I'd like to amend to my earlier statement. Since you already own the hardware, just download a copy of Ubuntu or plain vanilla Debian and install that. Get all the updates and relax. But if you plan on getting a new machine, an iMac is the way to go.
http://www.ubuntu.com/http://www.debian.org/
I agree. All you need to do is create a standard user account in mac OS X with no admin privileges so that the user can't do any damage to the system itself, only possibly screw up his or her home folder. Also, like you said, use Time Machine once every ten days or so (it will prompt the user if he or she forgets). Thats the ideal solution I think.
But let's assume the owner doesn't want to shell out for a new machine, and has some old PC he or she wants to use. And let's assume the user wants to use Windows. It is of course possible to create a locked-down user account in that operating system also. But they will have to get a backup solution, antivirus, anti this and that.
Ubundu is another possibility of course. It works very well for most home users, but not as much fun and as easy as a Mac maybe.
Apple is indeed "used widespread" by millions of people. You might have noticed that Apple has a large part of the US laptop market, more than 10 percent and growing.
Laptops should be built out of metal, not plastic. The plastic near the right hinge of my old Thinkpad T22 broke after a year or so, the X31 developed cracks around the edges (OK, it was possibly impact damage) and many plastic MacBooks - the old model, not the unibody aluminum one - have cracks (the top case is replaced by Apple under extended warranty.) OTOH the metal MacBook Pros will take hard use. I saw one that hade been run over by a car and still worked, though the screen was cracked! So, metal it is.
Yeah, but for me personally, a laptop should be reasonably small and portable. 11 pounds (5 kg) is just not portable. I would put my money on a good external display, but to each his own.
I've had two Thinkpads, a T22 and an X31, from the time when they were built by IBM and not the Chinese company Lenovo. I had to use Windows at the time, so IBM seemed the way to go.
They were well built but the total antithesis of good design. I wouldn't call black, square and plasticky "timeless". I call it "butt ugly". But for people who don't care about how things look and feel, or aesthetics, or user-friendliness, then fine, go for it.
The Lenovo W700ds has got to be the stupidest concept ever. Who would buy a lumbering beast like that, with a styling that might have been moderately cool back in 1993? I don't get it. This is proof the PC industry is dying. *Even uglier* than the 17" HP Pavilions.
It's funny and amazingly bone-headed Dell should mention the MacBook Air. *All it does is shift the focus to Apple's offerings!* It's not hard to build a thinner laptop than the MBA, several manufacturers have already done that (Sharp, Sony, LG). The challenge is to build something *better* than the MBA, with an operating system and application software package that equals it. Dell can probably build a super-thin Alamo, but if it ships with Windows Vista, it's still useless.
Why do so many people like to suffer and struggle with poorly written software when there are solutions that actually work as advertised? But sure, if you want to go CHEAP, Ubuntu is a good choice.
Why should Apple do such a silly thing? iPhone users like myself want a system that actually WORKS and does not crash. We don't want some home brew hobbyist platform - we want a CLOSED SOURCE phone that's tightly controlled. Open source is NOT a good thing when it comes to high end customer oriented products.
We are not children, we are professionals.
Easter eggs are OK for hobbyist projects, but if a customer or employer who is paying good money for it, he or she won't expect easter eggs in the finished product.
I know that may sound boring to some, but c'mon! Grow up, be responsible.
Yes, ClamXav works fine btw, but I have yet to find a virus or anything else infectious... Haven't caugt a Mac virus since about 1998, and even that one was harmless (a stupid MS Office macro virus for OS 9).
My MacBook Pro wakes up in one second, so why should I ever shut it down? The only time I ever restart it is after a system software upgrade that requires it.
Apple is more experienced than Google when it comes to hardware and software integration. (After all, they have been making computers since 1976.) Google, on the other hand, are masters at advertising and web services. They own that market, way ahead of everybody else.
And so I think both companies, and also competitors and the open source movement, will benefit from the fruitful competition between the iPhone and Android platforms. There's plenty of customers for everybody.
The really good news is Microsoft is about five or six years behind Apple and Google in every way. They still haven't got a single clue as to how this works, ant it will probably take them a while top figure this out.
God knows they really screwed up Vista. What a monumental failure! As long as that clown Steve Ballmer rund things in Redmond, everybody else wins.
I never turn my MacBook Pro off. It's ready to rock in about one second. I assume you can do the same with Linux, FreeBSD or even Windows. Why would you want to turn off a modern computer?
The various flavors of Linux could be the new standard on desktop and laptop computers, but only if they are based on a common standard base and user interface. From my humble perspective, and as a Mac user primarily - and many of you might want to kill me for saying this - it seems Gnome is way ahead of KDE in most respects. KDE looks and feels like a very old version of Windows, though the underlying code may be better. Gnome seems to be much more modern and polished. You can tell someone actually put some thought into the user experience.
