19" external monitor when I decide to chain myself to a desk.
On the subject of annoyances, I'm scratching my head. I can talk for hours about the annoyances that I have when working with XP, but usually, the Mac annoyances come down to compatibility issues
Come to think of it, that's the same list you'd have for a Linux box, except the Office solution in that case is OO.o. As long as you can be flexible, you're okay.
On the hardware front, you have to deal with the fact that you can't plunk PC graphics cards in a G5 and expect it to work, but ATI and nVidia both churn out quality cards for Macs. Hard drives and other (CD-R, DVD) drives for x86 are variously possible to put in a Mac, but check with the Mac hardware geek community first.
HBHI can't wait for the next generation of viruses which will spawn from this. Is this a recipe for disaster or what:
Just as well. I was tired of hearing about new IE exploits every day. This should break up the monotony.
HBHI think that's the one thing that would make me upgrade my old m105 to something more modern: if someone figured a way to run NewtonOS on modern Palm hardware. I'd be all over that.
HBH- Go to the view menu
- Select "Status Bar"
- There is no step 3!
HBHThat's gold I tells ya! Patent it while you have the chance! Or does your post on Slashdot count as prior art?
HBH
That's cool. I'm not being sarcastic. I think that's really cool.
HBH
Camino is a good browser, which I started using at 0.4. It seduced me with its beautiful anti-aliased text rendering when the only alternative was IE 5. There were big issues in the day: I never bookmarked anything, because bookmarks were as permanent as writing in sand. Below the tide line. Even so, I used it over IE (mmm... beautiful fonts) and the laughable Mozilla 1.0.
But I was seduced by Safari. It loaded quicker. It was faster. It was simple and elegant, which were things that Camino was going for, but wasn't there yet. I've used Safari ever since. Even as I did so, I was saddened, because I thought Camino would die because it was too late to the party.
However, because Camino leverages Gecko, and Mozilla/Firefox are starting to kick some butt, Camino has had forward momentum even when it was standing still. I use Firefox every day at work (right now, in fact), and it is to Windows what Camino can be to Mac. I've installed Firefox on my web server (the current version of Safari doesn't support OSX 10.2.8). As the interview points out, Firefox is good, but it's not a Macintosh app. Camino is.
There are now two excellent open-source HTML rendering engines which are actively being developed on the Mac platform, which is a much better position than it was when I was playing with Chimera 0.4. With the exit of IE, Apple still has a healthy competitive environment, thanks to projects like Firefox and Camino.
HBH
I beg to differ, although this argument can have no resolution: it all depends on how you define intelligence
Language skills are primarily built through reading and speaking, not writing. If you never read anything other than "Go Dog Go" and "Yo Mama!" is accepted as conversation, you shall never attain a greater skill at language in general.
Without the firm base of language, how can one build the theoretical framework wherein to store the facts and relationships which we would construe as intelligence? Without the framework, persons who achieve a narrow skill in areas such as creating spreadsheets are nothing more than an idiot savant.
Case in point: a software developer who lives in their mother's basement with a Grade 12 education (or worse, a C.Sc. degree). Great skill in memory managment or network protocols may be attained, but any clue as to how to connect these skills to everyday life or commerce is lacking. We used to have a guy with a C.Sc. college degree working here. He could argue all day long about the inefficiency of a solution, but could not communicate with any of our clients in an intelligent manner.
Therefore I define intelligence as more than a narrowly-focused skill. It requires a breadth of knowledge which comes from reading and communicating with others who have differing experiences and viewpoints. These communication skills will manifest themselves in writing ability.
Now, I don't agree with the original article's methodology, but I would agree on principle that if one is a clear communicator and accustomed to such, one would prefer an OS which endeavors to distinguish itself through a superior user experience (i.e. clearer communication to the user).
HBHNepotism: Favoritism shown on the basis of {fleshly} relationship, e.g., in granting an appointment of responsibility, or in rendering a biased judgment.
