The reason OSX works so well is because it does fifty backflips to almost completely hide the underlying Unix layer
There is a nice way of rebutting this remark, and a not-so-nice way. I'll try to be nice, and begin by saying it's a tempting view, but ultimately plain wrong.
One can be seduced into thinking along those lines - that OS X succeeds despite its UNIX innards - but it's symptomatic of a faulty view perhaps conditioned by your antagonism to Linux. First, OS X is not Linux. Second, yes, Apple took the route you wisely (with hindsight) counsel, of abandoning X11. And after doing that, they were left with an elegant GUI-less system (Darwin) to build upon. And they did: by designing a new "legacy-free" windowing system. The result is as far as possible from the "layered cruft" that you imply must be lurking somewhere in OS X!
But enough facts. There's a more subtle problem with your remark, and that is you're missing the point that a UNIX system does not really present any user interface except those which are specifically part of its role. To users, it's completely transparent. (I admit this is a little tricky to grasp at first, but the idea falls naturally from the original conception of UNIX - or any operating system - as a mediator between user and machine, but as transparent as possible; a.k.a. the computing utility, but these days most commonly describing a one-user box.)
If its role is windowing, then you get windows. If its role is shell server, then you get shell (pick one). If its role is a file or database server, that is what you get. Therefore, there is no inherent awkwardness in its interface, and no need to "hide" anything, since it's already hidden. The ideal operating system is already invisible. What is really happening is that the computing resource is being exposed to the user.
Let me give the example of a UNIX web server: To users of the web server, exactly the right interface is presented, neither too much nor too little. (The other requirement is availability, and UNIX delivers that, of course.) Do you see?
You're probably confusing "access" to the computer with "administering" the computer. System administration is one area to which Apple has (necessarily) given considerable thought and design. Most OS X administrators would not need to use the command line; but power users can get considerable extra leverage from it, should they need it.
Then you are left with the ability for ordinary users to be able to complete their tasks on the machine. By definition that is nothing to do with any operating system. That's the role of application software, and its shortcomings don't belong here. Suffice to say, Apple has always famously delivered a great user experience in applications, as well; not just its own, but (like the competition) Apple invests a great deal in educating developers and producing supportive development environments and resources.
To sum up: If you can find the "50 backflips" or the SuperCruftCurtain that "hides" UNIX so that OS X users can get by without enduring its "PMS", please let us know where it is. I do agree that Linux could do with some of the same polish that OS X has enjoyed, but in the meantime, let's not get confused about what UNIX is and does.
Perhaps the UNIX philosophy is too simple and Zen-like to be approached without suspicion by those abused and conditioned by years of Microcrud.
Erm, anyone who thinks XP is a copy of Aqua ought to spend more time with both... There are almost no similarities, and XP loses every joust, so if "copying Aqua" was the objective, it's an utter failure. As with Linux, the strongest point in Windows' favour is: "It runs more games!"
Using XP and OS X side by side simply confirms moment by moment that XP is at least a generation behind (which isn't surprising, since most of the unsolved issues with Windows were solved elsewhere more than 20-30 years ago).
Agreed. And what's so hard about a svnadmin verify as a cron job? If the code is valuable, keep a daily rolling backup; svn's ability to hot-dump make it very simple. That's what I do. Disk is impossibly cheap today...
The citation is a red herring. It doesn't matter what format your repository is in, whether you have software issues or not (I haven't seen bdb corrupt anything yet), sooner or later the disk will die. I hope, after going back to CVS, that guy finally realised it is wise to keep backups.
Money quote, as pertaining to VSS:
"Visual SourceSafe? It would be safer to print out all your code,
run it through a shredder, and set it on fire."
-Fitz
It should be emphasised that Quartz Extreme (GPU acceleration of the user interface) has been around since 10.2 (July, 2002).
"Virtualisation of graphics card memory" has been a feature of MacOS since the late 1980s, when Apple released its 2D graphics accelerator and added O/S support for using GPU RAM.
Likewise, they were first with desktop 3D acceleration (with device independent APIs) in the early 90s... etc, etc.
The install *really* doesn't like it if you don't enter in valid.Mac details (you gotta play!)
I don't think that's the case. The three or four installs I've done/seen had no trouble with skipping.mac. (I've never had a.mac account and I'm running 10.4 just fine.)
The only way to answer your question, is you should spend some time evaluating OS X. If the applications you need daily simply aren't available for it, then that's a dealbreaker.
Just about all diehard Windows users I've shown OS X & Mac to are completely won over by it in a matter of minutes or hours. The user experience is rewarding, productive and... fun! After seeing Tiger's "RSS Visualiser" screensaver - one of the most trivial features - one guy here decided on the spot to sell all his PCs.
For a software developer, OS X is particularly compelling.
