It does have the same problem the various Dock replacements have: I have to pay some third party money in order to get back functionality that Apple used to provide in all previous iterations of OS X.
Well at least the first tip I gave you was free:-)
As a long time Mac user, I agree with some of your gripes. However, easy solutions are already available...
Like the $DEITY-awful transparent toolbar and the fact that you can't turn that POS of.
Here's an easy terminal command to get rid of the transparency, by first modifying the LaunchDaemon for WindowServer, and then, fix the permissions on it after modification.
Reboot, and what you get is the "opaque" menu bar that you would see on older Macs that don't have a high end video card. I get the "opaque" menu bar by default (no modification) on my PowerBook G4 867.
And nobody ever put anything besides/Applications in their Dock, especially nothing with more than thirty files or even subfolders. Uh-huh.
I'm not a fan of Stacks, however, you would be very surprised how many people aren't aware they can use the Dock for things other than Applications. Honestly, I think this is why Apple is going in the "Stacks" direction, to make more users aware of what they can do with the Dock. I think the main problem is there are a lot of power users out there that were already pretty happy with the functionality of the Dock, and Apple "went and screwed it up". I welcome the change. I didn't think I'd be using Spaces, Expose, or Spotlight either, but eventually, I got it working the way I wanted. It's not the end of the world, and I have the feeling the new Dock will evolve over time. If you don't feel like waiting, why not try out Quay which brings back hierarchical popup menus for the Leopard Dock without hacking or modifying any system frameworks or libraries.
Although the article discusses all the problems with Vista and Leopard, I want to make one very important point. Leopard is much faster overall on a clean install than both Tiger, and Vista. I have a partitioned iMac Core 2 Duo, and had fresh installs of Leopard, Tiger, and Vista installed for testing (just barebones, no additional applications installed). Leopard's performance noticeably faster than Tiger or Vista. You can't say that about Vista vs XP on a fresh install. XP will be faster with most benchmarks. Leopard has some bugs to get worked out over the next couple of months, but, I must say that PERFORMANCE is not one of them... and performance goes a long way in keeping users happy.
Which operating system uses the trash bin to burn discs?
That's just one of several ways to burn a disc in Mac OS X. You can also:
1. Click on the disc on the desktop and then go to the File menu and select "Burn Disc", or...
2. Double click on the disk, review its contents in a Finder window, and click the "Burn" button, or...
3. Right-click (or command click with a pesky one button mouse) on the disc and select "eject disc". If you have copied any files to the blank disk, it will ask if you want to burn it. If you haven't, it will eject the disc. This is the same procedure as dragging the disc to the trash (which starts the eject disc process).
Personally, I think triggering the burn process by dragging to the trash is a good idea. If you start to compile a disc, and forget about it, you will be queried to burn that disc upon attempting to eject the blank disc. It's good that there are several different, convenient ways to burn a disc in Mac OS X. So yeah, I'm happy it uses the trash to burn discs. Aren't you?
LKM, you make some really good points. Macs were able to do the color calibration and font rendering needed for graphic design well before Windows was able to. From what I've heard from most graphic designers, it wasn't even acceptable quality on Windows until XP was released.
I think the gap between to the two operating systems is now much closer than it used to be in this regard, but, Mac OS X is still ahead.
Its too bad that "lack of support for the platform" still rings in a lot of folks minds. It is Apple's fault it is this way, but, not the current Apple. A lot of developers were discouraged by the fact they had to develop for a totally different processor (PowerPC) and operating system (Mac OS 9 and earlier).
Coding for both the Windows x86 and PowerPC "classic" platform was a pain for most developers. There was a lot less of the code base that could be shared between the different flavors of their applications without a lot of effort.
Today, I believe most developers will say that developing for Mac OS X and Windows is a heck of a lot easier than it used to be. This is why you are seeing many programs coming back to the Mac OS X platform, Adobe included. This trend was starting even before the resent upward Mac sales trends. Apple/Macintosh making the switching to x86 and OS X really did make things a lot easier for developers to embrace the platform again.
