I was thinking in terms of features, usability etc. But you're quite right about the technology of it. MacOS 6/7/8/9 (Classic) was more akin to Windows 3.1 technically even though functionally the Classic MacOS was well ahead of Windows 3.1 and even Windows 95 in many ways. By the time Windows 98 was everywhere, MacOS 9 was feeling long in the tooth but was still functionally better. It didn't take half a day to install a CD-ROM on a Mac. I remember those times on the PC. Install a CD-ROM, lose the printer. Fix the printer, lose the network card. Fix the network, lose the CD-ROM.
OS 10.0 was technically closer to Windows 95/98, which started taking components from NT, but we all knew 10.0 was not ready for prime time desktop use. It wasn't a coincidence that OS 10.0 shipped with developer tools - Got a printer? Write your own damned driver! However, once that technical playing field was leveled with Windows 2000 (NT4) and the rapidly advancing OS X, I'd give OS X the current edge starting with the first usable version (10.2) in 2002. I'd give Vista and OS 10.4 about the same credit except OS 10.4 works better- it doesn't keep asking me inane questions.
Sheesh... that's like saying "Microsoft is still shipping Windows" like it hasn't changed as much over time as OS X. As an earlier poster said, "10" is the operating system and the number after the point is a major release version. I'd equate the update of 10.0 -> 10.1 with Win3.1 -> Win95, 10.2 would be Windows 98, 10.3 would be XP (just Win2K in a colorful clown suit) and the two year old 10.4 would be Vista. It only took 6 years for Apple to best 12 years of Microsoft.
Microsoft won't have an answer to 10.5 for several more years.
Yes, the movies sold on the iTunes store are heavily compressed (causing macroblock artifacts) and a Pitiful Pixel Count (TM) forcing your display to interpolate everything. Those movies shouldn't be watched on anything bigger than a Video iPod. Load the AppleTV with some 720p material and you'll be rewarded with a much better image.
The most horrific thing is the way flat panel TVs scale analog signals. They generally SUCK at scaling things up and the display will show you everything wrong with the scaling engine. Starting with a marginal video image doesn't help but I'd blame the TV for half of the crappy look.
Yes, that's exactly how it works. Fact is the eventual Microsoft sales are classically manufactured out of forced obsolescence, but those future sales need to be reported in this quarter, not next year, to make things SEEM better than they are to shareholders. I always say "never total the sum of your juvenile poultry until the usual period of incubation has elapsed". Lets wait until the paper vouchers are cashed in and the shelf-worn OEM software comes into the wild before declaring those sales.
There's very little new to offer in Vista over XP except a more colorful clown suit - well, maybe a few eye candy "features" and a clunky idea of how you want to see "your" media (now owned by Microsoft with their electronic proctoscope up your hard drive). However, Microsoft needs to create obsolescence to further their stale product because sales aren't being driven by compelling upgrades. Well, every manufacturer has to do that, except a 1998 Ford doesn't quit running [perhaps] because the 2007 models are out. Windows of that era or younger is about to artificially meet its maker.
Microsoft hasn't had an original idea in decades, so why would they expect a rapid adoption now? They don't, but they need to make it look that way. Apple could ship 20 million copies of Leopard to all the Apple stores, CDW, PC Connection, MacMall, MicroCenter and everyone else claiming 20 million sales in one day. Difference is they'd probably sell that many to end users lined up out the door in one day. Has anyone seen any Vista lines? The Apple lines have made the news every time so far (we'll see how good or bad that goes shortly).
This whole Vista thing has been a train wreck in slow motion starting years ago, like watching an instant replay you can see the entire house of cards collapse. Their own numbers indicate about zero growth in OS sales. There must be double the number of computers out there since XP was released and they're crowing about a barely above par increase in deployment in the same time period? Pleeeez.
While you're at it, quit counting gas pumps, cash registers, truck scales, dry cleaner retrieval systems, toll booth RFI readers and passenger car engine computers amongst PC sales and we'll see some really different deployment ratios of PC/Mac/Linux.
I find it quite telling that one of the most popular applications for the MAC is a program that lets you run a different OS.
