on 18/7/02 04:24, George Mogiljansky at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Hi Ryan and all; > My points: > 1. OSX is a rich person's Linux,
I'm a student with relatively little income -- OS X at $100 (CDN) educational rate is a much more cost-effective choice than the "free" but complex and ornery YellowDogLinux (which would require me to spend a lot of time learning scripting and the likes to get it working, and more importantly, KEEP it working). > 3. a hacker once told me "Apple is a technology > company" meaning it invents and innovates stuff but > doesn't really try to make it cheap or easy to > manipulate I think they make it easy to *use* but not manipulate (they design for the 90% of users that don't need or want to customise, or know that customising is actually a waste of time for the bulk of users -- which is why they are so successful as a niche company). > 4. Linux is really intended for peecee platforms I don't think there's that much of a difference between Intel and PPC (perhaps six months). > 6. Jaguar is really OS 11 (or XI) and will sell poorly > because why pay twice for a Unix OS? Because the Finder & other interface tweeks really do make for a better user experience & that's why most Mac users pay the premium. We're hooked on an OS that focuses on getting the job done, rather than allowing us to play Solitaire, or trouble-shooting our peripherals. > 7. Apple will face financial problems late this year > or next <snip> > 11. the turn-around doesn't come (partially because > Linux will undercut the proprietary OSs, and also > extend the life of so-called obsolete platforms) I think 7 and 11 are unrelated. *I* think #7 will happen because old hardware is still 100% functional. My 68040 1990 vintage Quadra 700/33 (clock chipped) (which I got in 1994) with its 20 MB of RAM was quite a capable machine & I could do 90% of my daily computing chores as fast as with my G3/450 (15-20 times faster computer, 28X RAM, 64X VRAM & 60 X HD space) -- e-mail, word processing, Excel and playing the occasional game (like Marathon or WarCraft II). The remaining 10% have really seen an improvement with the G3/450 -- PhotoShop on the images I use now (100+ MB) [which I didn't do on the 700 anyway], web browsing (much faster rendering), and *maybe* faster apps launches, but that's about it. However, a speed bump to say a G4/1000 DP would be *nice*, but in terms of user experience I wouldn't gain. Word processing ain't going to get any better, I have better things to do with my time than play video games, I already waste too much time in e-mail, web browsing is fast enough (with a T3) and launching apps or booting a computer isn't where you lose time waiting for your computer. Plus, the most important thing for my computer use was going from a 14" 640*480 monitor to a 17" 1152*870 monitor -- my Quadra 700 with a video RAM upgrade would've supported 17" @ 1152*870. So, the short of it is, I don't see a need to upgrade my G3/450 for *years* to come and in that respect Apple will suffer -- I (and lots of others) won't be buying a used computer, so sellers will not fetch as high a price, so they will be less likely to sell and/or less likely to pay a premium to buy new. Similarly, I won't have any incentive to buy a new computer for quite some time so, even if I were to buy new, I wouldn't. As for point #11, Linux undercutting the proprietary OSes -- I really don't think that Linux is ready to do that for at least another 5-10 years, UNLESS, and that's a BIG unless, someone like Apple steps up to the plate to make an easy to use, and idiot proof Linux (like Apple did with NetBSD). Linux is great as a server OS, it's good as a desktop OS for people who know how it functions (a tiny fraction), but for people like me who know a lot about using computers, but little about programming them it's not a good match. I tried YellowDog 2.1 & found it interesting but lacking (the boot loader was the coolest thing about it... I wish it came separate from the OS) -- I have 2.3 sitting on a CD-RW right now waiting for a few days of free time to play with). I'd say Linux is a desktop OS for <5% of the computing population out there -- the other 95% are better off with Windows 98 or 2000 (not XP because of all the anti-piracy "features") or Mac OS 9 or OS X. The problem with Linux is that it is not idiot proof for long -- it installs fine, but requires a lot of support (& knowledge) to keep it running. At $0 vs. $129 it may be a steal, but there's a lot of fiddling involved in getting it to work and *keeping* it working. Let's say your time is valued at $20/hour *on average* (a reasonable estimate). If you spend 6 hours fiddling on Linux you'd already have paid for OS X once. I spent a *lot* more than 6 hours trying to get YellowDogLinux installed and running (& my B&W is totally stock Apple equipment) "sort of" (no AppleTalk, no NFS access, no network printer access -- *just* FTP and HTTP access to the web). [of course, installing Linux was entertainment to me so I guess that kind of calculation isn't applicable] The first install of YellowDog Linux (YDL) was quite easy & quick -- it was "running" in about the same time it takes to install & get OS X up and running. But, getting YDL to run properly took forever (didn't happen). With YDL there was no such thing as automatically finding AppleTalk printers, no easy way of accessing AppleTalk file servers, no easy way to change screen resolutions (I had to play with XConfigurator & associated prefs files for three days to get 1152*870 working properly... and that was with help from the YDL mailing list (where you get shot down if you come to them with what they perceive to be an easy question)). ...also, if I were able to recover all the time I waste procrastinating in e-mail I'd be a time-rich man. Take care & don't waste your time in e-mail today, Eric. -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- We have Apple Refurbished Monitors in stock! | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-List list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Macintosh? Get free email and more at Applelinks! <http://www.applelinks.com>
