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which operating system you like most....
f0dder:
Or perhaps a limited-time MS offer?
I never looked too closely into the details, since I was already running XP64 at the time :/
TucknDar:
f0dder: Thanks, yes, XFCE appeals to me more than KDE or Gnome, but there's a special Ubuntu-eee that already includes Gnome, so I'll go for that at first, then see if I'll switch to XFCE later on.
zridling:
[TucknDar]: Looks like I'll be getting a tiny Asus EEE one of these days, and I'll probably put Ubuntu on it, but maybe one of the other n distros are actually better for me?
--- End quote ---
You lucky dog. Also, seriously consider gOS 3. The bugs are all but out and it has a new UI for netbooks. Going to buy one of these for the wife's work next Spring, so I'll be interested if you'd post a follow-up of your experience, whichever one you choose.
wreckedcarzz:
Huge Macintosh rant - if you don't want to read it, then don't.
This is a long rant/reply that is partially NSFW, it is not a personal attack (though it may seem), it was a reply to a conversation that I took a bit out of hand, but I feel like I should express my feelings about it. If you don't want to read the main rant, do not open the second portion of this post. Thanks for understanding :) (feels good to vent my feelings about Mac and Apple as a whole).
Reply to donco666, SFW:
SpoilerTo wreckedcarzz:
1) I use both Windows and Mac almost daily. I find Mac easily customizable with a couple of freeware utilities. For example, my Tiger Dock has floating icons with no Dock area showing. My windows (generic) can be dragged by any side.
-donco666 (September 30, 2008, 12:00 AM)
--- End quote ---
You can customize Windows (and Ubuntu, and almost every other Linux OS) out of the box. I don't use any customization other than a couple addons (dock, that I haven't run in a month or so, and Switcher (Expose for AERO).
2) When you try to criticize the security of OS X, you seem to have gotten off track. Even I can give better examples of security problems but you seem to have shifted over to faulting a school teacher for her caution that you interpret as lack of confidence. Even if you can convince us that the teacher had no confidence, the single situation is anecdotal at best.
-donco666 (September 30, 2008, 12:00 AM)
--- End quote ---
But my point was that every Mac owner I have met always screams that Mac can never be intruded, infected or anything else. But when something does go wrong, it is like "I never said that". C'mon, stick to a side - it is either safe, or it isn't, but at least have some stable footing behind your choice on the matter!
3) "Insane amount of cash"? Do you mean to buy OS X or to buy the hardware? That gets us off the "best OS" topic but I will go with it if you think it is important. I guess the school should have bought Mac Minis for $500 each (maybe less with their edu discount). I think "insane" would mean something like seven grand each. Can you really think that $3K for a high quality tower is insane?
-donco666 (September 30, 2008, 12:00 AM)
--- End quote ---
Insane as in the hardware - I can go out and get a Windows Vista PC (as in building it myself) for the price of the low end Macintosh (iMac) that can run all of today's games - and still have money left over to buy said games. Yea yea, the computer is all in one - a friend of mine in Australia just got stuck with an HP all in one - he asked me a few questions about if he could upgrade the CPU, overclock, or get a better graphics card. All the answers were not what he was hoping for - bringing me to my second point about this: You can't upgrade an iMac past RAM after you have it in your ownership. So your constantly purchasing a new one, and throwing the old one away (or hopefully your having it recycled by a credible company!).
And a Mac Mini is still nuts for the price. Seriously. $200 Dell can do the same the $600 Mini can - and it usually comes with a keyboard, mouse, speakers, and monitor. But then again, you can't play games on either of those systems :P
Rant, NSFW:
SpoilerOn a further note, Apple sells "Notebooks" and has advertisements of people with them on their lap, yet you are "strongly advised" not to use it on your lap because of something like 300 degree (F) temps?? My HP laptop hit 170 (CPU) and 180 (HD) on a pillow with no airflow playing The Sims 2 Pets after about 45 minutes. Seriously.
And then, the false advertising. Macs don't use the most up to date hardware. Just as Apple announced the Core 2 Duo Macs, Intel based PCs had Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Extreme! Now you have the Mac's with Core 2 Quads @ 3.06Ghz, but wait a minute - we have the Intel Skulltrail platform running 2 Quad Core CPUs at a faster speed: 3.2GHz (without overclocking!)!!
That leads me to RAM. Why the **** would someone pay that much for "Apple Certified RAM"?? It's insane! Like $80 for a GB! And Microsoft even went and took this point and accelerated it with Vista's ReadyBoost - so you don't even need to "upgrade" anymore if you run Vista, just pop in a flash drive - $20 for the Apple cost of $160+.
