On Monday 14 July 2008 22:18:27 Harish Mallipeddi wrote: > Part of the problem with Opensource software vs. Apple software is that the > Opensource community doesn't have the right people. Apple has UI > Interaction engineers, designers, etc because they hired them to do that > job > specifically and this really shows in their UI. Most KDE apps look like the > UI was "designed" (more like "assembled" rather than "designed") by the > developer strictly as a one-to-one mapping between the underlying feature > and one UI widget. That sucks! The Opensource community predominantly has > hard-core programmers who don't care a lot about these "soft" elements > which is what is required to create great consumer facing apps. > > I was a long-time Linux user - used Linux pretty much throughout my time at > NUS. I switched to a Mac about an year back. Bought an iPhone (1st gen) > when it came out. Frankly I would have done this much earlier but I didn't > have money to do so as a student :) > > Linux on a desktop is not that far-fetched. But one thing seriously led me > to switch to a Mac - configuring dual-screens and getting that setup to > work without restarting KDE/GNOME in Linux is a hassle. Cummulatively, I > think I've wasted 2 weeks of my life doing just that. The same thing is > true with Linux on a phone. I had the Qtopia GreenPhone with me for a > while. The phone had the most hideous UI ever. Compiling custom kernels was > cool and all, but it wasn't useable as a regular phone! > > Linux and Opensource software will never get to the Apple standards unless > designers, interaction engineers join us. Maybe companies like Redhat or > SuSE can help out here by hiring them initially. But they probably won't > because they care more about their server market because that's where their > money is. > > So until then, I would give up my principles and whore myself to Apple. > Thank you.
I would like to share my experience with Mac vs Linux. I bought a MacBook, ran OSX for a while , but mostly linux (dual boot). After experiencing OSX , I took the first opportunity to jump out of the Mac bandwagon to a HP laptop recently after less than stellar experience with Mac and OSX. Here are my complaints: - Single mouse button - The ever shifting Menu bar - The laptop was definitely sluggish with OSX (2.2GHz, 2GB, 250GB !) and linux ran pretty fast on the same machine.. - The 5418 atheros driver for Linux was a problem for a long time (only recently the svn version works fine) - Only 2 USB ports and they are so damn close that both can't be used simultaneously with many non-apple USB devices. - Complete lack of any (native) support for open formats (ogg, odf etc) - No clean way to get apps (eg: apache, ldap, gnu toolchains, latest JDK etc), I know fink etc. They have their own problems....(such as missing package that I need, old versions etc etc) - Nonavailability of free VMware Server (fusion was still in beta then). Parallels was not suitable for what I do/did then. (iSCSI disks etc) - You mean you have pay for updates?? Even MS gives updates free... - The proprietary VGA dongle. - No clean way to encrypt entire harddisk or atleast partitions ( I always protect my /home with DM-Crypt , so losing the laptop means only loss of $$ but not critcial data.) . On Linux it is trivial to get this setup going. - Each and every "made for/by apple" addon has a hefty premium added to it. But the major complaint I had , apart from the "lack of freedom to do whatever we wish with our hardware and sofware" was this: When OSX is set to mirrored VGA config, an external projector would completely messup the display on the Mac screen. This experience is in various departments in NUS, I guess some of the projectors are old. but.... I expect OSX to "just work" and it didn't. My current laptop with kubuntu works fine with the same projectors. (And I can tweak xrandr to get exactly the res I want...) Maybe OSX works for some. But not for me. So, I will stay away from iPhone too, wait for a sufficiently Open phone (android? openmoko?) PS: I was pleasantly surprised by the HP dv6773. When I installed Hardy Heron, everything just works: including webcam, video, wireless, ACPI sleep/suspend, CPU throttling, audio all I/O ports etc etc... and I saved about $1600 by not buying a MBPro configured similarly (2.4GHz, 4GB, 250GB) Regards Anand > > On Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 9:54 PM, Ray Rashif <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > It's just one big sin. You know for a fact that it's bad, but it's also > > good..for your pleasure. You know you're being the loser, but it never > > bothers you because you don't mind being the loser as long as the > > pleasure is there. > > > > I think I just summarised an Apple user. > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Slugnet mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://wiki.lugs.org.sg/LugsMailingListFaq > > http://www.lugs.org.sg/mailman/listinfo/slugnet _______________________________________________ Slugnet mailing list [email protected] http://wiki.lugs.org.sg/LugsMailingListFaq http://www.lugs.org.sg/mailman/listinfo/slugnet
