You know, I get more and more sick of postings like this.
No need to put yourself through pains when you can improve security, save money and achieve a good deal of vendor independence all at the same time. Why exchange overpriced software (Microsoft) for overpriced hardware (Apple), when you can run Free software on the industry standard (and thus inexpensive) hardware?
Don't get me wrong, I liked the Linux desktop, but I switched back to Win2k before ultimately moving to OS X. Free software is excellent when it's available. Even on Windows, I used loads of free software. If your company does a lot of office work, Linux is great. I've heard it's excellent for scientific work too. However, exactly how do you do things like desktop publishing, video editing and real graphics work (a la Illustrator and Photoshop). You don't.
Software availability has and will continue to cripple Linux on the desktop. People can scream about "choice" all they want and say, "See, I have 30 browsers to choose from (running a whole 2 rendering engines) and a bunch of IM clients, three office suits and a program that makes a pair of shifty eyes sit on my desktop. I even have two whole major desktop environments to choose from!" Of course, you have zero choices for much of the above mentioned software.
Linux works where it works, but just like Windows or Mac, it's not the be all, end all nor is it a universal solution.
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." -- Samuel Adams.
Most people in most nations throughout most of human history have been gullible sheep. It is the very nature of the human condition to be mediocre and weak. A pathetic primate ruled by fear and limited perception. However, like a stampeding herd or a cornered mouse, when the walls come crashing down they will move and fight and be lead. The question is, when things collapse here (and they will, this insanity is like a time bomb) will a Washington rise to lead the brainless herd or will a Hitler?
We're going to hit bottom soon. Oil will rise in price and the value of the dollar will fall. Things are gonna get a lot worse before they even have a chance to get better.
I dunno about a civil war necessarily, but the USA is on a road to collapse. You cannot make the economic and legal choices we continue to make without eventually being crushed under your own weight. And with collapse two things happen: A hero or a tyrant. We'll either rise like a phoenix or get a Hitler at our head. Oh well... at least we get to look forward to the fact that things have to get worse before the population and/or economy hits critical mass and things go nuts.
Given the pansy asses that make up most of the population now... my money is on economic collapse before the citizens wake up.
And thank goodness the Democrats have been there guarding the gates and being the watchmen that protected...
Oh wait. Sorry. I've been drinking pretty hard today and was confused.
So where was I? Oh yes, the Democrats. When they weren't actively showing the Republicans through the gates they were asleep at the FUCKING WHEEL!
Give credit where credit is due. This twin party monopoly is the reason this shit gets worse. I loathe the Republican party and wouldn't shed a tear if every elected official and member of national/state/local leadership was killed just as a good measure to clean the system. However, the exact same thing goes for the Democratic party.
I hate the GOP, but I am getting sick to fucking death of a lot of people giving them the singular blame. If the Democrats take Congress this year or even in 2 years along with a Democratic president it will be the same shit. SAME EXACT SHIT. And we'll be on the merry-go-round we've been on for over a century. No matter how many times these two titans of human mediocrity ruin this nation we always come back asking for more. We're like a nation of abused girlfriends that keep telling ourselves, "He's gonna change. He didn't mean to give me a black eye."
Are you fucking kidding me? Four "slam-dunk" "strict constructionist" votes? Now don't get me wrong, I am ALL ABOUT strict construction. I am a black letter hardline "you will follow the Constitution to the letter or I will cut your fucking nuts off" kind of guy.
Scalia is a "strict constructionist" up until he's ruling on the torture of "terrorists" or eminent domain for money grubbing corporate fuckwads. Thomas is probably our best judge but he's still an ass and still has plenty of his own pet issues where he's gonna rule his way no matter what the Constitutions or the Founders said.
Be thankful Bush was elected? Mr. WeDon'tEvenDeclareWarLikeTheConstitutionSaysWe'reS upposedTo? The man uses the Constitution as fucking toilet paper and he's a god damn retard on top of that. Good lord.
Perjury is the least prosecuted crime in the country. It's a joke now. Lying used to have consequences to it and now? Heh. It's business as fucking usual.
I'm a sexist. Okay. Totally. This kind of shit is why too. Just a few days back there was that ridiculous law that got passed in the UK about violent porn and now this. This is the law that comes from "soccer moms" and touchy-feely women groups who scream "we have to do something about X problem." These laws fill up and up due to grieving mothers and it's why their asses were not allowed to vote 100 years ago. (It was a better time really.)
And before anyone gives me any knee-jerk bullshit, ask yourself: "Has the USA become a more peaceful place and has the freedom, literacy rate and average living conditions (comparative for the technology of the time) improved since the 19th amendment passed?" Now we're an entire nation of fucking nancy pants whiners looking for "daddy" to take care of our sorry asses. Fuck the feminists. Fuck the politicians pandering to them. Fuck this emotionally based law. And fuck Ohio you cocksuckers.