If you've been paying attention here for the last year, most of the commentary surrounding virtualization on the Mac has revolved around people finally able to dump their infernal Windows machine and do everything on a Mac instead. Parallels, along with Boot Camp, is quite possibly the largest driver of Mac sales in the last year. There are a few functions not available on the Mac [yet] and Parallels lets people run those few apps they'd miss from Windows. Yes, Paralleles does run Linux. I currently know more people who dumped their Windows machines in the last year than I know remaining Windows owners - and those aren't far behind.
I work in a dual platform environment and I have DOZENS of PCs in our repair area.
I'll second that. In our company of mixed Mac/PC, we track the lifecycle of the machines. Each Mac outlasts 2.3 PCs and when the Macs are done, we sell them to the staff because they still work fine but too slow for our purposes. The PCs all went into recycling long ago.
In the last 3 years, we've introduced a lot of Macs to regular desktops in addition to the graphics areas. During that time, the simple exposure of the PC-centric staff to Macs completely torpedoed their prejudices. About 75% of the staff has since bought their own Macs (mostly laptops) and now prefer to work on them.
To quote an old advertisement, which computer is really more powerful? It's the one people will use.
In computer language terms, nobody should use the word "open" (implying unencumbered) in a product name unless it really is. Otherwise, it's called false advertising and subject to all the fines and sanctions that come with it. Microsoft calling their compendium of proprietary digital glop "open" fits that description.
"..there appears to be no compelling technical or business case for upgrading to these new Microsoft software products. Furthermore, there appears to be specific reasons not to upgrade."
The DOT is just figuring this out now? Hell, most of us knew this years ago.
Not using Xsan. Yes, home directories worked fine. When you create a user, you have the option of creating a server based home directory with quotas and permissions. The new user folder is populated with all the folders found on the desktop's home directory (Documents, Movies, Music etc) and can be presented on any machine the user logs in to. On the Xserve itself, each user is actually a user on the server and you can see them all in the Accounts control panel. All home directories can be stored on an external RAID box instead of the boot drive on the server.
Nyuh huh, does too... but you have to meet it half way
I have to agree with the Apple Tech Support options - most of the good support comes from peers on the Internet but there's at least enough of that to get a jump on most issues. Of course, you look through the console logs, yes? That's where your machine does its bitching and it's quite an eye opener. Almost 100% of the problems are misconfiguration and that's where they spew forth. (not FORTH, it's just TXT actually)
The sales force in my area isn't very responsive, either. I bypass this rep and go straight to the Cupertino sales bunch. They bend over pretty good for pricing and accomodations.
For getting stuff fixed, definitely call the Cupertino office. You'll find people who will hook you up with phone numbers for people who make a difference. They'll want your support number but when you ask for an RMA because something doesn't work, all of a sudden you get support. We had an issue with Apple Motion where the timeline wasn't calculating right after trimming the head of an event. We called the super secret number, explained the steps and the guy on the phone turns around and yells "FRANK! COME LOOK AT THIS!". Apparently, someone IN THE ROOM can fix things like that and they did.
The best thing I ever did was go to OS X Server Training. Still struggle a little with permissions and you can really tie yourself in knots. Between Nix permissions, ACLs and the several places you can set them [to conflict] it appears to be a mess but it's quite granular once you get the big picture. I'm not a huge fan of the built-in mail - clunky interface - but the platform itself is quite solid. My two Xserves stay very busy and don't even break a sweat. It's amazing what is available in the Xserve that works great but you'll never know without the training. Leopard server will get installed very shortly after release and I've got a third Xserve in the works. Oh, and I'll take some training with that.
..oh yeah, when we tested it, a dozen students were pulling files from the primary server at the same time when we pulled the ethernet cable from the primary server. The transfers paused for just a moment then resumed.
