I don't give a shit if he's King Tut. The man cannot rest on his laurels of past glories and expect us to eat up this uninspired drivel. He has to be good "now" because what he did in the "past" is irrelevant "now".
Being published means nothing if his current writing is bad.
Uh, does every intel box come with a clean design like the mac pro inside and out? Were you asleep when they released the "hardware" like the Mac Pro and Xserve? Did you notice the lack of cables and the snap in drive cages.
Sorry Dell fans, your boxes with wires sticking out everywhere do not cut it and "software" Soundblaster emulators do not cut it either.
Nice troll pal. If you had RTFA, you would see that this is not an end user product. It is targeted at potential port developers to facilitate porting of games over to the mac. Presumably, they will charge developers and licensing fee to use it in their games.
You are shocked that they are putting more efforts into this product? Cedega is an entirely different animal that requires you to tweak settings to get binaries running whereas this will be a library used to compile the source code directly for OS X by the developer. Presumably, the developer will make some tweaks before they ship their product to ensure that it works.
Apple worked with KHTML developers to merge in some changes from Webkit back into KHTML and they released Webkit as open source which Nokia picked up and implemented into their products.
I notice you left open the possibility that you work for the government of a non-ally.:-)
Disclaimer: I do not work for any government or government agency. My views expressed on slashdot are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer. My employer complies fully with any request for information according to the laws of Canada governing the sector I'm employed in.
Try dragging any drive on the screen. Where did the trash go? It turned into an eject symbol. You are still deleting the cache when you eject media in OS X.
How do you suggest handling removing items from the "desktop" metaphor? You are ejecting (throwing away) disks off the desktop when you
eject a disk.
Neither terrorists nor feds are nerds and as such don't read Slashdot.
I hope.
Perhaps you've heard of the NSA? Have you heard about Security Enhanced Linux? What about these security guidelines published by the NSA for various operating systems ranging from Windows to OS X?
I hate to break it to you but there are a lot of nerds in various branches of the US government and I'm sure many of them read slashdot.
I feel bad for you pal. I really do.
Disclaimer: I do not work for the US government or the "government" of any of its allies.
I see.... so tried is a new euphemism for pirated?
Paradimes in OSX that suck:
1) To eject a CD-ROM, USB-key, or external storage, I drag it to the trash. That seems illogical to me.
I think the word you were looking for was "paradigms". Drives are dragged to the trash because you are not only ejecting the media but you are writing the file system buffer back to the drive (in the case of read/write media) and deleting its cache. With XP, you are also supposed to eject USB devices before disconnecting them for the same reason.
2) To install a program, I "click-and-drag" it to my "hard drive". I had to google how to install something in OSX. Double-clicking the downloaded file yielded some puzzling prompt I can't recall.
First of all, did it occur to you to RTFM? Second, you are not "installing" anything but rather copying the application bundle from the disk image for folder on the desktop to your applications directory. I call FUD on this one since most applications will run from a disk image let alone from the desktop. You should not expect it to behave like windows.
3) Driver management is a nightmare. Sure, it works great with Mac hardware, but who wants to be locked into one brand? Oh wait, Mac-happy fan-boys do.
What driver management? Oh wait, you are running a pirated/cracked version on your Dell. Did you expect it to work on your Dell? Locked in? How do you like the WMA ecosystem and being locked into windows?
4) OSX feels like an OS that is 50 feet thick. And by that I mean it feels like there's layer upon layer of abstraction, as if it were trying to protect me from seeing how a computer really works.
So you are saying that you do not like user friendly OS design and Object Oriented systems? If you want to hack away, go to http://developer.apple.com/ and read the documentation. Install the Developer tools and play with Interface builder. The power of the OS is all there for developers to extend. I think you are confusing complicated interfaces with "power". Open up a terminal windows and fill your boots.
5) OSX is not very business friendly. It doesn't fit business-logic.
What an absurd statement. Could you quantify that? By business friendly do you mean MIS friendly? Is it too damn easy to use that you are afraid business people might just use their computers are tools without needing so many MSCE's on their payroll?
6) The bundled applications were inferior. Give me Outlook Express over Apples default mail application any day. That thing was an utter, illogical, painful experience to configure.
More FUD and bullshit. You have got to be kidding me. Mail in Tiger has features features in common with Outlook 2003 like message grouping by topic threads. What is there to configure beyond email accounts and signatures?
