On Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 12:24 PM, CycloFiend <[email protected]> wrote: > > on 1/14/09 7:10 AM, Bill Connell at [email protected] wrote: >> >> It's interesting to think of computers and bikes in the sense of >> openness. I prefer the Mac by far, but i recognize that there are >> aspects of it that are strictly inaccessible, as compared to Linux. On >> the other hand, it's irksome to work on bikes and find that i need to >> track down some obscure part because of a different size or threading >> standard. The Mac situation is probably most like the Raleighs of the >> 30s-70s, where they used a different system than most others, but >> since they controlled the whole ecosystem the product worked very well >> as built. It's only when you try to customize and tinker that the >> limitations become troublesome though it certainly doesn't prevent >> tinkering. > > Just to totally pitch over the lip of OT-ed-ness, if you have a chance to > read it, Neal Stephenson wrote a short book called "In the Beginning Was the > Command Line..." which has an interesting overview of the history of OS's > (at least up through the pub date of ~1999). It's a good short read. > > At the time, he made the quite valid point that the MacOS was actually the > least open (and favored unix for a number of reasons). This was of course > before the Unix core changes.
No question, the old MacOS was getting ridiculously inbred and closed. I remember getting online for the first time with something like OS 7.5, made compiling look easy. Changing to the unix core (NextStep) saved the whole platform. Eventually, even Raleigh abandoned Whitworth fasteners and 26tpi threading. -- Bill Connell St. Paul, MN --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
