Oh Mac users, lend me your knowledge

[Asher]

Errr...everything Apple makes is overpriced. If you're worried about something being overpriced, stay the hell away from the $129/year subscription service of MacOS X.

[Verto]

The iBook is a solid choice for a 1,000$ laptop.

[Asher]

There are way better deals out there.

[Jon Miller]

I have heard that the powerbooks were made cheaply.. and had worse ratings..

but maybe that has changed

it is true that they are much more powerful then the ibook, and that they are nothing compared to a PC

JM

[Asher]

http://www.russellbeattie.com/notebook/1008631.html

Why I Might Switch Back…
Posted on Thursday, September 22nd, 2005 6:16 PM

I’ve been using Macs almost exclusively now for about 7 months - since just after I joined Yahoo! and got my PowerBook to go with my mini at home. Now that I’ve been using Macs for a while, I’m wondering if they’re all that special. The hardware is nice, but OS X can be as slow, buggy, non-standard, frustrating and annoying as any other operating system. Also, I don’t really use most of the included apps, so most of what makes OSX so special doesn’t really apply to me.

Let me be more specific about what I see as non-plusses, I’ll just list them out in no special order, but conveniently numbered so the zealots can refer to each number directly while defending their beloved macs:

1. Anyone who says that Macs are more stable than Windows are smoking dope. I have two brand new Macs and they regularly go wacky and need reboots.
2. My mini and PowerBook are 1.42Ghz and 1.5Ghz, with 1GB and 512MB respectively. They are both sloooooow. Though the PowerBook is a bit better, neither is as snappy as my two year old Celeron, and not anywhere near the cutting edge x86 laptops.
3. Also, the graphics power suck. ATI Radeon 9200 is anemic in 2005. Playing Halo on either computer is a drastically reduced experience than on my Celeron 2Ghz Toshiba.
4. I don’t like Mail or Safari. I much prefer Thunderbird and Firefox, both of which don’t get much attention on the Mac platform.
5. I really dislike iPhoto. I much prefer the Windows thumbnails.
6. I hate the Finder. I thought the Windows Explorer was bad and wacky, but I had no idea. Finder makes me want to hurt someone. I especially love when folders don’t merge, but replace.
7. Trillian is so much better than Adium or Fire, and iChat is non-starter.
8. I’m not a musician, GarageBand to me isn’t particularly compelling.
9. Like it or not, it’s a Windows world, and interop has to be a priority. If I take a few screen shots, paste them into a PowerPoint For Mac presentation and send them off, and no one can see them because the images have defaulted to some wacky Quicktime tiff? That’s bad.
10. Keynote and Pages are both interesting, but non-standard. I wouldn’t do any real work with them because I’d be afraid of trying to send documents to my coworkers.
11. Yahoo! Products work better on Windows: Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo! Music Engine are awesome on the PC. Yes Y! could concentrate more on Mac products, but they’re hardly alone here.
12. In fact, most stuff is available on Windows first, sadly. And I’m a bleeding edge junkie.
13. I like UltraEdit 32 over TextWrangler or TextEdit
14. You know, .Mac is interesting, but way too expensive.
15. The widescreen on the Powerbook is completely overrated. Web pages and documents are tall, not wide. Because the wide screen lowers the viewing center of the screen, I end up getting a crik in my neck looking “down” at the wide screen, rather than more straight ahead on PC based laptops.
16. Having to remember my DVI to VGA adapter to hook up my PowerBook to an overhead is a pain in the ass. The wide-screen to 800×600 presentation view is also jarring and painful.
17. What is the friggin’ deal with the .dmg files? The install process is so broken. Unzip .dmg.gz, mount .dmg, copy to Applications, unmount .dmg, delete .dmg, delete dmg.gz. Bleh.
18. Do you know how long it took me to get the idea that I had to empty the trash before I disconnected any external drives, memory cards, etc. otherwise the files just stayed whereever they were. And those ****ing .DS_Store files…
19. I don’t use iMovie. It’d be nice if I did, but it’s not a plus as I don’t have a DVD burner, and if I wanted to buy one, it’d cost me a ton.
20. Everything for Macs cost more. From my $50 Mighty Mouse to my $150 iSight camera.
21. I thought having “Unix” underneath would be an advantage. But it’s not Linux. Linux is what I know, the wackiness that is OSX confuses the hell out of me. I can barely figure out what’s running and not running. I installed some HP Printer software drivers months ago and the control panel starts up automatically every day and sits in the Dock, despite my best efforts to track down where the HELL it’s started from.
22. I thought Expose was cool at first, but then realized I was going blind trying to find the right window. Spatial memory, what? Expose just randomly throws the windows around the screen, it’s nuts.
23. I hate the Dock too. Each app responds differently. So some apps you can click on and the window appears at the top, others it ignores. And if you Minimize the window, well, it never pops up. WHY?!?! Urgh. Thank god I discovered Command+~ to swap between windows of the same app… I was losing my mind for a while trying to find things.
24. The hardware support isn’t great. I’ve got several devices which just are completely ignored by the Mac, including a WebCam and several USB devices. And my iSight doesn’t play nice with anything but iChat. WTF? Why isn’t it just a DV device?
25. iSync is only marginally better than nothing. I thought it was a holy grail… it’s really not. In fact, I tried to sync my wife’s phone and wasn’t being careful and it defaulted to a destructive sync and blanked out my wife’s phone. ARRRGGGH. WHY!?!?
26. I really don’t like the fact that some apps close when their window goes away (like System preferences, and Windows Video for the Mac) and other apps stay there in memory forever until you notice them by accident…
27. Spotlight isn’t great. It’s slow and doesn’t seem to find what I’m looking for.
28. Dashboard is pretty useless as well. I’ve installed Yahoo! Widgets (Konfabulator) and that’s much more what Dashboard should’ve worked like.
29. Does anyone use Sherlock any more?
30. Windows Anti-aliasing for LCDs is more refined than OS X. You’d think it’d be opposite, but to me Macs seem fuzzy.
31. OSX mouse tracking isn’t great. Why is that? Didn’t they invent it? Why do I have to go get separate mouse drivers for my Microsoft, Logitech and MightyMouse mice? That’s insane.
32. Rendezvous/Bonjour works as advertised… but since no one around me uses a Mac, it really doesn’t matter except for iTunes, and the Windows version supports that functionality any ways.
33. Hitting F11 by accident is a wonderful way to lose your mind. “AHHH!”