7) OSX is slow. Seriosuly, it's just not as snappy as winXP. Granted, I was running OSx86 on a Dell laptop, but I've used OSX on a mac before, and it really is a little laggy from all the superflorous garbage it distracts you with. "Ooooh, dancing icon. Thor like!"
Yeah, having a GUI with a GPU accelerated compositing engine can be a bit slower than a simple bitblitter graphical stack like GDI+. Try out Vista and you will see how it is not as snappy either when running the Aero Glass interface.
To anyone who is considering buying a Mac: Try using OSX first!
That is one thing we can agree on. I would also suggest people try out Vista before blindly upgrading to it.
In my honest opinion, I think Windows Vista will pave over OSX when it's released.
Right. Do you even know anything about the current state of Vista compared with what was promised at PDC 2003? I use XP more than I use OS X simply because that is what I use at work and I used XP at home until the end of 2002. I'm afraid that your "experience" with a
pirated
X86 Tiger install does not qualify you to critique the OS X.
What software comes with that Compaq? What can you do with it out of the box? How long does it take to set it all up? Hardware is nice and all but it is completely useless without usable software. It's the software stupid! I switched in 2002 and I'm on my third mac (MBP 1.8Ghz). I develop software on windows at work, so I am aware of the strengths and weaknesses of both platforms. As a software developer, I am all too aware that software is what people interact with and the average business user does not care about hardware details.
You say that it is 300 dollars cheaper but does that factor in included software? Are you including XP Pro or XP lite (Home)? How much extra time and money will it take to make it fairly secure secure and as usable as a macbook is out of the box?
Does it include a remote and Media Center? Does it have a builtin webcam? Does it have Bluetooth 2.0 EDR support?
The base price of a system might matter to MSFT/PC Hardware fanboys but the general public cares about what they can do with the machine. You see, the general public use computers as tools and expect to have "software" they can use to perform tasks and produce various works of art or to communicate. A base system with a cutdown OS and some trial software is not going to cut it for most people.
PS. The Macbook Pro, Macbook, Mac Mini and iMac all support 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g out of the box.
Speaking of DRM lockin. Have fun with Zune and Vista. Have fun buying a new computer complete with an HDMI monitor and video card just so you can view HD content in full resolution in Vista.
Do you want to be able to play high def video on your computer in the future? If you go the Vista route, you will have to buy a new machine anyway. Vista itself will need faster hardware. Then, if you want to play DRM'ed WMV video content, you will need a new HDMI compliant video card and HDMI monitor. There has been no talk of restrictions on viewing content in OS X so far and there has been no talk of HDMI requirements for monitors attached to macs.
MSFT is strongly pushing DRM for video content whereas Apple so far has been silent on the matter. I do not foresee Apple making a sharp about face and forcing HDMI down our throats at this stage in the game. If you value your freedom of fair use, I would suggest looking at Apple.
Is 'imprisonment for copyright infringement' something the state does on its own account, or is it something that some private individual or corporation asks to happen ?
I don't know, is imprisonment for theft of property such as a car something the state does on its own account for violation of criminal laws?
I don't know who modded you up so far but you might want to actually "read" books that you are about to criticize. Try throwing away our preconceived notions while you are doing that. Pre-christian? You do know that the Old testament came from the the Jewish religion don't you?
You see, there was the whole other world outside of pagan europe, a civilized world. While the pagans in europe were busy fighting among themselves, the middle east was a center of culture and learning.
Uh, yeah, I think you you just proved my point. There is nothing worth buying right now in the windows world which is why some windows users who are tired of waiting are buying macs instead.
It would be RIGHT (in an idealistic sense) for Apple to sell their computers witout OS X. Consumers could then chose their own operating system (OS X, Windows, Linux) and put it on. The price would be lower than the normal price because OS X has a non-zero cost of production.
When you say "consumer" you mean "geek" right? The average consumer is not interested in buying a computer with an OS or software. The cost might be lower without an OS but not significantly but it would also lower their value proposition for the average consumer. The main appeal of macs for most people is how everything "just works" right out of the box.
Apple clearly is not targetting the hobbyist computer geek or big business but rather regular consumers that do stuff with photos, movies and DVDs and that it what all that extra bundled software lets them do right away.
