[Gllug] OT: Mac OS X for a linux user

[Martyn Drake]

On 9/6/06, Jack Bertram <jack at jbertram.net> wrote:

Has anyone used OS X in anger?  Is it sufficiently linux-like that I'd
> be at home with it?  Does running CrossoverMac work well?  Can you run
> the normal X or Gnome programs that I'm familiar with on the desktop
> without fiddling too much?


Yes.  I was introduced to OS X properly by a film producer who asked me to
do some non-work related stuff in my spare time (lunch breaks, etc.) and
consequently I became hooked on the thing.  Went through various Mac Minis
(PowerPC and Intel), MacBook Pro, MacBook and have settled on an Core Duo
iMac.  OS X's X11 is perfectly adequate for my needs.

I've tried the first beta of CrossOver Mac and it works quite well.  I've
thrown Office 2003 at it, and it runs very well on my 2Ghz iMac.  I've even
tried installing Steam from Valve Software and that works too AND I've even
managed to get Half-Life 2 up and running (albeit the graphics are not as
good as they should be, and the display is somewhat distorted).  However, it
is very encouraging.  Parallels (and soon to be VMWare) are good choices for
virtualisation if you need proper Windows support within OS X, but Boot Camp
is the way to go if you really need to play Half-Life 2 properly :)


> As a veteran CLI user, it's a slightly scary prospect moving to Mac but
> it might be worth it for the gorgeous screen and the lack of boxes under
> the table...


Terminal is a perfectly good program and I use it a heck of a lot.  I've the
developers tools (XCode which comes with GCC) and X11 installed and it makes
for a fine development platform.  Have compiled programs under GCC for use
within OS X and have had no problems with it at all.

M.
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