The government is ALWAYS scarier than the simple boogiemen hiding in the dark alley. Hitler killed more people in his reign of terror than an generation's worth of violent "regular" criminals.
Get out of touch with your fucking feelings and get in touch with stoic objectivity. This shit has got to stop before we implode under the weight of all these bullshit laws. Free country? What the fuck is that?
Perhaps they can also digitally enhance them and release a "special edition" as per NASA's "original vision." Heh. It's time someone from the previous generation how their childhood retroactively destroyed.
No kidding. One of the primary differences between much of the OSS world and companies like Apple or even like Microsoft is a marketing division. Even in the Gnome/KDE camps, if one adopts a feature the other has you're not going to see a blog or press release that says, "Man, we really liked X feature from Y competing product so we added it to our own."
"KDE/Gnome counts for a surprising fraction when you compare it to OS X's fraction."
That's totally irrelevant. Apple's fraction wasn't relevant either. If you actually read what I said (instead of trying to interpret what I wrote as if I am some kind of blind faith driven Apple maniac) you'd get that. Apple is competing with Microsoft for OS superiority. There's no reason to compare themselves to Linux because the average person isn't familiar enough with Linux to make a comparison nor do they have a big enough market share in the desktop market (and even if they had a bigger share than OS X, you don't compare yourself to second place).
Furthermore, "whatever else some tiny fraction of the population uses" was NOT a reference to KDE or Gnome. It was a reference to X window manager or some lesser known DE like XFce. And I hate to break it to you, but I doubt the combined use of those less significant WMs or DEs is equal to Apple's share. I'm not saying anything bad about their quality, but merely speaking about the numbers. (Considering I run XFce on a couple older boxes, I obviously have no problem with it.)
"just a bunch of nebulous, subjective opinions supporting the idea that Apple is somehow inherently better than everyone else."
Seriously, what are you? 16? 17? Did you just discover emo and Linux? Are you being a hardcore anti-corporate rebel?
"Apple polish" is subjective, but gimme a break. What isn't? I'm sure there are actually some color blind and aesthetically bereft individuals out there that would claim that fvwm is prettier and cleaner than OS X's UI. However, if we took a poll on polish, I can promise Apple would win. Very little, even in computing, isn't subjective.
"Apple merely takes great technology and makes it usable" And this isn't subjective unless you care to show me another version control type system that the non-geek could use. They brought simple video editing to mom and dad too. (Oh yeah, and while we're on the subject of video editing, what fine application to you use for video editing on that Linux box? Heh.)
I have never claimed Apple was the be all end all but they win in the ease of use department and the polish department. And this isn't coming from some long term Mac fanatic. I've used every version of Windows from 3.11 up, and ran a KDE desktop under Linux for over two years before I got a 12" PowerBook. Plus I have a couple Linux servers and a FreeBSD server.
Give credit where credit is due. Just because Apple is good at something doesn't mean The Holy Book of OSS is totally inferior in every way. It doesn't even mean Windows is totally inferior. Apple has their strengths though and anyone who doesn't recognize that (and instead, tries to imply that Apple is totally inferior) is just as annoying as any pro-Apple fanboy.
Good lord, you can't even compliment Apple without being labeled as a fanboy now. You people have got to stop treating technology platforms like religions. It's pathetic.
I think the main problem is that the Intel announcement last year was a huge announcement. However, being a developer's conference it was the most appropriate time, place and crowd to make that announcement since they're the ones that were really going to have to deal with the transition. That simple.
They're not going to top the Intel announcement any time soon for pure shock value. It just ain't happening. Not because Apple is out of cool stuff, but because changing architectures every year would be absolute madness and nothing short of that is gonna get people freaking out like the Intel switch.
However, since it was a developer's conference I was also hoping for them to bump the MacBook Pros up to Core 2 Duos. Virtual desktops make me happy though. (Woohoo!) And frankly, the longer they wait to announce the update to Core 2 Duo (within reason anyway) the longer I have before I shell out more money on something I really don't *need.*
A point a lot of people seem to miss is that, sure... version control has been done before. Nothing new. However, how many non-techie users do you know that can just set up a version control system for their own personal backups?
Apple isn't always about doing something new. Often Apple merely takes great technology and makes it usable for the "mere mortals." It's possible I'm missing something but I can't think of versioning control systems that say... my parents could use and set up.
The virtual desktops aren't new, but they are new to Apple and Windows doesn't have them. That's Apple's target for comparison, not Linux (or KDE or Gnome or whatever else some tiny fraction of the population uses). I also have a feeling that "spaces" will have the Apple polish to it that will be emulated by systems that have been doing virtual desktops for some time. (I could be wrong. I haven't used it yet.)