Maybe you did not read the numbers. Apple's sales numbers are way up whereas the overall sales numbers of the industry is down. This tranlates into increased marketshare percentages. This isn't just a case of Apple maintaining sales numbers but rather they are growing while the rest of the industry is in decline. Maybe some of that growth is at the expense of other brands but do the other brands really offer anything worth buying over what was offered in the previous quarter? No. What adds value to hardware and motivates people to buy rather than wait with what they have is the software you bundle with the system and how it all works together. The PC industry just does not seem to know how to make systems appealing to the average consumer and maybe the appeal of technology for its own sake is wearing off.
What exactly is your problem? Why do you have hostility towards some guy in an advertisement? Are you jealous because you are socially inept compared to him? Do the commercials make you feel inadequate?
Grow some balls for crying out loud. The average criminal is an opportunistic coward that will prey on who they perceive to be weak and vulnerable. I'm not suggesting people become Charles Bronson but what I am suggesting is that people at like mature adults. These punks are really no different than predator animals as they will only attack if they think they have a good chance of getting away with it unscathed.
If you try to hide your iPod, you will stick out like a sore thumb. These people will be drawn to you because you are trying to hide something. The same thing goes for not using your ear buds.
Stop being such snivelling wimps and live up to your potential that God gave you.
2) Guns protecting "the people" from the government
Sure, a bunch of guys with handguns could be the core of an army in 1776 or thereabouts. Maybe even well into the 19th century. Look around, there's fighter jets, bombers, tanks, artillery, mechanised infantry, machine guns, destroyers and battleships. Hundreds of thousands of men like that died on a single day in WWI, they'd last even shorter today. The closest thing they could mount to a defense would be trying to lead a guerilla war, but they couldn't hold any ground. Any armed revolution that wants any hope of succeeding needs the support of the military. (Not that there aren't other ways, like mass public protests). If they are loyal to the government, well the 300lb lard ass with a rifle will find he's no match for the US armed forces. Really!
Right like in Vietnam, oh wait.... no, a bunch of guys with rifles and handguns or the Soviets in Afghanistan, uh no.... Well present day Iraq.... You were saying? Look around for a minute. All you need is a few weapons, determination and superior knowledge of the lay of the land to outwit even the most powerful army.
Much like SGI you have discounted Apple as being "computers for dumb users". You couldn't be more wrong. There is something to be said for completely abstracting complexity out of the user experience for those that need that and making all the complexity easily available for those that want it.
You hit the nail on the head. The UI in OS X is simple by some "power" users standards but that is the point. It is no more complex than it needs to be in order to serve 99% of all users' needs. For anyone who wants to hack/extend the system. You have all the power of the shell and apple script to automate task. Now with Automator in Tiger, even that power is accessible to moderately technical people who want to design their own workflows. If you want to get down and dirty with UI extensions, Apple provides the developer tools in the form of Interface builder and Xcode for creating plugins for the Finder or writing your own replacement for the finder.
If people want an example of how powerful Interface builder is, you can create your own simple web browser based on webkit in a matter of minutes without writing a single line of code. If you want that browser to surpass Safari in features, you will have to do some coding but it is pretty easy to knock out a basic UI with IB.
Cool, what else does it run beside an operating system? The average user cares about applications and how easy they are to use, not what OS they run on or who built their computer.
Here again we have people who have never used OSX spouting the same tired myths again as if repeating them makes them true. Damn you bloody clueless noobs and fanboys.
Popularity has nothing to do with how vulnerable an OS is. Vulnerabilities in an OS are caused by programming errors and poor design decision. *Full Stop* There is no other cause and critical mass does not have any affect on on how many vulnerabilities exist. You people need to learn what the difference is between flaws/vulnerabilities and exploits. The former exists regardless of how many people are looking for them and the latter comes about when someone discovers one and figures out how to make use of it.
It is true that windows has a lot more exploits partly because of critical mass but the vulnerabilities that make the exploits possible are solely the fault of MSFT developers. There can be no disagreement on this one point.
If Apple gained a lot more market share, there is no guarantee that OS X would have a lot more viruses and exploits. Apple has a completely different security model in OS X from what windows offers and they are generally quick at patching vulnerabilities before an exploit could have a chance to spread.
Someone mentioned cultural differences between windows and mac users. I really think you people should not dismiss it out of hand. You should check out the mac section of versiontracker and mac update. If there is even a hint of spyware in a third-party app, you will hear about it in the user reviews. The mac community has virtually zero tolerance for spyware/adware and most would rather pay for software if they find that it is worth using. Ask some of us cross-platform users out there.
