[Tfug] The Joy of OSX, and the friction coefficient of goose droppings.

[Joshua Zeidner]

On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 1:05 PM, Joe Roberts <deepspace at dataswamp.net> wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 12:41 PM, Tim Ottinger <tottinge at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Bowie J. Poag wrote:
>>>
>>> I'm happy to leave desktop Linux in the ditch at this point, where Vista
>>> can keep it company. Linux is unbeatable in the server arena, but I think
>>> too many missed opportunities have gone by for Linux on the desktop to gain
>>> any real traction.
>>
>> I came back.  There was nothing like apt to make managing your whole system
>> easy.
>
> Heard both stories, of people going to OS X, and some coming back.  I
> guess I'm in a weird place with Linux on the desktop because I just
> don't have any problems with it.  It does what I need it to do from
> day to day (the exception being video editing and DVD authoring is
> poor, still - you can do it, but it has problems).


 Desktop Linux is still not really a viable choice for web developers.
 Not only do you need the Adobe tools, etc. to run, they have to
perform.

 -jmz

> That said, I'm
> trying to get my wife to move over to a Mac next time we replace her
> system because I'm sick of dealing with Windows (Vista, in this case),
> which on her present hardware is full of weird quirks (she has this
> chronic problem, every few weeks, usually following a video editing
> session, where the system will boot and throw up a focus-stealing
> error box in an infinite loop.  You close it, it pops back up, which
> won't even let you get to the control panel.)
>
> What I wouldn't like about OS X is that, while freeware does exist,
> the sense of free software isn't as strong on the platform.  I'm not
> very experienced with Apples, but I have an old iMac G3 here I futz
> with periodically.  There is an NFS configuration tool which is
> crippleware, which strikes me as odd.  I tried configuring NFS shares
> manually but it wasn't straight forward and I couldn't make it work
> within about 20 minutes, so I downloaded this crippleware application
> to map the shares.
>
> That kind of basic functionality seems like something which ought to
> be free to me.
>
> But some of it is personality.  Some people see all of the quirks,
> inconsistencies, and "bloat" of popular, actively-developed desktops
> like KDE and it really irks them, but I tend not to notice.  If you
> were to, for example, flip OK / Cancel boxes around, I probably
> wouldn't notice, and I'd click the right one anyway just because of
> how my brain works.  I often read usability articles on osnews.com,
> and they point out things I've just never noticed before.   Likewise,
> if you forced me to work with some other WE/WM, I would probably adapt
> in a day or two without noticing.
>
> For whatever reason, I'm just habituated to adapting to whatever
> environment I'm working with, but not everyone is.  I'd be a horrible
> Usability person as a result.  I notice detail a lot with certain
> aspects of computing, but just not desktop interfaces.  Might be some
> kind of mental quirk, or just habit.
>
> This also means, however, that I'd probably be fine with OS X.  My
> major requirement on the desktop is a shell.  I'm pretty sure I can't
> live without that, and OS X has it, so if I had to adapt to it, I
> probably would.  But aside from the problems with video and DVD
> authoring, I don't ever really notice deficiencies in the desktop on
> my Linux box.
>
> I do agree, though, that significant opportunities were missed.
> Entire paradigms could have been changed and used to challenge
> Microsoft, but mostly what has happened, owing in part to the
> development model (unpaid developers scratching itches), is desktops
> have aped things in Windows and on the Mac, so the feeling is you're
> getting a low-rent copy of, say, Windows.  Which again is fine by me,
> since to me the desktop interface is pretty boring.   I'm still on KDE
> 3.5.9 or something, and haven't even moved to 4.  If the desktop froze
> here, it wouldn't really affect me, personally.
>
> But it hurts momentum, especially the revolutionary momentum that
> would be necessary for Linux to assert itself as a share of the
> market.  And as I say, people have way different attitudes to their
> desktops than I do.
>
> Bowie and others - what is it about Linux on the desktop,
> specifically, that ticks you off, that Apple or Microsoft does better?
>
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