Okay, that said. There are benefits. The command line is sooooo much nicer than the SSH client I was using on my PC. The Windows Networking is actually better than real Windows. The Bluetooth stack is decent as well (doesn’t seem to crash as much) and my PowerBook sleeps and comes out of sleep cleanly. Quicksilver is amazing as well. Real’s media player is so much nicer - with no weird pop-ups. Keeping applications as folders is a neat idea (though in reality so much settings stuff is stored in your Library, it’s not *that* cool.) User switching is good and the ability to one click and have an SSH or Apache Server up and running is pretty neato.

But after all this, I don’t think I would give a Mac to my Mom and expect any magic, for example. I think Apple has sacrificed their vaunted simplicity, usability and consistency in the face of sloppy Windows competition. They’ve settled for “good enough” I think, and if that’s the case, then I might as well stick with the more popular OS, which ends up being the easier OS to deal with becuase of its popularity. Much of the ability to even function at a basic level is by the Grace of Microsoft for supporting the Mac with Office and Windows Media, otherwise I’d be blind to tons of online media and and all of the enterprise.

Also, all this makes me wonder if Linux will ever get to a decent position on the desktop. Mac has all the advantages Linux doesn’t have in terms of a fanatical fan base, developer support, etc. and I still feel daily pain by using it. And Linux shares the same disadvantage as the Mac in that it’s simply Not Windows. Which religiously may be a good thing, but I’m thinking about the mass market. Or, I guess you could look at it the other way - if people are willing to move to the Mac, then hell, why not Linux? But I’m thinking neither is bound to happen any time soon.

I also think that the move to x86 for OSX isn’t going to do much for them. Though one of my main *****es is the speed of the Macs I’m using, I’m more concerned with the fact that the OSX platform is such a pain in the ass to deal with. An expensive pain in the ass to boot. I really don’t think isn’t going to change once Apple is using Intel hardware. What’s really needed is a next rev to do that. A Mac OS 11 to clean up all the weird bits and get back to basics with usability and cleanliness, based on a world where most people use Windows.

Anyways, I probably need to swap back to Windows for a bit to realize how good I have it. Or better yet, move to Linux for a few days to make me really appreciate a Desktop OS with popular support. Or I guess I could swallow the Blue Pill and start using Mail, Safari, iChat, etc. etc.

[Urban Ranger]

http://www.russellbeattie.com/notebook/1008610.html

Okay, I’ve had an opinion change I’d like to announce. I’m betting that the future of mobility will be Linux, and not Symbian, Windows or anything else. This is quite a change from my previous pro-Symbian stances, but I’ve been sort of leaning this way for a while - or rather, leaning away from Symbian as it fails to live up to its potential - and now I’ve finally come to a religious change of faith when it comes to mobile OSes.

