Another look at OS X

[Whaleboy]

I'm speechless!

Asher and Agathon

[Whaleboy]

Originally posted by Agathon
Asher should try a cool mac prank on his workmates.

Use Command-Shift F3 to take a screenshot of the desktop with dock and icons visible. Then move the icons off the desktop and move the dock to the side and hide it. Then convert the the picture you took to jpg and set as the desktop background.

Then watch people go spastic as their mouse clicks don't do anything.

[Agathon]

Ben, that Fez thread in your sig is the most hilarious episode of denial I've ever seen.

[alva]

@ Whaleboy
You never heard of that one?
How did you survive all these years using a computer.

[Whaleboy]

Ben, that Fez thread in your sig is the most hilarious episode of denial I've ever seen.

Was before our time though, but grab a screenshot of it with his current avatar . I've got one but it's 1280 wide and Windows is being a ***** - wont let me resize it legibly .

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
Asher should try a cool mac prank on his workmates.

Use Command-Shift F3 to take a screenshot of the desktop with dock and icons visible. Then move the icons off the desktop and move the dock to the side and hide it. Then convert the the picture you took to jpg and set as the desktop background.

Then watch people go spastic as their mouse clicks don't do anything.

It's an old joke, but still a good one.

A couple guys at work made a simple program that binds to a global CTRL-~ hotkey, full-screens an image that looks like what their desktop is supposed to look like.

Hear footsteps, CTRL-~. It's instant.

[Kuciwalker]

Re: Another look at OS X

Originally posted by Asher
I've been toying with OS X more and more through work, not by choice. As most of you know, I'm not really a fan of Aqua, and I've criticized OS X quite a bit in many, many posts here.

A big part of my disgust with OS X was how it was different. Of course, the more you use it, the better you can get used to it and use it efficiently.

There are definitely some cool parts to it. For one, I've always been a fan of BSD, and I love that Apple chose to go with a BSD kernel (and not Linux...or even worse, their own design).

Apple's business design allows them to do a lot of cool things, cheaper and easier than their competition can. They have wholesale control of their computers: sales, hardware, software and all. They're the first real computer company to look at the personal computer as more than a tool, but as a toy. Maybe toy isn't the best word...consumer device.

They push the envelope with designs that no one else could get away with. They become chic. They can use their position as the only supplier to do things like remove legacy ports first (like serial/parallel), and remove floppy drives.

Steve Jobs is a marketing genius. He's moved from his fantastic claims about the G4 being a supercomputer, to marketing the true appeal of the Mac -- simplicity. Apple does do a lot of things that make me scratch my head and ask, "Why the hell hasn't someone done this before?" One example is Expose. While I do think this is more necessary on OS X than Windows or Linux, due to the lack of a "task bar" with descriptive text, it would be an excellent feature across all of the systems. It's not only elegant and slick, it's useful.

I'm still finding it rather painful to use OS X, personally, but I'm starting to see more and more what people like about it. It's easier to make things "just work" when you have a very limited combination of hardware and software to test. Apple has gotten away with putting a very flashy, usable interface on top of a very fast and advanced kernel, giving them the best of both worlds. "Power users" can make liberal use of the BSD underpinnings, while the "casual users" really love the huge default icons on the Dock and the overall visual impression.

I don't think it's likely, at all, for Apple to ever obtain a majority marketshare. They will always be a niche player. Put simply, their business practices as they are now would be patently illegal if they were a far larger company. But they certainly aren't going anywhere anytime soon. They'll be around for a long, long time.

I appreciate Apple being in the market, if only because I appreciate a fresh look on things. A lot of what they do I'll pray never makes it to the PC (I'm thinking of the single menu bar at the top, and the lack of a taskbar mostly), but it's nice to have the little guy who can move faster and try new things easier.

Apple.

Agathon, stop hacking Asher's account!

[Kuciwalker]

I see I was beaten to it

[Q Classic]

I don't think we'll ever hear anything like that from the Mac side, saying anything positive about Windows.

:shrugs:

[Agathon]

Agathon, stop hacking Asher's account!

Been done. Find another joke.

[Agathon]

I don't think we'll ever hear anything like that from the Mac side, saying anything positive about Windows.

How am I supposed to if I never use it?

[Tassadar500]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
I don't think we'll ever hear anything like that from the Mac side, saying anything positive about Windows.

:shrugs:

That's because there isn't anything positive about Windows.

[Tassadar500]

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar


Yet you continue to use it. Why?

It is teh J00ish concpiracy!

[Spiffor]

What just happened?

[Agathon]

teh j00s are trying to control our computers

I wish. I could do with one that toasted bagels. Mmmm... bagels...