However, Apple has pretty much always had a superior OS and hardware to the competition (i.e. Windows), yet that didn't bring them the gold mine and platform dominance that by many measures it should have. I think they've lost some of that old arrogance and are being more realistic. This is a good thing.
I believe the point of this post is that now you have that - OS X is a developer's (and other creative types') paradise. All those tools and documentation (and basic multimedia development) comes free in the box.
I also don't know about all of the technology making our lives better. However, I do believe two things are indisputable:
1) Medicine. Any time I feel bad about technology's effects, I look at things like infant mortality, rates of disease, average lifespan. It's incredible what we've done there to improve the human condition.
2) Communication. The sheer fact that we can communicate instantly, anywhere in the world, is amazing. This helps to expose us to so much more information and so many viewpoints. It allows cultures to connect in ways that were never before possible.
I was going to say transportation as well (goods, services, people), but with the rapid spread of disease and pandemics, I'm not quite as sure of that.
Well, I spent all weekend updating from a 2.4 kernel to 2.6.4 (added a second CPU, and couldn't get the damn 2.4 source to compile...). Let me tell you - it was *not* fun. Here's a great page with a lot of gotchas (I assume these are redhat specific):
http://thomer.com/linux/migrate-to-2.6.html
Update ModUtils and module-init-tools BEFORE building the 2.6 kernel - the ones in fedora/redhat don't work. See the link above. I also recommend installing the KDE-devel tools as then you can use the excellent "make xconfig" to configure your kernel. Lightyears ahead of the old Tcl-based one.
Here's the list of steps I put together as I was upgrading:
# Before any of this, become root su root
# Download and extract kernel source to/usr/src/linux-2.6.4
# Build the kernel cd/usr/src/linux-2.6.4/ make xconfig make clean make bzImage && make modules && make modules_install
# If you boot off of SCSI, you will probably need to create an init RAM disk mkinitrd/boot/initrd-2.6.4.img 2.6.4
# Update/boot/grub/grub.conf - I recommend basing your new kernel entry on the old one and changing version numbers as necessary
Now, even after I had built my kernel and updated I ran into a bunch of problems with USB, ethernet configs vanishing in kudzu, etc. Went to bed at 7am and still hadn't fixed *everything*. It all appears fine now, but it was a very long, hard road. I highly recommend that link above - it helped with a whole slew of post-installation problems.
I'd still consider it valid to say OS X is the *best* GUI right now. And the Mac OS has a long tradition of being the best of whatever is available at the time.
Obviously OS X as it stands today is not the end-all of UI design (and thank goodness). There are a lot of things to work out bugwise, some things that are clearly implemented poorly (the Finder's constant use of metal windows messing up spatiality is one), and a lot of tweaks to be sure.
The most important piece is the stuff we haven't imagined yet. Look at Expose - it made people smack their heads and say "Wow! That's great! Why didn't we do that before?". There's a heck of a lot more of that coming, we just have to find it.
Does anyone else find it strange that in America, games are for adults and animation is for kids, while in Japan (with Nintendo, at least) the games are for kids and the animation for adults?
If you want, all of your passwords (web sites, iDisk, e-mail, etc) are all stored in your encrypted keychain on your computer. When you login and authenticate your primary keychain is unlocked, allowing programs that stored passwords to access them. Programs cannot access others' passwords without your consent (in the form of "The application blah wants to access your keychain. Do you want to allow this?"). As would be expected, the whole shebang is encrypted on disk, I believe with AES. Finally, if you don't want all of your passwords in one spot, you can create multiple keychains (e-mail accounts, financial sites, other web sites) and unlock them only as needed.
It's all local, all secure, very flexible, and by default so easy it's completely transparent.
Count me in as surprised at how poorly Apple's MPEG-4 implementation did. However, as a very new codec I expect it will improve in time. Or Apple will simply license someone else's codec.
Regardless, Apple has been one of the biggest supporters of MPEG-4, and I thank them for that.
Simple:
1) The Macs can both rendering and their day-to-day stuff on one box. As others have said, having a single box that is UNIX, runs Maya, Photoshop, and everything else kicks ass.
2) A place like Pixar will *always* need the latest and greatest hardware/software, so I would assume they have a very short hardware refresh cycle. They probably made the switch as partg of a standard refresh.
What's more likely is that Steve made a few suggestions here and there at Apple (where he is very hands on) and made Macs suitable for Pixar's use. In the meantime, Mac users get to reap the benefits.:)
Re:Software? no - humans, yes.
on
Can Software Kill?
·
· Score: 0, Redundant
Damn, then what was that whole Terminator thingy about?
...nothing beats an encyclopaedia. With an encyclopaedia, you have in-depth, well-written information on just about *every* topic of human knowledge, up to date of publication. No, you don't want to read up on open source in it (yet), but if you're interested in just about anything historical, scientific, or cultural, you'll find no better general resource than an encyclopaedia. And while the cross-referencing is not nearly as convenient as a hyperlink, it's a lot more consistent and well done.