Without digging out the classroom manuals, it goes something like this: Configure a secondary server to mount the same RAID storage and replicate the LDAP profiles so it looks exactly the same as the primary. That's so simple it hurts (checkbox - replicate from masterservername - done). Then configure an IP address on the secondary server the same as the primary except it's under control of a watchdog process. If the watchdog looses touch with the primary, the network interface lights up on the secondary and it replaces the primary in under a second. ALL the services configured on the primary should be running on the secondary and they take up the connected users from the primary. If the primary comes back, the secondary shuts up. We couldn't believe it so we did it again from scratch - took a couple of minutes. If you want more detail or accuracy, I'll find the manual.
For all those questions, most of them were answered when I went to OS X Server Training. Holy Crap! I had no idea all that stuff was in there already. They showed you how to write simple scripts to deploy a thousand Macs if you want to, all with single signon and AD integration. The hard part was doing the mundane stuff on the AD server. You write a script for the ideal machine, use AppleScript to create unique clones of the important stuff and deploy them to the whole system.
You can take green Macs out of the box (including servers), find them all and configure them on the network. NetBoot is an option as well. If you have a blank, formatted server, you still need an install DVD in the drive but that's it. It's still network accessible. We had several Windows admins in class because Macs were starting to show up in their space and they were absolutely blown away. Jaws on the ground, partly because the features were there and mostly because it actually worked.
We even played with redundant failover on servers. We configured a hot standby and while the whole class was logged into the primary, we made it fail. The changeover happened within a second and nothing even missed a beat. No clients went down. When the primary returned, the connection was switched back with no issues.
That's why we've been replacing Windows servers with Xserves (that and there is no Microsoft Tax for everything you want to do beyond boot the server).
Our Xserves are doing five times as much work as any of our Windows servers could. One is doing background audio and video compression (Cleaner watch folders), acting as an XGrid (cluster) controller, running the backup/archive library (Overland LTO on Fiber Channel), is our WINS server, LDAP server, secondary DNS server, Web server (MAMP and NetCloak), secondary FTP server, AFP/SMB file server for 80 users pumping gigabyte video files on and off the Xserve RAIDs, is the Software Update server, is the QuickTime Streaming Server and is the sound effects library server with about 45,000 sound effects accessed by 8 audio suites. Half of that flat choked a Windows server and the other half couldn't be done anyway. Leopard Server is going to be very welcome in our shop.
Your instincts are correct that the movement is from the bottom up. Unfortunately, I've mostly seen IT guys scrambling to block Macs but they come in anyway - and eventually even they turn to the Mac side.
I've made the Mac jump for about half of my little enterprise and it works just fine. Support time went way down - same users, same functions, different platform. Training was a little rough for the [forced] early adopters (3.5 years ago) but these days not a week goes by when someone else from the company asks about buying their own Mac to replace their home Windows machine. It would be helpful to have a better integrated Mail/Calendar/Contact system but everyone does fine with the built-in versions. No problems getting most of the apps we need although there are a few we keep on a Windows 2003 server and access with Remote Desktop. Our sales people make their clients' jaws drop with Keynote presentations and video demos on their laptops.
All it takes is exposure and you don't have to say another word. Once the "aha" moment hits the Mac newbie, they can't stand their Windows machine anymore. MTBAHA: ~5 weeks.
Well, how does it feel, Microsoft? Someone "innovates" a little of your "intellectual property" (stole it fair and square, actually) and the courts don't think it's worth prosecuting. "Ohhhh, no harm done..." Just a little tiny pin prick of what the rest of the planet's actual innovators have been putting up with from Microsoft (and the lenient courts) all these years.
Yes, I'm a bitter little troll so blast me a new one.
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I was thinking in terms of features, usability etc. But you're quite right about the technology of it. MacOS 6/7/8/9 (Classic) was more akin to Windows 3.1 technically even though functionally the Classic MacOS was well ahead of Windows 3.1 and even Windows 95 in many ways. By the time Windows 98 was everywhere, MacOS 9 was feeling long in the tooth but was still functionally better. It didn't take half a day to install a CD-ROM on a Mac. I remember those times on the PC. Install a CD-ROM, lose the printer. Fix the printer, lose the network card. Fix the network, lose the CD-ROM.
