In other words, people who did something stupid to fuck up their Mac OS X box?
Nope. These are known issues that Apple keeps quiet about.
Software Update, AirPort, and graphics drivers have NEVER been that kind of problem for anyone I've ever even heard of except for you.
That's fine, if you haven't. But I have, and plenty of other people have too (Apple's support forums is full of it not surprisingly enough).
Which puts you firmly into the group of people who think like computers instead of thinking like a human being when you use a computer--people who are so completely unlike normal users in their usage patterns that a UI based around normal human beings is actually worse for them.
"You're doing something wrong.. You must be... THINKING LIKE A COMPUTOR!?!".. Haha, you made me spit my cola out.
But seriously -- you mean like, running the updater, then rebooting (when it asks) and finding hardware doesn't work on a fresh install (replicatable every-time)?
Yes -- I agree, that's very unhuman behavior.
Believe it or not, Apple is not perfect and when things go wrong, it isn't always the fault of the user.
You can't deny that ideological zealots make up a vast proportion of Linux users, though.
I can because I don't have any statistics that can be considered reasonable. So far most people I know who use Linux, use it because it's less hassle than other OSes, but that's just the people I tend to socialize a lot with. Actually. Thinking of it, I only know one guy who is a a ideological Linux zealot...
Let's take as a given that people who choose Linux over Mac OS X do so because of the differences between Linux and Mac OS X. What are those differences? Well, there's the kernel and filesystem, but people who choose an OS based on those things are usually either server admins (who won't run MP3 players on their servers anyway) or a vanishingly small proportion of the market. What's left?
People like me who don't like OS X because things like Samba are broken out of the box. Or perhaps people like me, who are sick of OS X's bad driver support. OS X update, internal wireless doesn't work anymore or the system starts kernel panicking due to a graphic driver update etc. The GUI on OS X additionally allows for little configuration abilities which hinders my productivity.
So it's pretty clear to see why Apple isn't interested in porting iTunes to Linux
Or it could be even a simpler reason. Linux is a niche market like OS X and not really worth investing money into supporting since it doesn't really give them anything like Windows does.
Nonetheless, people who refuse to use commercial software for ideological reasons aren't Apple's target market for obvious reasons--although you'll probably figure out how to run Linux on an iPhone just for the sport of it, so best of luck to you.
Hi there,
Just letting you know that I use Linux because I find it superior to OS X and Windows. I have no interest in using a OS just because it's opensource or not commercial, infact the OS being opensource isn't really something I care about at all.
I use Linux native commercial software under Linux -- StarOffice, unreal tournament, unreal tournament 2004, Crossover, VMware, some of Novell's corporate/enterprise software etc. as well as Windows commercial software that runs under Wine.
Please don't portray the entire group of Linux users as ideological zealots, thankyou.
However, there's something you should know about yourself: you are most likely atypical. Whether or not you are willing to buy a product has little to do with whether or not it will succeed.
I wasn't really arguing on the success of the phone -- I'm sure it will succeed, it's a brand name after all. What I do not believe is majority of those points that were risen would make it a 'seller'.
I do believe many of my points are relevant to other people too -- But I'm not going to go about claiming like other Slashdotters that the 'majority' think this way without some reasonable fact checking of my own.
The iPhone may take off, but it won't provide the competition that I would like to see in the market.
How many phones have you posted or replied about on slashdot?
Not many, usually there are posts saying what I've already wanted to say.
or How many phones have actually made the frontpage of Slashdot?
Let's see... There was that Linux phone by trolltech, blackberry, Chinese knock off of blackberry called redberry, Nokia engage and other Linux phones I cannot remember the name of (probably others too, but I don't remember).
The points nobody's mentioning here that will make the phone take off are
Okay...
Decent resolution camera for a a phone.
From what I've seen of mobiles.. I haven't seen really any modern ones that have low resolutions cameras...
Sexy touchscreen with multi-touch! This is new to any consumer device, not just phones.
Not interested in a interface that gets dirty easily (and unusable because of that) by design.
Visual voicemail. A first for any phone.
That really wouldn't be a deciding factor for buying a phone for me.. Mine has to be on 24/7.
Display changes orientation when you turn the device. Again: HAWT.
I feel inclined to say... "So what?"
The promise of web browsing in your hand that sctually renders real web pages correctly.
Nokia communicators have only been doing this since forever. I can't speak for other phones since I have little experience with others.
Built-in iPod functionality that syncs with iTunes, and lists of songs/movies you can "flip" through.
This would probably sell to iTunes+iPod fans, but not me.
It's not how much memory it has or how fast it communicates, it is the "unquantifiable" that sells things like phones.
