Coming mostly from the Windows world (that’s what I still use at work), then moved home for linux (RedHat mostly) for about 2 years, but once I got lots of gadgets – it wasn’t easy to keep up with manual patching of kernels, etc. (I simply lost enthusiasm to do that through unusual ways)… And voila – I bought an iBook year and half ago, and I’m happy with it – and it got the gnu/*nix tools that I like.
from the article: “After deleting the pre-installed Microsoft Office demos, I got myself NeoOfice/J, a Java port of OpenOffice.org. It doesn’t adopt to OS X’ style and isn’t very responsive, but it will do it’s job. If OOo 2 is out for OS X, I’ll probably switch.”
NeoOffice/J is still not fully integrated Aqua or Carbon app, but that’s the milestone in a long run – it not only “switches” the API for menus, rendering – but does a lot of other small changes to the baseline OOo source code – rendering and usage of fonts, printers, files, etc. I’m not sure whether the changes would be backpropagated to the Ooo branch, or not, but I’m quite happy with the NeoOffice/J (after buying ThinkFree from $50, I feel now kind of ripped-off).
I too am happy about my powerbook. I’ve had it for about half a year now. A bit confusing to get around at first with Mac OS X, finding stuff. But that doesnt last long. In no time I was thinking to myself how could I have survived without my powerbook, Mac OS X, the command key. I just can’t imagine myself without it. Oh, and if you haven’t tried it yet, I suggest “QuickSilver” – amazing app.
I’m also a Linux fan. Particularly, a Slackware fan. But since, unfortunately, there is no official Slackware ppc port, although you know, there’s Slackintosh… But anyway, I’ve heard only but good things about Gentoo ppc. I’ll eventually try it, but… I don’t think it will be anytime soon because I’m just really happy about Mac OS X and how it helps me in my work… as a student I mean
Well, you can call me shallow but looks mean a lot to me. I couldn’t get my WinXP to look as cool as WMaker or Fluxbox and so I had to let WinXP go. WinXP is easy and Linux is easy and I’ve heard that MacOSX is easy, so there’s nothing new there. But, like most Linux geeks, I like to customize my desktop to look exactly the way I like it. It’s got to look cool or otherwise I won’t use it. And all the screenshots I’ve seen of MacOSX look just horrible, IMO. As un-cool as you can get. BSDs can also be made to look cool, just like Linux. But how’s customizability on MacOSX? Can it be made to look really cool, like WMaker and Fluxbox?
If you want customizability, you need a third party app called “Shapeshifter”. The theme scene for OS X is suprisingly vibrant, considering that it starts out looking fantastic. I definitely suggest the ‘Milk’ style, google for it.
I don’t believe Mac OS X can be customized in the ways its possible to customize wm’s in Linux. Aqua may me customized in some manner, i believe, similar to the ways XP can be – through some skinning apps or whatnot. But I think thats why there’s Linux PPC – for those that, despite Mac OS X beeing much more “open” than XP, want even more control – want all control.
I stick with OS X in my powerbook, Linux (hence Fluxbox ) everywhere else. It works for me.
even better: sell the powerbook, and get yourself a x86 with the power of Linux/*BSD 8) That fancy MacOS X look can’t beat a well configured fluxbox desktop, and besides the look, it’s extremely lightweight.
Though I always use Mplayer on my Gentoo box, I find it rather “jerky” on the mac. VLC, on the other hand, plays very smoothly. I can also add that Xine is available for the Mac:
>even better: sell the powerbook, and get yourself a x86 with the power of Linux/*BSD 8) That fancy MacOS X look can’t beat a well configured fluxbox desktop, and besides the look, it’s extremely lightweight.
I believe there was mention in the article about not having a free audio recorder. I’ve found Audacity to work pretty well, although I have not used it extensively:
I think you have to read between the lines: SCoTB is so entrenched in his Windows XP working habits that when he tries to apply them to the Mac platform it blows up in his face.
It’s the tool that’s the problem, it never occured to him that it might be himself…
The last Mac I owned was an LCIII and a PowerBook 180 back when I was in school.
Of course, is someone would seriously like to donate any kind of equipment. I work with seniors and setting them up with computers and e-mail. Most of these retirees only make $700 a month and cannot afford new technology of any kind.
Having recently purchased a Mac Mini my biggest issues so far have been only minor annoyances with the keyboard.
Most notably the home/end keys don’t seem to function the way I expect. Still getting used to the command/option/mac keys – Note I have a usb Microsoft keyboard so it’s a little more difficult to match things.
Overall the experience has been positive almost addictive (I’m typing this in on the mac now). I still have a ways to go though.
3. Say NO to the trendy, shallow featherbrains who can only babble about how “purty” their mac looks.
4. Say NO to the over-priced planned obsolescence. Nothing is so stupid or obsolete as the bygone years’ mac model – especially that idiot flower-pot thing.
hmm.. planned obsolesce? that is more like what goes on in the PC world… I am still using a powermac circa 2000. All I did was upgrade the optical, the ard drive, the processor and the video card and added memory.. tada!!! a machine that runs great….. BTW.. it ran great before on a 400 MHz system, but I wanted to do DVD authoring so I needed the juice up.
I see the trolls and haters don’t have school today.
We’ll start by saying no to you and find yourself a job so you can buy stuff. There is nothing wrong with old Mac/PC hardware as long as it will run what you need it. That silly Flower Power iMac will run the current version of MacOSX and will probably run Tiger as well. So much for your so called obsolescence plan. There are plenty of Macs that will run MacOSX that were not even designed to run MacOSX.
So basically build your own eh? good luck When you develop your own laptops gimme a call :p
2. Say NO to platform lock-in.
Good idea, now go use your linux and manually update yoru kernel while we do real work :p
3. Say NO to the trendy, shallow featherbrains who can only babble about how “purty” their mac looks.
My mac is pretty AND functional AND superlight – how’s your linux laptop which you made yourself doing?
4. Say NO to the over-priced planned obsolescence. Nothing is so stupid or obsolete as the bygone years’ mac model – especially that idiot flower-pot thing.
I dont know about you but my previous computers are still going. My Performa 365CD jsut retired this year (11 years of service)
My PowerMac G3 is still kicking along proving me with good work (6 years and counting)
Your little write up would be believable if it had any credibility. What MAC do you have? You mentioned that it was a computer then it was a small club of some sort?
I don’t see how with your vast intelligence you can’t keep a MacOSX system of all things running smoothly. Do you even know what Cocktail does?
No, he just told the truth. I assebled an athlon64 3500 socket 939 with 2 giga ram,200 giga SATA HD, radeon 9550 256 mb, and it smokes off any powermac g5. But, instead, it cost just 780 €, just a bit more than a pathetic mini. And since i chose the internal components in a smart way, I can upgrade the beast in the future without changing everything next year. Besides,it only runs linux, not that crappy windoze xp.