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I'd like to amend to my earlier statement. Since you already own the hardware, just download a copy of Ubuntu or plain vanilla Debian and install that. Get all the updates and relax. But if you plan on getting a new machine, an iMac is the way to go. http://www.ubuntu.com/ http://www.debian.org/
I agree. All you need to do is create a standard user account in mac OS X with no admin privileges so that the user can't do any damage to the system itself, only possibly screw up his or her home folder. Also, like you said, use Time Machine once every ten days or so (it will prompt the user if he or she forgets). Thats the ideal solution I think. But let's assume the owner doesn't want to shell out for a new machine, and has some old PC he or she wants to use. And let's assume the user wants to use Windows. It is of course possible to create a locked-down user account in that operating system also. But they will have to get a backup solution, antivirus, anti this and that. Ubundu is another possibility of course. It works very well for most home users, but not as much fun and as easy as a Mac maybe.
BeOS would have been that OS. Maybe.
Apple is indeed "used widespread" by millions of people. You might have noticed that Apple has a large part of the US laptop market, more than 10 percent and growing.
Laptops should be built out of metal, not plastic. The plastic near the right hinge of my old Thinkpad T22 broke after a year or so, the X31 developed cracks around the edges (OK, it was possibly impact damage) and many plastic MacBooks - the old model, not the unibody aluminum one - have cracks (the top case is replaced by Apple under extended warranty.) OTOH the metal MacBook Pros will take hard use. I saw one that hade been run over by a car and still worked, though the screen was cracked! So, metal it is.
That's because they are all very sensible machines. This one is not.
Yeah, but for me personally, a laptop should be reasonably small and portable. 11 pounds (5 kg) is just not portable. I would put my money on a good external display, but to each his own.
I've had two Thinkpads, a T22 and an X31, from the time when they were built by IBM and not the Chinese company Lenovo. I had to use Windows at the time, so IBM seemed the way to go. They were well built but the total antithesis of good design. I wouldn't call black, square and plasticky "timeless". I call it "butt ugly". But for people who don't care about how things look and feel, or aesthetics, or user-friendliness, then fine, go for it.
Then again, why not just use Expose and Spaces, or something similar implemented in Windows or Linux?
The Lenovo W700ds has got to be the stupidest concept ever. Who would buy a lumbering beast like that, with a styling that might have been moderately cool back in 1993? I don't get it. This is proof the PC industry is dying. *Even uglier* than the 17" HP Pavilions.
It's funny and amazingly bone-headed Dell should mention the MacBook Air. *All it does is shift the focus to Apple's offerings!* It's not hard to build a thinner laptop than the MBA, several manufacturers have already done that (Sharp, Sony, LG). The challenge is to build something *better* than the MBA, with an operating system and application software package that equals it. Dell can probably build a super-thin Alamo, but if it ships with Windows Vista, it's still useless.
VR goggles are not cool. They make you look like an antisocial dork.
Yep, you are right. It's all about the apps. And that's why I only use Macs.
Why do so many people like to suffer and struggle with poorly written software when there are solutions that actually work as advertised? But sure, if you want to go CHEAP, Ubuntu is a good choice.
Why should Apple do such a silly thing? iPhone users like myself want a system that actually WORKS and does not crash. We don't want some home brew hobbyist platform - we want a CLOSED SOURCE phone that's tightly controlled. Open source is NOT a good thing when it comes to high end customer oriented products.
We are not children, we are professionals. Easter eggs are OK for hobbyist projects, but if a customer or employer who is paying good money for it, he or she won't expect easter eggs in the finished product. I know that may sound boring to some, but c'mon! Grow up, be responsible.
I don't care one iota about Windows, and I have little use for Linux (no usable productivity apps yet), except maybe as a server.
Yes, ClamXav works fine btw, but I have yet to find a virus or anything else infectious... Haven't caugt a Mac virus since about 1998, and even that one was harmless (a stupid MS Office macro virus for OS 9).
I agree. My MacBook Pro wakes up in one (1) second. And Mac OS X is a super reliable operating system, so why reboot at all?
My MacBook Pro wakes up in one second, so why should I ever shut it down? The only time I ever restart it is after a system software upgrade that requires it.
Apple is more experienced than Google when it comes to hardware and software integration. (After all, they have been making computers since 1976.) Google, on the other hand, are masters at advertising and web services. They own that market, way ahead of everybody else. And so I think both companies, and also competitors and the open source movement, will benefit from the fruitful competition between the iPhone and Android platforms. There's plenty of customers for everybody. The really good news is Microsoft is about five or six years behind Apple and Google in every way. They still haven't got a single clue as to how this works, ant it will probably take them a while top figure this out. God knows they really screwed up Vista. What a monumental failure! As long as that clown Steve Ballmer rund things in Redmond, everybody else wins.
I never liked the name Mongoloids anyway.
I am very angry at the man for crippling such a beautiful computer as the MacBook. I want to kick his sorry hippy ass for this!
I never turn my MacBook Pro off. It's ready to rock in about one second. I assume you can do the same with Linux, FreeBSD or even Windows. Why would you want to turn off a modern computer?
The various flavors of Linux could be the new standard on desktop and laptop computers, but only if they are based on a common standard base and user interface. From my humble perspective, and as a Mac user primarily - and many of you might want to kill me for saying this - it seems Gnome is way ahead of KDE in most respects. KDE looks and feels like a very old version of Windows, though the underlying code may be better. Gnome seems to be much more modern and polished. You can tell someone actually put some thought into the user experience.