To me, Time Machine is much cooler addition than Spotlight or Dashboard. (I use the latter a lot and I like it, despite its warts, but it's hardly something better than icing.) For the end user I think it will be a real boon too.
Anyway, here's to hoping they announce some kind up processor update to the MacBook Pros today.
I think is this fairly overblown though. There isn't a Slashdot story every time a Lenovo or Dell has some small problem. There are plenty of said problems.
1. Mac users are generally more anal about this sort of thing and make noise about it. 2. Macs are quite simply a big topic right now. An issue like this would have never graced the pages of Slashdot pre-OS X. 3. First gen EVERYTHING is problematic. As much as I wanted a 2005 Mustang, no way. New body styles of the first year are just not my thing.
What you point out, about not being able to buy older generation equipment for reliability's sake, is a good point. Though Apple usually has a couple of every model in their refurb section (it's not the same as buying a new one though).
I like Macs and I like Apple. The problem I see whenever I read these articles though is that there are people who live under the myth that Apple is perfect. They're not. Right now they're also under tremendous scrutiny because of their current surge in popularity and the Intel switch. I think this whole zone is going to be a pretty big hump of issues, but it'll pass. (Incidentally, I'm waiting for the next gen MBPs before I buy.) They quality control at least as good as anyone else, but shit happens. The yellowing cases and the battery issues, if I remember correctly, were manufacturer's issues anyway. You can fix something like that during testing.
"I can get a much more powerful commodity Intel box (which is all Macs are now) and load up FreeBSD for around $300."
With a monitor? A cheap ass no-name 17" LCD from New Egg is a little under $150 in and of itself. I am sick of hearing this crap every time there is an Apple article. They're really not that much more expensive. If you're dumpster diving, then sure. But what isn't? You can always buy a used Apple machine. (Though I loathe the iMac. Built in monitors piss me off.)
When PC boards move from BIOS to something modern, like the coolness that is EFI, let me know. Until then, Apple machine are still a cut above commodity parts. The day I can clone my HD to an external firewire drive and then boot my machine from said firewire drive in the even of a failure, let me know.
I couldn't care less about tabs or extensions or UI enhancements or any of that crap. What I care about is standards implementation and so long as IE ignores things like the box model and does a piss poor job of doing... well... anything... I have to participate in web skullduggery to get pages to work right.
The problem with your analogy to Write is that people using Write aren't limiting people using better programs. Their consumption of mediocrity isn't stifling the entire word processing industry. IE is and does. I can live with the box model being messed up, all it takes is an extra div to work around that, but if they haven't fixed a plethora of other problems then... I guess I'm going to continue to hack around their bullshit and sit here and bitch about it on Slashdot.
You have got to be fucking kidding me. There's a difference between not being perfect on the ACID test and being... well... IE. This is not even in the same ball park. Not even the same sport. Not even the same planet.
So Firefox only scored a 1500 on its SAT. IE is still wearing a helmet and drooling on itself as it takes the short bus back to Redmond. Seriously just... just don't even go there. IE is the biggest frustration on the planet right now to anyone who actually works in this industry.
Still... no... proper... box... model...? Not even and... option or something?
Well, let me just say, as a web developer... FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK! FUCK YOU FUCKING MICROSOFT FUCKERS! ROT IN HELL YOU CHEAP IMITATION HACKS WHO COULDN'T PROGRAM YOURSELVES OUT OF A FUCKING BOX! (Whatever that means.)
Okay. I needed that. Seriously, what the fuck have they been doing all this time? Pounding their dicks with mallets?
How long has this piece of shit been in development? If this browser is any indication of Vista well... no wonder I haven't updated past 2000. There is so much nice stuff sitting in the CSS standard and it's largely being ignored. The IE team should die of gonorrhea and rot in hell.
I'm assuming you have never been arrested. I guess my clients just always seem to get arrested on the asshole shift. And even a cop who normally "isn't a prick" suddenly thinks you are the criminal devil incarnate the moment you mention your so-called "rights."
Most cops will be nice to you if you bend over and let them do whatever they want. Sure, sure. But whatever you do, don't assert your rights. Then you'll find that the majority become pricks, plain and simple because if you don't want to let them search your car or your house you MUST be hiding something and your MUST be a criminal.
The problem is that in our society we have arbitrarily elevated cops to the status of "real" heroes because they "risk their lives everyday for the 'safety' of the community." A few months ago a metro officer was killed in the line of duty and there was this huge procession and they made a big deal about it.
What no one bothered to mention is that it had been nearly 15 years since a metro cop had been killed. More people are killed/maimed/whatever working on construction sites here. Way more. The fact is that we've put these servants, and that's what they are, on a pedestal when it's a job they should serve with humility and compassion for their community.
