There Seems to Be More Mac Users Lately - Page 5

Amie · #33 January 19th, 2008, 06:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fryke

To learn. If in your first week you accidentally try that "sudo rm -rf /" command and delete your Mac's harddrive and have to reinstall, you're taught not to meddle with Terminal.app unless you know what you're doing. Just as an example. I think it's very healthy to dig a little and just go ahead. A testdrive, so to speak.

Um ... I think I'll learn it's not good to meddle with Terminal by reading Mac books, thankyaverymuch.

Amie · #34 January 19th, 2008, 07:00 PM

Someone here mentioned that "Vista is really killing Microsoft right now." What exactly does that mean? Granted, I've strayed far, far away from Microsoft (ex-Windows user) during the past several years that I've made the switch to Apple, so I'm not really "on the up" where Microsoft in concerned ... but I thought Windows Vista was like "ooh-la-la" suave OS for Windows, no?

darrell888 · #35 January 20th, 2008, 12:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amie

Someone here mentioned that "Vista is really killing Microsoft right now." What exactly does that mean? Granted, I've strayed far, far away from Microsoft (ex-Windows user) during the past several years that I've made the switch to Apple, so I'm not really "on the up" where Microsoft in concerned ... but I thought Windows Vista was like "ooh-la-la" suave OS for Windows, no?

Microsoft release Windows XP in 2003. They have had 4 years to develop a new operating system. Vista is not really that much better. If you have seen the Mac ads where some guy in dark sunglasses is approving everything said in a conversation between 'Mac' and 'PC'. That is what Vista is like. They have so much 'security' that it interferes with the user's ability to use the operating system. Additionally, as a software developer most our software is broken on Vista. This means upgrading to Vista will cost you a lot of money (just for the OS) and you will have to spend the time and money upgrading all your software. The pain you will feel is not worth the new feature that Vista is offering.

After evaluating Vista, as a software development company, we concluded it would be a lot of work just to get our software to the state it already was on Windows XP. We polled our customers and found most of them wanted to stay on Windows 2000. Some upgraded to Windows XP just because Microsoft dropped support for Windows 2000. None of them were eager to upgrade to Vista. So we don't support Vista and have no immediate plans to.

This is the general word I have been hearing from friends who work at other companies. I have one friend whose company still supports Windows 98 but they REALLY don't want to support Vista.

Bottom line, many people are realizing that switching to Vista or switching to Mac will be similar but upgrading to Vista tends to be more painful. I kept hearing about how much better the Mac OS is. I evaluated Linux Redhat, SuSE, Ubuntu, Solaris 10, Windows Vista and Mac OS X. The Mac came out as the best choice. It has a UNIX base (good for power users like me) but a really user friendly GUI (good for people like my wife).

The ads for Mac imply you can just plug it in and it works. I took hours trying to get my Windows Vista to work with PPPoE, VNC, ssh, etc. I took about 30 minutes configuring everything on SuSE and Solaris. I took 10 seconds (LITERALLY) to get PPPoE running on the Mac. It took another 5 minutes to get everything else running... and here is the real kicker... my wife could have set up everything on the Mac. There is no way she could have set anything up on the other OS.

Digital FX · #36 January 20th, 2008, 06:02 AM

Let me ask you guys a question.
Do you think Microsoft time in the sun is running out?
I found this video showing the longhorn concept
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9ifQvQCO7Y
This video says to me that Microsoft had better operating system in development before they released vista. I gotta ask why would Microsoft throw away a good idea like that and replace with an xp clone.

Soulwar · #37 January 20th, 2008, 08:19 AM

Why do you think Gates stepped down...

Seriously, I think some users are just sick of problems. My daughter, who is in college, has finally switched. Mostly due to 2 other Windows laptops killed, by spyware and viruses, in less than 3 years. They seem to have A LOT more problems than just their OS'S...

Digital FX · #38 January 20th, 2008, 09:06 AM

Gates only stepped to part time. hes not gone for good.

Soulwar · #39 January 20th, 2008, 09:28 AM

Ahh... Sneaking out while he can...
Why go down with the ship, when you can just buy another... ?

Satcomer · #40 January 20th, 2008, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amie

Um ... I think I'll learn it's not good to meddle with Terminal by reading Mac books, thankyaverymuch.

Amie you should look at MacOSXHints sometimes. There are some great terminal hints that really extended OS X so much it is even funny.