Grab a Britainica some time - I have a set from 1987 and it's still an outstanding reference.
True, but if you've ever looked at what the original Mac OS API's looked like (lots of pointer and memory mangling, no protection of data, etc), you'll soon see why it was so difficult to shoehorn it into a "modern" OS. Quite frankly, I'm amazed every day using OS X that they managed it as well as they did.
The desktop file only stored very minor information (file comments, file-icon associations, etc). When it became corrupted, the general symptom was an icon or two didn't show up correctly. Rebuilding this file took about a minute, and was completely non-destructive.
Back on Classic Mac OS I would generally do a clean build with each major system release, more to clean out old extensions, preferences, and other crud than deal with system stability issues. On the whole, Classic Mac OS might have crashed on occasion, but in didn't catastrophically fail and require a complete rebuild the way Windows tends to.
Re:Many offer better price/performance than Dell
on
iPod Mini Sells Out
·
· Score: 1
Probably because we don't have much against people who run Linux on AMD's. No Microsoft, no Intel, no Dell - what's the point? Anyway, you have to be somewhat informed just to be running an AMD - the same cannot be said for most of the Windows masses.
Three things about the mini...
on
iPod Mini Sells Out
·
· Score: 5, Informative
1) I was firmly in the "it costs too much for too little" (no pun intended) crowd. Then I saw one in person, and held it in my hand. The thing is light as a feather, and still feels more "solid", largely thanks to the all aluminum body. I have a 20GB 2nd-gen iPod, but as soon as the iPod mini has at least 12GB of capacity (size of my current music collection), I'm buying one. It's just incredible.
2) Don't forget that even though the iPod is only $50 more, this sets the entry level iPod price even lower. Before to get any iPod you had to spend $300. Now it's $250, and will probably get lower with future generations of the mini line.
3) Just to clarify, the iPod mini also uses a Compact Flash compatible drive - the Hitachi 4GB Microdrive. I'd bet all you have to do is format it as FAT32 and then stick it in your camera.
Ah, but now all of those commands you memorized in WordPerfect (no matter how simple at the time) are useless. However, had you used the Mac, the basic GUI concepts would have been usable to this day as the GUI is pretty much the same. Similar menu structure, windowing, etc. A lot prettier, but the usability is the same.
*That* is the genius of the Mac - its very use encourages experimentation and understanding the concepts of the interface, because they do show up consistently everywhere. You learn one program, you (to a certain extent) learn them all.
And what exactly about that is ahead of Mac OS X, as it stands now? I certainly know that 1 and 2 have been there since 10.0, and 3 was added in 10.2. Number 4, I'm not sure what you mean? You could certainly say that OpenGL in Mac OS X is independent of X, since X is an optional install.
So, in a nutshell you're saying that X-Windows might at some point enjoy the features Mac OS X had in last year's Jaguar release. And that's hoping all of the higher layers cooperate smoothly and things like anti-aliasing are completely sorted out, once and for all.
I'll look forward to that being done. Then maybe we can examine what's needed for copy and paste to work,,,
I'm getting tired of these "only recent stuff runs OS X" posts. 10.0, 10.1, and 10.2 run on anything with a G3 built-in, which means 1997 onward. 10.3 runs on anything with built-in USB, which means the iMac in 1998, and the Blue and White from 1999 onward. That's over 5 years to run the most recent version of OS X. "anything in the last 2 years" indeed.
Do remember that you're talking about a computer introduced in 1996. I wouldn't expect it to run OS X, and since you don't want to run Classic Mac OS (can't blame you much there), yeah, YDL is a fine choice.
The Beige G3 came out in 1997 (7 years ago) and runs Jaguar just fine. The Blue and White G3 came out in January, 1999 and runs Panther just fine. Find me a Windows box from 5-7 years ago that can run XP.
For that matter, load up a current Linux distro and KDE3 or Gnome 2.x and see how it runs on such old hardware. People love to extol how Linux will run on really old stuff, but not generally with all of the bells and whistles of today's distros. By the same token, those old boxen scream if you use the software of their generation on them.
Trying to wedge Mac OS X on them (when it never supported them in the first place) is just asking for trouble.
However, the fact that most Linux users insist on software being free (as in beer) is a major deterrent. Why would Adobe port Photoshop to people who actually believe Gimp is as good, but free?
Slashdot Mirror
However, Apple has pretty much always had a superior OS and hardware to the competition (i.e. Windows), yet that didn't bring them the gold mine and platform dominance that by many measures it should have. I think they've lost some of that old arrogance and are being more realistic. This is a good thing.
I believe the point of this post is that now you have that - OS X is a developer's (and other creative types') paradise. All those tools and documentation (and basic multimedia development) comes free in the box.