For myself, it's how usable the phone is without annoyances. I'm pretty sure a touch-screen phone which will naturally get smudged easily will stop quite a few people just because of that.
From the points you've made, I haven't seen anything in particular that would make the iPhone take off anymore than any other phone.
Seriously, in this day and age of 30-inch displays, who maximizes anything anymore outside the rare instances where a "Full Screen" option would be better?
I know less than a hand full of people who own 30-inch displays...
One of the people I know who has one uses beryl to split the desktop so when they maximize a window it takes up half of the screen. As for my personal uses, being someone who does use OS X -- I still find I need maximize much more than zoom at the end of the day.
Additionally it bugs me that neither OS X nor Windows windowing environments neither let me just simply set "keep ontop" or "keep below" options on specific windows (especially annoying when one uses programs like the Gimp which really maximize screen efficiency).
who maximizes anything anymore outside the rare instances where a "Full Screen" option would be better?
Heh, I certainly do, even on widescreen laptops (and yes -- I have reasonable reasons why I do this with my applications).
naming everything related to your desktop with a K
Or naming everything beginning with i, or naming everything beginning with G, or naming everything beginning with Windows, or naming everything beginning with Microsoft
wondering why the grownups in the rest of the computing world don't take you seriously...
Can anyone explain how both KDE and Gnome have been working for years with the entire open source development world supporting them and they can't make anything even remotely close to the polish and UI level of this:
Eh? I've seen OS X themes on KDE before (replicating all the UI features of OS X). I still don't find the OS X way of doing things more efficient though (even under OS X -- where it's worse due to the lack of customization).
Shit brown desktop colours. Jarring font alignments, positioning, and rendering. Amateurish UI element spacing and layouts.
Brown? The only distribution that has brown out of the box I know of is Ubuntu (which comes with Gnome). I don't have issues with fonts under Linux. I do however under OS X.
I tend to work with very small font sizes, hence I prefer anti-aliasing turned off, why the hell can't I turn this off for the majority of fonts at a smaller size?
Even though there is a option to adjust the minimum size for anti-aliasing, most things simply do not obey it -- and it's not non-Apple applications only... The white menu bar is probably one of the best examples of things that utterly ignore it!
By the way, I do not find any of OS X's available themes usable for myself due to the very limited color selection.
I honestly don't think people on Slashdot are all that interested in it.
I can't speak for all, but I know I am -- just not for any business reasons, entertainment mostly.
Most people check out Second Life...find it fairly boring and poorly implemented and walk away.
Sources?
People are too busy playing World of Warcraft to care to post articles about WoW.
I guess you've never seen all those WoW news&community sites... I have seen quite a few...
In Second Life, there is real money involved so it makes sense that they try to sucker more people in to it.
Second life doesn't have to involve money... I certainly don't create all these dog-fighting aircraft for money, nor do I make money off it, nor do I have invest money into making them (and fighting with them later). I also do it because I find it fun.
It reeks of the real world.
I disagree, it reeks more of online hype on everything in the majority of places -- I don't hangout in those places.
I play games to escape the real world...not enter another one that is run off of greed.
Well, what you have described isn't what I experience on Second life:), but then again, I don't hang out where the majority are either.
Ok, Second Life may or may not be pretty cool, but why is there one Slashdot article about it every two or three days? World of Warcraft is at least ten times as popular but does not get anywhere near the same coverage as Second Life does. It smells fishy.
Warcraft is a MMORPG, Second life is a virtual world/reality. There is a real economy on Second life, real businesses like IBM, AMD etc. exist there and invest money into it. Politicians even go on it and run campaigns (I wonder if that really helps).
I imagine the fact there is some real world interest in Second life beyond playing a game being one of the main reasons why it keeps popping up on Slashdot.
For example, there was this article about a woman offering sex for 5000 World of Warcraft gold. It did not reach Slashdot.
Dear God, next we'll find out that people are offering sex on MUDs and MUCKs!
Microsoft really should have printed stickers that said "Aero Ready" instead of "Vista Ready", since any modern PC can run Vista in some form or another...
That's not the point, just because it can "run" doesn't mean the hardware is fully supported.
If the hardware for power-saving isn't supported properly (and acknowledged officially) in the first place, how is this relevant comparison?
We all know that some past hardware from older versions of Windows don't work on newer, so if it's got logo testing for Windows XP, it's not relevant either.
IE is hardened on server and it is certainly more secure.
...How do you stand the constant popup dialogs telling you that the site may not display properly and the majority of websites just simply not working?