The more you read about Macs and Mac-oriented stuff the more you’ll see that there are plenty of customizing tools and power tools out there plus all the command line stuff and most *nix software via Fink. You don’t need to have the Aqua interface, install ShapeShifter and get a new theme, there’s a ton out there. Heck, there’s even a way to log in to a command line (it’s >console or somthing, google it), no Aqua GUI at all! Go through versiontracker.com or google for the power user feature you want, someone is bound to have made an app or tool for it. Coming from years of PCs I was really surprised that Macs (and all the 3rd party software for them) offer more flexibilty and ease-of-use than I expected, and I’m not at all talking about the way it looks.
“The more you read about Macs and Mac-oriented stuff the more you’ll see that there are plenty of customizing tools and power tools out there plus all the command line stuff and most *nix software via Fink. You don’t need to have the Aqua interface, install ShapeShifter and get a new theme, there’s a ton out there. Heck, there’s even a way to log in to a command line (it’s >console or somthing, google it), no Aqua GUI at all! Go through versiontracker.com or google for the power user feature you want, someone is bound to have made an app or tool for it. Coming from years of PCs I was really surprised that Macs (and all the 3rd party software for them) offer more flexibilty and ease-of-use than I expected, and I’m not at all talking about the way it looks.”
The problem is, you can have the same UNIX tools and flexibility and more with linux. Besides, with linux you have more freedom and you can use that much more powerful hardware (athlon64/fx, new p4/emt64)
Many mac-zealots often forget the fact you don’t have necessarily to use the pathetic windows xp on intel/amd machines. To be fair, you can use linux even on macs, but why spending twice to run linux on inferior hardware?
I’ve built my own boxes too, so I recognize the advantages, expecially in price, but there are limitations.
Laptops: building them like you would a desktop? the ability isn’t even close. video chips are integrated on almost all laptop mobos, and theres no standard mobo design for cases.
Also, 780 euros is just over $1000 us, with which someone could get an ibook, or with slightly more, an imac g5.
And again, a lot of the included OS X software thats included would cost a boat-load on any other OS. (not all linux software is free, and what is, is of far lower quality, especially in multimedia apps)
Many linux-zealots forget to count the effort and time they have to invest looking for supported hardware, building their machine and installing and configuring the OS when comparing prices.
As for the inferior hardware: the “my toaster is faster than yours” era is over. Grow up!
I, personally, am forced to use either Mac or Windows because the software I use isn’t available under Linux or I probably would use it. Things like Photoshop (I know about the crossover office thing), QuarkXpress, Illustrator, Cinema 4D, Shake, After Effects, and others aren’t available under linux. Well, Shake is, but it’s $5000, double the price of the Mac version with less stability. It’s not an option from the point that I have used Linux. I have Debian installed on an old P2 400Mhz PC but trying to get stuff to work is absurd. How do you run closed source binaries that you can’t get through apt-get? I tried installing Realsoft3D on my debian machine and I get nothing but errors. It’s a binary in a fodler on my desktop! Why won’t it run? Why does EVERYTHING on linux have dependency issues!? I’ve used Linux several times on different occasions and it never works as easily as Windoze or OSX does. I’m adept with computers but linux is far too cryptic for any non-hardcore IT geek. I’m a designer, I don’t have time nor the patience for spending hours tracking down dependency issues just to get ONE app to run. This is what I don’t like about linux, nothing is straightforward. You have to REALLY know the OS to accomplish anything or it’s a headache.
Actually Cipria, unless you had benched your system against a real G5 using real benchmarks you can’t really make that claim. I love it how DIY Quake boys go just by processor performance and don’t factor things in like subsytem performance, stability, availability and reliability.
I know I build PC systems and an Abit and a ASUS mobo will give you different results using the same processor, video and memory, etc.
Can your system run Final Cut/KONA? How about Photoshop and Illustrator and can you distill PDF/X files?
“I don’t believe Mac OS X can be customized in the ways its possible to customize wm’s in Linux. Aqua may me customized in some manner, i believe, similar to the ways XP can be – through some skinning apps or whatnot. But I think thats why there’s Linux PPC – for those that, despite Mac OS X beeing much more “open” than XP, want even more control – want all control.
I stick with OS X in my powerbook, Linux (hence Fluxbox ) everywhere else. It works for me.”
> I tried installing Realsoft3D on my debian machine and I
> get nothing but errors.
> Why does EVERYTHING on linux have dependency issues!?
Dependencies on Linux are very easy to resolve (mostly its a single command or a single click), provided the developer of the app you want to install cares.
> I’ve used Linux several times on different occasions and
> it never works as easily as Windoze or OSX does.
This is due to the fact that the app developer simply doesnt care about linux support. If people working in their free time and distro developers can get any freaking Free Software app to work on their distros, then a developer of commercial software you pay for can do this too. If he doesnt, we come back to the begining: he just doesnt care and is the one to blame.
> I don’t have time nor the patience for spending hours
> tracking down dependency issues just to get ONE app to
> run.
This isnt your job, as a paying customer. The developer has to do this.
> This is what I don’t like about linux, nothing is
> straightforward. You have to REALLY know the OS to
> accomplish anything or it’s a headache.
Sorry, this is bullshit. Installing a prepackaged app on Linux is nothing more than a
How can you blame a linux distro for you not being able to install a unsupported app on it? Its not that nobody would like to support the proprietary developer to make his packega debian/gentoo/slack/suse ready, but the proprietary devs of your app just dont care.
Mac developers do not care if their app runs properly on windows, so following your logic, you would bash Microsoft for not supporting your mac apps? Or vice versa? How can it be that if a software company fails to make packages for a distro, not the developer is attacked, but the distro, or even more often, linux in general? Is it just me or does anybody else see a flawed logic here?
“Less obnoxious choices can cause some visual interference. A plain, one-color desktop is not cool, has nil gee-whiz factor, but can work awfully well. I tend to assume that people actually want to get something done with their computers. If play is the objective, then anything that gives you the jollies is fine. Just don’t impose it on others.
Let’s say that the original interface designer, after studying the literature and perhaps experimenting with many users, finds that a particular color and pattern of desktop makes selection of objects on the desktop faster and more sure. (Unfortunately, most decisions such as this are made by interface cretins whose analysis goes no farther than, “I’m the boss and I like that one.”)
In the case where an interface is well designed, any change that an amateur is likely to create will only make the interface worse.
On the other hand, if you have an interface like they build in Redmond, any random change is likely to improve it :-)”
right or wrong, that is where the anti-skinning philosophy at apple came from.
“Anyway, that’s the first problem with any kind of interface user preference: How many of us really know what works better? Most users and most programmers have at best dim and often incorrect ideas in this regard. I know this from lots of experience.
