[Gllug] Apple

[Simon A. Boggis]

On Tue, 2004-01-13 at 09:43, Tethys wrote:
> Simon Faulkner writes:
> 
> >Is OSX like Linux?
> 
> In some respects.
> 
> >Will I be able to run Linux software like OOo on it?
> 
> Probably, once you install an X server. I don't think there's yet a native
> OO.o for OS X. But I'd recommend you look at Abiword and Gnumeric instead.

There's now a native X server included on the 10.3 installation disks
(but not installed by default) with at least the current version - it's
on CD 3 (which doesn't have a 3 on it anywhere, but you'll eventually
figure out the blob-like hieroglyphics <;).

> Remember you'll have to pay for the OS and each upgrade (which you may
> end up needing -- Apple recently backed down on refusing to release
> security updates for older versions of OS X, but I suspect they'll
> try again soon).

A good point - even at educational prices it seems to be something like
50 quid a go. I find this a little steep for (say) 10.3 because I can't
"see" that many functionality differences between it and 10.2; fast user
switching and (finally!) a half decent way of switching between active
fullscreen windows being obvious. The rest appears to be tweaks and
bugfixes under the hood - invisible stuff, and for that 50 pounds seems
cheeky. On the other hand, they're a business and they've got a living
to make etc etc. 

They retreated from the ridiculous "you have to pay for the upgrade to
fix a remote root compromise" attitude, I hope they've learnt the bad PR
lesson so that it stays that way.

I'd agree with points other posters have made:

Apple hardware isn't what it once was - not the old days of scsi disks
abd high performance graphics etc etc - you're buying
commodity-PC-quality stuff, but in a nicely designed box.

The desktops seem overpriced to me, for what you're getting (of course
if you must have/want an apple desktop thats irrelevant). The ibooks on
the other hand seem to be really good value for a well designed and
robust laptop with excellent battery life. The powerbooks seem a little
flimsy/delicate perhaps, but no more so that other "metal" laptops, and
competitive with other high-end laptops of the mines-bigger-than-yours
class. The only minor niggle with the laptops is that the power supplies
seem to have weak or badly designed plugs which break more often than I
would expect, requiring a complete replacement of the power supply (at
65 quid a pop). I haven't had enough replacements for long enough to
judge if this was a flaw they fixed in later power supplies, I hope so.

They do require very little user support when given out as self-managed
laptops to people with little computer savvy - they even manage to keep
them up to date (hoorah!). By contrast, my experience of any form of
windows or linux managed by the same persons is that it is horrible and
expensive to support and not kept up to date except when the user brings
it in to get it "fixed". So I've been quite happily replacing PC laptops
with ibooks.

The only software weak point I can think of offhand was the printing -
the GUI is poorly designed and it was extremely flakey until 10.1
inclusive. Since then it just seem to work.

My feeling is that MacOSX makes a really good OS for people that don't
want to manage their own linux installation but do want to do run some
of the tools and software, sometimes. It does have a much more
completely well designed and pretty UI than anything else (apart from
the idiotic window switching paradigm, which they've fixed now).

Simon

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