OS 10.0 was technically closer to Windows 95/98, which started taking components from NT, but we all knew 10.0 was not ready for prime time desktop use. It wasn't a coincidence that OS 10.0 shipped with developer tools - Got a printer? Write your own damned driver! However, once that technical playing field was leveled with Windows 2000 (NT4) and the rapidly advancing OS X, I'd give OS X the current edge starting with the first usable version (10.2) in 2002. I'd give Vista and OS 10.4 about the same credit except OS 10.4 works better- it doesn't keep asking me inane questions.
Sheesh... that's like saying "Microsoft is still shipping Windows" like it hasn't changed as much over time as OS X. As an earlier poster said, "10" is the operating system and the number after the point is a major release version. I'd equate the update of 10.0 -> 10.1 with Win3.1 -> Win95, 10.2 would be Windows 98, 10.3 would be XP (just Win2K in a colorful clown suit) and the two year old 10.4 would be Vista. It only took 6 years for Apple to best 12 years of Microsoft.
Microsoft won't have an answer to 10.5 for several more years.
Yes, the movies sold on the iTunes store are heavily compressed (causing macroblock artifacts) and a Pitiful Pixel Count (TM) forcing your display to interpolate everything. Those movies shouldn't be watched on anything bigger than a Video iPod. Load the AppleTV with some 720p material and you'll be rewarded with a much better image.
The most horrific thing is the way flat panel TVs scale analog signals. They generally SUCK at scaling things up and the display will show you everything wrong with the scaling engine. Starting with a marginal video image doesn't help but I'd blame the TV for half of the crappy look.
I'm going to hit the parent again with Score:6 infuckingcredible.
Any chance of modding this up to Score:6 infuckingcredible?
Oh dear... 10 minutes on Google should fix most of that:
I've never seen a Macintosh POS system.http://macpos.com/e t/e s/e nsepos.com/
I've never seen a Macintosh timeclockhttp://www.christianjames.n
http://www.posim.net/
http://www.posoe.com/e
http://www.shopkeeper.com/
http://www.sixths
http://www.xpertmart.com/
http://www.conceptualize.com/
I've never seen a Mac waste hauling program.I've never seen one period...
I've never seen a major financial package that runs on Mac, or even has a Mac client (think SAP, Oracle, etc)http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/macos/inde x.html
I've never seen a medical billing package that runs on the Mac.http://mac.unimaas.nl/sap/
http://www.databaseconstructs.com/mchilites.html
On the other hand, I've never seen a virus that runs on the Mac. Heard rumors of them but have never seen it.What's Mainstream? If you ask me, Microsoft is trying very hard to cash in on the new Mainstream defined by Apple.
Yes, that's exactly how it works. Fact is the eventual Microsoft sales are classically manufactured out of forced obsolescence, but those future sales need to be reported in this quarter, not next year, to make things SEEM better than they are to shareholders. I always say "never total the sum of your juvenile poultry until the usual period of incubation has elapsed". Lets wait until the paper vouchers are cashed in and the shelf-worn OEM software comes into the wild before declaring those sales.
There's very little new to offer in Vista over XP except a more colorful clown suit - well, maybe a few eye candy "features" and a clunky idea of how you want to see "your" media (now owned by Microsoft with their electronic proctoscope up your hard drive). However, Microsoft needs to create obsolescence to further their stale product because sales aren't being driven by compelling upgrades. Well, every manufacturer has to do that, except a 1998 Ford doesn't quit running [perhaps] because the 2007 models are out. Windows of that era or younger is about to artificially meet its maker.
Microsoft hasn't had an original idea in decades, so why would they expect a rapid adoption now? They don't, but they need to make it look that way. Apple could ship 20 million copies of Leopard to all the Apple stores, CDW, PC Connection, MacMall, MicroCenter and everyone else claiming 20 million sales in one day. Difference is they'd probably sell that many to end users lined up out the door in one day. Has anyone seen any Vista lines? The Apple lines have made the news every time so far (we'll see how good or bad that goes shortly).
This whole Vista thing has been a train wreck in slow motion starting years ago, like watching an instant replay you can see the entire house of cards collapse. Their own numbers indicate about zero growth in OS sales. There must be double the number of computers out there since XP was released and they're crowing about a barely above par increase in deployment in the same time period? Pleeeez.
