Over the years, we've occasionally run an "Ask OSNews" feature, wherein a reader asks us a question and we answer it publicly. Lately I've really been enjoying Slate's Dear Prudence advice column and the ever-interesting Straight Dope, and I thought we should see if we can get more OSNews readers to submit questions, and turn Ask OSNews into a more-regular thing. If your question falls outside of our domain expertise, we'll try to track down an expert to help out. And of course, our responses will always be supplemented by further advice from OSNews readers in the comments. Questions are welcome on any topic ranging from OSes and computing to science and geek culture. Contact us with your questions. (Please include "Ask OSNews" in the subject). Today's question is from a young student in Hungary who's seduced by the faraway siren song of Apple's marketing and wonders, "should I switch?"
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Member since:2005-07-06
You were presenting opinion as fact - that is what I object to. You can have what ever opinion you want, the moment you start declaring your opinion as fact - just as you did, you lose all credibility. You also failed to enter into any sort of meaningful dialogue - are you here to enter into a conversation or do you expect a monologue where you can do a sermon on the mound with all those present merely bobbing their head in agreement?
By the way, I never moderate people down because that would be openly declaring that I'd sooner silence your opinion than post a reply. Unlike a good portion here, I am not a coward who needs to shut off my brain and engage my clicking finger instead. If I have a problem with a post I either rebut, ignore or flame them.
People who moderate posts down are no better than those who throw the first punch - vile and disgusting creatures who resort to primitive ways of behaving that allow them to disengage their brain from any possible thinking.
Member since:2005-07-08
You were presenting opinion as fact - that is what I object to. You can have what ever opinion you want, the moment you start declaring your opinion as fact - just as you did, you lose all credibility.
IMHO, I don't see how my post is different from others in tone in this thread? Isn't posting in a forum/comment section not by default an opinion? Or should I start all my sentences with "In my humble opinion"?
...You also failed to enter into any sort of meaningful dialogue - are you here to enter into a conversation
Note, I was a parent poster, as such there is little to react on except the original article. Where other people reacted on my post, you chose to quote me and tell me that I should stop lying and accused me of being a troll and a one-time poster. When I replied, you tell me I don't enter in meaningful conversation.
...or do you expect a monologue where you can do a sermon on the mound with all those present merely bobbing their head in agreement?
No not really, maybe some reactions why Apple is a friendly company or some other experience on the ergonomics.
On what do you have a different view? I gave examples why I have my opinion for all except the Clan of Mac.
Member since:2005-11-10
"You are avoiding the point here: Apple's are expensive.Agreed, Windows is not very useful out-of-the-box but there is so much free software out there that it doesn't matter that much. If you buy Windows, you get 5 years worth of service packs (XP), Apple makes you pay every 18 months if you want to upgrade."
Yes Mac's are expensive, but they last longer and have a much better resale value then a better Windows machine. So if I get a Mac book for $1000 and a better Dell for $800 after 3 years my Mac will be worth more if I want to sell it.
Also the Mac OS does come out every 18 months, looks like MS is following that now also. BUT for the full Mac OS its $129. Been that Way since 2000. With Windows you have to wait till the day of release to figure out if the price for a similar version of Windows will cost %5 or %10 more then the last version of Windows which is going to be no less then $200 if you want a good version.
Also I am still using Tiger on half my machines still which came out in April of 2005 and its still fully supported by Apple. Each version is supported for almost 5 years even though the new version comes out during that time.
Oh and lord forbid if you want to go from XP to Windows 7. You have to perform back flips. LOL! While I can move from almost any version of OS X to almost every new version so far with almost no issues. Even if I want to start from scratch its simple:
1. Make an image of the hard drive to a USB drive using the disk utility. (Boot from the USB drive to make sure it's bootable)
2. Wipe the drive and install the new Mac OS.
3. Keep the USB drive with the bootable image plugged in, boot with the new OS, in the set up the OS will ask you if you have an older Mac, it will see the USB drive with the image as an older Mac and ask you if you want to move all your data, files, settings etc to the new install.
4. Reboot and you are like new with the new OS and all your old settings. If you have a problem with the new set up you can just boot from the USB image and image your old install back to the machine from the USB drive.
