[KLUG Advocacy] Mac OS X

Jon Smitley advocacy@kalamazoolinux.org
Fri, 23 May 2003 12:18:22 -0400


Point of View to be taken here is that your comfort level is with the Linux
OS.  You know how it works, you have tweaked it to your needs.  I, too,
enjoy my Linux boxes, but I also have an Ibook ( I'm the person Peter
helped).  I am glad to have it.  I respect that it is not Linux, although at
the fringes it has the makings of linux (BSD, whatever).  That my Ibook can
relate to my linux boxes natively at the **ix level is nice.

>From: Adam Tauno Williams <awilliam@whitemice.org>
>To: <advocacy@kalamazoolinux.org>

> 1. Performance is TERRIBLE!  My AMD K6-2-300 runs GNOME 2 faster than
> these iBooks run OS/X, it is like swimming in a vat of 80W-90.  The low
> end hardware Apple sells (or sold) is not up to the task of running its
> own software, which seems disengenuous.

Performance is fine with my Ibook, it does what I need as I need it to do it
without balking.  I am not a power user on either platform.  But I also
think that Gnome2 works well(faster) with Redhat than KDE3 does on Redhat,
and that KDE3 works well(faster) with Suse than Gnome2 does on Suse.  At
this point in time I don't know about a seperate desktop environment for
OSX, therefore Aqua is the only choice at the moment.  But for speed,
nothing boots, runs, shuts down nearly as fast as as my Win98 (First
Edition) box (nothing need to be stated here, it is a remnant).

> 2. It is certainly NOT more intuitive to a true computer neophyte. They
> are just as lost as they would be if given a Win32 box.  You still have
> to have fundamental concepts as: file, path, connection, etc...  Whether
> you represent these things with names or cute little icons.  This isn't
> really a critisism of Apple, just many of its pundits.

Areed.  No computers are intuitive.  No OS's are intuitive.  People are
intuitive, at least some are.  No one becomes knowledgable about anything
without interaction with the subject, mental or physical.

> "To be honest, I only really wanted to play with Apples for the
> hardware. Apple hardware is, in my opinion, the best manufactured and
> designed hardware bar-none. Macs are sexy, cool and hell, they last for
> years."

> 3. Please!  In my reckoning the iBook is the crappiest laptop ever
> made.  I've seen keys fall off, *KEYBOARDS* fall off, displays that need
> to be propped open, power supply connects that have to be wiggled till
> "Oh! The little lightning bar appeared. Pheeew!".  And the iMac?  I'm
> sorry but this claim is totally bogus;  Apple hardware is cheap and
> crumby.  I've been REALLY disappointed.

Although I have not owned many laptops,  this is by no means the crappiest
laptop ever made.  Your interaction with the Ibook has been subpar.  Why?
Maybe it was not the Ibook, but your expectation of it based on the
abilities your linux laptops have with your knowledge of them and how to
make them bend to your wishes.  Hardware wise, anytime there is a leap to
something new, there are always weaknesses in them.  How many OS's could do
USB flawlessly when it first came out,  IEEE**** (Firewire) ????, DVD ???
All the key, keyboard, power supply problems are found on PC based machines.
Search the web for those detractors to the PC based laptops.

> "I had forgotten to hold down the 'C' key as the machine booted up. (did
> I mention I'd only been using my iBook three months? ;-)"
>
> 4. Speaking of intuitive... A PC says "Press <F2> to enter setup" during
> the initial part of the boot sequence.  I had to call tech support to
> find out HOW TO BOOT FROM AN ALTERNATIVE DRIVE.  Would a "Hold the 'C'
> key to manually select boot device" message be that difficult?  That is
> what I call intuitive, telling me what I need to know when I need to
> know it.

A PC wasn't built for one particular OS,  therefore setup prior to OS became
a potential issue, hence the press "whatever" to enter setup.  Apple has/had
no intention of having any other OS on their platform.

I respect your opinion and your knowledge about the Linux OS, and others.
But, as is true in all things, we all apply our biases to our opinions.  I
will advocate to the best of my ability that Linux should become the OS of
choice to all, but it is not and will not be ready for all until a
"uniformity" exist in the Linux community. But we know that the flexibility
of linux is where its power lies.  I then would rather have someone using
the Mac OSX than using Win"anything".  It has flexibilty, but not to the
point where it wouldn't break, but it is also uniform in that it runs on one
platform and has one interface.

I am in no way knowledgable enough to fight for why OSX is better than
linux, but I also don't think that is true.
My experience with the Ibook has been good and I would encorage people from
both the Win** world and the Linux world to try one out for themselves.

Jon
Minding of Madness

 _______________________________________________
> Advocacy mailing list
> Advocacy@kalamazoolinux.org
>