The problem is that some major applications (Microsoft Office 2004, Adobe Creative Suite) do not use the Apple packaging specifications. They usually use a third party tool, such as VISE-X.
I don't agree with the ruling, but I don't see the situation as being as "dire" as some suggest. I can't see a major telco blocking access to certain websites or networks due to this "deregulation". If they do, they'll be creating new markets and new competition in which they would have to compete, and probably loose.
Lets say Verizon tries to make Google pay extra to keep the priority of traffic going to YouTube on par with other types of network traffic. Google can either payup, and keep their access, or, decide to go an alternative route, such as working with a different provider to get access to the end user, or build their own network that renders parts of Verizon's network useless. Small providers will collaborate to stay in competition with big ones. The same goes for fiber backbone, and "last mile" service. If they decide to start blocking, others will invest and build, and offer their service as an alternative to those that are blocked, or, overpriced.
Maybe I'm too optimistic on the situation, but, what else can we hope for?
Mac OS X 10.5 will be released on October 26th. -->
The new Leopard based xCode/Developer Tools development tools get released the same day.
The iPhone and the iPod Touch both run a modified version of Leopard. I'll bet the SDK will use some elements of the new Leopard Developer Tools, and hence, the delay until Leopard was announced. Apple's just doing things one step at a time. With the two new hardware products that are Leopard based being released, and Leopard being released for Macs, they can now get down to polishing up the SDK for public consumption. All those puzzle pieces are now in place.
Apple was a mess- that's why OpenDoc got cancelled (not some plan devised by Apple to piss off developers). It's a shame that OpenDoc was cancelled. I'd bet today it would be open sourced rather than outright cancelled, which in vogue yet (especially for Apple) circa 1997.
The system is still a mess, but at least this is a step in the right direction. Hopefully, in the future, there will be some legislation (taking a hint from these court decisions) involved where clear, up to date, policies are defined, resulting in less of these software patent lawsuits in our court system.
That's right. If you don't like us lynching, er... people different from us, er... don't move into our town!!
There's a lot of people reading your statement in disbelief as you compare a town that lynches innocent folks to Apple locking the iPhone. You're not helping yourself. Do you really care about an unlocked iPhone that much that you'll write this crap?
No comparison there.
None.
Not even close. Watch Mississippi Burning sometime, then tell me how it compares to a locked iPhone.
FYI, if you're looking for an AT&T/Cingular phone that doesn't have PTT, I just purchased a Sony Ericsson Z310. Nice phone so far. Looks like you can get it relatively cheap too. I got it for free, but had to up my plan for another 2 years. There is still a MediaNET button, but, its not easily confused or accidentally touched like some other phone models.
1. The RAZR is a crappy phone. That's why you're having problems.
Phones with the push to talk button cannot disable that function
2. Almost all PTT phones have a PTT "lock" on them to prevent the feature from being used by just hitting one button. If this isn't the case on the RAZR, please see point number 1.
Every time they spam a text message to their users
3. FYI, you are not charged for any "system" messages that come from Cingular/A&TT. I have had them for over four years, and this has always been the case. If you are being charged, then most likely, its something you signed up for (maybe by accident), or, not coming from Cingular/AT&T at all. If neither is the case, call customer service (which isn't the greatest, I know) and figure out what's going on.
Not defending AT&T, since I'm not thrilled with my service, but, just wanted to state some facts here.
"It just works, with no viruses, and it looks nice... not like your piece of crap." -Mac smugginess.
"I can play all the games I want... plus get my pick of software... on inexpensive hardware... not like your piece of crap." -Windows smugginess.
"I can customize my OS until I'm blue in the face... on just about any hardware I want... with no viruses... not like your piece of crap." -Linux smugginess.
"My operating only takes up 26K..." - Commodore 64 smugginess:-).
Come on... we're all smug! And if smugginess isn't a word, it is now!
I re-read your post a few times, and with your reply, I understand your position much better. There ARE people who post here that don't know the difference between OS X and the older "classic" Mac versions. I'm glad you're not one of them:-).
