For what it's worth, well put Chris. And you've betrayed your hipness
by referencing Neal Stephenson's early work ('In the Beginning Was
the Command Line').
Regards,
Joe
On Apr 7, 2006, at 4:03 PM, Chris Meredith wrote:
Interesting characterization here. So far, in this thread, I've seen:
1. Blind allegiance to the PowerPC microprocessor. As I
understand things,
Apple's switch to Intel was brought about partially because
production of
the PowerPC processor was no longer feasible at a low enough price
that
would allow for consumers to even *AFFORD* one of these systems.
So far,
the only reason I've seen voiced by some on this list for this being a
problem is that, well, Intel CPUs run Windows (this is to say
nothing of
Linux, OpenBSD, FreeBSD and ... isn't there an OpenVMS port for X86?)
2. Trashing the competition. Whilst people are certainly entitled
to their
opinions insofar as none of us live in a police state yet, I was
always of a
mind that e-mails purporting to be from a company that supported many
platforms should, at the very least, be platform-neutral or, if
there was an
opinion, tout the positives of that platform rather than smearing
the other.
I used to do some work for two assistive technology companies selling
blatantly competing products, one because they needed someone
extra, and the
other because they ... had a lot to learn about blindness
technology, and
both because they were neither one in a position to hire me full time.
Trying to juggle the pros of each product was interesting, but
you'd never
catch me slamming product A in favor of product B or vice versa
(fortunately
for me, I've shuffled off that particular AT coil in favor of a
software
development position at a company that I dare not name here, lest
many eggs
and rotten fruit be pelted at me from on high). The fact remains,
whether
anyone enjoys this fact or not, that if you need to write a
spreadsheet or
some GUI software, need access to Macromedia presentations or
protected PDFs
or even occasionally pay a call on websites where the image files are
logically named (i.e. "clock.gif") but don't have alt tags, the Win32
solutions still provide the better bet. Similarly, the fact
remains that,
if you want a free screen reader that is integrated with the operating
system, is stable, doesn't take up a lot of memory, and allows for
independent installs of the operating system without the pesky,
demeaning,
inconvenient and less than tasty use of sighted help or the complex
process
of burning a custom Windows image with your unattended installation
file and
your product ID filled in, not to mention the time on hold with
Microsoft or
the agita explaining to them why you need them to generate you a
key, you
just can't go wrong with Mac OS X. And as far as Apple offering a
means to
boot Windows, it's not as though they're shooting themselves in the
foot. I
invite anyone with the time and inclination to look for a book
entitled "In
The Beginning There Was The Command Line" which points out that
Microsoft is
a software company and Apple, conversely, is a hardware company.
You may
have noticed the virtual cornucopia of software that Apple provides
gratis
with their systems. They certainly won't lose vast amounts of
money if
people elect to run Windows, particularly concurrently with MacOS,
on their
boxen.
Just my $0.002.
-C-
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of BlindTech of
BlindTechs.Net
Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2006 11:58 PM
To: General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS
X by
theblind
Subject: Re: game over
Joe i find this statement very tackie.
although it may be manager for us professionals who get paid for
supporting the god offle os, that doesn't mean we enjoy it.
BlindTech of BlindTechs.Net
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
website: http://blindtechs.net
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On Apr 6, 2006, at 9:49 AM, Kafka's Daytime wrote:
My guess is that experienced Mac users on the list aren't
"screaming bloody murder" about the dual-boot option because
they're not interested in engaging in a Mac vs. Windows religious
war but rather, a balanced, informed debate. As a developer I
sometimes have to use Windows professionally (since 1998 or so) and
have found that, with some care, the security situation under
Windows is perfectly manageable.
Joe
On Apr 6, 2006, at 10:13 AM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I think I disagree with your statement that this would only screw
up the Windows part/file system. Often there have been viruses
and worms that have been able to totaly fry your hard drive and or
damage the file system on the drive. I'm curious if the issue
would be that such a virus would just fry the Windows file
structure or if Windows would just be its entry point and from
there if it could fry the entire drive. I'm still convinced this
is a bad move. Don't bow to the Windows folks, stick to your guns
and market the OS as a better way of doing things. Windows is
really a terrible OS and I just don't see the point of this.
Further, I'm shocked that the die hard Mac users I know are on
this list aren't screaming blody murder. I remember when I first
got my Mac and suggested that Windows might have been easier or
that I could not do things on my Mac that I could on Windows.
You'd think I committed a crime against humanity by the reaction I
generated just a few months ago. And, now, well, seems like you
guys are fine with this latest move by Apple. Where are you Mac
purists?
From: Buddy Brannan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 2006/04/06 Thu AM 01:15:47 EDT
To: General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac
OS X by the
blind <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: game over
The good news is that you'd only screw up the Windows side of your
Mac. Not the Mac stuff at all :-)
On Apr 6, 2006, at 1:00 AM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
So, two questions as I think about this.
1. Is/will Apple end up selling both operating systems then. I
mean, they could market this Windows/OS thing and sell machines
with both.
2. Is/will this be something easy enough to do so that any person
could operate and switch between OS and Windows on the Mac?
Or, is
this just a pitch for the real geeks out there?
I'm still concerned about all of the security issues with Windows
and the idea that I could put Windows on my Mac and screw it up.
Does anyone see this as a bad move by Apple? Have they given
up on
trying to promote the superiority of the OS in favor of trying to
bridge the gap between the PC and Mac world. Instead of selling
machines that are better with a better OS, now they are doing that
while saying oh, you can put Windows on here because we know that
95% of the computer world does and we can't convince you to just
switch. I just don't know about this. Soon, will I just be able
to buy a Mac with Windows on it and never bother with the OS?
From: John Denning <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 2006/04/05 Wed PM 05:28:25 PDT
To: General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac
OS X by the
blind <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: game over
I think you answered your own question. Most of us would 't
want to.
But being able to is cool. And the GEEK in many of us might
make us
do it just for that reason alone.
As you and others said, the selling point to VR. Wow how can
you go
wrong. OK, you want Windows, here it is. Now let me show you
the Mac
OS side of your new computer.
Then there is the virtualization software that is being
developed. No
dual boot, but have both running at the same time. Not just Mac
and
Windows, but Linux also. That is cool, and super geeky. I love
it.
On Apr 5, 2006, at 8:16 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Well, as someone who switched from the PC and Windows to the
Mac I
am left wondering why I would want to even bother with this.
- JD -
John Denning
AIM: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
A+ MCSA MCSE
And glad to be a Mac snob again!
Roswell, GA
My very old web site: www.jdenning.net
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