Agreed. But there are people who say Mac OS X is 'based on FreeBSD' who spread a belief among a lot of people that it's 'Based on FreeBSD' in the same way that a number of Linux distros are 'based on Debian.' Which is just plain false.
That's just as ridiculous an assertion. It's ridiculous to assert that NuBus was 'major' if you're not going to admit in VME and the numerous other Busses that were as good, or better, and as common, if not more common. Who ever heard of NuBus before Apple adopted it? Not too many.
You can go into any sports shop that sells hunting gear and get a small vial of pungent male deer urine to put in your luggage. It's a far less serious crime than C4.
Those are all fine journals and excellent resources from the programming culture. However, most bosses don't view programming as an artisan's craft.
Using all the fancy trendy methodologies of the day is dangerous in day to day business, because it adds a tremendous amount of complexity to what needs to be straight-forward code. Businesses are NOT enthusiastic about hiring a priesthood of artisans to run their backoffice.
I think maybe what his boss was hinting around at, and you're maybe gently doing it as well, is that anybody still programming after ten years is probably dead wood that should be culled.
Umm, OpenOffice/StarOffice has been ported to Solaris. In fact, it's a product of the same company that produces Solaris, Sun Microsystems.
Hence a Solaris machine interoperates pretty well with Windows.
Since these machines are destined for decentralized offices, remote adminstration (i.e. a real full-blooded UNIX like Solaris) would be a big plus.
But I know that Solaris probably wasn't even considered. I was just throwing it up there as being as good a choice as MacOS X for the reasons being given in the great-grandparent post.
NextStep, OpenStep. Whatever you want to call it, from whatever era of NeXT's history. I wasn't accurate. I admit it.
I'm still looking for a copy of OpenStep. I won't pay the obscene eBay prices for it, however. But I'd like to run it, preferably one of the releases from the middle years when it ran on so many different platforms. Didn't it run on Sparc, Intel, and PA-RISC in certain releases?
It sounds like these machines are going to be used as dedicated 'stations' in sort of a terminal setting. Which means they'll likely never have Mac Office, or any office software, for that point, installed on them.
Five years from now what it means is the geeks in Australia will get great deals on this hardware at the surplus good auctions. Which is always a good thing.
They'll be able to run whatever freenix runs well on a G4 box. It'll probably be pretty nice.
Mac OSX is based on a Mach kernel, and built on NextStep, a closed-source OS from a company that Apple purchased. It includes a ported in 'Userland' from FreeBSD.
Apple decided to move on a 'BSD Marketing Bullet Point', not a 'BSD platform.'
That day won't ever come. The wintrolls on C.O.L.A. will shout at the linuxtrolls on C.O.L.A. back and forth about problems with Red Hat 5.1 and Windows 98 for an eternity.
It keeps them busy and out of trouble. So who's to complain?
They ported in a FreeBSD userland to provide the core userland. They planted it on top of a Mach kernel based on NextOS, a proprietary closed-source OS. They piled on top a GUI layer that is closed source.
Saying MacOS is 'based on FreeBSD' is like claiming a Windows 2000 machine is 'based on GTK' because you installed the Win32 port of the gimp on it.
That's all old Apple stuff. The new Macs use standard memory, IDE drives, USB keyboards and mice. They've bellied up to the Wintel hardware base, just like Sun has.
You're right about most of your other points, but don't hold the ancient history of deliberately closed hardware at Apple against them in this day and age.
Desktop Solaris provides a Unix based OS and supports the majority of Open Source software. And Sparc desktops aren't really any more expensive than G4 desktops.
They're 64 bit, though. And just as proprietary and single-company-sourced.
Both are the wrong choice if you want the most vendor options.
However, given the fact that you paid at least 1000 times more for your machine (I am typing this on a Pentium III 500 machine that I got in a skid lot with 70 other machines for $40) than I did for this machine that I run Slackware on, one has to ponder if you have made the wisest choice you could have...