For example, in working with Steve Jobs, he’d often tell us that one way would be better than another; then I’d have to do a bunch of demonstrations to show him that it wasn’t so. He never learned that there was science behind interface design, it isn’t all opinion and guruism. Unfortunately, it’s easier to believe that you know what’s best (because you’re a human) than to go and learn the science.
But what if you say to me, “So what, I like it better my way even if it doesn’t work as well.” Then, if I give you preferences, I am abdicating my role as a responsible designer.
We don’t have GOTOs in modern programming languages (should I put one back in so that you can write spaghetti code if you prefer it?). We design systems to not have security holes (well, we try), and we put in other limitations to keep the system working as the expert designers think it should. Interface design is no different.”
LMFAO – you made his point for him! Of course naturally everyone knows apt-get, we use it as a verb too! lets apt-get some movies and popcorn tonight!
Command line entails some level of user knowledge. It’s not as simple as an icon that says “install” or “update” and it magically does thinngs for you.
the part that makes it difficult is “your distro of choice”. Aren’t they all the same OS? If so, why are things “distro-specific”? There aren’t different versions of Windows (unless you’re talking 95 vs NT) and Mac is only one version (OS9 and OSX don’t count, two totally differnt architectures).
I understand what you said about developers not suporting Linux fully. It IS a shame and things should be easy for users. When I said you “need to really know the OS” I’m talking about how you have to use a terminal for most things and know all the commands and what every flag does. It’s not easy unless you’ve been working at the CLI for years. I’m not scared of the CLI but a GUI based OS shouldn’t need a large amount of CL input. Linux doesn’t fail by any means as an OS but it falls short as a desktop OS for many non-programmers of IT people. That’s the point I’m trying to make. I didn’t want this to turn into a Linux bashing discussion because I don’t hate Linux or think it’s useless. I just think that many tasks, such as installing a program and expecting it to work, are not as easy as on other more established desktop OSes. I’ve had similar trouble trying to get Firefox to run on my Debian machine as well, so it’s not just the Realsoft developers, though the could have at LEAST bundled a readme or instructions with the install script.
“Mac developers do not care if their app runs properly on windows, so following your logic, you would bash Microsoft for not supporting your mac apps?”
I don’t get this. I’m not bashing Linux for not supporting Mac apps or for Linux for not supporting Realsoft3D. I’m talking about the non-easiness of linux in general, but only in MY opinion, not worldwide.
I came to OS X after 10 years of using Linux as my primary OS. You Linux users make me laugh, why can’t you just admit it that while Open Source software is cool, people do want/need proprietary apps? OS X is the best of both worlds it can be as dork as you want if you add Fink/DarwinPorts (OS X ports systems for those with NFI), it even has X11, you can install KDE/Flux whatever on it. OMFG You don’t even need to run Aqua if you don’t want. And for people who do REAL work all the apps are available for them.
Oh and answer me this before you start raving on about how everything needs to be free, so you don’t dual boot, you don’t play closed source games, you don’t use nVIDIA or ATIs closed source drivers? You only use GNU tools because anything under any other license would be no damn good?
Oh the irony of a Linux zealot raving on about how proprietary OSes suck while he plays Doom 3 on his Linux box.
Things like Photoshop (I know about the crossover office thing), QuarkXpress, Illustrator, Cinema 4D, Shake, After Effects, and others aren’t available under linux.
High, I ‘m also a graphic artist. I use Mac at work, and Linux at home. I recommend to you In the order you mentioned them:
<li>Gimp (2.2 or better a MUST. With 2.2+ I can do anything you can do in PS [I mean the end result — I’ve used PS since version 2.0])</li>
<li>Scribus (latest version only) Even now it’s far better than many versions of Quark I used to use.</li>
<li>Inkscape (In some respects better thank Illustrator (its handling of transparency, for example), IMO [I’ve used Illustrator since 3.0])</li>
<li>Cinelerra (don’t try this on anything but a top notch set-up)</li>
No, he just told the truth. I assebled an athlon64 3500 socket 939 with 2 giga ram,200 giga SATA HD, radeon 9550 256 mb, and it smokes off any powermac g5. But, instead, it cost just 780 €, just a bit more than a pathetic mini. And since i chose the internal components in a smart way, I can upgrade the beast in the future without changing everything next year. Besides,it only runs linux, not that crappy windoze xp
…but sounds like a jet engine and browns the power grid when you turn it on. Perhaps with the money you saved by not buying a silent Mac, you can buy those sound-cancelling Bose headphones.
The problem is, you can have the same UNIX tools and flexibility and more with linux. Besides, with linux you have more freedom and you can use that much more powerful hardware (athlon64/fx, new p4/emt64)
Many mac-zealots often forget the fact you don’t have necessarily to use the pathetic windows xp on intel/amd machines. To be fair, you can use linux even on macs, but why spending twice to run linux on inferior hardware?
Isn’t it great when you’ve got a Linux laptop that can’t access the corporate wireless network (PEAP doesn’t work – xsupplicant only supports MS-CHAP) or suspend properly? Your boss will love you when you spend hours and hours hacking your kernel in vain to get to 95% compatibility instead of getting your job done.
“High, I ‘m also a graphic artist. I use Mac at work, and Linux at home. I recommend to you In the order you mentioned them:
<li>Gimp (2.2 or better a MUST. With 2.2+ I can do anything you can do in PS [I mean the end result — I’ve used PS since version 2.0])</li>
<li>Scribus (latest version only) Even now it’s far better than many versions of Quark I used to use.</li>
<li>Inkscape (In some respects better thank Illustrator (its handling of transparency, for example), IMO [I’ve used Illustrator since 3.0])</li>
<li>Cinelerra (don’t try this on anything but a top notch set-up)</li>
<li>not sure about Shake, never used it.</li>
<li>Cinelerra</li> ”
GIMP versus Photoshop? I don’t even think GIMP can compare to Elements 3.0.
Scribus vs. QuarkXpress? Never heard of the two mentioned in the same sentence by graphic designers and I work with several in the DC area. I think Scribus needs to have parity with ID because that is where a lot of designers are moving to. Its almost free in the CS suite upgrade if you even have just an old version of Photoshop. Does Scribus have preflight capabilities? Does it output to PDF?
I really don’t think Linux is ready for DTP operations. Graphic designers are interested in meeting deadlines with supported and working products that they are familiar with. G4s and G5s are fast enough to meet most of their design needs even when working with large poster files.
Linux has its place in the server rooms, data centers, supercomputers and embedded apps but I don’t think it can compete on the desktop. Every year has been the year of Linux on the desktop as has been the case with evet Linux distro or upgrade. Its still not happening.
It is clear that you have not used any of the free software products you chastise, yet you speak authoritatively about their effectiveness and productivity. You have no shame.
Perhaps you can begin by mentioning three projects where The GIMP and Scribus has failed you. While you are at it, list the functions these applications were incapable of accomplishing during the project in comparison to Photoshop and InDesign.