Then you try to download another browser to get out of this insanity and you're constantly getting the bloody popup to add the site to a trusted list. Which doesn't work because each time you click the link you get another random mirror!
Yes, but with the PSP they're all built in, including WPA support. No extra hardware needed.
Did cost me less in whole than a PSP though and I get a reasonable assurance that the hardware won't fail too easily on me just from Nintendo's track record.
The PSP plays home console quality games, video, music, provides some internet access, makes a great photo viewer, and more.
I do this all on my Nintendo DS lite, I just bought a Slot-1 Supercard and I got everything -- I can dump my games to the device so I don't need to carry so many cartridges with me, I've got the entire BSG series on one of my micro SD cards (that go into the supercard), there is a picture viewer, it works, but I don't use it... Hell, I even got Linux running on thing.
I actually even found homebrew games I liked playing which surprised me. Additionally, I've taken a interest in developing homebrew applications on it, although I haven't got that far yet.
I don't really know what's great about the PSP, but so far you haven't really given me a good reason to look into it. I'm also somewhat against buying Sony hardware for the simple fact... I've never seen Sony game hardware last long.
My only gripe with the Nintendo DS is that it doesn't support WPA.
Slashdot Mirror
But seriously -- you mean like, running the updater, then rebooting (when it asks) and finding hardware doesn't work on a fresh install (replicatable every-time)?
Yes -- I agree, that's very unhuman behavior.
Believe it or not, Apple is not perfect and when things go wrong, it isn't always the fault of the user.
Reload keeps Apache running.
Just letting you know that I use Linux because I find it superior to OS X and Windows. I have no interest in using a OS just because it's opensource or not commercial, infact the OS being opensource isn't really something I care about at all.
I use Linux native commercial software under Linux -- StarOffice, unreal tournament, unreal tournament 2004, Crossover, VMware, some of Novell's corporate/enterprise software etc. as well as Windows commercial software that runs under Wine.
Please don't portray the entire group of Linux users as ideological zealots, thankyou.
I do believe many of my points are relevant to other people too -- But I'm not going to go about claiming like other Slashdotters that the 'majority' think this way without some reasonable fact checking of my own.Agreed.
I don't get it, what are you trying to say?
From the points you've made, I haven't seen anything in particular that would make the iPhone take off anymore than any other phone.
One of the people I know who has one uses beryl to split the desktop so when they maximize a window it takes up half of the screen. As for my personal uses, being someone who does use OS X -- I still find I need maximize much more than zoom at the end of the day.
Additionally it bugs me that neither OS X nor Windows windowing environments neither let me just simply set "keep ontop" or "keep below" options on specific windows (especially annoying when one uses programs like the Gimp which really maximize screen efficiency).Heh, I certainly do, even on widescreen laptops (and yes -- I have reasonable reasons why I do this with my applications).
or naming everything beginning with G,
or naming everything beginning with Windows,
or naming everything beginning with MicrosoftDoes not compute.
I tend to work with very small font sizes, hence I prefer anti-aliasing turned off, why the hell can't I turn this off for the majority of fonts at a smaller size?
Even though there is a option to adjust the minimum size for anti-aliasing, most things simply do not obey it -- and it's not non-Apple applications only... The white menu bar is probably one of the best examples of things that utterly ignore it!
By the way, I do not find any of OS X's available themes usable for myself due to the very limited color selection.
I thought the iPhone was a America-only product? Why would that be as high up as Leopard?
I don't like touchscreens, because you always end up with dirty screens really quickly.
I wonder how you would play FPSes with touchscreens...
I imagine the fact there is some real world interest in Second life beyond playing a game being one of the main reasons why it keeps popping up on Slashdot.Dear God, next we'll find out that people are offering sex on MUDs and MUCKs!
If the hardware for power-saving isn't supported properly (and acknowledged officially) in the first place, how is this relevant comparison?
We all know that some past hardware from older versions of Windows don't work on newer, so if it's got logo testing for Windows XP, it's not relevant either.
Then you try to download another browser to get out of this insanity and you're constantly getting the bloody popup to add the site to a trusted list. Which doesn't work because each time you click the link you get another random mirror!
Wait... Apple's hardware is Vista-ready?
Does it have any sort of Vista logo testing at all?
I actually even found homebrew games I liked playing which surprised me. Additionally, I've taken a interest in developing homebrew applications on it, although I haven't got that far yet.
I don't really know what's great about the PSP, but so far you haven't really given me a good reason to look into it. I'm also somewhat against buying Sony hardware for the simple fact... I've never seen Sony game hardware last long.
My only gripe with the Nintendo DS is that it doesn't support WPA.