Until told to shut-up, I'll continue to post reasons I come accross as to why OS X is better than XP [and will occasionally comment on Linux].
I've mentioned the wireless networking before, where XP SP 1 is requiring me to upgrade the router [hopefully, Lee pointed this out but I've not tried yet]. I spent some of the weekend getting wireless going in Linux [SuSE 8.0]. As with a lot of Linux things it required some expert knowledge and time spent with the 'hood' off the computer [ie lots of command line stuff] while I followed instructions I'd gleaned online. However it did work, not perfectly yet but it worked. So, 1 cookie point to Apple for the power of their 25 dollar more expensive Airport cards. As a sidenote, I put the Dell Orinoco wireless card in the Apple. It recognised it, but I could see no obvious way in which to configure it. Next cookie point up for grabs. Network locations. OS X is wonderful in that I can just tell the OS that I'm now at work and it switches my preferences. XP Pro, no idea. I can see no way to do this and have to reconfigure my network card when I switch from home [Workgroup, Static IP] to work [Domain, DHCP]. This is a big pain, so 1 cookie point to OS X. I imagine in Linux I could happily grab a script or program from some site, compile it up, alias it and bind it into a .profile or alias, but it would require effort to find it. Next to test: Windows Neighbourhood. This is a bit unfair as it is a solid part of the Windows world, but it's like reading a .doc file. Every OS has to do it. OS X fails me here as I have to enter a cryptic line of text to access a Windows share. Windows obviously does fine at this [though issues between 98 and 2K have always caused pain]. Linux has LinNeighbourhood, but it's not something I've ever got to work. OS X does attempt to do it with a tree-widget for the computers on your share, but it fails to find anything on my simple windows workgroup setup. OS X -1 [does anyone know of a Neighbourhood program for OS X?] Linux [-1 depending on whether LinNeighbourhood works] Windows - OS X 1 XP Pro 0 SuSE 0 [-1] Hardware. This is really Dell vs Apple, but I thought I'd comment. The mousepad on the Powerbook is of a far better quality than the mousepad on the Dell Inspiron. Yeah there's a difference in price between the two machines, but I think all dell's have the same touchpad(?). The problem is that the dell one is already filling up with dust and other general crap. After a year the Apple is still fine CD-ROM. The Dell CD-Rom is in a plugin module. While this is nothign special, the powerbook cd-rom has always seemed very dodgy. It whines a lot, and I don't think I can eject it manually if something is stuck. Screen. The powerbook's screen picks up oil from the keyboard. I've not noticed this on the Dell yet. USB. Only one USB on the Dell. And one PS/2. I guess this matches the 2 USBs on the Apple [no firewire! :(] but it feels as though I'm missing a PS/2 and a USB instead. I do get two pcmcia [as opposed to 1], a microphone socket and parallel and serial ports. The infra-red on the Dell is on the side, which I'd suspect is a much better place than the back of a laptop for things like a mobile phone, but worse when trying to connect to a colleagues machine. As expected, Apple's hardware is just nicer. [hopefully I'm not boring too many people] Hen | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be January 28. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>.