Until then, you do great injustice to your credibility as a Graphics Designer.
As for inferior hardware: it *is* inferior, plain and simple. No matter how you mac users feel offended, any consumer crap mac is a joke, with the noticeable exception of the powermac g5s but they cost an arm and a leg.
The point is, for the price of a slow, unerspecced consumer mac you can assemble a great pc that can rival a pmac g5. Of course if you have the cash the dual g5 is definitely an option, but for a user on a budget the pc wins hands off, considering the spec difference between a poor mac mini and my amd64. Ah and forgot: you don’t have to use photoshop or FCP to make good video and image editing. There are plenty of good open-source alternatives and you know it.
Of course if you have the cash the dual g5 is definitely an option, but for a user on a budget the pc wins hands off, considering the spec difference between a poor mac mini and my amd64
Agree with what cipria (IP: —.fastres.net) said.
I assembled also a AMD64 box for even less money.If you care to read the hardware specs and reviews on sites such as [H]OCP
you know to get the most hardware out of your budget.Gentoo AMD64 with fluxbox,i-box,torsmo runs very smooth.But i think i would seriously consider buying a power mac dual G5-2.5Mhz if i had the budget,certainly not as an substitute but more an awsome multimedia,designer rig addition.Well reality is ..
I know I shouldn’t respond to this troll post. But I’ll bite…. If we buy AMD or Intel we will be supporting other proprietary stuff. Best is to go the beach, collect some sand and start make our own chips. That is called using the wide open source for making computers.
Seriously, this person has not used a recent Mac at all. Any recent Mac is capable of running programs designed to run on it and does it rather well. I would even state that G5 is overkill for most people. In fact some programs or aspects of programs run slower on the G5- i.e., except for photoshop and a few other expensive programs that are optimized for the G5.
The Apple sanatarium on the beach with uncle Jobs playing the piano?No thank you i’m not dead yet.Like to go off-road with my dads NISSAN Pathfinder.During Paris-Dakar or some other excursion i can’t call my uncle Jobs with my wireless air-snort to help me out with some flashy presentation,i trust on my skills,tools,system.
Serious,
Any recent Mac is capable of running programs designed to run on it and does it rather well.
Rather well or outstanding? That’s the issue.For the prize they dare to ask i could easily buy a x86_64 3400+ laptop,with 1GB MB ddr.One afternoon and i have Gentoo working ,nvidia,wireless,suspend,all the dev-apps,java,mp3,dvd,etc.I don’t have the need (i don’t use it) for some outstanding graphics apps that exist for MacOsX.The laptop i just described will smoke any current i-book or power-book-shelf even if you would put 64 GB in them.But if you really need them,be my guest buy as many you can.
Not so long ago i went to the local Apple center just to know where those elderly are all talking about.Wtf is this no music?They played Beethoven at the store,I’m not kidding,as if somebody just died.
Let me put it simply. The problem with building your own rig is that it cannot run Mac Os.
The ONLY reason to buy a Mac is to run Os X and the applications that run on it (this includes many open source applications as well). If you haven’t used Os X ‘extensively’ (5 minutes at the store will not cut it) and think that Mac OS is just a variant of Windows or a Linux distro, you don’t have a clue and should stop trolling as a know-it-all. Don’t try and make up the minds for other people. Let them test different Oses and then decide for themselves which Os and hardware suits their needs.
they would be more credible if they picked on all OEMs since their boxes would be just as much better than the crap Dell peddles at the 500 dollar price mark.
here are the facts.. people that like to get work done enjoy having tech support and extended warranty coverage.. you do not get that with a home built box.. especially if you assemble it from white box OEM parts.. with those parts… if they fail in the first 30 days, you send them back for a new one which takes for ever… otherwise you need to buy a new one.
more facts.. people that build their own machines and brag about it have not matured passed 17. I use to build and brag when I was in HS… after that no one cared what the heck your box had in it because it did not matter.
especially if you assemble it from white box OEM parts.. with those parts… if they fail in the first 30 days, you send them back for a new one which takes for ever… otherwise you need to buy a new one.
Tell me how many look inside the damn box? They only see Intel 640 or AMD64 on the case and the brochure.But are they sure there’s actually inside they have paid for?What motherboard?Well it’s their money.I don’t have to much to spend.So i’m now inferior and brag because i assemble my own PC and dare to say that the performance of a power-book is rather bad.
I use to build and brag when I was in HS… after that no one cared what the heck your box had in it because it did not matter.
For some it does matter because it’s their profession in one way or another.Helps to get more insight.How can you write specific drivers if you don’t know anything about what’s inside the box?
Now you spend more time whining on the phone because one font isn’t 111 black but 110 black,or you see that small nanometer spot on the print-out.
The Mini falls into a much different category than what you DIY guys are comparing it to.
For the money you cannot build a SFF PC for the price of a Mini with the performance. Why is it that you DIY people compare the Mini to something that is not even in its class?
Coming mostly from the Windows world (that’s what I still use at work), then moved home for linux (RedHat mostly) for about 2 years, but once I got lots of gadgets – it wasn’t easy to keep up with manual patching of kernels, etc. (I simply lost enthusiasm to do that through unusual ways)… And voila – I bought an iBook year and half ago, and I’m happy with it
– and it got the gnu/*nix tools that I like.
from the article: “After deleting the pre-installed Microsoft Office demos, I got myself NeoOfice/J, a Java port of OpenOffice.org. It doesn’t adopt to OS X’ style and isn’t very responsive, but it will do it’s job. If OOo 2 is out for OS X, I’ll probably switch.”
NeoOffice/J is still not fully integrated Aqua or Carbon app, but that’s the milestone in a long run – it not only “switches” the API for menus, rendering – but does a lot of other small changes to the baseline OOo source code – rendering and usage of fonts, printers, files, etc. I’m not sure whether the changes would be backpropagated to the Ooo branch, or not, but I’m quite happy with the NeoOffice/J (after buying ThinkFree from $50, I feel now kind of ripped-off).
I too am happy about my powerbook. I’ve had it for about half a year now. A bit confusing to get around at first with Mac OS X, finding stuff. But that doesnt last long. In no time I was thinking to myself how could I have survived without my powerbook, Mac OS X, the command key. I just can’t imagine myself without it. Oh, and if you haven’t tried it yet, I suggest “QuickSilver” – amazing app.