I mean, I could feel 'safer' by spending a few hundred bucks a night to have security guards roaming around my house after dark....
Why not just go to Digi-Key and buy the PIC controller itself for a few bucks. Download one of the free PIC assemblers, and build a programmer that plugs into your parallel port. Total expense- about fifteen bucks. Amount learned- much more than buying something fancy.
You're right, cost seems to be the problem with these things.
It seems a lot like the Basic Stamp products. Easy to program because it's got a BASIC interpreter built into each module. But then you have to spend the $30-50 for each module. When the actual bare PIC controller involved is a $3-8 part.
If I got a snippy response like that, I'd have a lot of fun with the fax number. It's pretty easy, with a fax modem, to fax someone a 35 page document composed of all black pages.
Uses up a lot of ink/toner and has been known to burn out the stylus on thermal fax printers.
The NeXT platform was a precursor of what Linux has been for the last decade. Filled with highly technical people who do a lot of rolling their own code. There was never a solid customer base for commercial apps for NeXT, hence there was never any kind of market that Microsoft would want to tap.
When the NeXT cube came out, the crowd I was hanging with didn't take it seriously. Even when the 'fire sale' occured and they got really cheap, everybody scoffed at it. I wouldn't mind having one now, but as a historical curiosity for my collection, and not much else.
What about the news? Does it cease to happen if we don't watch it point-by-point as it happens? Henry Thoreau recorded some interesting thoughts on 'the news' in his essay Walden.
Slashdot Mirror
Agreed. But there are people who say Mac OS X is 'based on FreeBSD' who spread a belief among a lot of people that it's 'Based on FreeBSD' in the same way that a number of Linux distros are 'based on Debian.' Which is just plain false.
That's just as ridiculous an assertion. It's ridiculous to assert that NuBus was 'major' if you're not going to admit in VME and the numerous other Busses that were as good, or better, and as common, if not more common. Who ever heard of NuBus before Apple adopted it? Not too many.
You can go into any sports shop that sells hunting gear and get a small vial of pungent male deer urine to put in your luggage. It's a far less serious crime than C4.
Those are all fine journals and excellent resources from the programming culture. However, most bosses don't view programming as an artisan's craft.
Using all the fancy trendy methodologies of the day is dangerous in day to day business, because it adds a tremendous amount of complexity to what needs to be straight-forward code. Businesses are NOT enthusiastic about hiring a priesthood of artisans to run their backoffice.
I think maybe what his boss was hinting around at, and you're maybe gently doing it as well, is that anybody still programming after ten years is probably dead wood that should be culled.
Umm, OpenOffice/StarOffice has been ported to Solaris. In fact, it's a product of the same company that produces Solaris, Sun Microsystems.
Hence a Solaris machine interoperates pretty well with Windows.
Since these machines are destined for decentralized offices, remote adminstration (i.e. a real full-blooded UNIX like Solaris) would be a big plus.
But I know that Solaris probably wasn't even considered. I was just throwing it up there as being as good a choice as MacOS X for the reasons being given in the great-grandparent post.
NextStep, OpenStep. Whatever you want to call it, from whatever era of NeXT's history. I wasn't accurate. I admit it.
I'm still looking for a copy of OpenStep. I won't pay the obscene eBay prices for it, however. But I'd like to run it, preferably one of the releases from the middle years when it ran on so many different platforms. Didn't it run on Sparc, Intel, and PA-RISC in certain releases?
He has already secured a weekend job with Apple, while keeping his old job.
He 'inspects' rare wines for them. And test drives expensive sports cars.
It sounds like these machines are going to be used as dedicated 'stations' in sort of a terminal setting. Which means they'll likely never have Mac Office, or any office software, for that point, installed on them.
Five years from now what it means is the geeks in Australia will get great deals on this hardware at the surplus good auctions. Which is always a good thing.
