JD> Your problem could be the software you are using to send email or a JD> system conflict or the hardware itself. But the form is that the MacOS JD> is stable. Honestly, I don't know what all the Linux fuss is about. For me, the main appeal of Unix OSes is the stability of the OS in spite of unstable applications. Yes, when my Mac crashes, it's usually because I'm using some goofy application that's obviously tried to do something stupid. On my Sun and Linux systems, though, when a goofy application tries to do something stupid (e.g. Netscape, on a fairly regular basis), the application dies -- but I don't have to reboot the whole damn computer, work I was doing in other applications isn't immediately lost, and I know that there isn't some "system heap" of memory somewhere that's corrupted now. I also like the general flexibility of Linux tools. I can do things in Emacs that Word zombies can't even dream of. I have a digital camera, and it saves pictures in JPEG format -- but Adobe PhotoDeluxe, which came with it, insists on translating each picture, one at a time, into 4 MB PhotoDeluxe Format files, and then spending 5 - 10 seconds displaying the picture, then making me click, click, type, click, click, for each individual picture, to turn them back into JPEGs, one at a time. My Unix software lets me slurp the JPEGs directly, and without bothering to display them all at once. I'll look at them later -- right now, I want to suck them out of the camera, so I can go take more pictures. Meanwhile, I can't just pop up a terminal window and do 'for i in *.pdlx ; do pdlx2jpg < $i > $i.jpg ; done'. For some mysterious reason, Quicken 98 displays dates as "00/03/21", even though my Control Panel setting clearly says "YYYY/MM/DD" -- it gets the order right, but uses two-digit instead of four-digit years. It just goes on and on: If I want to do exactly what the tools I have are designed to do, the Mac is *great*, but if I want to do something unusual, it's often just impossible. Not in Unix. Windows is, of course, far far worse. Also, my mom has an iMac, and my grandmother is getting an iBook; I would never dream of suggesting that either of them run Linux instead. But for me, personally, Unix OSes give me the freedom to do what I want, and the MacOS just doesn't, not quite. -- Josh Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -*- http://www.infersys.com/~irilyth/ Certified Evil Genius -*- Gamer -*- Dancer -*- Troubleshooter (Orange) ---------- Duo/2400 List, The friendliest place on the Net! A listserv for users and fans of Mac subportables. FAQ at <http://www.themacintoshguy.com/lists/DuoListFAQ.shtml> Be sure to visit Mac2400! <http://www.sineware.com/mac2400> XRouter | Share your DSL or cable modem between multiple computers! Dr. Bott | Now $199.99 <http://www.drbott.com/prod/MIH120.html> PowerBook Guy is | Click here! Everything PowerBook! | http://www.powerbookguy.com Midwest Mac Parts ][ <http://www.midwestmac.com> After-market parts for Macs. ][ 888-356-1104 ][ MacResQ Reader Specials: 2.5GB Seagate SCSI: $119, 4GB IBM SCSI: $199, Norton Util. 4.0: $29, Mac Parts, Systems & Repairs <http://www.macresq.com>