As a side note, $599 on the PC side of things will get me a *far* more powerful computer, a keyboard and mouse, *and* a 19" (or bigger, depending on sales/coupons/etc) monitor.
I don't know about *far*, but yes you can get a decent computer. Dell has a decent one for $479 at their.edu store, but it only comes with a 17" monitor. Catching the coupon specials and the sales are hit and miss. I used to build PC's for my friends and family, but I got tired of supporting Windows for my friends. The viruses and spyware were out of control for a while. I know it's not as bad now, but, I just didn't want to deal with it anymore. Now I just recommend Apple, or an HP with anti-virus/anti-spyware, and a good warranty so they can call them for help, instead of me!
For reference, I work IT for a college
I also work for a university IT department. However, I deal mostly with Mac computer labs for our Art/Graphic Design/Multimedia students and faculty. The students are SCREAMING for Macbooks, but are forced here to get an HP laptop, despite the entire Art/GD/MM curriculum being taught on a Mac. The HP laptop isn't bad, but its not what many of the students want. I know I'd be upset if I was forced into paying for something I didn't want. Each school is different I guess. We have several Math/CS professors who have "personal" Macs, but IT issued HP's, for the same reasons. (shrugs). I don't consider myself a Mac "evangelist", but I hate hearing from people they are bring forced into something they don't want. Anyway, I'm moving off on a tangent here... so I'll stop.
I'll volunteer to answer your questions to the best of my ability.
1. I have some cheap usb hardware (wireless network dongle, bluetooth, etc). No drivers for mac.
You most likely will not have any luck here. There are many chipsets out there without (or only partial) Mac/Unix/Linux support. I'm guessing that you have an older G4 or G5 based Mac, because, if you were to purchase a new Mac, it would have wireless and bluetooth built-in ($79 option on the Mac Pro, standard on everything else), so in your case, this is a problem, but for most switchers, and for those buying a new Apple laptop (since that's what the story was about) this wouldn't be an issue.
2. I want to adjust mouse acceleration. I can't figure out how without buying an expensive 3rd party app.
I'm interpreting "mouse acceleration" to be "adjust the tracking speed". It's located in System Preferences. In the Keyboard and Mouse preference pane, click on the mouse tab, and, you'll see slider controls for tracking speed. In addition, you can adjust the scroll speed and the double click speed. If you mean something else, I apologize. I never touch the mouse settings on the Mac or in Windows.
3. I want to be able to launch my apps with one or two-key keyboard shortcuts.
You are correct here. There isn't a native way of doing this in Mac OS X. Ironically, I think you could do this in the older Mac Classic system. Anyway, I use a product called QuicKeys to do what you described. Comes in very handy. Some of this support must be lacking on the Windows side too, because they make a Windows version as well.
4. My scrollbar in firefox doesn't work right. Is this normal?
Yes, the scroll bar sometimes breaks in Firefox on the Mac. I've found quality control lacking on the Mac version of Firefox, in comparison to the Windows version. Usually quitting and re-launching Firefox restores it to normalcy. I haven't found a trigger yet for this misbehavior. It never happens in Safari.
5. Many open source apps that I love don't have standard maintained OS X distributions (gvim, pidgin, etc).
I believe the folks at Mac Ports and Fink can help you with most of your open source software needs. Follow their documentation and you'll be up and running with open source software in no time.
I think a lot of folks want to be able to upgrade their OS without taking a performance hit... as well as get new OS features without having to buy a new computer. Just because you aren't concerned about it doesn't mean others aren't.
For several versions now, Mac OS X has gotten faster with each release, in comparison to the previously released version, even on older equipment. Microsoft does try and sell their Vista OS to consumers with older computers, so it's not like they are saying Vista is for new computers only. If it's requirements were ONLY for new computers release in 2006 or later, then I think you would have a valid point. However, Vista's minimum and recommended requirements are lower than a new PC in 2006... the problem is that in some cases, running Vista on that equipment will get you much slower performance in comparison to XP or 2000.