Now don't get me wrong - I do hate OS X's GUI, the dock, and how it functions, and all that; it is just me - but come on. The prices are high, the technology is below what they claim, they have and continue to have false advertising, the OS's main catch is that "if you can use iTunes," (that DOES NOT UNINSTALL PROPERLY ON WINDOWS) "you can use a Mac!". Uhh, no. iMovie HD is nothing like iTunes. Finder is nothing like iTunes. The menu system makes you look constantly for items that could be in front of you, and they should be!
And what's with the wierd setup of having all the desktop icons on the right and not the left. The Apple Menu is on the left. The clock is on the right. What one are you going to use more? (You could debate this here, and I could go on with this Mac-hatred speach of how the clock is probably the most useful part, but I digress. You can't even change the time zone WITHOUT AN ADMINISTRATOR!!! >:(). The freaking Apple Menu! So you have to drag the (slow, one button) mouse all the way across that amazing 21" screen (at the speed of 600DPI) to get from your Macintosh HD icon, to your Apple Menu.
And now we have iMovie, or iMovie HD. Neither one makes sense at all, and once you do figure one out, the other one is backwards.
Oh, and back to the peripherals - the keyboard, can you get any more underpowered USB ports on that thing? It could barely power my 1GB flash drive. C'mon, waste some voltage and give the USB hubs some power. Jeez!
And now, whats with the point of having the Mac for media stuff, if you only have 2 speakers and NO SURROUND SOUND SUPPORT. And why not show the speakers on the front and make them sound half descent. Having them point down is like... why? Head is up, sound is down, what the FU*K!?!
And the system crashes. Mac's are supposed to be this whole crash proof system - the hardware works oh-so elegantly with the hardware, and it is a seamless environment where the loly-flowers fly in the wind and peace comes to the world. Then you get this little caution alert saying "Interrupting this program may lock up the system." You can't do anything because IT IS ALREADY LOCKED UP!
And the laptops again - specifically that piece of paper Air - 1 USB port? NO optical drive??? If you can't use it, it isn't worth it. On top of that, its 3 grand for a system that you can't do jack with! You can always make one of those cool movies, as the machine burns the skin off your legs down to your bones, or you can mess with the O-M-G zooming features in iTunes and iMovie with the trackpad, and... that's about it? You can always blow on it and make it fall apart...
Then you have the faulty software that runs all the time - AirPort for example. Original naming too, no one thought of that until like 1910 (or whenever planes were mass produced, I'm not a history nerd). You disable it, and log off, come back later and guess why you don't have internet? It re-enabled itself, KILLING your ETHERNET connection. On Windows you can have as many connections as you want - Mac allows you ONE. Why? Who knows.
And to go along with iTunes, you have to use it to use an iPod or iPhone, because of some idiotic attempt to lock you into their service (a plus of the Shuffle family - it does not suffer the iTunes lock in; something Apple did right :)). I buy a $300 phone with a $150 signing fee and a $100 a month plan, only to also have a computer at home with broadband and iTunes, or I can't use the d@mn thing.
And as a final point, the fact that Mac users run Windows but Windows users don't run Mac... need I say more?
Anyways, I'm getting off track, and I'm sure the moderators here are going be jumping all over me, but I can't take it anymore. It's time I expressed my displeasure about how much Mac, and Apple sucks.
-Brandon M. Seal
EDIT: Spelling
EDIT 2: More spelling
EDIT 3: Watch this video to know my experiences with the Macintosh I used at school. Old video, still true. (NOT MINE): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CrQjfgvqJQ
Darwin:
Wow! Brandon, tell us what you REALLY think ;D
Thanks for sharing that, actually. At a certain level, I agree with each of your points. I've always felt that Macs push an image - image over substance. Having said that, I have been genuinely happy using OS X (10.2 and 10.4), enough to upgrade the iBook that I inherited to allow me to run 10.4 so that I can continue to use it... I want to connect it to a WPA encrypted wireless network and play with Quicksilver and see what all the fuss has been about these past four years. FWIW, I have upgraded the RAM and the HD in my parent's 20" iMac and have replaced the optical drive in my iBook and upgraded the RAM and the Harddrive and installed an AirPort card* (initial view on this last is more or less in line with yours: why the heck does it keep dropping the connection? At least it is trivial to reconnect...). Overall, I am a Windows guy out to experience Linux and OSX. So far, I've enjoyed the "ride" :Thmbsup:
*NB replacing components in the iMac is easy. the iBook is a real nightmare! Check out this link for the steps involved in upgrading the harddrive - most of them are the same for the optical drive...!
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