Very close, but wrong... you must use a PC, right? ;-)
HBHI installed YDL 3.0.1 on my 12" iBook G4, and had very similar results:
I can't comment on the sleep thing, since I didn't actually get to try to use YDL as a working OS, but I can add that you can't non-destructively repartition the hard drive. Hours of reinstalling the system and restoring files (twice) did not sit well with me since I never got a usable YDL system out of it. The graphics support should be on its way soon, but without the 802.11g, YDL is not an option for me.
HBHOkay, we have a difference of opinion. After years of "banishment" to the home office when I was working on the computer (a frequent occurrence), I welcomed the ability to move into the center of my home with my wife and daughter and "be there".
From the assumption that the Powerbook will be in the living room to the conclusion that I approve of using the outstanding GUI of iTunes as a controller isn't that big a leap.
Truly, I have two occasions for playing music in the living room: I want to play something in iTunes, or as background for a party. Either way, I'm either at the Powerbook already, or all I want is a long, uninterrupted mix of music that runs without intervention. If I need to adjust the volume or mute the music, I would use the remote from my stereo.
I guess I'm a target for this product.
Hey, what's this bulls-eye doing on my wallet? ;-)
HBHHave you considered a Powerbook or iBook? I took the plunge three years ago and got a TiBook instead of a G4 tower. Now both my wife and I have one. It seems so very quaint to have to "go to the computer room" to check your email or look something up on the Internet.
Considering that Apple sells almost as many portables as towers, perhaps they see a Powerbook as the ultimate "remote control". I know that's how I see it, and I foresee an AirPort Express in my immediate future as an add-on to my existing AirPort WLAN.
HBHWhen we met, there was a surge of electricity that sent shudders through me. He was attractive, but not in that finished, generic way: he was rough around the edges, the kind of guy you wanted to take and tame. I introduced myself, and he let me know he was a single-user OS^H^H^H^H^H^Hone-woman kind of guy and he was available.
The next few days were incredible, as I explored his depths and he took me places I'd never seen before. Later, in the quiet of the evening as we lay breathless with my hand on his mouse...
HBHCheck your Applications directory. I downloaded Xcode as well, thinking that I hadn't received the developers tools. Turns out there's a 600 MB installer for them sitting in the Applications directory, along with the installer for AOL.
Of course, that installer would be moot now, since Xcode has been revved to 1.2, but I wish I'd known it at the time.
iBook G4 12" 800MHz, bought December 2003.
HBHI applaud you, sir or madam, on the insightfulness of your post. However, the last paragraph concerning Apple is arguably invalid.
Apple is a hardware company. It makes the OS because it has to in order to maintain its market differentiation. Apple generates revenue of between one and two billion dollars per quarter. At most, it sells two million boxed copies of Mac OS X per year (I don't have figures, but Steve Jobs was triumphant when OS 8 sold 1.2 million copies), the rest are given away with the purchase of a new Mac. At $99 per, minus correction for Family Packs, that brings in approximately $150 million per year, or less than 3% of the gross revenues of the company.
Apple may not be as big as Microsoft, but I don't believe it to be hooked on the software upgrade cycle like Microsoft.
HBHI don't care if this Bruce Sterling person is Albert Einstein, Gandhi or Jesus. Nobody in the entire world can critique anything like that and sound intelligent.
Not only is he just sitting there with the debating sophistication of five-year-olds saying "I'm rubber and you're glue and what bounces off me sticks to you", he is confusing the issue of nuclear energy generation with nuclear weapons. Nuclear energy can be safe, if treated properly. Nobody will argue that nuclear weapons are anything but dangerous. "Painted with the same brush" is the phrase that pays, here.
Having said that: he has the right to say what he wants. We have the right to laugh and point.
HBHI'd be happier if I could cancel the noise coming from the other people on my bus. There are days where I get off the bus ready to kill something.
Eliminates inane chatter! Loud cellphone talkers banished! Never hear the high-frequency noise of other people's headphones! Buy now, only $29.95!
I would sprain my wrist trying to get my wallet out to pay for it fast enough.
HBHThat is one way of looking at it. A way which is shared with most people, I would wager. This is why the relative budgets for medical research and space research are huge and tiny, respectively.