That being said, Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5), when released, most likely will require at least an 800 MHz G4 processor, a built in DVD drive, and built-in Firewire. So the oldest computers that run Leopard on the desktop side are Power Mac G4 computers circa 2001, iMac and eMac G4's circa 2002... and on the laptop side, Powerbooks circa 2002, iBooks circa 2003. With every release of Mac OS X, a chunk of older computers are no longer supported to make way for new features that require higher specs (more VRAM, etc).
If I were to buy a new computer today, I would look back and see that Apple's track record in supporting older systems with new operating systems is much better than Microsoft. Sure, the minimum specs for Windows are always low, but, sometimes even the recommended hardware doesn't give you good performance. I've built XP images for older hardware, (Pentium 1 and Pentium 2, 512MB RAM), and even with all the effects turned off, and everything trimmed to a minimum, it was still pretty slow going. Mac OS X images on similar spec'd Mac hardware seemed to run a lot faster, especially 10.3 (Panther) and 10.4 (Tiger).
When Microsoft no longer sells Vista for anything other than a computer that was manufactured since 2006, then, it will no longer be a problem. Until then, well, yeah, it is a problem, and a big one for many consumers.
When I told him it wont work, he goes "This isnt a crappy dell, this is a mac and it can play everything."
Well, most crappy Dells wouldn't be able to play it... so... at least he was partially right. Perhaps that person was just an asshole.:-)
All Mac users are not stupid people, but most stupid people are Mac users.
Well come on now. Everyone uses that 5% market share against us. If 90% are Windows users, well, I would have to say that mathematically, more "stupid" people are Windows users. Especially if not ALL Mac users are stupid!:-D
Sorry, I'm just in a light-hearted mood today while reading this thread...
We can debate the merits of OSX vs. Windows 'till we're both blue in the faces -- I don't care. I like Windows. I'm comfortable in Windows. I don't like OSX. I haven't liked the interface style since it was in whatever version that was on the SE30 I had to use in High School. It's a personal preference.
I respect your opinion and your preference, but, you talk about SE30's running OS X. That my friend was Mac OS 7.6 or older. Have you taken a look at the OS X interface recently? It's much, much different, than anything that was Mac OS 9 or older. I was never a big fan of the "Classic" Mac operating system, but I tolerated it. OS X is a joy to use. And you can get it running on a Mac Mini (and use your old keyboard and mouse) for $599.... then again, if you're happy with Windows... it's probably all a moot point.
It sounds like you added the computer to Active Directory correctly. Make sure the system time is correct. It needs to be within so many minutes of the domain controller, otherwise it will refuse to login. There could also be other issues going on. Check the system.log to see any error messages.
Slashdot Mirror
Here's an easy terminal command to get rid of the transparency, by first modifying the LaunchDaemon for WindowServer, and then, fix the permissions on it after modification.
sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer 'EnvironmentVariables' -dict 'CI_NO_BACKGROUND_IMAGE' 0
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer.plist
sudo chmod 644
Reboot, and what you get is the "opaque" menu bar that you would see on older Macs that don't have a high end video card. I get the "opaque" menu bar by default (no modification) on my PowerBook G4 867.
I'm not a fan of Stacks, however, you would be very surprised how many people aren't aware they can use the Dock for things other than Applications. Honestly, I think this is why Apple is going in the "Stacks" direction, to make more users aware of what they can do with the Dock. I think the main problem is there are a lot of power users out there that were already pretty happy with the functionality of the Dock, and Apple "went and screwed it up". I welcome the change. I didn't think I'd be using Spaces, Expose, or Spotlight either, but eventually, I got it working the way I wanted. It's not the end of the world, and I have the feeling the new Dock will evolve over time. If you don't feel like waiting, why not try out Quay which brings back hierarchical popup menus for the Leopard Dock without hacking or modifying any system frameworks or libraries.