Try that 4 step process on a Windows machine. Your data will be in the ether. LOL! Only thing more simple then upgrading a Mac or moving to a new Mac is upgrading your iPhone OS.
I mean using a Mac is like using an alarm clock. You plug it in and go. It just works. Shoot the hacked version of Mac OS 10.5.7 I have on my MSI Wind U100 works better then Linux and Windows 7 beta on the same machine. This also goes against the fake point that the Mac OS only runs good because Apple controls the hardware. I also have a hacked version of Mac OS on my Dell GX620 desktop. Works fine.
The point of my post is that price doesn't mean anything. The usability is where its at. Consumer Reports and other rating companies almost always rate Apple near or at the top in Quality and Customer satisfaction.
Member since:2009-05-26
Now that Mac went with Intel, your wonderful machines and Tiger software's days are numbered. In a few short years you will have to upgrade, as a long time Mac user friend of mine is finding out. All the new stuff is coming out Intel and only a few things are Universal. Still you can build a Hackintosh for $400 and run stuff faster than a Mac at three times that price. I run Leopard, Win7, and Linux all on the same cheap box with a Cameleon boot loader front end. That way I get the best of all worlds without emulators and virtual machine limitations. And I have to tell you Leopard is no better than Ubuntu or Win7 when it is all said and done. They are just a means for running the software applications you put on them. The PC has the majority of good free applications simply because there are so many developers working on them. Linux is next, followed by a few good graphic programs for the Mac. The only one I know worth while that is not on PC or Ubuntu is final cut. I can do just about everything else on my Intel Core i7 in neck break speed. Do not think you can do much watercooling and overclocking on that vanilla Mac of yours.
Edited 2009-05-26 21:22 UTC
"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.
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight."
Member since:
2005-07-08
Err, unlike others I try not to repeat myself with the same arguments, I thought my post speaks for itself? And more importantly, why is someone a troll if he posts only once?
How about not lying.
Ad hominem attack, I only stated my opinion.
You pay to get Mac OS X; I'd buy a PC if Windows wasn't such a horribly disfuctional operating system whose UI design is so counter intuitive you wonder whether it was created that way simply to 'stick it to the man' (the man being the Xerox UI design and subsequent variations up on that like Atari, Amiga and Apple with the single menu at the top of the screen etc).
Don't get me started on Linux where one plays, "pray that your computer works properly with it". Hardware feedback? useless; I read pages about a given printer supported by Linux only to find that the people offering feedback HAD NEVER USED IT.
You are avoiding the point here: Apple's are expensive.
Agreed, Windows is not very useful out-of-the-box but there is so much free software out there that it doesn't matter that much. If you buy Windows, you get 5 years worth of service packs (XP), Apple makes you pay every 18 months if you want to upgrade.
I have a Mighty mouse right now, it has 4 buttons; two side, two top and the 'nipple' ontop is also a button. What more do you need? Or are you one of those individuals with a button fetish whose modus operandi amounts to "the more buttons the better". Talk about boys and their toys!
What the hell are you going on about? I have a keyboard right now and it uses the same chicklet keyboard as my Macbook - oh, thats right, you're complaining about stuff from 2 years ago! yes, its alot easier to complain based on outdated information than debate based on 2009 specifications.
You are avoiding again, yes you can name some hardware that works well, all I say is: my experience with some of that expensive Apple hardware is horrendeous.
Other people have some opinions about Apple's Might mouse too. Here is a link. The whole thread is interesing.
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1216799&cid=27769445
...Non standard display port? why?
Where? give specifics - you mean the new unibody MacBooks?
Yes and mini's (mini DVI)
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs.html
and
http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html
And thus the conclusion that you're a troll. I might as well say Windows sucks because insists on using the pointless Startmenu to load applications.
It's easier to reach the CTRL key with your little finger and your index finger than to reach the Apple key with your thumb and reach over with your index finger, though I guess it is partially what one is used to.
...
And thus you further re-enforce what I stated; you're a troll. If you weren't you wouldn't have done a post and run.
I am here, my post was at 1am, I need to sleep as well!
You didn't address the points that Apple is a company that treats its customers with little respect.
I thought voting down on OSNews is only used if something is factually not right or obnoxious, I was only stating my opinion..