While you're at it, quit counting gas pumps, cash registers, truck scales, dry cleaner retrieval systems, toll booth RFI readers and passenger car engine computers amongst PC sales and we'll see some really different deployment ratios of PC/Mac/Linux.
How many Black Russians was that anyway?
I switched from CP/M 2.2 to MacOS 6.0.4 and never looked back!
Of course the "Mac" thing is important.
Why? Is there another kind?
I find it quite telling that one of the most popular applications for the MAC is a program that lets you run a different OS.
If you've been paying attention here for the last year, most of the commentary surrounding virtualization on the Mac has revolved around people finally able to dump their infernal Windows machine and do everything on a Mac instead. Parallels, along with Boot Camp, is quite possibly the largest driver of Mac sales in the last year. There are a few functions not available on the Mac [yet] and Parallels lets people run those few apps they'd miss from Windows. Yes, Paralleles does run Linux. I currently know more people who dumped their Windows machines in the last year than I know remaining Windows owners - and those aren't far behind.
I work in a dual platform environment and I have DOZENS of PCs in our repair area.
I'll second that. In our company of mixed Mac/PC, we track the lifecycle of the machines. Each Mac outlasts 2.3 PCs and when the Macs are done, we sell them to the staff because they still work fine but too slow for our purposes. The PCs all went into recycling long ago.
In the last 3 years, we've introduced a lot of Macs to regular desktops in addition to the graphics areas. During that time, the simple exposure of the PC-centric staff to Macs completely torpedoed their prejudices. About 75% of the staff has since bought their own Macs (mostly laptops) and now prefer to work on them.
To quote an old advertisement, which computer is really more powerful? It's the one people will use.
Hi. We're from Microsoft and we're here to help you.
Hey! Who let the English Major on Slashdot?
In computer language terms, nobody should use the word "open" (implying unencumbered) in a product name unless it really is. Otherwise, it's called false advertising and subject to all the fines and sanctions that come with it. Microsoft calling their compendium of proprietary digital glop "open" fits that description.
1968: "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM"
1996: "nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft"
2007: "you're both fired!"
"..there appears to be no compelling technical or business case for upgrading to these new Microsoft software products. Furthermore, there appears to be specific reasons not to upgrade."
The DOT is just figuring this out now? Hell, most of us knew this years ago.
You need this PDF
Not using Xsan. Yes, home directories worked fine. When you create a user, you have the option of creating a server based home directory with quotas and permissions. The new user folder is populated with all the folders found on the desktop's home directory (Documents, Movies, Music etc) and can be presented on any machine the user logs in to. On the Xserve itself, each user is actually a user on the server and you can see them all in the Accounts control panel. All home directories can be stored on an external RAID box instead of the boot drive on the server.
It doesn't just work...
Nyuh huh, does too... but you have to meet it half way
I have to agree with the Apple Tech Support options - most of the good support comes from peers on the Internet but there's at least enough of that to get a jump on most issues. Of course, you look through the console logs, yes? That's where your machine does its bitching and it's quite an eye opener. Almost 100% of the problems are misconfiguration and that's where they spew forth. (not FORTH, it's just TXT actually)
The sales force in my area isn't very responsive, either. I bypass this rep and go straight to the Cupertino sales bunch. They bend over pretty good for pricing and accomodations.
For getting stuff fixed, definitely call the Cupertino office. You'll find people who will hook you up with phone numbers for people who make a difference. They'll want your support number but when you ask for an RMA because something doesn't work, all of a sudden you get support. We had an issue with Apple Motion where the timeline wasn't calculating right after trimming the head of an event. We called the super secret number, explained the steps and the guy on the phone turns around and yells "FRANK! COME LOOK AT THIS!". Apparently, someone IN THE ROOM can fix things like that and they did.
The best thing I ever did was go to OS X Server Training. Still struggle a little with permissions and you can really tie yourself in knots. Between Nix permissions, ACLs and the several places you can set them [to conflict] it appears to be a mess but it's quite granular once you get the big picture. I'm not a huge fan of the built-in mail - clunky interface - but the platform itself is quite solid. My two Xserves stay very busy and don't even break a sweat. It's amazing what is available in the Xserve that works great but you'll never know without the training. Leopard server will get installed very shortly after release and I've got a third Xserve in the works. Oh, and I'll take some training with that.