Although the article discusses all the problems with Vista and Leopard, I want to make one very important point. Leopard is much faster overall on a clean install than both Tiger, and Vista. I have a partitioned iMac Core 2 Duo, and had fresh installs of Leopard, Tiger, and Vista installed for testing (just barebones, no additional applications installed). Leopard's performance noticeably faster than Tiger or Vista. You can't say that about Vista vs XP on a fresh install. XP will be faster with most benchmarks. Leopard has some bugs to get worked out over the next couple of months, but, I must say that PERFORMANCE is not one of them... and performance goes a long way in keeping users happy.
Never mind the Internet, they forgot to list our imaginations.
That's just one of several ways to burn a disc in Mac OS X. You can also:
1. Click on the disc on the desktop and then go to the File menu and select "Burn Disc", or...
2. Double click on the disk, review its contents in a Finder window, and click the "Burn" button, or...
3. Right-click (or command click with a pesky one button mouse) on the disc and select "eject disc". If you have copied any files to the blank disk, it will ask if you want to burn it. If you haven't, it will eject the disc. This is the same procedure as dragging the disc to the trash (which starts the eject disc process).
Personally, I think triggering the burn process by dragging to the trash is a good idea. If you start to compile a disc, and forget about it, you will be queried to burn that disc upon attempting to eject the blank disc. It's good that there are several different, convenient ways to burn a disc in Mac OS X. So yeah, I'm happy it uses the trash to burn discs. Aren't you?
LKM, you make some really good points. Macs were able to do the color calibration and font rendering needed for graphic design well before Windows was able to. From what I've heard from most graphic designers, it wasn't even acceptable quality on Windows until XP was released.
I think the gap between to the two operating systems is now much closer than it used to be in this regard, but, Mac OS X is still ahead.
Its too bad that "lack of support for the platform" still rings in a lot of folks minds. It is Apple's fault it is this way, but, not the current Apple. A lot of developers were discouraged by the fact they had to develop for a totally different processor (PowerPC) and operating system (Mac OS 9 and earlier).
Coding for both the Windows x86 and PowerPC "classic" platform was a pain for most developers. There was a lot less of the code base that could be shared between the different flavors of their applications without a lot of effort.
Today, I believe most developers will say that developing for Mac OS X and Windows is a heck of a lot easier than it used to be. This is why you are seeing many programs coming back to the Mac OS X platform, Adobe included. This trend was starting even before the resent upward Mac sales trends. Apple/Macintosh making the switching to x86 and OS X really did make things a lot easier for developers to embrace the platform again.
The problem is that some major applications (Microsoft Office 2004, Adobe Creative Suite) do not use the Apple packaging specifications. They usually use a third party tool, such as VISE-X.
I don't agree with the ruling, but I don't see the situation as being as "dire" as some suggest. I can't see a major telco blocking access to certain websites or networks due to this "deregulation". If they do, they'll be creating new markets and new competition in which they would have to compete, and probably loose.
Lets say Verizon tries to make Google pay extra to keep the priority of traffic going to YouTube on par with other types of network traffic. Google can either payup, and keep their access, or, decide to go an alternative route, such as working with a different provider to get access to the end user, or build their own network that renders parts of Verizon's network useless. Small providers will collaborate to stay in competition with big ones. The same goes for fiber backbone, and "last mile" service. If they decide to start blocking, others will invest and build, and offer their service as an alternative to those that are blocked, or, overpriced.
Maybe I'm too optimistic on the situation, but, what else can we hope for?
Easy answer:
The iPhone was released June 29th. -->
The iPod Touch was released September 13th. -->
Mac OS X 10.5 will be released on October 26th. -->
The new Leopard based xCode/Developer Tools development tools get released the same day.
The iPhone and the iPod Touch both run a modified version of Leopard. I'll bet the SDK will use some elements of the new Leopard Developer Tools, and hence, the delay until Leopard was announced. Apple's just doing things one step at a time. With the two new hardware products that are Leopard based being released, and Leopard being released for Macs, they can now get down to polishing up the SDK for public consumption. All those puzzle pieces are now in place.
What didn't Apple kill in 1997-1998 timeframe? Not only did OpenDoc go, but so did the Newton, Pippin, Mac clones, Old World/ROM Based Macs, Hypercard, LaserWriter printers, Copland, Cyberdog, and Claris Emailer, just to name a few...
