Toronto Passions

Mac or PC laptop

canucklehead

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Oct 16, 2003
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Here is an old post of mine about hardware and macs i resurrected and had to do with OSX vs Ubuntu ...

Umm… the backwards compatible thing is bunk. I’ve run Leopard on an old 1GHz G4 PowerBook. Yeah, it was slow, but come on… you’re not going to be running Vista on P2 and you sure wouldn’t want to run KDE4 on one either.
Software changes, everyone thinks eye candy is cool, and hardware is cheap. Computers are faster now, space is pretty much a non-issue due to high capacity and low cost drives so guess what… *everything* bloats. That’s not unique to OS X. I dare you to benchmark KDE4 to KDE2.
That being said, I’ve been using OS X on my desktop, full-time, for years (since 10.2 or 10.3, don’t remember which). Paying for upgrades is minor. Apple has done the work, they’re entitled to some reward for it. I would *hope* the same attitude is present to some degree in the OSS world and people reward the folks who put together their OS by buying a boxed copy or making a donation or giving back to some degree.
The quality of apps on OS X is nice. I’ve been using (and working, daily, on) Linux for almost a decade now. For a server, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It’s rock-solid and works well. On the desktop, however, I still find I need to monkey with it too much to get things either a) working or b) working right. Doesn’t matter which distro (personally, I’m not at all a fan of Ubuntu finding it less hardware-friendly than some other distros, like Mandriva). When I was younger and was new to Linux, fixing this stuff and learning was fun. Now I’m older, have a family, have more steep work demands, and I just don’t have the time. I need my computer to work, and I need it to work well. I don’t have time to fiddle with it.
And OS X gives me that. In spades.
I’ve also never been afraid of spending money. I’ve donated to various projects, I’ve paid for multiple upgrades of vmware and komodo. If something works, works well, and saves me time, then it’s worth spending money on (well, if the price is reasonable). Apple’s pricing is reasonable considering how often they make a release. They’re not gouging… just look at Windows for horrid examples of that.
I say if you want to use OS X, use it. I do. Want to use Linux? Go for it. I use that too. I run OS X on my primary workstation and one laptop. Mandriva is on the other two laptops and my two servers. pfSense is on my firewall. The VPS I have runs CentOS. Who cares? Use what fits best. If I thought FreeBSD would make a better desktop than OS X, I’d be using it… regardless of cost.
Cost is in the eye of the beholder. If Linux is free but causes me wasted time because this or that didn’t work, or this kernel flaked out and decided to kill my network card, well.. it’s no longer cheap. My time is expensive.. just ask my clients. $150 or whatever I paid for Tiger is nothing compared to what it saves me in terms of time and sanity. And the money I’ve paid on commercial apps (like Launchbar, VMware Fusion, Komodo, EagleFiler, DayLite, PathFinder, whatever) has all been a worthwhile expense to me because they work, work well, and save me time.
And, FWIW, I use irssi and mutt. Compiled from source. I have fink installed. It compiles fast. I use screen like a crack addict uses crack. I ssh to my Linux boxen to do administration. I mount NFS shares. I do the same stuff I did on Linux, without the headaches. $150 every two years is peanuts for that.
Now i will admit that since the newer releases of Ubuntu my attitude towards it has changed.
 

WoodPeckr

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May 29, 2002
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Umm… the backwards compatible thing is bunk. I’ve run Leopard on an old 1GHz G4 PowerBook. Yeah, it was slow, but come on… you’re not going to be running Vista on P2 and you sure wouldn’t want to run KDE4 on one either.
FWIW for a couple months I DID run KDE4 on my old P2 when using openSUSE 11.0 when I wanted to see what KDE was all about. KDE4 ran just as well as Ubuntu does for that matter. Linux distros are NOT the resource hogs like M$. They generally run fine on old PCs. Fedora ran fine on that old P2 also.

I really have few problems with Linux. Maybe you push it much harder than me but all those problems about wasted time you post of, never really occurred to me. Ubuntu just runs and runs worry free.
Vista of course could never run on a P2.
 