First, let me say that my original thoughts on Symbian have pretty much come to pass. The OS had huge backing from Nokia and other major manufacturers, and has over the past few years completely demolished its competition in terms of raw numbers, selling roughly 30 million phones. A lot less than I would have thought, but more than any other smart phone OS. But years pass, and its time to re-look at the mobile landscape and try to guess what’s going to happen over the next few years, and my gut feeling is that Linux will be the big winner. No, I haven’t succumbed to what I call “Valley Thinking” - that Silicon Valley PC-centric way of looking at the world which plagues most of the area I live in. I’m looking at the trends and extrapolating based on a few clues.

First I’ll start with the final epiphany and work backwards. The latest news I’ve seen about the Nokia 770 is that it’s going to have a host of applications ready for it at launch, including VoIP software, streaming media, chat applications, Doom, etc. The thing that’s so amazing about this is that the 770 is essentially the *same exact hardware* that’s on my Nokia 6680, yet the development pace for the 770 is way more rapid. In addition, there’s at least a half a dozen blogs and bloggers dedicated to the device, and it hasn’t even launched yet. This shows the power of an open environment and the draw of Linux and its fans.

This points straight at Symbian’s major problem: Developer support. From the very beginning, the Symbian platform has been difficut to impossible to understand, let alone develop for. It takes experienced C++ developers tons of time to even understand the strange way that the Symbian OS works, let alone get to any level of expertise. It also requires a Windows development box and usually a not-for-free IDE to manage the code as well. Then, when developers run into problems, they must navigate a myriad of different sources for answers, including Symbian.com, Nokia, carrier websites, etc. On top of this, someone, somewhere forgot to tell Symbian that the “User Interface Is the OS”. Thinking that Series 60 is the same as UIQ or Series 90 is like saying that developing for FreeBSD is the same as developing for Linux and Mac OSX. This puts a lot more pressure on developers as they have to choose between platforms - and though most would prefer the bigger screen and power of a Sony Ericsson device running UIQ, Nokia’s OS is selling so many more units that they’d be foolish to develop for any thing but that. Finally, once a Symbian app is developed, the path to market is hardly paved at all right now. I don’t know of many carriers that have Over The Air access to Symbian applications. I could be wrong about this, but if there are any, the numbers are really, really low. All of this bubbles up to the top, making decisions to base apps on Symbian a more expensive and risky operation for companies, and most aren’t willing to take that chance.

Linux doesn’t solve all these problems, but it solves quite a few. First, it’s a free and familiar development environment that coders will have some experience with. Secondly though the distributions might be radically different - 770’s Debian-based distrib vs. Montavista’s Mobilinux for example - the core programming methods will be similar enough that some porting will be possible or at least coders won’t be completely bewildered as they are now with Symbian (’helloworld’ just by itself is a monumental effort on that platform). And the development community isn’t trapped in a handful of manufacturer sites, it’s out there with all the rest of the Linux world. Finally, developing for Linux is relatively fun and developing for Symbian is generally not (which is putting it mildly). I’ve heard first hand from developers about the pain of developing for Symbian phones, and you can only hear this enough times before you start to read the big flaming writing on the all.

What about Microsoft and the Mobile Windows platform? Well, I see Windows picking up speed in the corporate market, helped by companies like Palm who are soon going to be pushing their Mobile Windows based Treo soon. And in my opinion, there are no better developer-oriented companies than MS. An inexpensive subscription to MSDN will give you every single product that Microsoft has, and includes reams of documentation, etc. But Microsoft still has the same problems in mobility that has plagued it over the past few years: little manufacturer or carrier support. We’ve already seen Linux outship Windows Mobile devices, but in general dealing with Microsoft is dealing with the devil (as Sendo’s demise has shown us) and everyone knows it. When it comes to mobility, carrier and manufacturer deals are key and I don’t think Microsoft has many opportunities in this area. This is what has propped Symbian up so far.

But I see Symbian’s window closing, and fast. They’ve had over two years to get their platform in order, and it still hasn’t happened and I can tell from people I talk to and what’s happening online that the frustration with Symbian as a platform is reaching a peak. Everyone is looking at alternatives, and Linux is inexpensive, has no strategy tax (like Microsoft) and it’s got a great developer community around it. Mobile Linux is already ascending in Asia (the reason PalmSource bought China MobileSoft), Motorola and Yahoo! are working on providing services for their upcoming Linux based phones, and even Nokia is looking at it as well. Plus, the current growth of Linux is astounding - listen to this DDJ interview with Montavista Linux to hear the numbers.

