Justin Findlay wrote: > On AD 2008 January 19 Saturday 01:03:40 PM -0700, Alex Esplin wrote: >> Your second argument kind of trumps your first one. Thanks to the >> efforts of fink and/or macports, almost every packaged available for >> linux is available for OSX. A couple that weren't available as >> binaries work very well compiled from source. Time Machine has saved >> my bacon a couple of times already, so as far as I'm concerned Leopard >> was worth the $80 I paid for it. But as a "religious" decision, i.e. >> "I will never rely on proprietary software again", none of that >> matters. > > Um, that's not a religious decision. It's about freedom. I guess you > wouldn't understand since you're OK with whatever Apple puts out.
As far as "freedom" goes, the OS really has little to do with it. The freedom comes in the toolsets and the software you use on a daily basis, and the ability to freely pass between one OS and another. For example, deciding whether or not to program in Python with MatPlotlib or using Matlab is a far more important decision than if you are going to run on Windows, Mac, or Linux. In short, the OS doesn't matter for the most part. I happen to prefer Linux in many ways, and OS X in some ways, and never Windows. I hate being locked into a proprietary solution, like having tons of legacy code in Matlab, or Windows-only applications. It's unfortunate that many so-called free software advocates would rather only have their OSS software available on Linux or other "Free" OS's. That's a poor decision in my opinion. Being cross-platform (portable!) is far more important than being a "Linux" application. That's one reason I am really excited to see much of KDE 4 ported to Windows and OS X. As much as I prefer working on Linux and Gnome, really basic things like out-of-the-box sleep on a laptop are deal makers or breakers for me. Seems to me that many of us linux promoters make excuses for our favorite OS, and put up with lots of things that really are just broken in Linux (being worked on, though!). The same happens for Mac fanboys too, granted. > > > Justin > > /* > PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net > Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug > Don't fear the penguin. > */ > /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