For everyone one "real" criminal they haul in I wonder how many nothing-but-revenue tickets they pass out? There's nothing "heroic" or "honorable" about hiding your car in a poorly marked 25 zone that some jackass decided should take up a block in the middle of 45s and ticket people there. Which is another problem. Popular media shows cops fighting dangerous "real" criminals most of the time. Even the show Cops doesn't show some guy sitting in a car, "This is Unit 328, hiding here at the bottom of a hill where people generally go faster than normal. We've made over $3,000 on tickets today and we've still got a few hours to go. One day and I've almost made my entire week's quota."
And EVERY cop is dirty. Every single one of them. Either by their actions or their omissions. Ask ANY cop whether or not he/she knows a dirty cop. They'll say yes. After that, ask that person what he/she has done about said dirty cop. Nothing. A big fat nothing. And what's worse is when SOMETHING does happen they always get some ridiculous slap on the wrist. If I worked for a company that got sued for $50,000 and LOST on account of something I did, I'd be gone. I'd be fired. Not here. They get a week of PAID suspension and they're back on the street supposedly learning their lesson.
THey've become an elevated class and just like all elevated classes, they act the part. Like pricks. Total pricks. If they accuse you, regardless of what procedures they seem to ignore, you're guilty and that's that. Add that to the fact that there's no fucking accountability for lower court judges in this country, it's just easier to plea out even if you haven't done anything wrong because they make it expensive to fight.
Now, before I get into this let me say that the, "If you make serious judgments about other people based on their platform, you're an idiot," was using "you" in general and it wasn't meant to be personal. I screwed up in the way I phrased that and I apologize. The whole last paragraph was more of a general rant than anything else. That being said...
Nonsense. Your choices say a lot about you. Your choice in music, films, clothes, politicians, news channels and yes your operating system too. That's a big componenent of how we judge people. If somebody is fat, had a dirty beard, wears tatoos and rides a harley they that says something about him. If somebody is clean cut, has no tatoos and rides around in a scooter it says something else.
Oh sure, those things say a lot. For instance, if someone has a Harley, it says, "That guy has a Harley." If someone has a tattoo I know, "Woah, that person has a tattoo." If someone is dirty, it tells me, "This person is currently dirty." I don't know why one guy owns a Harley. Could be because he's a Hell's Angel or because he's having a mid-life crisis. If someone is dirty, it could be that they're a bum or that they simply have poor hygiene. Motivations are what make actions and circumstances have meaning. A person's choice in music tells me nothing unless I know whether they like it because it's "cool and popular" or because they love the beat or because the lyrics touch them. Jumping to conclusions about circumstances with no understanding of their foundation is " a big componenent of how we judge people." It doesn't make it a good thing.
So, when I know that someone uses Linux, I know one thing: They use Linux. I don't even know that they prefer it anymore than I known whether the average Windows user "prefers" Windows. Could simply be that they're honest and its all they could afford or that their job requires it. They could be a tinkering geek with no consideration for the ideals or a pragmatist who likes it better. They could be my mother, who ran a Linux box I set up for her for a couple years. So, using Linux doesn't even tell me that the person is computer savvy.
I'm not trying to sell you on a Mac or imply that it's better for you. I'm glad you like Linux. I was simply explaining why Macs currently fit the bill better for me. (And I'm sure that over time I'll switch again. I'm in no way loyal to any platform.)
Photoshop "works fine" under Wine is what I usually hear from people who pirate Photoshop when they're at a level that requires nothing more than The Gimp in the first place. When you have oodles of custom filters and do advanced printing, things get a lot stickier. This doesn't include InDesign or Illustrator either. Wine is an extremely cool program and I actually paid for a copy of CrossOver Office so my dad could continue to use MS Office while running Linux and so that I could test pages in IE 6 without dual booting or a second computer. (Although, Javascript didn't work for me but it was rarely a problem.)
The Finder is pretty weak as far as file managers go, but Linux is the OS that really taught me not to care. When I just wanna open up my Documents folder and browse for something, it's fine. I rather like column view. However, if I want to do complicated file management, I use the terminal just as I did and do in pretty much anything with Bash. I used to care about file managers, when before programs began becoming smarter about their own file associations. I used to open up my file manager to find my mp3s and make a playlist or drop videos into a media player or whatever. Most programs have libraries (media programs) or projects (text editors and IDEs) or simply have their own internal structure (mail apps).
Path Finder is an awesome file manager and I do love it. However, I've downloaded the trial twice and while you can customize nicely and it has some very cool features (the drop s
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You know, I get more and more sick of postings like this.
No need to put yourself through pains when you can improve security, save money and achieve a good deal of vendor independence all at the same time. Why exchange overpriced software (Microsoft) for overpriced hardware (Apple), when you can run Free software on the industry standard (and thus inexpensive) hardware?