Let me go back and address on thing: The path to market is really a major issue. Not that Linux is going to magically fix this, but here’s my rough thinking: Linux is just as good, or maybe better, of a platform on which to have Java run. Java is the ruler of all mobile applications at the moment, and with more than half of all mobile phones running Java it will be for some time. Carriers want more compelling applications so they can bump up data ARPUs, and therefore will be looking at the platforms that can provide the most innovation and buying from the manufacturers that provide phones with those platforms. The market isn’t ready for native applications yet - and may not be for several years out - but when the time is right, there’s going to be a need for a platform which provides the easiest base to innovate from, and Linux is it. Until then they may lock down devices, and make Linux phones - which by definition of having a multi-tasking OS are ’smart phones’ - into Feature phones, but the core power of Linux is there ready to be tapped, even if only by the manufacturers or carriers themselves.

Going backwards from there, and I’ve started seeing manufacturers talking more about UMA, or “Unlicense Mobile Access” which they see as augmenting the cellular networks with local WiFi or future technologies such as WiMax and WiBro. Though I think these devices will take at least a decade to reach the critical mass of cellular-based mobiles, they are definitely going to make an impact in the short term. Again, two years ago, I dismissed WiFi phones outright, but now I’m starting to see more traction in the idea. Two years out, I can see that the most expensive smart phones - the equivalent of my Nokia 6680 now - will have some sort of WiFi access and an open platform on which to take advantage of it. That platform will most likely be Windows or Linux, but I really can’t see it being Symbian. There’s no way it can compete for developer mind share.

There could be some spoilers out there. You never know what’s going to happen tomorrow - Apple could pull out some amazing iPhone and change the market over night. But right now being in the industry this is how I see things progressing. As it is now, I use a Symbian phone and plan on recommending that platform to others looking for a good smart phone. But as the next 12 months goes by, I full expect that a Linux based phone will enter my world, and within the next few years become a standard.

See you in 2008.

[emphasis mine]

Sorry about the threadjack

[Asher]

Yeah, because a rant about cell phone OSes is relevant to anything discussed here.

[Verto]

Originally posted by Asher

http://www.russellbeattie.com/notebook/1008631.html

Those are just stupid.

[Agathon]

An ibook will be fine. The main thing is to get extra RAM for it. Don't buy RAM from Apple: theirs is too pricy.

Your professors probably recommend the mac because of its superior ability to deal with non-Roman fonts and other languages generally.

Since I use Classical Greek a lot I need this. It is a nightmare to get working on Windows. On a mac it just works... in every application (I can search accented Greek terms for example).

If you are serious about getting work done and you deal in words, you need a Mac. Windows is too flaky, insecure and is simply not good enough for serious writing.

[Asher]

What kind of serious writing is done in ancient Greek these days?

You should be careful with your wording, replace "serious writing" with "frivolous meanial bull****".

Serious writing hasn't been in Greek for some time...

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Asher
Yeah, because a rant about cell phone OSes is relevant to anything discussed here.

When you use something on a website to support your PoV, other things posted on the same website can be used against you.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
When you use something on a website to support your PoV, other things posted on the same website can be used against you.

How is it being used against my opinion of desktop OSes?

Cellphone OSes are a completely different beast and unrelated, and further, just because I quote someone's single article doesn't mean I agree with everything the man's ever written.

You really do need to work on your debate skills, grasshoppah. Perhaps you can start by reading the posts, then understand them. After that you can type out a coherent, related reply.

That's what we do out West, anyway.

[Agathon]

What kind of serious writing is done in ancient Greek these days?

You should be careful with your wording, replace "serious writing" with "frivolous meanial bull****".

Serious writing hasn't been in Greek for some time...

You really are a halfwit. And you can't even spell "menial" properly to boot.

Is this really the best you can do?

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
You really are a halfwit. And you can't even spell "menial" properly to boot.

Is this really the best you can do?

Oh sue me, it must've thrown you into a loop to have to perform induction like that with a typo.

And that question should be directed at you -- you constantly harp about MacOS' support for ancient Greek as if it's some kind of achievement.

Perhaps if Apple spent less time worrying about supporting archaic languages and more time making a competent OS they'd have more than 2% marketshare.

[KrazyHorse]

Huh?



He posts something about Mac vs Windows on desktop/notebook and you respond with a quote about the OS of mobile phones/PDAs? WTF? You're on ****ing crack, dude.