It is unix if you install the BSD subsystem but as I said before, the BSD subsystem is not a required component and not everyone will choose to install it unless they run software that requires it (mostly unix ports with or without a GUI). Applications written to only use Cocoa or Carbon will not balk at it not being installed.
OS X is descended from NeXTStep which was a unix-like OS with POSIX compatibility, a unix type shell and unix commmand line tools and a Mach kernel. However, it is not UNIX.
The main file system structure for OS X, with the exception of/etc is different for other *nix OSes. The/Library,/System, and/Applications folders are in no way related to the directory structure of other unixes or unix-like OSes. Even the/Users/ folder is not a direct analogue to the/usr/ or/home/ folder on other unix OSes. It is not even necessary to install the BSD subsystem in order to have a functional OS X installation and the only reason you would need to install it is to make use of free software that uses it or for the developer tools. Software written to only use the Cocoa or Carbon libraries does not require the BSD layer in order to function.
Having said all that, OS X does offer the standard *nix directory structures such as/etc,/bin,/sbin,/usr/bin,/usr/sbin and so on but it is not recommended that third party software install files into those directories but rather that it be placed in other directories.
It is that good? Really? So Dapper magically provides you with all of the software that you want and fixes all of the UI consistency issues that plague most linux distros? Amazing, truly amazing.
Maybe you like to stare at your desktop or tweak settings all day but some people like to use software that is easy to use to get stuff done. The beauty of OS X is that it comes with tools like Interface builder that let you whip up a webkit browser or a to do list app in a matter of minutes without any coding. If you have an idea and a couple of hours to spend, you can create useful app yourself without writing a line of code. Does linux have anything like that?
When I chose OS X, I was attracted by the software available on it (both commercial and free) from Apple and third-parties. While OS X may not expose a lot of functionality to the user in the finder, anyone with some programming knowledge is free to either extend or replace the finder with something better. Take http://filerun.info/ for example. That looks like a promising replacement for the finder that offers a great deal more functionality for power users. Another alternative is a product called Pathfinder. The tools to create that type of software is available free with OS X and the documentation is also free through the developer site.
Slashdot Mirror
Being published means nothing if his current writing is bad.
Sorry Dell fans, your boxes with wires sticking out everywhere do not cut it and "software" Soundblaster emulators do not cut it either.
You are shocked that they are putting more efforts into this product? Cedega is an entirely different animal that requires you to tweak settings to get binaries running whereas this will be a library used to compile the source code directly for OS X by the developer. Presumably, the developer will make some tweaks before they ship their product to ensure that it works.
Apple worked with KHTML developers to merge in some changes from Webkit back into KHTML and they released Webkit as open source which Nokia picked up and implemented into their products.
Disclaimer: I do not work for any government or government agency. My views expressed on slashdot are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer. My employer complies fully with any request for information according to the laws of Canada governing the sector I'm employed in.
Is that clear enough for you? :)
How do you suggest handling removing items from the "desktop" metaphor? You are ejecting (throwing away) disks off the desktop when you eject a disk.
I hope.
Perhaps you've heard of the NSA? Have you heard about Security Enhanced Linux? What about these security guidelines published by the NSA for various operating systems ranging from Windows to OS X?
I hate to break it to you but there are a lot of nerds in various branches of the US government and I'm sure many of them read slashdot.
I feel bad for you pal. I really do.
Disclaimer: I do not work for the US government or the "government" of any of its allies.
I see.... so tried is a new euphemism for pirated?
Paradimes in OSX that suck: 1) To eject a CD-ROM, USB-key, or external storage, I drag it to the trash. That seems illogical to me.
I think the word you were looking for was "paradigms". Drives are dragged to the trash because you are not only ejecting the media but you are writing the file system buffer back to the drive (in the case of read/write media) and deleting its cache. With XP, you are also supposed to eject USB devices before disconnecting them for the same reason.
2) To install a program, I "click-and-drag" it to my "hard drive". I had to google how to install something in OSX. Double-clicking the downloaded file yielded some puzzling prompt I can't recall.
First of all, did it occur to you to RTFM? Second, you are not "installing" anything but rather copying the application bundle from the disk image for folder on the desktop to your applications directory. I call FUD on this one since most applications will run from a disk image let alone from the desktop. You should not expect it to behave like windows.