I’m also a Linux fan. Particularly, a Slackware fan. But since, unfortunately, there is no official Slackware ppc port, although you know, there’s Slackintosh… But anyway, I’ve heard only but good things about Gentoo ppc. I’ll eventually try it, but… I don’t think it will be anytime soon because I’m just really happy about Mac OS X and how it helps me in my work… as a student I mean
Well, you can call me shallow but looks mean a lot to me. I couldn’t get my WinXP to look as cool as WMaker or Fluxbox and so I had to let WinXP go. WinXP is easy and Linux is easy and I’ve heard that MacOSX is easy, so there’s nothing new there. But, like most Linux geeks, I like to customize my desktop to look exactly the way I like it. It’s got to look cool or otherwise I won’t use it. And all the screenshots I’ve seen of MacOSX look just horrible, IMO. As un-cool as you can get. BSDs can also be made to look cool, just like Linux. But how’s customizability on MacOSX? Can it be made to look really cool, like WMaker and Fluxbox?
If you want customizability, you need a third party app called “Shapeshifter”. The theme scene for OS X is suprisingly vibrant, considering that it starts out looking fantastic. I definitely suggest the ‘Milk’ style, google for it.
I don’t believe Mac OS X can be customized in the ways its possible to customize wm’s in Linux. Aqua may me customized in some manner, i believe, similar to the ways XP can be – through some skinning apps or whatnot. But I think thats why there’s Linux PPC – for those that, despite Mac OS X beeing much more “open” than XP, want even more control – want all control.
I stick with OS X in my powerbook, Linux (hence Fluxbox
) everywhere else. It works for me.
you can always just run X11 in full screen with window manager of choice
even better: sell the powerbook, and get yourself a x86 with the power of Linux/*BSD 8) That fancy MacOS X look can’t beat a well configured fluxbox desktop, and besides the look, it’s extremely lightweight.
In addition to Mplayer, which he mentioned, I’d like to add what’s in my opinion the best player for OS X: VLC
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Though I always use Mplayer on my Gentoo box, I find it rather “jerky” on the mac. VLC, on the other hand, plays very smoothly. I can also add that Xine is available for the Mac:
http://xineplayer.berlios.de
For those who really want virtual desktops, this one works very well:
http://wsmanager.sourceforge.net/
>even better: sell the powerbook, and get yourself a x86 with the power of Linux/*BSD 8) That fancy MacOS X look can’t beat a well configured fluxbox desktop, and besides the look, it’s extremely lightweight.
LMFAO!
* OS X was not designed to be geeky-customizable.
* OS X was designed to be usable.
I believe there was mention in the article about not having a free audio recorder. I’ve found Audacity to work pretty well, although I have not used it extensively:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
“I bought a Mac”
I seriously doubt you bought a Mac system. What type of system was it?
Bored are we?
I think you have to read between the lines: SCoTB is so entrenched in his Windows XP working habits that when he tries to apply them to the Mac platform it blows up in his face.
It’s the tool that’s the problem, it never occured to him that it might be himself…
The last Mac I owned was an LCIII and a PowerBook 180 back when I was in school.
Of course, is someone would seriously like to donate any kind of equipment. I work with seniors and setting them up with computers and e-mail. Most of these retirees only make $700 a month and cannot afford new technology of any kind.
sounds like one Giant PEBKAC error to me.
that or a huge troll who thinks that lies do a better job of winning an argument.
Having recently purchased a Mac Mini my biggest issues so far have been only minor annoyances with the keyboard.
Most notably the home/end keys don’t seem to function the way I expect. Still getting used to the command/option/mac keys – Note I have a usb Microsoft keyboard so it’s a little more difficult to match things.
Overall the experience has been positive almost addictive (I’m typing this in on the mac now). I still have a ways to go though.
E.
ubuntu ppc is rather nice. checkout hoary, it just came out the other day.
sorry couldn’t resist!
“Note to self… don’t drink the kool-aid.
1. Say NO to vendor lock-in.
2. Say NO to platform lock-in.
3. Say NO to the trendy, shallow featherbrains who can only babble about how “purty” their mac looks.
4. Say NO to the over-priced planned obsolescence. Nothing is so stupid or obsolete as the bygone years’ mac model – especially that idiot flower-pot thing.
5. Just say NO to the corporate suckup fanboys.”
Ah.. a Linux user.
hmm.. planned obsolesce? that is more like what goes on in the PC world… I am still using a powermac circa 2000. All I did was upgrade the optical, the ard drive, the processor and the video card and added memory.. tada!!! a machine that runs great….. BTW.. it ran great before on a 400 MHz system, but I wanted to do DVD authoring so I needed the juice up.
“All I did was upgrade the optical, the ard drive, the processor and the video card and added memory..”
so all you did was change everything but the mobo and the monitor?
“All I did was upgrade the optical, the ard drive, the processor and the video card and added memory..”
so all you did was change everything but the mobo and the monitor?
—
Isn’t that exactly how a good PC should be upgraded over time, by parts instead of by throwing it away and getting a new one?
I see the trolls and haters don’t have school today.
We’ll start by saying no to you and find yourself a job so you can buy stuff. There is nothing wrong with old Mac/PC hardware as long as it will run what you need it. That silly Flower Power iMac will run the current version of MacOSX and will probably run Tiger as well. So much for your so called obsolescence plan. There are plenty of Macs that will run MacOSX that were not even designed to run MacOSX.
Note to self… don’t drink the kool-aid.
Drink OJ instead :p
1. Say NO to vendor lock-in.
So basically build your own eh? good luck
When you develop your own laptops gimme a call :p
2. Say NO to platform lock-in.
Good idea, now go use your linux and manually update yoru kernel while we do real work :p
3. Say NO to the trendy, shallow featherbrains who can only babble about how “purty” their mac looks.
My mac is pretty AND functional AND superlight – how’s your linux laptop which you made yourself doing?
4. Say NO to the over-priced planned obsolescence. Nothing is so stupid or obsolete as the bygone years’ mac model – especially that idiot flower-pot thing.
I dont know about you but my previous computers are still going. My Performa 365CD jsut retired this year (11 years of service)
My PowerMac G3 is still kicking along proving me with good work (6 years and counting)
My Powerbook is doing great at 1.5 years old
What’s your linux machine doing ? 🙂
5. Just say NO to the corporate suckup fanboys.
Fanboys stink, they have nothing better to do.
Ah.. a Linux user.
Just another funboy :p
Your little write up would be believable if it had any credibility. What MAC do you have? You mentioned that it was a computer then it was a small club of some sort?
I don’t see how with your vast intelligence you can’t keep a MacOSX system of all things running smoothly. Do you even know what Cocktail does?
You forgot #6
6. Say NO to thinking for myself
“Just another funboy :p”
No, he just told the truth. I assebled an athlon64 3500 socket 939 with 2 giga ram,200 giga SATA HD, radeon 9550 256 mb, and it smokes off any powermac g5. But, instead, it cost just 780 €, just a bit more than a pathetic mini. And since i chose the internal components in a smart way, I can upgrade the beast in the future without changing everything next year. Besides,it only runs linux, not that crappy windoze xp.