I also don't know about all of the technology making our lives better. However, I do believe two things are indisputable:
1) Medicine. Any time I feel bad about technology's effects, I look at things like infant mortality, rates of disease, average lifespan. It's incredible what we've done there to improve the human condition.
2) Communication. The sheer fact that we can communicate instantly, anywhere in the world, is amazing. This helps to expose us to so much more information and so many viewpoints. It allows cultures to connect in ways that were never before possible.
I was going to say transportation as well (goods, services, people), but with the rapid spread of disease and pandemics, I'm not quite as sure of that.
I have actually looked at all of those. And no, it is not.
(I'm going to get called a troll, aren't I?)
Well, I spent all weekend updating from a 2.4 kernel to 2.6.4 (added a second CPU, and couldn't get the damn 2.4 source to compile...). Let me tell you - it was *not* fun. Here's a great page with a lot of gotchas (I assume these are redhat specific):
/usr/src/linux-2.6.4
/usr/src/linux-2.6.4/
/usr/src/linux-2.6.4/) .config /boot/config-2.6.4 /boot/vmlinux-2.6.4 /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.4 /boot/System.map-2.6.4 /boot
/boot/initrd-2.6.4.img 2.6.4
/boot/grub/grub.conf - I recommend basing your new kernel entry on the old one and changing version numbers as necessary
http://thomer.com/linux/migrate-to-2.6.html
Update ModUtils and module-init-tools BEFORE building the 2.6 kernel - the ones in fedora/redhat don't work. See the link above. I also recommend installing the KDE-devel tools as then you can use the excellent "make xconfig" to configure your kernel. Lightyears ahead of the old Tcl-based one.
Here's the list of steps I put together as I was upgrading:
# Before any of this, become root
su root
# Download and extract kernel source to
# Build the kernel
cd
make xconfig
make clean
make bzImage && make modules && make modules_install
# Install the kernel (still in
cp
mv vmlinux
mv arch/i386/boot/bzImage
mv System.map
cd
rm -f System.map
ln -s System.map-2.6.4 System.map
# If you boot off of SCSI, you will probably need to create an init RAM disk
mkinitrd
# Update
Now, even after I had built my kernel and updated I ran into a bunch of problems with USB, ethernet configs vanishing in kudzu, etc. Went to bed at 7am and still hadn't fixed *everything*. It all appears fine now, but it was a very long, hard road. I highly recommend that link above - it helped with a whole slew of post-installation problems.
I'd still consider it valid to say OS X is the *best* GUI right now. And the Mac OS has a long tradition of being the best of whatever is available at the time.
Obviously OS X as it stands today is not the end-all of UI design (and thank goodness). There are a lot of things to work out bugwise, some things that are clearly implemented poorly (the Finder's constant use of metal windows messing up spatiality is one), and a lot of tweaks to be sure.
The most important piece is the stuff we haven't imagined yet. Look at Expose - it made people smack their heads and say "Wow! That's great! Why didn't we do that before?". There's a heck of a lot more of that coming, we just have to find it.
Does anyone else find it strange that in America, games are for adults and animation is for kids, while in Japan (with Nintendo, at least) the games are for kids and the animation for adults?
What works well is Apple's Keychain idea.
If you want, all of your passwords (web sites, iDisk, e-mail, etc) are all stored in your encrypted keychain on your computer. When you login and authenticate your primary keychain is unlocked, allowing programs that stored passwords to access them. Programs cannot access others' passwords without your consent (in the form of "The application blah wants to access your keychain. Do you want to allow this?"). As would be expected, the whole shebang is encrypted on disk, I believe with AES. Finally, if you don't want all of your passwords in one spot, you can create multiple keychains (e-mail accounts, financial sites, other web sites) and unlock them only as needed.
It's all local, all secure, very flexible, and by default so easy it's completely transparent.
Count me in as surprised at how poorly Apple's MPEG-4 implementation did. However, as a very new codec I expect it will improve in time. Or Apple will simply license someone else's codec.
Regardless, Apple has been one of the biggest supporters of MPEG-4, and I thank them for that.
Only three?
Simple: 1) The Macs can both rendering and their day-to-day stuff on one box. As others have said, having a single box that is UNIX, runs Maya, Photoshop, and everything else kicks ass. 2) A place like Pixar will *always* need the latest and greatest hardware/software, so I would assume they have a very short hardware refresh cycle. They probably made the switch as partg of a standard refresh.
What's more likely is that Steve made a few suggestions here and there at Apple (where he is very hands on) and made Macs suitable for Pixar's use. In the meantime, Mac users get to reap the benefits. :)
Damn, then what was that whole Terminator thingy about?
