OS X is more appealing to enterprises as a desktop operating system than ever before and although it is unlikely to take market share away from Windows, the Mac could reduce the number of Linux-based desktops, according to research group Gartner. In a report published by Gartner this week titled Enterprise Mac Clients Remain Limited, but Apple's Appeal is Growing, analysts Michael Silver, Neil MacDonald, Ray Wagner and Brian Prentice, said that administrators will most likely have to prepare for more Mac systems in their environment even though OS X is "not a suitable enterprise wide platform". Ars weighs in on the issue as well.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2006-06-02
1. Exactly how did "the famous user-friendliness" go "out the window"? What exactly went wrong between opening the Applications folder, double-clicking your word processor of choice, and typing your letter? Do elaborate.
2. As a former avid GNU/Linux user (Slackware for what its worth) since returned to the Windows platform (and in addition, MacOS), I've decided that OSX offers me all the Unix I could want or care for. It offers me development tools, good audio/visual support, a good user experience, perfect driver support, and most importantly, it gets the job done with a minimum amount of p*ssf*arting around. In the end of the day, I just want to get work done, perhaps enjoy a bit of music and watch a film, and then step away from the computer for the rest.
Windows fills in for everything else when I have a need to do .NET development or run Windows only software.
With all of the above covered, I have no compelling reason to devote my precious disk-space or free time to setting up and installing GNU/Linux. Yes it's Free. Yes its cool... but so what?
This is why I can also see GNU/Linux losing out in the Desktop/Workstation-front. It offers no competitive advantage over MacOS or Windows that businesses or end-users will really care about.
Member since:2005-07-06
"1. I noticed that if I wanted to do anything more on the Mac than write a letter or so, suddenly the famous user-friendliness was gone out of the window, and I found myself mucking about in the depths of the Mac system, trying to make things work "
That is very true. I am lucky enough to have years of experience with almost every OS out there except OS X.
And yet when I started using OS X, a few months ago, I found myself googling a lot in order to make things work.
Quite often extra apps are needed in order to get some basic functionality that you took for granted in Linux or Windows.
Member since:2005-07-06
i have to agree to a certain extent, i think osx is a very nice os, but definitly lacking in some areas. Now that i am used to it, it is not so bad, but it took a few months to really get used to it. I am coming from the linux/bsd world and i find myself in the terminal all the time on osx simply because it is the only way to make osx do what i want it do do (unless i pay a bunch of money for a crippled app). I hope all that changes, but quite simply, osx is not made for the power user, if you are a geek you are ok and if you are very unexperienced you are ok
but if you are somewhere in the middle, you will have problems.
"In the first episode of Microsoft's new film series 'On the Whiteboard', Editor Pamela Woon chats with two-time Oscar winner Randy Thom about the (often underestimated) importance of sound in human-technology interactions. Thom, the lead sound designer at Skywalker Ranch who worked on films such as The Incredibles, Castaway and Forrest Gump, says that people rarely consider the significance of those signature sounds that come from their trusty devices, whether it be a cell phone, a computer or a tablet."
"Microsoft has sensationally abandoned its controversial plans to restrict the sharing of XBox One games, and has also removed daily online authentication requirements for its forthcoming console", reports The Guardian. They had no choice. Still a good move."A snippet of code in the Steam digital distribution platform has revealed that Valve may be planning to let users easily share their games with friends in the future. The Verge has verified the code's authenticity, which was originally spotted by a member of the NeoGAF gaming forum; the code references a 'shared game library' and a notification that would alert a user when their games are currently in use by a borrower." This would change the, uh, game.
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it."I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)"."The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane."MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Member since:
2006-02-09
... on what you value.
I switched back to Linux from Mac for 2 reasons
1. I noticed that if I wanted to do anything more on the Mac than write a letter or so, suddenly the famous user-friendliness was gone out of the window, and I found myself mucking about in the depths of the Mac system, trying to make things work - reminded me of the years I spent with a certain OS from Redmond ... no big difference. And if I have to muck around, then I prefer do it with an open system - which leads to point two:
2. don't want to get locked in again into a proprietary system.
And the Mac is not that great, either, neither soft- nor hardware-wise, so no big regrets. I'll keep my 2 Macs for the time being, though - maybe some use can be found for them.