The more you read about Macs and Mac-oriented stuff the more you’ll see that there are plenty of customizing tools and power tools out there plus all the command line stuff and most *nix software via Fink. You don’t need to have the Aqua interface, install ShapeShifter and get a new theme, there’s a ton out there. Heck, there’s even a way to log in to a command line (it’s >console or somthing, google it), no Aqua GUI at all! Go through versiontracker.com or google for the power user feature you want, someone is bound to have made an app or tool for it. Coming from years of PCs I was really surprised that Macs (and all the 3rd party software for them) offer more flexibilty and ease-of-use than I expected, and I’m not at all talking about the way it looks.
“The more you read about Macs and Mac-oriented stuff the more you’ll see that there are plenty of customizing tools and power tools out there plus all the command line stuff and most *nix software via Fink. You don’t need to have the Aqua interface, install ShapeShifter and get a new theme, there’s a ton out there. Heck, there’s even a way to log in to a command line (it’s >console or somthing, google it), no Aqua GUI at all! Go through versiontracker.com or google for the power user feature you want, someone is bound to have made an app or tool for it. Coming from years of PCs I was really surprised that Macs (and all the 3rd party software for them) offer more flexibilty and ease-of-use than I expected, and I’m not at all talking about the way it looks.”
The problem is, you can have the same UNIX tools and flexibility and more with linux. Besides, with linux you have more freedom and you can use that much more powerful hardware (athlon64/fx, new p4/emt64)
Many mac-zealots often forget the fact you don’t have necessarily to use the pathetic windows xp on intel/amd machines. To be fair, you can use linux even on macs, but why spending twice to run linux on inferior hardware?
I’ve built my own boxes too, so I recognize the advantages, expecially in price, but there are limitations.
Laptops: building them like you would a desktop? the ability isn’t even close. video chips are integrated on almost all laptop mobos, and theres no standard mobo design for cases.
Also, 780 euros is just over $1000 us, with which someone could get an ibook, or with slightly more, an imac g5.
And again, a lot of the included OS X software thats included would cost a boat-load on any other OS. (not all linux software is free, and what is, is of far lower quality, especially in multimedia apps)
Speaking of zealots:
Many linux-zealots forget to count the effort and time they have to invest looking for supported hardware, building their machine and installing and configuring the OS when comparing prices.
As for the inferior hardware: the “my toaster is faster than yours” era is over. Grow up!
I, personally, am forced to use either Mac or Windows because the software I use isn’t available under Linux or I probably would use it. Things like Photoshop (I know about the crossover office thing), QuarkXpress, Illustrator, Cinema 4D, Shake, After Effects, and others aren’t available under linux. Well, Shake is, but it’s $5000, double the price of the Mac version with less stability. It’s not an option from the point that I have used Linux. I have Debian installed on an old P2 400Mhz PC but trying to get stuff to work is absurd. How do you run closed source binaries that you can’t get through apt-get? I tried installing Realsoft3D on my debian machine and I get nothing but errors. It’s a binary in a fodler on my desktop! Why won’t it run? Why does EVERYTHING on linux have dependency issues!? I’ve used Linux several times on different occasions and it never works as easily as Windoze or OSX does. I’m adept with computers but linux is far too cryptic for any non-hardcore IT geek. I’m a designer, I don’t have time nor the patience for spending hours tracking down dependency issues just to get ONE app to run. This is what I don’t like about linux, nothing is straightforward. You have to REALLY know the OS to accomplish anything or it’s a headache.
Actually Cipria, unless you had benched your system against a real G5 using real benchmarks you can’t really make that claim. I love it how DIY Quake boys go just by processor performance and don’t factor things in like subsytem performance, stability, availability and reliability.
I know I build PC systems and an Abit and a ASUS mobo will give you different results using the same processor, video and memory, etc.
Can your system run Final Cut/KONA? How about Photoshop and Illustrator and can you distill PDF/X files?
“I don’t believe Mac OS X can be customized in the ways its possible to customize wm’s in Linux. Aqua may me customized in some manner, i believe, similar to the ways XP can be – through some skinning apps or whatnot. But I think thats why there’s Linux PPC – for those that, despite Mac OS X beeing much more “open” than XP, want even more control – want all control.
I stick with OS X in my powerbook, Linux (hence Fluxbox
) everywhere else. It works for me.”
Or better yet…why not run Fluxbox on OS X?
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/bsdmall/unixutils.html
> I tried installing Realsoft3D on my debian machine and I
> get nothing but errors.
> Why does EVERYTHING on linux have dependency issues!?
Dependencies on Linux are very easy to resolve (mostly its a single command or a single click), provided the developer of the app you want to install cares.
> I’ve used Linux several times on different occasions and
> it never works as easily as Windoze or OSX does.
This is due to the fact that the app developer simply doesnt care about linux support. If people working in their free time and distro developers can get any freaking Free Software app to work on their distros, then a developer of commercial software you pay for can do this too. If he doesnt, we come back to the begining: he just doesnt care and is the one to blame.
> I don’t have time nor the patience for spending hours
> tracking down dependency issues just to get ONE app to
> run.
This isnt your job, as a paying customer. The developer has to do this.
> This is what I don’t like about linux, nothing is
> straightforward. You have to REALLY know the OS to
> accomplish anything or it’s a headache.
Sorry, this is bullshit. Installing a prepackaged app on Linux is nothing more than a
apt-get install/emerge/yast -i/installpkg packagename
on your distro of choice.
How can you blame a linux distro for you not being able to install a unsupported app on it? Its not that nobody would like to support the proprietary developer to make his packega debian/gentoo/slack/suse ready, but the proprietary devs of your app just dont care.
Mac developers do not care if their app runs properly on windows, so following your logic, you would bash Microsoft for not supporting your mac apps? Or vice versa? How can it be that if a software company fails to make packages for a distro, not the developer is attacked, but the distro, or even more often, linux in general? Is it just me or does anybody else see a flawed logic here?
Just install fink or Darwin Ports. You’ll have all the apps, and they’re free.
from the man who was pretty much the father of the HCI field (as we know it)
http://osopinion.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&…
“Less obnoxious choices can cause some visual interference. A plain, one-color desktop is not cool, has nil gee-whiz factor, but can work awfully well. I tend to assume that people actually want to get something done with their computers. If play is the objective, then anything that gives you the jollies is fine. Just don’t impose it on others.
Let’s say that the original interface designer, after studying the literature and perhaps experimenting with many users, finds that a particular color and pattern of desktop makes selection of objects on the desktop faster and more sure. (Unfortunately, most decisions such as this are made by interface cretins whose analysis goes no farther than, “I’m the boss and I like that one.”)
In the case where an interface is well designed, any change that an amateur is likely to create will only make the interface worse.