I agree that "notorious speed" is a needless exaggeration, but it's also pretty silly to say:
Gentoo is a really nice distro if you have the system for it
I've done Gentoo installs on various machines from 3.2GHz P4, 500MHz AMD K6-2, down to 400MHz P3 laptop. Just in the last couple of days I've done a 2GHz Celeron and a 1.3GHz Celeron M laptop. These systems have various amounts of RAM but I can tell you unequivocally that a 256M machine will have no trouble whatsoever building Gentoo. I generally start with Stage 3.
emerge gnome xorg-x11does take overnight (about 178 sub-packages: but note how simple the emerge invocation is?), but it's really no inconvenience to let it run and be ready to use it the next morning. You pretty much only build a Gentoo Linux system once anyway.
I never understood why people didn't just plan their day better. But maybe that's because I'm a programmer and I'm not scared of running compilers.
I don't see any sign that Jobs is an attention seeker. Compare it to the thousands of worthless talentless overinflated egos in any field who clamour and jostle for the tiniest scraps of attention.
Jobs is, on the other hand, a quiet overachiever. Abrasive, perhaps, but abrasive+effective is much better than abrasive+useless (the far more common formulation). If he has a large ego - good on him! He's earned one.
I just unpacked a new Dell laptop, and was instantly reminded of Jobs' genius; the entire user experience with a brand new Dell+Windows is just mediocre and depressing, unlike the experience Jobs has created for even the lowliest Apple products.
How many decades does he have to sprint ahead of the rest of the industry before people give him any deserved credit? Let's see... Lisa... NeXT... OS X... iMac... G3... G4... G5... Xserve... Xserve RAID... all firsts; all market leaders. And that's only a tiny fraction of what he's achieved.
I would disclaim all the above as mere hagiography except that anyone can look around and confirm the success of his vision.
Ten Speed Press has published a book called, "How Wal*Mart is Destroying the World". Ten Speed press has published other books such as "Better than Chocolate: 50 Proven Ways to Feel Happier". Guess what--- Wal*Mart happens to sell that book.
Now, if you could tell me W-M has both books on their shelves, I'd be impressed.
Even the Most Evil Corporation on the Planet (TM) hasn't stooped down to Apple's level.
reprimanded if they spend too much time going to the bathroom or chatting to a coworker
Um, this happens to millions of people every day around the world already. And don't even think about trying to organise a union; you're likely to end up with a bullet in your head. Buy Nike (or thousands of other brands) and you're buying slave labour... but it's OK; they're not Americans.
But I like the ones on our side better. Maybe because they're looking after the public good rather than their own pockets. Besides, we have the better technology.
I think "Tridge" is being scapegoated because Larry McVoy is Linus' buddy, so he doesn't want to lay the blame on him.
Larry's now a zero-contributor, and at best was always a grudging and self-interested dyspeptic schmuck; Tridgell is a prodigious, selfless, and brilliant Open Source mainstay. Andrew: Samba rocks, and you rock. I want you and RMS on my team, forever.
I am sad to have to inform you that Australia recently signed a new so-called "Free" Trade Agreement (a.k.a. legalised rape'n'pillage) that brings U.S.-style patents, reverse engineering restrictions, etc.
It's amazing that anyone still believes there is anywhere 'safe' from the Imperial doctrine of we'll-write-your-laws-or-bomb-the-crap-out-of-you.
Slashdot Mirror
The answer is obviously: Depends how many of those damn bounties you intend to earn!
Seriously, don't let us talk you out of it. If you can pay your mortgage with bug/feature bounties, then millions of people will surely thank you.
Dave, put on your spacesuit and go fix it, will you?
a non-Microsoft guy working at Microsoft
One can be seduced into thinking along those lines - that OS X succeeds despite its UNIX innards - but it's symptomatic of a faulty view perhaps conditioned by your antagonism to Linux. First, OS X is not Linux. Second, yes, Apple took the route you wisely (with hindsight) counsel, of abandoning X11. And after doing that, they were left with an elegant GUI-less system (Darwin) to build upon. And they did: by designing a new "legacy-free" windowing system. The result is as far as possible from the "layered cruft" that you imply must be lurking somewhere in OS X!
But enough facts. There's a more subtle problem with your remark, and that is you're missing the point that a UNIX system does not really present any user interface except those which are specifically part of its role. To users, it's completely transparent. (I admit this is a little tricky to grasp at first, but the idea falls naturally from the original conception of UNIX - or any operating system - as a mediator between user and machine, but as transparent as possible; a.k.a. the computing utility, but these days most commonly describing a one-user box.)
If its role is windowing, then you get windows. If its role is shell server, then you get shell (pick one). If its role is a file or database server, that is what you get. Therefore, there is no inherent awkwardness in its interface, and no need to "hide" anything, since it's already hidden. The ideal operating system is already invisible. What is really happening is that the computing resource is being exposed to the user.
