TOPIC: Apple Psystar Come To A Settlement!
As long as Apple remains a company committed to forcing users to buy their computer hardware to run their computer software, they will always be a second rate company committed solely to the profit motive and greed. But, as the future of computing is multi-platform - any desktop or laptop OS operating on any desktop or laptop chip set and any combination of desktop or laptop hardware devices, I'm certain that Apple and Microsoft have options in the works that might surprise many of us that are not industry insiders. Open source Linux versions have been pushing the envelope and setting an example for both Apple and MS to follow in terms of multi-platform desktop and laptop computing - although many LInux versions have much to be desired in terms of reaching the total user friendliness and ease of use at which the the larger, established companies have arrived. As long as you have to use a command line interface for anything - such as getting a printer installed or achieving Internet access - Linux will remain 2nd rate. I know . . . there are lots of techies who love command line - well, I tired of it long ago with MS DOS and rarely use Apple Script or Terminal because I have other things to do that are much more interesting and rewarding. J. --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Apple Psystar Come To A Settlement!
The competition is actually a weird combination of hardware and OS. I love the fact that Dell's Linux packages are the same price as their Windows packages. Because the major cost is in the hardware not the OEM OS installed. --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
TOPIC: Apple Psystar Come To A Settlement!
Running any form of Windows or Microsoft software on my Mac is not the issue - not because I dislike MS software, but because I prefer Apple and Mac software. Plus, I don't want to have any pesky bugs to deal with - that's the main reason I switched to Apple - afterwards I discovered what a pleasure working and playing with a Mac is. Here's an example - the G4 eMac had a Pioneer or Sony combo or superdrive, higher-quality name brand hard drives and a CRT screen for those who prefer them to LCDs. The pre-Intel Apples were manufactured better - the machines are sturdier and the parts last longer. Why get technical about the logic board and the case - the facts are that the newer Macs - with the possible exceptions of the most expensive MacPro and the new aluminum brick MacBook Pro - are built with cheaper parts and with less quality than the older boxes. Which would you rather have - a Seagate or Western Digital hard drive or a Toshiba? How about a Pioneer DVD writer vs. a Matshita? Actually, I'd prefer a Mac mini (that I had bought at a low price - even a refurbished one) that I'd remove the hard drive and superdrive from, allowing it to run much cooler. Then I'd plug in my externally-powered boot drive, externally-powered DVD writer, CRT, keyboard and mouse to USB ports. What I want from Apple is higher quality hardware at a lower price - because I paid more than for a PC to get not just superior software, but, at least, comparable quality hardware to the best that I can buy off the shelf or online. Now, I will admit, that PCs have gone the route of cheaper insides as well and that is due to the marketplace and the fact that just about everything is manufactured and assembled in China and the far East. Apple has dropped the price a bit on their latest notebooks but they are still asking too much for their hardware - but that has always been an argument that since Apple provides a superior software product and the hardware it runs on is designed and engineered to work flawlessly (for the most part) with that software as well as that produced by other developers who follow Apple's exacting specs. Apple could make me happy by allowing users to buy a version of Mac OS (?) that will run on our choice of PC hardware - say a DIY homebuilt that has exactly what we want in and outside of the box. My main complaint with Apple, since the move to Intel, is that the hardware inside their boxes is getting poorer - except for the performance of the Intel chip and the memory you can add yourself. Plus, the heat of packing so much into a small space can contribute to early failure of parts. Both Intels I've used were sent in for warranty repairs - logic board failure and superdrive failure - both within one year of purchase. J. --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
TOPIC: Apple Psystar Come To A Settlement!