On the other hand, if you have an interface like they build in Redmond, any random change is likely to improve it :-)”
right or wrong, that is where the anti-skinning philosophy at apple came from.
this quote is fairly relevent too
“Anyway, that’s the first problem with any kind of interface user preference: How many of us really know what works better? Most users and most programmers have at best dim and often incorrect ideas in this regard. I know this from lots of experience.
For example, in working with Steve Jobs, he’d often tell us that one way would be better than another; then I’d have to do a bunch of demonstrations to show him that it wasn’t so. He never learned that there was science behind interface design, it isn’t all opinion and guruism. Unfortunately, it’s easier to believe that you know what’s best (because you’re a human) than to go and learn the science.
But what if you say to me, “So what, I like it better my way even if it doesn’t work as well.” Then, if I give you preferences, I am abdicating my role as a responsible designer.
We don’t have GOTOs in modern programming languages (should I put one back in so that you can write spaghetti code if you prefer it?). We design systems to not have security holes (well, we try), and we put in other limitations to keep the system working as the expert designers think it should. Interface design is no different.”
>> This is what I don’t like about linux, nothing is
>> straightforward. You have to REALLY know the OS to
>> accomplish anything or it’s a headache.
> Sorry, this is bullshit. Installing a prepackaged app on Linux is nothing
> more than a
> apt-get install/emerge/yast -i/installpkg packagename
> on your distro of choice.
LMFAO – you made his point for him! Of course naturally everyone knows apt-get, we use it as a verb too! lets apt-get some movies and popcorn tonight!
Command line entails some level of user knowledge. It’s not as simple as an icon that says “install” or “update” and it magically does thinngs for you.
Installing a prepackaged app on Linux is nothing more than a
apt-get install/emerge/yast -i/installpkg packagename
on your distro of choice.
the part that makes it difficult is “your distro of choice”. Aren’t they all the same OS? If so, why are things “distro-specific”? There aren’t different versions of Windows (unless you’re talking 95 vs NT) and Mac is only one version (OS9 and OSX don’t count, two totally differnt architectures).
I understand what you said about developers not suporting Linux fully. It IS a shame and things should be easy for users. When I said you “need to really know the OS” I’m talking about how you have to use a terminal for most things and know all the commands and what every flag does. It’s not easy unless you’ve been working at the CLI for years. I’m not scared of the CLI but a GUI based OS shouldn’t need a large amount of CL input. Linux doesn’t fail by any means as an OS but it falls short as a desktop OS for many non-programmers of IT people. That’s the point I’m trying to make. I didn’t want this to turn into a Linux bashing discussion because I don’t hate Linux or think it’s useless. I just think that many tasks, such as installing a program and expecting it to work, are not as easy as on other more established desktop OSes. I’ve had similar trouble trying to get Firefox to run on my Debian machine as well, so it’s not just the Realsoft developers, though the could have at LEAST bundled a readme or instructions with the install script.
“Mac developers do not care if their app runs properly on windows, so following your logic, you would bash Microsoft for not supporting your mac apps?”
I don’t get this. I’m not bashing Linux for not supporting Mac apps or for Linux for not supporting Realsoft3D. I’m talking about the non-easiness of linux in general, but only in MY opinion, not worldwide.
… written from the POV of somebody who is confuzzled and doesn’t quite know what to do with an OS that JUST. FRIGGIN. WORKS. OUT. OF. THE. BOX.
“It can’t possibly be this simple! It’s working without me having to spend hours of configging. Something’s gotta be wrong!”
I came to OS X after 10 years of using Linux as my primary OS. You Linux users make me laugh, why can’t you just admit it that while Open Source software is cool, people do want/need proprietary apps? OS X is the best of both worlds it can be as dork as you want if you add Fink/DarwinPorts (OS X ports systems for those with NFI), it even has X11, you can install KDE/Flux whatever on it. OMFG You don’t even need to run Aqua if you don’t want. And for people who do REAL work all the apps are available for them.
Oh and answer me this before you start raving on about how everything needs to be free, so you don’t dual boot, you don’t play closed source games, you don’t use nVIDIA or ATIs closed source drivers? You only use GNU tools because anything under any other license would be no damn good?
Oh the irony of a Linux zealot raving on about how proprietary OSes suck while he plays Doom 3 on his Linux box.
The i86 architecture is as much bloated as a processor as is Windows as an OS, that’s why Linux on i86 is only a half-hearted solution.
‘Inferior hardware’: you are nuts.
Things like Photoshop (I know about the crossover office thing), QuarkXpress, Illustrator, Cinema 4D, Shake, After Effects, and others aren’t available under linux.
High, I ‘m also a graphic artist. I use Mac at work, and Linux at home. I recommend to you In the order you mentioned them:
<li>Gimp (2.2 or better a MUST. With 2.2+ I can do anything you can do in PS [I mean the end result — I’ve used PS since version 2.0])</li>
<li>Scribus (latest version only) Even now it’s far better than many versions of Quark I used to use.</li>
<li>Inkscape (In some respects better thank Illustrator (its handling of transparency, for example), IMO [I’ve used Illustrator since 3.0])</li>
<li>Cinelerra (don’t try this on anything but a top notch set-up)</li>
<li>not sure about Shake, never used it.</li>
<li>Cinelerra</li>
No, he just told the truth. I assebled an athlon64 3500 socket 939 with 2 giga ram,200 giga SATA HD, radeon 9550 256 mb, and it smokes off any powermac g5. But, instead, it cost just 780 €, just a bit more than a pathetic mini. And since i chose the internal components in a smart way, I can upgrade the beast in the future without changing everything next year. Besides,it only runs linux, not that crappy windoze xp
…but sounds like a jet engine and browns the power grid when you turn it on. Perhaps with the money you saved by not buying a silent Mac, you can buy those sound-cancelling Bose headphones.
The problem is, you can have the same UNIX tools and flexibility and more with linux. Besides, with linux you have more freedom and you can use that much more powerful hardware (athlon64/fx, new p4/emt64)
Many mac-zealots often forget the fact you don’t have necessarily to use the pathetic windows xp on intel/amd machines. To be fair, you can use linux even on macs, but why spending twice to run linux on inferior hardware?
Isn’t it great when you’ve got a Linux laptop that can’t access the corporate wireless network (PEAP doesn’t work – xsupplicant only supports MS-CHAP) or suspend properly? Your boss will love you when you spend hours and hours hacking your kernel in vain to get to 95% compatibility instead of getting your job done.
“High, I ‘m also a graphic artist. I use Mac at work, and Linux at home. I recommend to you In the order you mentioned them:
<li>Gimp (2.2 or better a MUST. With 2.2+ I can do anything you can do in PS [I mean the end result — I’ve used PS since version 2.0])</li>
<li>Scribus (latest version only) Even now it’s far better than many versions of Quark I used to use.</li>
<li>Inkscape (In some respects better thank Illustrator (its handling of transparency, for example), IMO [I’ve used Illustrator since 3.0])</li>
<li>Cinelerra (don’t try this on anything but a top notch set-up)</li>
<li>not sure about Shake, never used it.</li>
<li>Cinelerra</li> ”
GIMP versus Photoshop? I don’t even think GIMP can compare to Elements 3.0.