They'll be able to run whatever freenix runs well on a G4 box. It'll probably be pretty nice.
Mac OSX is based on a Mach kernel, and built on NextStep, a closed-source OS from a company that Apple purchased. It includes a ported in 'Userland' from FreeBSD.
Apple decided to move on a 'BSD Marketing Bullet Point', not a 'BSD platform.'
There were only two computer busses in the whole world at that point in history?
Ummmm, sorry. That's really an 'out there' claim.
But you're arguing against a dunderhead. There were good things that came out of the ADB, and good things about NuBus.
That day won't ever come. The wintrolls on C.O.L.A. will shout at the linuxtrolls on C.O.L.A. back and forth about problems with Red Hat 5.1 and Windows 98 for an eternity.
It keeps them busy and out of trouble. So who's to complain?
MacOS X isn't based on FreeBSD.
They ported in a FreeBSD userland to provide the core userland. They planted it on top of a Mach kernel based on NextOS, a proprietary closed-source OS. They piled on top a GUI layer that is closed source.
Saying MacOS is 'based on FreeBSD' is like claiming a Windows 2000 machine is 'based on GTK' because you installed the Win32 port of the gimp on it.
That's all old Apple stuff. The new Macs use standard memory, IDE drives, USB keyboards and mice. They've bellied up to the Wintel hardware base, just like Sun has.
You're right about most of your other points, but don't hold the ancient history of deliberately closed hardware at Apple against them in this day and age.
Desktop Solaris provides a Unix based OS and supports the majority of Open Source software. And Sparc desktops aren't really any more expensive than G4 desktops.
They're 64 bit, though. And just as proprietary and single-company-sourced.
Both are the wrong choice if you want the most vendor options.
It's been a long time since I've heard a story like this that didn't involve a university or some other education-based organization.
I guess a government bureacracy is a tiny step up from that, or something.
I hear you can just buy one of those fancy LED flasher things right from the guy at the booth at the Rave, maaaan.
However, given the fact that you paid at least 1000 times more for your machine (I am typing this on a Pentium III 500 machine that I got in a skid lot with 70 other machines for $40) than I did for this machine that I run Slackware on, one has to ponder if you have made the wisest choice you could have...
I mean, I could feel 'safer' by spending a few hundred bucks a night to have security guards roaming around my house after dark....
Why not just go to Digi-Key and buy the PIC controller itself for a few bucks. Download one of the free PIC assemblers, and build a programmer that plugs into your parallel port. Total expense- about fifteen bucks. Amount learned- much more than buying something fancy.
You're right, cost seems to be the problem with these things.
It seems a lot like the Basic Stamp products. Easy to program because it's got a BASIC interpreter built into each module. But then you have to spend the $30-50 for each module. When the actual bare PIC controller involved is a $3-8 part.
If I got a snippy response like that, I'd have a lot of fun with the fax number. It's pretty easy, with a fax modem, to fax someone a 35 page document composed of all black pages.
Uses up a lot of ink/toner and has been known to burn out the stylus on thermal fax printers.
The NeXT platform was a precursor of what Linux has been for the last decade. Filled with highly technical people who do a lot of rolling their own code. There was never a solid customer base for commercial apps for NeXT, hence there was never any kind of market that Microsoft would want to tap.
When the NeXT cube came out, the crowd I was hanging with didn't take it seriously. Even when the 'fire sale' occured and they got really cheap, everybody scoffed at it. I wouldn't mind having one now, but as a historical curiosity for my collection, and not much else.
Apple's approach is user-centric and user friendly.
As long as you define 'user' as being somebody wearing the latest fashion clothing who is eager to flash the plastic at an Apple Store.
What about the news? Does it cease to happen if we don't watch it point-by-point as it happens? Henry Thoreau recorded some interesting thoughts on 'the news' in his essay Walden.
What a waste of time. You're just going to sling personal insults, eh?
I known when I've been trolled, allright.