Don't get me wrong, I liked the Linux desktop, but I switched back to Win2k before ultimately moving to OS X. Free software is excellent when it's available. Even on Windows, I used loads of free software. If your company does a lot of office work, Linux is great. I've heard it's excellent for scientific work too. However, exactly how do you do things like desktop publishing, video editing and real graphics work (a la Illustrator and Photoshop). You don't.
Software availability has and will continue to cripple Linux on the desktop. People can scream about "choice" all they want and say, "See, I have 30 browsers to choose from (running a whole 2 rendering engines) and a bunch of IM clients, three office suits and a program that makes a pair of shifty eyes sit on my desktop. I even have two whole major desktop environments to choose from!" Of course, you have zero choices for much of the above mentioned software.
Linux works where it works, but just like Windows or Mac, it's not the be all, end all nor is it a universal solution.
Revolution will come. It's inevitable.
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." -- Samuel Adams.
Most people in most nations throughout most of human history have been gullible sheep. It is the very nature of the human condition to be mediocre and weak. A pathetic primate ruled by fear and limited perception. However, like a stampeding herd or a cornered mouse, when the walls come crashing down they will move and fight and be lead. The question is, when things collapse here (and they will, this insanity is like a time bomb) will a Washington rise to lead the brainless herd or will a Hitler?
We're going to hit bottom soon. Oil will rise in price and the value of the dollar will fall. Things are gonna get a lot worse before they even have a chance to get better.
I dunno about a civil war necessarily, but the USA is on a road to collapse. You cannot make the economic and legal choices we continue to make without eventually being crushed under your own weight. And with collapse two things happen: A hero or a tyrant. We'll either rise like a phoenix or get a Hitler at our head. Oh well... at least we get to look forward to the fact that things have to get worse before the population and/or economy hits critical mass and things go nuts.
Given the pansy asses that make up most of the population now... my money is on economic collapse before the citizens wake up.
And thank goodness the Democrats have been there guarding the gates and being the watchmen that protected...
Oh wait. Sorry. I've been drinking pretty hard today and was confused.
So where was I? Oh yes, the Democrats. When they weren't actively showing the Republicans through the gates they were asleep at the FUCKING WHEEL!
Give credit where credit is due. This twin party monopoly is the reason this shit gets worse. I loathe the Republican party and wouldn't shed a tear if every elected official and member of national/state/local leadership was killed just as a good measure to clean the system. However, the exact same thing goes for the Democratic party.
I hate the GOP, but I am getting sick to fucking death of a lot of people giving them the singular blame. If the Democrats take Congress this year or even in 2 years along with a Democratic president it will be the same shit. SAME EXACT SHIT. And we'll be on the merry-go-round we've been on for over a century. No matter how many times these two titans of human mediocrity ruin this nation we always come back asking for more. We're like a nation of abused girlfriends that keep telling ourselves, "He's gonna change. He didn't mean to give me a black eye."
What the fuck?
Are you fucking kidding me? Four "slam-dunk" "strict constructionist" votes? Now don't get me wrong, I am ALL ABOUT strict construction. I am a black letter hardline "you will follow the Constitution to the letter or I will cut your fucking nuts off" kind of guy.
S upposedTo? The man uses the Constitution as fucking toilet paper and he's a god damn retard on top of that. Good lord.
Scalia is a "strict constructionist" up until he's ruling on the torture of "terrorists" or eminent domain for money grubbing corporate fuckwads. Thomas is probably our best judge but he's still an ass and still has plenty of his own pet issues where he's gonna rule his way no matter what the Constitutions or the Founders said.
Be thankful Bush was elected? Mr. WeDon'tEvenDeclareWarLikeTheConstitutionSaysWe're
Perjury is the least prosecuted crime in the country. It's a joke now. Lying used to have consequences to it and now? Heh. It's business as fucking usual.
I'm a sexist. Okay. Totally. This kind of shit is why too. Just a few days back there was that ridiculous law that got passed in the UK about violent porn and now this. This is the law that comes from "soccer moms" and touchy-feely women groups who scream "we have to do something about X problem." These laws fill up and up due to grieving mothers and it's why their asses were not allowed to vote 100 years ago. (It was a better time really.)
And before anyone gives me any knee-jerk bullshit, ask yourself: "Has the USA become a more peaceful place and has the freedom, literacy rate and average living conditions (comparative for the technology of the time) improved since the 19th amendment passed?" Now we're an entire nation of fucking nancy pants whiners looking for "daddy" to take care of our sorry asses. Fuck the feminists. Fuck the politicians pandering to them. Fuck this emotionally based law. And fuck Ohio you cocksuckers.
The government is ALWAYS scarier than the simple boogiemen hiding in the dark alley. Hitler killed more people in his reign of terror than an generation's worth of violent "regular" criminals.
