if theed ran Apple

[theed]

Here's as good a place as any for me to go off I guess. I have my views, and I of course think I am right. Here's what I'd change about Apple's OS, Hardware, and developers, if I was omnipotent or something...

Hardware:
- 3rd IDE bus inside the box, SCSI has little benefit anymore, except that I have reason for 2 CD drives and 3 HD's. IDE busses are cheap.
- second space needs to be 5.25" if it isn't already. Having no 5.25 expandability in the box is kinda short sighted in pro models.
- flat top to computer. I like the QuickSilver look, but the flat top is practical. Could that handle be removed or folded to allow flat top Pro macs?
- bring back the solid state mac. The cube was a sweet idea, but aimed at the wrong market. I wanted it for audio use because it had no moving parts. (If you take out the drive and netboot) Could make server racks like that too if you tried, less moving parts means greater reliability. I miss the solid state mac, but I admit it's a small loss.

OS:
- ftp disk mounting like AFP and SMB. That's where it needs to be. Browsing via SMB would be nice too
- software raid 5, they have 1 and 0, 5 would be really useful for reliable storage when throughput can be sacrificed. You don't need to boot from it.
- Maintenance phages, tiny processes defragging the OS while you use it if the files are stagnant, finding and correcting failed aliases, icons, etc.
- RAM only .DS_Store, don't put that wretched file on remote machines, that's rude. Locally it might be a selectable Finder Option.
- Window buttons (x - +) should display marks when not selected, again, hiding information here is not benefitting anyone. Let the bubbles note the highlight. And alter the spacing of the buttons, more space between x and -, and the 9 symbols were far more meaningful, think about those.
- Aliases need to also create symlinks. AFP FTP schizophrenia is annoying. Aliases are better, but why can't they also be traversed as symlinks by the BSD layer?
- Finder displays filename extensions by default, lying to the user makes them dumber, be honest. Display any text that qualifies as an extension in a notable way (smaller) but show it. command line GUI schizophrenia is bad. This philosophy includes .app - don't lie.
- Finder needs better caching and threading. folders should display INSTANTLY from their cache, then update quickly. Preview needs to be a non-blocking background thread. It's good, don't turn it off, but don't let it interfere with navigation.

Developers:
- I'm glad we're encouraging developers of the homegrown variety, but theiy're missing the value added idea of IP on the mac. Encourage freeware, hold contests with cash or prizes only available to freeware. Apple has done its part, it's tiring to see home developers trying to cash in on other people's good intentions now.
- Toss a CD of good freeware and maybe shareware out alongside the OS. CD's are cheap, give the developers a sense of accomplishment while adding value to the Mac OS distro.

[.dev.lqd]

Hehe... sorry; just being a jackass

ANYWAYS. A few points-

IDE is on a controller by controller basis. Each controller has two chains or channels.

Raid 5 is TOTALLY dependent upon the performance of the controller. This would eat up SERIOUS time done in software. Perhaps an on-board solution for top of the line desktops, but I don't see doing RAID 5 in software as being a good idea.

Back to the IDE controllers... having two controllers is a chance to introduce a lot of confusion and conflict. I think developing or pushing a well developed hardware based firewire raid solution might be more fruitful (although I have questions about the feasibility of it).

I like the freeware idea. It'd be cute. However, the idea that Apple is not only adding value by including developer tools, but offering assets freely that would allow hobbyists access to create professional level tools (and charge for them if they wish). It's a way to allow small software firms to compete with larger firms and make software prices come down, because the initial capital investment is almost nothing (you need to buy the machine).

[theed]

Yeah, the same argument used to be made against IDE. Too much dependance on CPU, but I think it's a reasonable option for some. I turned 3 30G drives into one 60G raid5 drive on linux. It wasn't super fast, but it was great for archiving, and I miss it. It worked on top of other logical volumes, so you could do it with 1 IDE 1 SCSI and 1 firewire drive if you wanted to :-) I wish I could figure it out for OS X, It was freaky enough with documentation. Anyway, linux isn't the best at holding AppleShare space, so I prefer OS X, but about a month after I broke the raid set into individual drives one of the drives failed catastrophically. 30G of data, gone. I want RAID back, but even without RAID, I think we could use 2 more possible IDE devices inside the box; Outside, firewire.

[ksv]

SCSI is still faster than ATA, if I remember correctly. Also, Firewire should be at least a gigabit/sec, then external RAIDs could be connected via firewire instead of gigabit ethernet, which is too expensive

[theed]

I can't believe the number of people who think I'm a big fat retard! :-)

Scsi 320 is faster than ATA 133, by a factor indicated bluntly by their numbers in their names. BUT, when your HD is only capable of transferring at 30 MB/s, it doesn't matter for a single device, or 2, which is the max for an ATA bus. So bus isn't the limit. HD performance is. If you need 200+ MB/s throughput, get SCSI, but if you're making decisions about that kind of HW, you should already that.

And the reason I'm suggesting software raid5 is that, it's already been done in Linux, the code is free, I have tasted it, and the nectar was sweet.

Anyone have any specific thoughts on what I've said about OS improvements?

[nkuvu]

I almost always choose the last option in a poll. It reduces the energy I have to spend thinking about the poll...



That ws a joke, son! A joke!

[ksv]

Originally posted by theed
Anyone have any specific thoughts on what I've said about OS improvements?

They're good. Send them to Apple