..oh yeah, when we tested it, a dozen students were pulling files from the primary server at the same time when we pulled the ethernet cable from the primary server. The transfers paused for just a moment then resumed.
Without digging out the classroom manuals, it goes something like this: Configure a secondary server to mount the same RAID storage and replicate the LDAP profiles so it looks exactly the same as the primary. That's so simple it hurts (checkbox - replicate from masterservername - done). Then configure an IP address on the secondary server the same as the primary except it's under control of a watchdog process. If the watchdog looses touch with the primary, the network interface lights up on the secondary and it replaces the primary in under a second. ALL the services configured on the primary should be running on the secondary and they take up the connected users from the primary. If the primary comes back, the secondary shuts up. We couldn't believe it so we did it again from scratch - took a couple of minutes. If you want more detail or accuracy, I'll find the manual.
For all those questions, most of them were answered when I went to OS X Server Training. Holy Crap! I had no idea all that stuff was in there already. They showed you how to write simple scripts to deploy a thousand Macs if you want to, all with single signon and AD integration. The hard part was doing the mundane stuff on the AD server. You write a script for the ideal machine, use AppleScript to create unique clones of the important stuff and deploy them to the whole system.
You can take green Macs out of the box (including servers), find them all and configure them on the network. NetBoot is an option as well. If you have a blank, formatted server, you still need an install DVD in the drive but that's it. It's still network accessible. We had several Windows admins in class because Macs were starting to show up in their space and they were absolutely blown away. Jaws on the ground, partly because the features were there and mostly because it actually worked.
We even played with redundant failover on servers. We configured a hot standby and while the whole class was logged into the primary, we made it fail. The changeover happened within a second and nothing even missed a beat. No clients went down. When the primary returned, the connection was switched back with no issues.
That's why we've been replacing Windows servers with Xserves (that and there is no Microsoft Tax for everything you want to do beyond boot the server).
Our Xserves are doing five times as much work as any of our Windows servers could. One is doing background audio and video compression (Cleaner watch folders), acting as an XGrid (cluster) controller, running the backup/archive library (Overland LTO on Fiber Channel), is our WINS server, LDAP server, secondary DNS server, Web server (MAMP and NetCloak), secondary FTP server, AFP/SMB file server for 80 users pumping gigabyte video files on and off the Xserve RAIDs, is the Software Update server, is the QuickTime Streaming Server and is the sound effects library server with about 45,000 sound effects accessed by 8 audio suites. Half of that flat choked a Windows server and the other half couldn't be done anyway. Leopard Server is going to be very welcome in our shop.
Your instincts are correct that the movement is from the bottom up. Unfortunately, I've mostly seen IT guys scrambling to block Macs but they come in anyway - and eventually even they turn to the Mac side.
I've made the Mac jump for about half of my little enterprise and it works just fine. Support time went way down - same users, same functions, different platform. Training was a little rough for the [forced] early adopters (3.5 years ago) but these days not a week goes by when someone else from the company asks about buying their own Mac to replace their home Windows machine. It would be helpful to have a better integrated Mail/Calendar/Contact system but everyone does fine with the built-in versions. No problems getting most of the apps we need although there are a few we keep on a Windows 2003 server and access with Remote Desktop. Our sales people make their clients' jaws drop with Keynote presentations and video demos on their laptops.
All it takes is exposure and you don't have to say another word. Once the "aha" moment hits the Mac newbie, they can't stand their Windows machine anymore. MTBAHA: ~5 weeks.
Well, how does it feel, Microsoft? Someone "innovates" a little of your "intellectual property" (stole it fair and square, actually) and the courts don't think it's worth prosecuting. "Ohhhh, no harm done..." Just a little tiny pin prick of what the rest of the planet's actual innovators have been putting up with from Microsoft (and the lenient courts) all these years.
Yes, I'm a bitter little troll so blast me a new one.