Get out of touch with your fucking feelings and get in touch with stoic objectivity. This shit has got to stop before we implode under the weight of all these bullshit laws. Free country? What the fuck is that?
Whereas they could go with Gnome which is like Taco Bell (and you can still smell the grease of Taco Bell).
Perhaps they can also digitally enhance them and release a "special edition" as per NASA's "original vision." Heh. It's time someone from the previous generation how their childhood retroactively destroyed.
"No, they're just about claiming it."
No kidding. One of the primary differences between much of the OSS world and companies like Apple or even like Microsoft is a marketing division. Even in the Gnome/KDE camps, if one adopts a feature the other has you're not going to see a blog or press release that says, "Man, we really liked X feature from Y competing product so we added it to our own."
"KDE/Gnome counts for a surprising fraction when you compare it to OS X's fraction."
That's totally irrelevant. Apple's fraction wasn't relevant either. If you actually read what I said (instead of trying to interpret what I wrote as if I am some kind of blind faith driven Apple maniac) you'd get that. Apple is competing with Microsoft for OS superiority. There's no reason to compare themselves to Linux because the average person isn't familiar enough with Linux to make a comparison nor do they have a big enough market share in the desktop market (and even if they had a bigger share than OS X, you don't compare yourself to second place).
Furthermore, "whatever else some tiny fraction of the population uses" was NOT a reference to KDE or Gnome. It was a reference to X window manager or some lesser known DE like XFce. And I hate to break it to you, but I doubt the combined use of those less significant WMs or DEs is equal to Apple's share. I'm not saying anything bad about their quality, but merely speaking about the numbers. (Considering I run XFce on a couple older boxes, I obviously have no problem with it.)
"just a bunch of nebulous, subjective opinions supporting the idea that Apple is somehow inherently better than everyone else."
Seriously, what are you? 16? 17? Did you just discover emo and Linux? Are you being a hardcore anti-corporate rebel?
"Apple polish" is subjective, but gimme a break. What isn't? I'm sure there are actually some color blind and aesthetically bereft individuals out there that would claim that fvwm is prettier and cleaner than OS X's UI. However, if we took a poll on polish, I can promise Apple would win. Very little, even in computing, isn't subjective.
"Apple merely takes great technology and makes it usable" And this isn't subjective unless you care to show me another version control type system that the non-geek could use. They brought simple video editing to mom and dad too. (Oh yeah, and while we're on the subject of video editing, what fine application to you use for video editing on that Linux box? Heh.)
I have never claimed Apple was the be all end all but they win in the ease of use department and the polish department. And this isn't coming from some long term Mac fanatic. I've used every version of Windows from 3.11 up, and ran a KDE desktop under Linux for over two years before I got a 12" PowerBook. Plus I have a couple Linux servers and a FreeBSD server.
Give credit where credit is due. Just because Apple is good at something doesn't mean The Holy Book of OSS is totally inferior in every way. It doesn't even mean Windows is totally inferior. Apple has their strengths though and anyone who doesn't recognize that (and instead, tries to imply that Apple is totally inferior) is just as annoying as any pro-Apple fanboy.
Good lord, you can't even compliment Apple without being labeled as a fanboy now. You people have got to stop treating technology platforms like religions. It's pathetic.
Yeah, this dude's a jackass.
I think the main problem is that the Intel announcement last year was a huge announcement. However, being a developer's conference it was the most appropriate time, place and crowd to make that announcement since they're the ones that were really going to have to deal with the transition. That simple.
They're not going to top the Intel announcement any time soon for pure shock value. It just ain't happening. Not because Apple is out of cool stuff, but because changing architectures every year would be absolute madness and nothing short of that is gonna get people freaking out like the Intel switch.
However, since it was a developer's conference I was also hoping for them to bump the MacBook Pros up to Core 2 Duos. Virtual desktops make me happy though. (Woohoo!) And frankly, the longer they wait to announce the update to Core 2 Duo (within reason anyway) the longer I have before I shell out more money on something I really don't *need.*
A point a lot of people seem to miss is that, sure... version control has been done before. Nothing new. However, how many non-techie users do you know that can just set up a version control system for their own personal backups?
Apple isn't always about doing something new. Often Apple merely takes great technology and makes it usable for the "mere mortals." It's possible I'm missing something but I can't think of versioning control systems that say... my parents could use and set up.
The virtual desktops aren't new, but they are new to Apple and Windows doesn't have them. That's Apple's target for comparison, not Linux (or KDE or Gnome or whatever else some tiny fraction of the population uses). I also have a feeling that "spaces" will have the Apple polish to it that will be emulated by systems that have been doing virtual desktops for some time. (I could be wrong. I haven't used it yet.)