3) Driver management is a nightmare. Sure, it works great with Mac hardware, but who wants to be locked into one brand? Oh wait, Mac-happy fan-boys do.
What driver management? Oh wait, you are running a pirated/cracked version on your Dell. Did you expect it to work on your Dell? Locked in? How do you like the WMA ecosystem and being locked into windows?
4) OSX feels like an OS that is 50 feet thick. And by that I mean it feels like there's layer upon layer of abstraction, as if it were trying to protect me from seeing how a computer really works. So you are saying that you do not like user friendly OS design and Object Oriented systems? If you want to hack away, go to http://developer.apple.com/ and read the documentation. Install the Developer tools and play with Interface builder. The power of the OS is all there for developers to extend. I think you are confusing complicated interfaces with "power". Open up a terminal windows and fill your boots.
5) OSX is not very business friendly. It doesn't fit business-logic.
What an absurd statement. Could you quantify that? By business friendly do you mean MIS friendly? Is it too damn easy to use that you are afraid business people might just use their computers are tools without needing so many MSCE's on their payroll?
6) The bundled applications were inferior. Give me Outlook Express over Apples default mail application any day. That thing was an utter, illogical, painful experience to configure.
More FUD and bullshit. You have got to be kidding me. Mail in Tiger has features features in common with Outlook 2003 like message grouping by topic threads. What is there to configure beyond email accounts and signatures?
7) OSX is slow. Seriosuly, it's just not as snappy as winXP. Granted, I was running OSx86 on a Dell laptop, but I've used OSX on a mac before, and it really is a little laggy from all the superflorous garbage it distracts you with. "Ooooh, dancing icon. Thor like!"
Yeah, having a GUI with a GPU accelerated compositing engine can be a bit slower than a simple bitblitter graphical stack like GDI+. Try out Vista and you will see how it is not as snappy either when running the Aero Glass interface.
To anyone who is considering buying a Mac: Try using OSX first!
That is one thing we can agree on. I would also suggest people try out Vista before blindly upgrading to it.
In my honest opinion, I think Windows Vista will pave over OSX when it's released.
Right. Do you even know anything about the current state of Vista compared with what was promised at PDC 2003? I use XP more than I use OS X simply because that is what I use at work and I used XP at home until the end of 2002. I'm afraid that your "experience" with a
pirated
X86 Tiger install does not qualify you to critique the OS X.You say that it is 300 dollars cheaper but does that factor in included software? Are you including XP Pro or XP lite (Home)? How much extra time and money will it take to make it fairly secure secure and as usable as a macbook is out of the box?
Does it include a remote and Media Center? Does it have a builtin webcam? Does it have Bluetooth 2.0 EDR support?
The base price of a system might matter to MSFT/PC Hardware fanboys but the general public cares about what they can do with the machine. You see, the general public use computers as tools and expect to have "software" they can use to perform tasks and produce various works of art or to communicate. A base system with a cutdown OS and some trial software is not going to cut it for most people.
PS. The Macbook Pro, Macbook, Mac Mini and iMac all support 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g out of the box.
Speaking of DRM lockin. Have fun with Zune and Vista. Have fun buying a new computer complete with an HDMI monitor and video card just so you can view HD content in full resolution in Vista.
MSFT is strongly pushing DRM for video content whereas Apple so far has been silent on the matter. I do not foresee Apple making a sharp about face and forcing HDMI down our throats at this stage in the game. If you value your freedom of fair use, I would suggest looking at Apple.
I don't know, is imprisonment for theft of property such as a car something the state does on its own account for violation of criminal laws?
You see, there was the whole other world outside of pagan europe, a civilized world. While the pagans in europe were busy fighting among themselves, the middle east was a center of culture and learning.
Uh, yeah, I think you you just proved my point. There is nothing worth buying right now in the windows world which is why some windows users who are tired of waiting are buying macs instead.
When you say "consumer" you mean "geek" right? The average consumer is not interested in buying a computer with an OS or software. The cost might be lower without an OS but not significantly but it would also lower their value proposition for the average consumer. The main appeal of macs for most people is how everything "just works" right out of the box.
Apple clearly is not targetting the hobbyist computer geek or big business but rather regular consumers that do stuff with photos, movies and DVDs and that it what all that extra bundled software lets them do right away.
What exactly is your problem? Why do you have hostility towards some guy in an advertisement? Are you jealous because you are socially inept compared to him? Do the commercials make you feel inadequate?
