Scott Loveless wrote:
On 6/15/05, Joaquim Carvalho <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Linux is hard to configure, the Mac OS X just works. No viruses on any
of them.
No, it's not. Well, I suppose it might be if you've spent years
content with having no command line.
All the three OSs have a command line.
Linux really is hard to configure, on a company it is almost a full time
job for somebody. It is almost as bad as Windows but for other reasons:
every setting is done in a diferent way and it keeps changing so there's
not a single book that has it all.
(my experience: At work I've been using Linux on the desktop: from
RedHat 7 years ago to Fedora Core 3 right now, Evolution, Mozilla,
OpenOffice (and Gqview, simple but great for pictures) plus VMware
running Windows 2000 in non persistant image disk mode just for running
two specific programs)
Since the introduction of OSX,
have any of you Mac guys figured what the korn shell is for?
Yes, the most technical oriented people have.
For
those of you who have force-fed Windows into a peecee, Linux
configuration should be several orders of magnitude easier.
Linux is more deterministic, not easier. You have to browse the web a
lot to find answers to any questions you have, and every distribution
has lots of bugs. Linux people are often not very friendly or easy to
work with. I'm sure it'll mature in a few years.
Don't expect Mac guys to prove you anything, most of them are just silly
********
If you want to know the diference you'll have to buy a Mac. They're not
expensive, you can get a fast G5 inside a very high quality 19" TFT LCD
for less than 1000 USD, including OS X and some useful software, like
iTunes and iPhoto.
You can get a faster AMD 64 for less. Ooh, and it's upgradeable.
Those of you whom actually find iTunes and iPhoto useful may want to
stick with your Mac.
****There's an iTunes version for Windows, try it, it's great and it's
free****
Macs built after 1998 are VERY upgradeable, a lot more upgradeable than
most PCs (they take all PC parts except the processor, they have no
limits on disk size, fewer limits on RAM size and the Power PC CPU
format has been changed fewer times than the Pentium's or the AMD's)
The truth about prices is:
- a new low end G4 Mac costs 400 USD without a monitor, remember that
clock for clock the G4 is a bit faster than the Centrino and a lot
faster than the Pentium 4 - You can build an equivalent PC for that
price but it will be bigger, make a lot more noise and use a lot more power.
- a new G5 Mac inside an incredibly sharp 1400x1024 LCD with incredibly
accurate color and good sound costs just a bit more than the price of a
comparable LCD by itself
- a low end 12" or 14" G4 notebook is cheapper than comparable Windows
notebooks and somewhat better designed (though not as good as the 2000
Pismo)
- a high end Mac G5 tower is expensive but it's also faster and cheapper
than high end PC servers
- the high end 12" 15" or 17" Powerbook G4 notebook is expensive but the
notebook PCs that try to imitate them are even more expensive but then
some people just like to spend their money that way
On average Macs recently became cheaper than PCs
----------------------------------
What I'm going to say next may look offtopic but it isn't, 90% of the
use I now give to my home computer is *ist DS related and some of you
may want to hear about it:
I bought an used 2000 Pismo notebook because it was and still is the
best notebook computer ever made. I didn't like Mac OS, I don't like
most Mac people and I find Apple almost as bad a company as Microsoft is.
I bought the Pismo because I liked the processor and the functionality
of the notebook.
When I bought the Pismo I just formatted the hard disk and installed
Yellow Dog Linux. Everything was OK but the LCD color was not right and
at the time there was no calibration software so a couple of months
later I tried OS X just to see how it was. 4 years have passed and I
didn't go back to Linux or Windows at home, I have a faster Pentium
laptop that I never power on and I have a hard disk on a tray with
Yellow Dog Linux I never put on the Pismo
----------------------------------
Why the Pismo is the best notebook in the world, the hardware:
- Very tough polycarbonate body, can take a beating like no other
- The CPU is small and generates very little heat: there is a fan but I
only heard it twice when I put the computer on a pillow that blocked the
convection air flow
- With liquid bearing disks it becomes a virtually silent computer
- Internal WIFI with a very good antenna
- Two batteries for a total of 10 hours!!! operating time (with modern
lithium cells). I NEVER carry the power adapter.
- Batteries can be hot-swapped
- External charger available for the batteries
- Instant and reliable suspend when you close the lid. Instant resume
when you open it.
- Good screen with very accurate color (though it's only 14" 1024x768)
- Good speakers and microphone for a notebook
- Good video out port
- Two 2.5" internal disks and no limits on disk size
- The second disk is on a tray that can be inserted/removed with the
computer powered ON!!!
- 2 firewire ports
- Firewire disk support at ROM level - it can boot the whole OS from a
faster external 3.5" firewire disk
- Good ATI video chipset with hardware 3D support and good external
monitor capability
- Fast enough to handle and write on disk real time DV digital video
(around 5Mega bytes per second)
- It's so easy to take apart that it can be said that verything on it is
user replaceable: the keyboard, the CPU, the RAM, the Modem, the Hard
disk, the second hard disk or CD/DVD reader/writer (on a tray), the Wifi
card, the LCD, etc. If something breaks just spend up to 60 USD on Ebay
and it'll be OK
- The processor can be user-upgraded to a 1GHz G3 which is a bit faster
than a 1GHz Centrino would be (not bad for a 2000 computer)
- Takes 1Gb RAM
- It's fast enough to run a real time full speed Playstation emulator
- It's fast enough to run Windows 98/2000/XP under emulation like a
300MHz Pentium 3 Windows PC
- It can run Linux or FreeBSD in native mode
- It's a black low profile machine, if you cover the lit Apple logo on
the back it doesn't stand out at all.
----------------------------------
Why the Pismo is the best notebook in the world, the software:
- Mac OS X just works and everything can be configured easilly by 6 year
olds
- There are no viruses for it
- Multi-user is secure and simple
- FreeBSD reliability and security
- Mounts ANY disk format
- Networks with every other OS
- Easy international characters support with the standard US keyboard.
(country-specific keyboards are available but I find that that is just a
mess, I mean: I go to Spain, France, Brasil or the NL and sudenly I
can't type on a PC)
- Most commercial software is available, even Microsoft's and a few
games companies (Warcraft III is great)
- Runs most Linux software
- Many browsers available, even Microsoft's. It is the platform with
more and better browsers.
- Useable software included with the OS
- iTunes (a lot better than anything else. Windows users, try the PC
version)
- iPhoto (The best available for organizing photos, simple and
powerfull. Photo editing is very poor but it can be configured to use
any external software for editing. It gets a bit slow with over 10000
photos on a library but you can fix that by having separate libraries
using iPhoto Library Manager)
- Useable Agenda and Contacts that syncronise with every bluetooth
enabled mobile phone
- Automatic and free patches and upgrades for the OS and related
software almost every week
- No daily surprises, it just works: no problems for over 3 years,
always ON for months
- Excelent software development tools come with the system. Something
similar for Windows or Linux costs more than a whole Mac.
(I do have a deep Linux and Windows experience to compare)
----------------------------------
Why the Pismo is the best notebook in the world, the costs:
- A good Pismo can be bought on Ebay from 200USD to 600USD
(from a 6Gb 128Mb 400MHz to an 80Gb 1Gb 1GHz)
- All Pismo parts are available on Ebay
----------------------------------