Let me give the example of a UNIX web server: To users of the web server, exactly the right interface is presented, neither too much nor too little. (The other requirement is availability, and UNIX delivers that, of course.) Do you see?
You're probably confusing "access" to the computer with "administering" the computer. System administration is one area to which Apple has (necessarily) given considerable thought and design. Most OS X administrators would not need to use the command line; but power users can get considerable extra leverage from it, should they need it.
Then you are left with the ability for ordinary users to be able to complete their tasks on the machine. By definition that is nothing to do with any operating system. That's the role of application software, and its shortcomings don't belong here. Suffice to say, Apple has always famously delivered a great user experience in applications, as well; not just its own, but (like the competition) Apple invests a great deal in educating developers and producing supportive development environments and resources.
To sum up: If you can find the "50 backflips" or the SuperCruftCurtain that "hides" UNIX so that OS X users can get by without enduring its "PMS", please let us know where it is. I do agree that Linux could do with some of the same polish that OS X has enjoyed, but in the meantime, let's not get confused about what UNIX is and does.
Perhaps the UNIX philosophy is too simple and Zen-like to be approached without suspicion by those abused and conditioned by years of Microcrud.
Using XP and OS X side by side simply confirms moment by moment that XP is at least a generation behind (which isn't surprising, since most of the unsolved issues with Windows were solved elsewhere more than 20-30 years ago).
Agreed. And what's so hard about a svnadmin verify as a cron job? If the code is valuable, keep a daily rolling backup; svn's ability to hot-dump make it very simple. That's what I do. Disk is impossibly cheap today...
Money quote, as pertaining to VSS:
"Virtualisation of graphics card memory" has been a feature of MacOS since the late 1980s, when Apple released its 2D graphics accelerator and added O/S support for using GPU RAM.
Likewise, they were first with desktop 3D acceleration (with device independent APIs) in the early 90s... etc, etc.
Good luck with that.
see AST's home page
n/t
I don't think that's the case. The three or four installs I've done/seen had no trouble with skipping .mac. (I've never had a .mac account and I'm running 10.4 just fine.)
Let's hope this nonsense gets thrown out of court. Idiots.
Just about all diehard Windows users I've shown OS X & Mac to are completely won over by it in a matter of minutes or hours. The user experience is rewarding, productive and ... fun! After seeing Tiger's "RSS Visualiser" screensaver - one of the most trivial features - one guy here decided on the spot to sell all his PCs.
For a software developer, OS X is particularly compelling.
I've done Gentoo installs on various machines from 3.2GHz P4, 500MHz AMD K6-2, down to 400MHz P3 laptop. Just in the last couple of days I've done a 2GHz Celeron and a 1.3GHz Celeron M laptop. These systems have various amounts of RAM but I can tell you unequivocally that a 256M machine will have no trouble whatsoever building Gentoo. I generally start with Stage 3.
emerge gnome xorg-x11 does take overnight (about 178 sub-packages: but note how simple the emerge invocation is?), but it's really no inconvenience to let it run and be ready to use it the next morning. You pretty much only build a Gentoo Linux system once anyway.
I never understood why people didn't just plan their day better. But maybe that's because I'm a programmer and I'm not scared of running compilers.
Jobs is, on the other hand, a quiet overachiever. Abrasive, perhaps, but abrasive+effective is much better than abrasive+useless (the far more common formulation). If he has a large ego - good on him! He's earned one.
I just unpacked a new Dell laptop, and was instantly reminded of Jobs' genius; the entire user experience with a brand new Dell+Windows is just mediocre and depressing, unlike the experience Jobs has created for even the lowliest Apple products.
How many decades does he have to sprint ahead of the rest of the industry before people give him any deserved credit? Let's see... Lisa... NeXT... OS X... iMac... G3... G4... G5... Xserve... Xserve RAID... all firsts; all market leaders. And that's only a tiny fraction of what he's achieved.
I would disclaim all the above as mere hagiography except that anyone can look around and confirm the success of his vision.
Is it so hard to accept Jobs' position at face value - that he wants less publicity for the private parts of his life?
Um, this happens to millions of people every day around the world already. And don't even think about trying to organise a union; you're likely to end up with a bullet in your head. Buy Nike (or thousands of other brands) and you're buying slave labour... but it's OK; they're not Americans.
One stealth killer app: the RSS Visualiser screen saver.
When one dude at this all-M$ office saw it, he gasped and said, "I'm going to sell ALL my PCs!"
Point taken :-))
But I like the ones on our side better. Maybe because they're looking after the public good rather than their own pockets. Besides, we have the better technology.
It's spelled "hypocrite", by the way.
It's amazing that anyone still believes there is anywhere 'safe' from the Imperial doctrine of we'll-write-your-laws-or-bomb-the-crap-out-of-you.