Mable

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Sep 20, 2004
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Update

I have gone through a long process here. Probably too long as I am so ignorant in this area the learning curve seems to be endless. So, as the implications in that statement suggest, I have gone Mac! The hardware and software are exceptional and worry free. Everything works and it is quite easy. I simply do not have the time to fuss. That having been said I did follow woolen's advice and did buy an old refurbished machine, pc, and set it up to play with in some spare time. I still have a strong desire to rectify myself of my ignorance but at least this way I can still work and if something happens I lose nothing but some spare time and a small investment of $. Perhaps in time I will be savy enough to set up my own system.

I wanted to thank you guys for the comments. Very educational and helpful. I have learned alot and will continue. And!! I got the answer to my original question!!
 

danibbler

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Feb 2, 2002
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I have gone through a long process here. Probably too long as I am so ignorant in this area the learning curve seems to be endless. So, as the implications in that statement suggest, I have gone Mac! The hardware and software are exceptional and worry free. Everything works and it is quite easy. I simply do not have the time to fuss.
Just like scouser found out in his thread! :D

I love it when WP makes his "case" for Linux while trashing OS X because it allows me and others to make the case for OS X without seeming to be some sort of fanboi. hehehe
 

Goomer

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Nov 22, 2006
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I have gone through a long process here. Probably too long as I am so ignorant in this area the learning curve seems to be endless. So, as the implications in that statement suggest, I have gone Mac! The hardware and software are exceptional and worry free. Everything works and it is quite easy. I simply do not have the time to fuss. That having been said I did follow woolen's advice and did buy an old refurbished machine, pc, and set it up to play with in some spare time. I still have a strong desire to rectify myself of my ignorance but at least this way I can still work and if something happens I lose nothing but some spare time and a small investment of $. Perhaps in time I will be savy enough to set up my own system.

I wanted to thank you guys for the comments. Very educational and helpful. I have learned alot and will continue. And!! I got the answer to my original question!!
And now this thread can die an untimely death! lol
 

WoodPeckr

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May 29, 2002
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The debate will go on, count on it

And now this thread can die an untimely death! lol
You don't learn a thing by letting it die.

There are others that use Linux that didn't have the same negative experiences and after all many mistakenly think if it's free, it can't be any good.

On the other hand when you shell out double, triple or more for a Mac compared to a PC many think it has to be good! And since I blew all that coin I better be happy with my Mac and not feel foolish for spending so much....:D
 

djk

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Apr 8, 2002
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the hobby needs more capitalism
I have gone through a long process here. Probably too long as I am so ignorant in this area the learning curve seems to be endless. So, as the implications in that statement suggest, I have gone Mac! The hardware and software are exceptional and worry free. Everything works and it is quite easy. I simply do not have the time to fuss.
Ahhhh. You get what you pay for. ;)

Or like I said earlier. If time is money, get a Mac.
 

WoodPeckr

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May 29, 2002
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the learning curve seems to be endless.
Such IS technology, get used to it.

In Technology be it M$, Mac or Linux, the only constant is CHANGE.

You are always on a 'learning curve'.....;)
 

canucklehead

Active member
Oct 16, 2003
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Such IS technology, get used to it.

In Technology be it M$, Mac or Linux, the only constant is CHANGE.

You are always on a 'learning curve'.....;)
Like i always say there is a tool for everything ... MS Exchange and AD are rock solid ..... Linux MySQL and running lighttpd is solid .... OSX as a server and development platform from a user point of view is easy to use and for me even easier to maintain.
 
S

Staitsexets

..Except there really is no reason for MACs to be as expensive as they are. Youre paying for a brand name..

I mean yea, they look nicer and theyre sleeker- and the OS is probably more stable than Vista- but were talking hardware here. How are the internals of a Mac Proetc any more advanced than other competing brands?

My friend bought a Mac Book Pro for about 1300 if I recall and I could be wrong when for that same price I could get a laptop with an extra GB of Memory and a BD-ROM drive built in- with a bigger screen.

"Well Windows is a bad OS"

OK

Ill install:

Gentoo
Ubuntu
Fedora Core
Red Hat
Yellow Dog All fedora Core

etc
Etc
etc

FREE
 
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