Only those close insiders know how Steve and Bill actually get along - perhaps now as friendly competitors. After all, Microsoft didn't crush Apple like it is rumored to have Commodore, Amiga and others. Or perhaps those companies crumbled from the sheer lack of user support. Perhaps, Apple remained in business because they were early on the scene with a quality product and had the largest user base under MS. I have found it hard to believe that the Longhorn/Vista fiasco was not planned - how could such a large corporation make such a blunder? Was Bill preoccupied with other things? Was it just too great of a task to come up with an OS X like OS that would work on all possible configurations of PC hardware? Did Apple beat MS to the punch with OS X and then MS rushed out a buggy, unfinished product to keep users from switching? Would MS intentionally blunder with Vista to give Apple a minuscule rise in user base and and to prepare their users for the new hardware and mindset required for their next generation OS called Windows 7? Will it run on any computer - PC or Apple? Will an Apple OS ever run on any computer hardware configuration or will they continue forcing users to buy their often inferior hardware? Why has almost every new Windows release required the purchase of new hardware of some kind - keeps a lot of companies in business? Who knows - wherever computer hardware and software is designed, developed and manufactured, in the valley, in the Bay area and in Redmond - some of them know. I'd love to read a tell-all book from a long-term insider on the history of the development of the personal computer and PC operating systems - who will be the first to write one? And, will they give us the whole story? With the passing of Michael Crichton, we've lost a novelist who could have written a stunning expose of the computer industry and someone who could have gained access to all the players. J. --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
USB Modem connection update
Hello, Telco sent out a friendly tech who lives in a semi-rural area as I do. He informed me that there were no problems from ATT's perspective but admitted that the lines were old, probably somewhat corroded and had not been replaced because of the concentration of users in the area. He said the cost of running new cables - from the box that connects with the trunk line from the main switch - to the homes and businesses in the area was around $200,000. And that box is about 2 miles, as the crow flies, from the main switch in the nearest town. The likelyhood of an upgrade is slim unless the Fed starts to print money for everyone, including ATT, who decides to update the telecommunications infrastructure. The problems I can fix are an old, faulty phone and some jacks that I can replace myself. Probably, just going to have to keep working with the slow dial-up. At least my ISP serves many people in the area with similar problems and offers an $80 per year connection package. You can't beat that price and with poor quality lines, why pay more? J. --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
re: TOPIC: USB modem speed
Thanks for your input esp. about the pair gaining. My modems are v. 92 isp is at least V.90 dial-up. Yup - I've had telco here several times over the years and they even ran a new line to the house from the the main cable pedestal, put new lines in the house and new jacks. The problem is with the main cable in this location - it is in a rural area close to a small town and they just don't want to spend the money replacing the twisted pair cable that has probably been here since at least the early sixties. The techs admitted to me that the cable was noisy all the way into town but claim that it meets their required db standards for telephone communication. Actually, the service has degraded over the years - at one time I was averaging 33k. As for Ernie's very helpful comments, I've noticed the clamp as well - time I contacted telco again. I've given up that they will ever do anything unless there is substantial profit to be made for them or enough people across the country get together for a class action. The only type of connection my phone lines justify is a very low-cost service which the ISP assures me is 56k capable. I've never had the ability for high-speed downloads. Forget about watching you tube, a live netflix film, any streaming video or listening to live streaming audio such as Internet radio. Oh, well . . . Count your blessings and so will I. J. Ok. So your initial carrier speed is low. But then to what speed does it later retrain? IF the usable carrier remains that slow, over a V.90 dial-up, then you have telephone line noise problems. You should fix that. If you can get xDSL over 200 Kbps then it's already done. (200 Kbps is the FCC's baseline criteria for broadband. Yes, it's so low it's made us a world-wide joke.) Besides getting basic phone services to most rural areas, that's what the Universal Services Fund did. Of course, that massive fund has now been dumped into the general fund, so it vanished in a puff of national debt. These days, it's being used to wire schools. One limitation I have not seen mentioned recently is the practice of some TelComs of doubling their subscribers in remote rural areas by Pair Gaining the existing Copper Pairs thatservice the remote areas. In my former home in Central California, 35 miles of cable from the nearest CO, the TelCom pair gained the existing T-1 effectively making 2X T-1 out of the existing T-1. In the process they reduced the 56K internet service to 24K. The Pair Gain is accomplished by time sharing the incoming T-1 line to provide 2 out going lines. This requires A-D conversion that reduces the available Bandwidth for the two outgoing lines. When I complained they just said they only guaranteed noise free Voice communication. The service was clamped at 24K during most hours of the day. I could achieve download speeds of near 1000K for the first few seconds until the clamp was activated. This was most noticeable at around 3 AM when the other, about 100 phones, more normal people were sleeping. I did find out that Twisted Pair Copper would support 1000K downloads when there was no repeaters or shunts in the phone line run and if the the line was quiet. That 1000K was as reported by the Test site. I used iCab set to not display Images to download a 1+M Image of a Sea Turtle. The site then calculated the Time to complete the download. It would seem the Modem must have had a large Buffer. Apple at one time had a small app for download that would allow the user to easily modify the Phone Script. I played with it in a vain attempt to increase my download speed before I discovered the Pair Gain dodge the TelCom was using. I used an External Modem given to me by a PC friend that claimed it had some special computer inside the box. I think I still have all that stuff amongst my treasures. As I recall it was marked as a 33.6K Modem but in reality, when properly scripted, it had no limit I ever found. I was using an Umax S-900 233M Mac OS 8.1, 9.1 and 9.2.2 --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