Scribus vs. QuarkXpress? Never heard of the two mentioned in the same sentence by graphic designers and I work with several in the DC area. I think Scribus needs to have parity with ID because that is where a lot of designers are moving to. Its almost free in the CS suite upgrade if you even have just an old version of Photoshop. Does Scribus have preflight capabilities? Does it output to PDF?
I really don’t think Linux is ready for DTP operations. Graphic designers are interested in meeting deadlines with supported and working products that they are familiar with. G4s and G5s are fast enough to meet most of their design needs even when working with large poster files.
Linux has its place in the server rooms, data centers, supercomputers and embedded apps but I don’t think it can compete on the desktop. Every year has been the year of Linux on the desktop as has been the case with evet Linux distro or upgrade. Its still not happening.
It is clear that you have not used any of the free software products you chastise, yet you speak authoritatively about their effectiveness and productivity. You have no shame.
Perhaps you can begin by mentioning three projects where The GIMP and Scribus has failed you. While you are at it, list the functions these applications were incapable of accomplishing during the project in comparison to Photoshop and InDesign.
Until then, you do great injustice to your credibility as a Graphics Designer.
As for inferior hardware: it *is* inferior, plain and simple. No matter how you mac users feel offended, any consumer crap mac is a joke, with the noticeable exception of the powermac g5s but they cost an arm and a leg.
The point is, for the price of a slow, unerspecced consumer mac you can assemble a great pc that can rival a pmac g5. Of course if you have the cash the dual g5 is definitely an option, but for a user on a budget the pc wins hands off, considering the spec difference between a poor mac mini and my amd64. Ah and forgot: you don’t have to use photoshop or FCP to make good video and image editing. There are plenty of good open-source alternatives and you know it.
Regards
I forgot to mention…Here in Italy the mini 1.42 with keyboard cost about € 700, so the comparison with my € 760 amd64 is more than valid.
Of course if you have the cash the dual g5 is definitely an option, but for a user on a budget the pc wins hands off, considering the spec difference between a poor mac mini and my amd64
Agree with what cipria (IP: —.fastres.net) said.
I assembled also a AMD64 box for even less money.If you care to read the hardware specs and reviews on sites such as [H]OCP
you know to get the most hardware out of your budget.Gentoo AMD64 with fluxbox,i-box,torsmo runs very smooth.But i think i would seriously consider buying a power mac dual G5-2.5Mhz if i had the budget,certainly not as an substitute but more an awsome multimedia,designer rig addition.Well reality is ..
I know I shouldn’t respond to this troll post. But I’ll bite…. If we buy AMD or Intel we will be supporting other proprietary stuff. Best is to go the beach, collect some sand and start make our own chips. That is called using the wide open source for making computers.
Seriously, this person has not used a recent Mac at all. Any recent Mac is capable of running programs designed to run on it and does it rather well. I would even state that G5 is overkill for most people. In fact some programs or aspects of programs run slower on the G5- i.e., except for photoshop and a few other expensive programs that are optimized for the G5.
The jokes on you buddy!
Agreed 100% – I have a Power Mac Dual G5, and iMac G5, and a PowerBook 15″ G4 1.67 GHz here I wouldn’t consider any of these machines slow.
The first thing to do is to go to the beach
The Apple sanatarium on the beach with uncle Jobs playing the piano?No thank you i’m not dead yet.Like to go off-road with my dads NISSAN Pathfinder.During Paris-Dakar or some other excursion i can’t call my uncle Jobs with my wireless air-snort to help me out with some flashy presentation,i trust on my skills,tools,system.
Serious,
Any recent Mac is capable of running programs designed to run on it and does it rather well.
Rather well or outstanding? That’s the issue.For the prize they dare to ask i could easily buy a x86_64 3400+ laptop,with 1GB MB ddr.One afternoon and i have Gentoo working ,nvidia,wireless,suspend,all the dev-apps,java,mp3,dvd,etc.I don’t have the need (i don’t use it) for some outstanding graphics apps that exist for MacOsX.The laptop i just described will smoke any current i-book or power-book-shelf even if you would put 64 GB in them.But if you really need them,be my guest buy as many you can.
Not so long ago i went to the local Apple center just to know where those elderly are all talking about.Wtf is this no music?They played Beethoven at the store,I’m not kidding,as if somebody just died.
TIGER 29/4/05 – http://www.apple.com/macosx/ – IT’S OFFICIAL!
yippi ki yea mo fo! Tiger on the 29th! ANNOUNCED TODAY KID!
Let me put it simply. The problem with building your own rig is that it cannot run Mac Os.
The ONLY reason to buy a Mac is to run Os X and the applications that run on it (this includes many open source applications as well). If you haven’t used Os X ‘extensively’ (5 minutes at the store will not cut it) and think that Mac OS is just a variant of Windows or a Linux distro, you don’t have a clue and should stop trolling as a know-it-all. Don’t try and make up the minds for other people. Let them test different Oses and then decide for themselves which Os and hardware suits their needs.
they would be more credible if they picked on all OEMs since their boxes would be just as much better than the crap Dell peddles at the 500 dollar price mark.
here are the facts.. people that like to get work done enjoy having tech support and extended warranty coverage.. you do not get that with a home built box.. especially if you assemble it from white box OEM parts.. with those parts… if they fail in the first 30 days, you send them back for a new one which takes for ever… otherwise you need to buy a new one.
more facts.. people that build their own machines and brag about it have not matured passed 17. I use to build and brag when I was in HS… after that no one cared what the heck your box had in it because it did not matter.
especially if you assemble it from white box OEM parts.. with those parts… if they fail in the first 30 days, you send them back for a new one which takes for ever… otherwise you need to buy a new one.
Tell me how many look inside the damn box? They only see Intel 640 or AMD64 on the case and the brochure.But are they sure there’s actually inside they have paid for?What motherboard?Well it’s their money.I don’t have to much to spend.So i’m now inferior and brag because i assemble my own PC and dare to say that the performance of a power-book is rather bad.
I use to build and brag when I was in HS… after that no one cared what the heck your box had in it because it did not matter.
For some it does matter because it’s their profession in one way or another.Helps to get more insight.How can you write specific drivers if you don’t know anything about what’s inside the box?
Now you spend more time whining on the phone because one font isn’t 111 black but 110 black,or you see that small nanometer spot on the print-out.
The Mini falls into a much different category than what you DIY guys are comparing it to.
For the money you cannot build a SFF PC for the price of a Mini with the performance. Why is it that you DIY people compare the Mini to something that is not even in its class?