I invite you to attempt a "thinking outside the box experiment". Close your eyes. (Well, open them so you can read this, then close them) Ready? If there is a medical advancement from Folding@Home, what do we get? A group of people who would have been afflicted with the targetted ailment will live longer/be happier. Note that these people will still die. When they die, what is the net result? Zero, plus or minus the impact they have on society. For most people who "just want to live in peace", this means zero plus their economic impact modifier.
Now let's try again, this time with SETI@Home. There is an advancement, which in this case is the discovery of intelligent life outside our solar system. Philosophically, that is an enormous leap forward, on par with discovering that the earth revolves around the sun and that matter isn't made up of earth, fire, water and air. Humanity is knocked out of its navel-gazing and arguing over oil.
Granted Folding has a better chance of making a breakthrough (mostly an issue of the size of the problem space), but if you argue that the odds of SETI succeeding are essentially zero, I can argue that most conceivable benefits of Folding are zero.
To paraphrase Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, society goes through three fundamental stages:
- Survival
- Inquiry
- Sophistication
or:Right now, we can characterize Western civilization as being mired in Survival, with a few enlightened individuals straying into Inquiry.
HBHA lot of our developers are gradually picking up VB.NET and applying them to our existing products. However, I can guarantee that locally the name of the game is quickly becoming Java. Good thing some of our customers haven't caught on yet.
HBHAfter four years of almost exclusively Visual Basic development since a switch from PowerBuilder and un*x, we are now officially in "catch up to our competitors" mode. I warned my boss a year ago that our main clients were going to a Java J2EE model of application deployment. Not just going: completely overhauling and rewriting all their old apps. Where before VB/Windows solutions were happily accepted, today they are rejected outright. Just today, I was working out specs for a small project, and I could see it working either way: VB or Java. The answer was "Well, I suppose we could accept a Visual Basic solution under certain extreme circumstances."
Needless to say, my boss is freaking, with a stable of VB developers and only three (including myself) with Java experience. The change has come quickly, but we could have been better prepared than this.
The reason that Windows/VB is rejected: too much of a headache deploying and maintaining when compared to a J2EE solution.
HBHDamn! Now I've spewed coffee all over my screen!
Too funny. No mod points available. Sorry
HBHAs a representative of abused Hampsters everywhere, I would like to register a formal complaint against the parent poster. As a simple experiment shows, any small, fuzzy animal could be used, including gerbils, guinea pigs, mice or rats.
End the cycle of hampster abuse!
HBHAs with all questions: it depends. In this universe, iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, and iPhoto are all bundled with the OS. They are not tied to the OS. I can take iPhoto, and drag it to the Trash, and be done with it. No more iPhoto.
Since Apple is not a monopoly, they gain nothing by tying the apps to the OS, and even if they did tie them, they would not be in violation of the laws governing monopolies.
In this Apple-monopoly alternate universe of which you speak, it is entirely possible that Steve Jobs would have similar strategies as Gates and Ballmer. The iLife apps in this universe might be tied to OS X, in which case, they are a monopoly involved in anticompetitive behavior.
So, to wrap up:
- current behavior + alternate universe = no lawsuit
- monopolistic behavior + this universe = no lawsuit
- monopolistic behavior + alternate universe = lawsuit
HBHThat's an interesting question, and apparently there is no answer. Both pronunciations are considered correct. I say lie-nux, and my buddy says li-nux. Yet we manage to have (semi-)intelligent conversations without arguing. I know what he means, and he knows what I mean.
My personal opinion is that since the original idea for Linux came from the not-free OS Minix, the original name might have been a play on that, and the tie to Linus' name considered a witty double-entendre. Today, however, we consider the etymology of Linux to be Linus, with an x.
Potayto, potahto...
HBHI recall them taking out a back-cover ad on either Macworld or MacAddict magazine a few years ago when they offered their first PPC distribution. The text of the ad was something like:
SuSE (pronounced Soo-sah) Linux. Now for Macintosh.I've gone with that ever since.
HBH