To me, Time Machine is much cooler addition than Spotlight or Dashboard. (I use the latter a lot and I like it, despite its warts, but it's hardly something better than icing.) For the end user I think it will be a real boon too.
Anyway, here's to hoping they announce some kind up processor update to the MacBook Pros today.
I think is this fairly overblown though. There isn't a Slashdot story every time a Lenovo or Dell has some small problem. There are plenty of said problems.
1. Mac users are generally more anal about this sort of thing and make noise about it.
2. Macs are quite simply a big topic right now. An issue like this would have never graced the pages of Slashdot pre-OS X.
3. First gen EVERYTHING is problematic. As much as I wanted a 2005 Mustang, no way. New body styles of the first year are just not my thing.
What you point out, about not being able to buy older generation equipment for reliability's sake, is a good point. Though Apple usually has a couple of every model in their refurb section (it's not the same as buying a new one though).
I like Macs and I like Apple. The problem I see whenever I read these articles though is that there are people who live under the myth that Apple is perfect. They're not. Right now they're also under tremendous scrutiny because of their current surge in popularity and the Intel switch. I think this whole zone is going to be a pretty big hump of issues, but it'll pass. (Incidentally, I'm waiting for the next gen MBPs before I buy.) They quality control at least as good as anyone else, but shit happens. The yellowing cases and the battery issues, if I remember correctly, were manufacturer's issues anyway. You can fix something like that during testing.
Hey y'all! Watch this!
I have a sick feeling in my gut that those are going to be my not so famous last words.
"I can get a much more powerful commodity Intel box (which is all Macs are now) and load up FreeBSD for around $300."
With a monitor? A cheap ass no-name 17" LCD from New Egg is a little under $150 in and of itself. I am sick of hearing this crap every time there is an Apple article. They're really not that much more expensive. If you're dumpster diving, then sure. But what isn't? You can always buy a used Apple machine. (Though I loathe the iMac. Built in monitors piss me off.)
When PC boards move from BIOS to something modern, like the coolness that is EFI, let me know. Until then, Apple machine are still a cut above commodity parts. The day I can clone my HD to an external firewire drive and then boot my machine from said firewire drive in the even of a failure, let me know.
You're right and I know. I'm still coping with the emotional trauma of yesteryear. *sobs*
Now if they could just get list items to not include automatic margins if there is whitespace between them. Perhaps even PNG 24 support. *sigh*
I couldn't care less about tabs or extensions or UI enhancements or any of that crap. What I care about is standards implementation and so long as IE ignores things like the box model and does a piss poor job of doing... well... anything... I have to participate in web skullduggery to get pages to work right.
The problem with your analogy to Write is that people using Write aren't limiting people using better programs. Their consumption of mediocrity isn't stifling the entire word processing industry. IE is and does. I can live with the box model being messed up, all it takes is an extra div to work around that, but if they haven't fixed a plethora of other problems then... I guess I'm going to continue to hack around their bullshit and sit here and bitch about it on Slashdot.
Sorry, I had no other point of reference. That's just what I happen to do when I should be working but... I'm not.
You have got to be fucking kidding me. There's a difference between not being perfect on the ACID test and being... well... IE. This is not even in the same ball park. Not even the same sport. Not even the same planet.
So Firefox only scored a 1500 on its SAT. IE is still wearing a helmet and drooling on itself as it takes the short bus back to Redmond. Seriously just... just don't even go there. IE is the biggest frustration on the planet right now to anyone who actually works in this industry.
Still... no... proper... box... model...? Not even and... option or something?
Well, let me just say, as a web developer... FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK! FUCK YOU FUCKING MICROSOFT FUCKERS! ROT IN HELL YOU CHEAP IMITATION HACKS WHO COULDN'T PROGRAM YOURSELVES OUT OF A FUCKING BOX! (Whatever that means.)
Okay. I needed that. Seriously, what the fuck have they been doing all this time? Pounding their dicks with mallets?
How long has this piece of shit been in development? If this browser is any indication of Vista well... no wonder I haven't updated past 2000. There is so much nice stuff sitting in the CSS standard and it's largely being ignored. The IE team should die of gonorrhea and rot in hell.
That's because no one cares. And frankly, pre-OS X no one around here cared about Apple either. Say hello to a polarized topic.
I don't even buy first generation cars. First generation everything has kinks.
"big heavy MacBooks"? What are you people, hobbits?
I'm assuming you have never been arrested. I guess my clients just always seem to get arrested on the asshole shift. And even a cop who normally "isn't a prick" suddenly thinks you are the criminal devil incarnate the moment you mention your so-called "rights."
Most cops will be nice to you if you bend over and let them do whatever they want. Sure, sure. But whatever you do, don't assert your rights. Then you'll find that the majority become pricks, plain and simple because if you don't want to let them search your car or your house you MUST be hiding something and your MUST be a criminal.