Did you forget that Russia lost in Afghanistan and Chechnya? Where have you been?
If you try to hide your iPod, you will stick out like a sore thumb. These people will be drawn to you because you are trying to hide something. The same thing goes for not using your ear buds.
Stop being such snivelling wimps and live up to your potential that God gave you.
Right like in Vietnam, oh wait.... no, a bunch of guys with rifles and handguns or the Soviets in Afghanistan, uh no.... Well present day Iraq.... You were saying? Look around for a minute. All you need is a few weapons, determination and superior knowledge of the lay of the land to outwit even the most powerful army.
You hit the nail on the head. The UI in OS X is simple by some "power" users standards but that is the point. It is no more complex than it needs to be in order to serve 99% of all users' needs. For anyone who wants to hack/extend the system. You have all the power of the shell and apple script to automate task. Now with Automator in Tiger, even that power is accessible to moderately technical people who want to design their own workflows. If you want to get down and dirty with UI extensions, Apple provides the developer tools in the form of Interface builder and Xcode for creating plugins for the Finder or writing your own replacement for the finder.
If people want an example of how powerful Interface builder is, you can create your own simple web browser based on webkit in a matter of minutes without writing a single line of code. If you want that browser to surpass Safari in features, you will have to do some coding but it is pretty easy to knock out a basic UI with IB.
Cool, what else does it run beside an operating system? The average user cares about applications and how easy they are to use, not what OS they run on or who built their computer.
Popularity has nothing to do with how vulnerable an OS is. Vulnerabilities in an OS are caused by programming errors and poor design decision. *Full Stop* There is no other cause and critical mass does not have any affect on on how many vulnerabilities exist. You people need to learn what the difference is between flaws/vulnerabilities and exploits. The former exists regardless of how many people are looking for them and the latter comes about when someone discovers one and figures out how to make use of it.
It is true that windows has a lot more exploits partly because of critical mass but the vulnerabilities that make the exploits possible are solely the fault of MSFT developers. There can be no disagreement on this one point.
If Apple gained a lot more market share, there is no guarantee that OS X would have a lot more viruses and exploits. Apple has a completely different security model in OS X from what windows offers and they are generally quick at patching vulnerabilities before an exploit could have a chance to spread.
Someone mentioned cultural differences between windows and mac users. I really think you people should not dismiss it out of hand. You should check out the mac section of versiontracker and mac update. If there is even a hint of spyware in a third-party app, you will hear about it in the user reviews. The mac community has virtually zero tolerance for spyware/adware and most would rather pay for software if they find that it is worth using. Ask some of us cross-platform users out there.
It is unix if you install the BSD subsystem but as I said before, the BSD subsystem is not a required component and not everyone will choose to install it unless they run software that requires it (mostly unix ports with or without a GUI). Applications written to only use Cocoa or Carbon will not balk at it not being installed.
The main file system structure for OS X, with the exception of /etc is different for other *nix OSes. The /Library, /System, and /Applications folders are in no way related to the directory structure of other unixes or unix-like OSes. Even the /Users/ folder is not a direct analogue to the /usr/ or /home/ folder on other unix OSes. It is not even necessary to install the BSD subsystem in order to have a functional OS X installation and the only reason you would need to install it is to make use of free software that uses it or for the developer tools. Software written to only use the Cocoa or Carbon libraries does not require the BSD layer in order to function.
Having said all that, OS X does offer the standard *nix directory structures such as /etc, /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin and so on but it is not recommended that third party software install files into those directories but rather that it be placed in other directories.
Maybe you like to stare at your desktop or tweak settings all day but some people like to use software that is easy to use to get stuff done. The beauty of OS X is that it comes with tools like Interface builder that let you whip up a webkit browser or a to do list app in a matter of minutes without any coding. If you have an idea and a couple of hours to spend, you can create useful app yourself without writing a line of code. Does linux have anything like that?
When I chose OS X, I was attracted by the software available on it (both commercial and free) from Apple and third-parties. While OS X may not expose a lot of functionality to the user in the finder, anyone with some programming knowledge is free to either extend or replace the finder with something better. Take http://filerun.info/ for example. That looks like a promising replacement for the finder that offers a great deal more functionality for power users. Another alternative is a product called Pathfinder. The tools to create that type of software is available free with OS X and the documentation is also free through the developer site.