...nothing beats an encyclopaedia. With an encyclopaedia, you have in-depth, well-written information on just about *every* topic of human knowledge, up to date of publication. No, you don't want to read up on open source in it (yet), but if you're interested in just about anything historical, scientific, or cultural, you'll find no better general resource than an encyclopaedia. And while the cross-referencing is not nearly as convenient as a hyperlink, it's a lot more consistent and well done.
Grab a Britainica some time - I have a set from 1987 and it's still an outstanding reference.
Write OS that is decent for the era (1984).
Add hierarchical file system (1986).
.
. (RTFA)
.
Buy NeXT (12/96).
Massage it into something Mom can use (2001).
Profit!
True, but if you've ever looked at what the original Mac OS API's looked like (lots of pointer and memory mangling, no protection of data, etc), you'll soon see why it was so difficult to shoehorn it into a "modern" OS. Quite frankly, I'm amazed every day using OS X that they managed it as well as they did.
Rebuilding the desktop != Rebuilding an OS.
The desktop file only stored very minor information (file comments, file-icon associations, etc). When it became corrupted, the general symptom was an icon or two didn't show up correctly. Rebuilding this file took about a minute, and was completely non-destructive.
Back on Classic Mac OS I would generally do a clean build with each major system release, more to clean out old extensions, preferences, and other crud than deal with system stability issues. On the whole, Classic Mac OS might have crashed on occasion, but in didn't catastrophically fail and require a complete rebuild the way Windows tends to.
Probably because we don't have much against people who run Linux on AMD's. No Microsoft, no Intel, no Dell - what's the point? Anyway, you have to be somewhat informed just to be running an AMD - the same cannot be said for most of the Windows masses.
1) I was firmly in the "it costs too much for too little" (no pun intended) crowd. Then I saw one in person, and held it in my hand. The thing is light as a feather, and still feels more "solid", largely thanks to the all aluminum body. I have a 20GB 2nd-gen iPod, but as soon as the iPod mini has at least 12GB of capacity (size of my current music collection), I'm buying one. It's just incredible.
2) Don't forget that even though the iPod is only $50 more, this sets the entry level iPod price even lower. Before to get any iPod you had to spend $300. Now it's $250, and will probably get lower with future generations of the mini line.
3) Just to clarify, the iPod mini also uses a Compact Flash compatible drive - the Hitachi 4GB Microdrive. I'd bet all you have to do is format it as FAT32 and then stick it in your camera.
Ah, but now all of those commands you memorized in WordPerfect (no matter how simple at the time) are useless. However, had you used the Mac, the basic GUI concepts would have been usable to this day as the GUI is pretty much the same. Similar menu structure, windowing, etc. A lot prettier, but the usability is the same.
*That* is the genius of the Mac - its very use encourages experimentation and understanding the concepts of the interface, because they do show up consistently everywhere. You learn one program, you (to a certain extent) learn them all.
Get a Mac. It really, honestly, truly does just work. And you get UNIX along for the ride.
:)
Someone had to say it.
And what exactly about that is ahead of Mac OS X, as it stands now? I certainly know that 1 and 2 have been there since 10.0, and 3 was added in 10.2. Number 4, I'm not sure what you mean? You could certainly say that OpenGL in Mac OS X is independent of X, since X is an optional install.
/.)
So, in a nutshell you're saying that X-Windows might at some point enjoy the features Mac OS X had in last year's Jaguar release. And that's hoping all of the higher layers cooperate smoothly and things like anti-aliasing are completely sorted out, once and for all.
I'll look forward to that being done. Then maybe we can examine what's needed for copy and paste to work,,,
(Yeah, this is trolling. So is most of
I'm getting tired of these "only recent stuff runs OS X" posts. 10.0, 10.1, and 10.2 run on anything with a G3 built-in, which means 1997 onward. 10.3 runs on anything with built-in USB, which means the iMac in 1998, and the Blue and White from 1999 onward. That's over 5 years to run the most recent version of OS X. "anything in the last 2 years" indeed. Do remember that you're talking about a computer introduced in 1996. I wouldn't expect it to run OS X, and since you don't want to run Classic Mac OS (can't blame you much there), yeah, YDL is a fine choice.
I call bullshit.
The Beige G3 came out in 1997 (7 years ago) and runs Jaguar just fine. The Blue and White G3 came out in January, 1999 and runs Panther just fine. Find me a Windows box from 5-7 years ago that can run XP.
For that matter, load up a current Linux distro and KDE3 or Gnome 2.x and see how it runs on such old hardware. People love to extol how Linux will run on really old stuff, but not generally with all of the bells and whistles of today's distros. By the same token, those old boxen scream if you use the software of their generation on them.
Trying to wedge Mac OS X on them (when it never supported them in the first place) is just asking for trouble.
However, the fact that most Linux users insist on software being free (as in beer) is a major deterrent. Why would Adobe port Photoshop to people who actually believe Gimp is as good, but free?