Dead on. Dead on.
The problem is that in our society we have arbitrarily elevated cops to the status of "real" heroes because they "risk their lives everyday for the 'safety' of the community." A few months ago a metro officer was killed in the line of duty and there was this huge procession and they made a big deal about it.
What no one bothered to mention is that it had been nearly 15 years since a metro cop had been killed. More people are killed/maimed/whatever working on construction sites here. Way more. The fact is that we've put these servants, and that's what they are, on a pedestal when it's a job they should serve with humility and compassion for their community.
For everyone one "real" criminal they haul in I wonder how many nothing-but-revenue tickets they pass out? There's nothing "heroic" or "honorable" about hiding your car in a poorly marked 25 zone that some jackass decided should take up a block in the middle of 45s and ticket people there. Which is another problem. Popular media shows cops fighting dangerous "real" criminals most of the time. Even the show Cops doesn't show some guy sitting in a car, "This is Unit 328, hiding here at the bottom of a hill where people generally go faster than normal. We've made over $3,000 on tickets today and we've still got a few hours to go. One day and I've almost made my entire week's quota."
And EVERY cop is dirty. Every single one of them. Either by their actions or their omissions. Ask ANY cop whether or not he/she knows a dirty cop. They'll say yes. After that, ask that person what he/she has done about said dirty cop. Nothing. A big fat nothing. And what's worse is when SOMETHING does happen they always get some ridiculous slap on the wrist. If I worked for a company that got sued for $50,000 and LOST on account of something I did, I'd be gone. I'd be fired. Not here. They get a week of PAID suspension and they're back on the street supposedly learning their lesson.
THey've become an elevated class and just like all elevated classes, they act the part. Like pricks. Total pricks. If they accuse you, regardless of what procedures they seem to ignore, you're guilty and that's that. Add that to the fact that there's no fucking accountability for lower court judges in this country, it's just easier to plea out even if you haven't done anything wrong because they make it expensive to fight.
Now, before I get into this let me say that the, "If you make serious judgments about other people based on their platform, you're an idiot," was using "you" in general and it wasn't meant to be personal. I screwed up in the way I phrased that and I apologize. The whole last paragraph was more of a general rant than anything else. That being said...
Oh sure, those things say a lot. For instance, if someone has a Harley, it says, "That guy has a Harley." If someone has a tattoo I know, "Woah, that person has a tattoo." If someone is dirty, it tells me, "This person is currently dirty." I don't know why one guy owns a Harley. Could be because he's a Hell's Angel or because he's having a mid-life crisis. If someone is dirty, it could be that they're a bum or that they simply have poor hygiene. Motivations are what make actions and circumstances have meaning. A person's choice in music tells me nothing unless I know whether they like it because it's "cool and popular" or because they love the beat or because the lyrics touch them. Jumping to conclusions about circumstances with no understanding of their foundation is " a big componenent of how we judge people." It doesn't make it a good thing.
So, when I know that someone uses Linux, I know one thing: They use Linux. I don't even know that they prefer it anymore than I known whether the average Windows user "prefers" Windows. Could simply be that they're honest and its all they could afford or that their job requires it. They could be a tinkering geek with no consideration for the ideals or a pragmatist who likes it better. They could be my mother, who ran a Linux box I set up for her for a couple years. So, using Linux doesn't even tell me that the person is computer savvy.
I'm not trying to sell you on a Mac or imply that it's better for you. I'm glad you like Linux. I was simply explaining why Macs currently fit the bill better for me. (And I'm sure that over time I'll switch again. I'm in no way loyal to any platform.)
Photoshop "works fine" under Wine is what I usually hear from people who pirate Photoshop when they're at a level that requires nothing more than The Gimp in the first place. When you have oodles of custom filters and do advanced printing, things get a lot stickier. This doesn't include InDesign or Illustrator either. Wine is an extremely cool program and I actually paid for a copy of CrossOver Office so my dad could continue to use MS Office while running Linux and so that I could test pages in IE 6 without dual booting or a second computer. (Although, Javascript didn't work for me but it was rarely a problem.)
The Finder is pretty weak as far as file managers go, but Linux is the OS that really taught me not to care. When I just wanna open up my Documents folder and browse for something, it's fine. I rather like column view. However, if I want to do complicated file management, I use the terminal just as I did and do in pretty much anything with Bash. I used to care about file managers, when before programs began becoming smarter about their own file associations. I used to open up my file manager to find my mp3s and make a playlist or drop videos into a media player or whatever. Most programs have libraries (media programs) or projects (text editors and IDEs) or simply have their own internal structure (mail apps).
Path Finder is an awesome file manager and I do love it. However, I've downloaded the trial twice and while you can customize nicely and it has some very cool features (the drop s