Apple was a mess- that's why OpenDoc got cancelled (not some plan devised by Apple to piss off developers). It's a shame that OpenDoc was cancelled. I'd bet today it would be open sourced rather than outright cancelled, which in vogue yet (especially for Apple) circa 1997.
There's a version of linux for just about everything :-)
I bet the touch screens could be disconnected and used for other purposes.
The system is still a mess, but at least this is a step in the right direction. Hopefully, in the future, there will be some legislation (taking a hint from these court decisions) involved where clear, up to date, policies are defined, resulting in less of these software patent lawsuits in our court system.
There's a lot of people reading your statement in disbelief as you compare a town that lynches innocent folks to Apple locking the iPhone. You're not helping yourself. Do you really care about an unlocked iPhone that much that you'll write this crap?
No comparison there.
None.
Not even close. Watch Mississippi Burning sometime, then tell me how it compares to a locked iPhone.
FYI, if you're looking for an AT&T/Cingular phone that doesn't have PTT, I just purchased a Sony Ericsson Z310. Nice phone so far. Looks like you can get it relatively cheap too. I got it for free, but had to up my plan for another 2 years. There is still a MediaNET button, but, its not easily confused or accidentally touched like some other phone models.
1. The RAZR is a crappy phone. That's why you're having problems.
2. Almost all PTT phones have a PTT "lock" on them to prevent the feature from being used by just hitting one button. If this isn't the case on the RAZR, please see point number 1.
3. FYI, you are not charged for any "system" messages that come from Cingular/A&TT. I have had them for over four years, and this has always been the case. If you are being charged, then most likely, its something you signed up for (maybe by accident), or, not coming from Cingular/AT&T at all. If neither is the case, call customer service (which isn't the greatest, I know) and figure out what's going on.
Not defending AT&T, since I'm not thrilled with my service, but, just wanted to state some facts here.
RTFM! (See page 14).
"It just works, with no viruses, and it looks nice... not like your piece of crap." -Mac smugginess. :-).
"I can play all the games I want... plus get my pick of software... on inexpensive hardware... not like your piece of crap." -Windows smugginess.
"I can customize my OS until I'm blue in the face... on just about any hardware I want... with no viruses... not like your piece of crap." -Linux smugginess.
"My operating only takes up 26K..." - Commodore 64 smugginess
Come on... we're all smug! And if smugginess isn't a word, it is now!
I don't know about *far*, but yes you can get a decent computer. Dell has a decent one for $479 at their .edu store, but it only comes with a 17" monitor. Catching the coupon specials and the sales are hit and miss. I used to build PC's for my friends and family, but I got tired of supporting Windows for my friends. The viruses and spyware were out of control for a while. I know it's not as bad now, but, I just didn't want to deal with it anymore. Now I just recommend Apple, or an HP with anti-virus/anti-spyware, and a good warranty so they can call them for help, instead of me!
I also work for a university IT department. However, I deal mostly with Mac computer labs for our Art/Graphic Design/Multimedia students and faculty. The students are SCREAMING for Macbooks, but are forced here to get an HP laptop, despite the entire Art/GD/MM curriculum being taught on a Mac. The HP laptop isn't bad, but its not what many of the students want. I know I'd be upset if I was forced into paying for something I didn't want. Each school is different I guess. We have several Math/CS professors who have "personal" Macs, but IT issued HP's, for the same reasons. (shrugs). I don't consider myself a Mac "evangelist", but I hate hearing from people they are bring forced into something they don't want. Anyway, I'm moving off on a tangent here... so I'll stop.
You most likely will not have any luck here. There are many chipsets out there without (or only partial) Mac/Unix/Linux support. I'm guessing that you have an older G4 or G5 based Mac, because, if you were to purchase a new Mac, it would have wireless and bluetooth built-in ($79 option on the Mac Pro, standard on everything else), so in your case, this is a problem, but for most switchers, and for those buying a new Apple laptop (since that's what the story was about) this wouldn't be an issue.
I'm interpreting "mouse acceleration" to be "adjust the tracking speed". It's located in System Preferences. In the Keyboard and Mouse preference pane, click on the mouse tab, and, you'll see slider controls for tracking speed. In addition, you can adjust the scroll speed and the double click speed. If you mean something else, I apologize. I never touch the mouse settings on the Mac or in Windows.
You are correct here. There isn't a native way of doing this in Mac OS X. Ironically, I think you could do this in the older Mac Classic system. Anyway, I use a product called QuicKeys to do what you described. Comes in very handy. Some of this support must be lacking on the Windows side too, because they make a Windows version as well.
Yes, the scroll bar sometimes breaks in Firefox on the Mac. I've found quality control lacking on the Mac version of Firefox, in comparison to the Windows version. Usually quitting and re-launching Firefox restores it to normalcy. I haven't found a trigger yet for this misbehavior. It never happens in Safari.
I believe the folks at Mac Ports and Fink can help you with most of your open source software needs. Follow their documentation and you'll be up and running with open source software in no time.
I hope my answers have helped you out.
I think a lot of folks want to be able to upgrade their OS without taking a performance hit... as well as get new OS features without having to buy a new computer. Just because you aren't concerned about it doesn't mean others aren't.
For several versions now, Mac OS X has gotten faster with each release, in comparison to the previously released version, even on older equipment. Microsoft does try and sell their Vista OS to consumers with older computers, so it's not like they are saying Vista is for new computers only. If it's requirements were ONLY for new computers release in 2006 or later, then I think you would have a valid point. However, Vista's minimum and recommended requirements are lower than a new PC in 2006... the problem is that in some cases, running Vista on that equipment will get you much slower performance in comparison to XP or 2000.
That being said, Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5), when released, most likely will require at least an 800 MHz G4 processor, a built in DVD drive, and built-in Firewire. So the oldest computers that run Leopard on the desktop side are Power Mac G4 computers circa 2001, iMac and eMac G4's circa 2002... and on the laptop side, Powerbooks circa 2002, iBooks circa 2003. With every release of Mac OS X, a chunk of older computers are no longer supported to make way for new features that require higher specs (more VRAM, etc).
If I were to buy a new computer today, I would look back and see that Apple's track record in supporting older systems with new operating systems is much better than Microsoft. Sure, the minimum specs for Windows are always low, but, sometimes even the recommended hardware doesn't give you good performance. I've built XP images for older hardware, (Pentium 1 and Pentium 2, 512MB RAM), and even with all the effects turned off, and everything trimmed to a minimum, it was still pretty slow going. Mac OS X images on similar spec'd Mac hardware seemed to run a lot faster, especially 10.3 (Panther) and 10.4 (Tiger).
When Microsoft no longer sells Vista for anything other than a computer that was manufactured since 2006, then, it will no longer be a problem. Until then, well, yeah, it is a problem, and a big one for many consumers.
Well, most crappy Dells wouldn't be able to play it... so... at least he was partially right. Perhaps that person was just an asshole. :-)
Well come on now. Everyone uses that 5% market share against us. If 90% are Windows users, well, I would have to say that mathematically, more "stupid" people are Windows users. Especially if not ALL Mac users are stupid! :-D
Sorry, I'm just in a light-hearted mood today while reading this thread...
I respect your opinion and your preference, but, you talk about SE30's running OS X. That my friend was Mac OS 7.6 or older. Have you taken a look at the OS X interface recently? It's much, much different, than anything that was Mac OS 9 or older. I was never a big fan of the "Classic" Mac operating system, but I tolerated it. OS X is a joy to use. And you can get it running on a Mac Mini (and use your old keyboard and mouse) for $599.... then again, if you're happy with Windows... it's probably all a moot point.
I'm thinking that person means Panther... if it's a really old cat, it's a Jaguar... and if it's a Puma, well, it should be put to sleep. :-)
It sounds like you added the computer to Active Directory correctly. Make sure the system time is correct. It needs to be within so many minutes of the domain controller, otherwise it will refuse to login. There could also be other issues going on. Check the system.log to see any error messages.