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Apple Vs. PC at RMC

  • Thread starter Thread starter ncaroppi
  • Start date Start date
As much as I will admit MAC is good for some things like graphic design - it is horrible for customification. One thing that drives me nuts about Apple in general is that everything must be set to how Apple sees fit - and there is no compromising.
I'll admit I'm not a fan of MS on stupid ways they do things as well, but compared to the locked downess of any Apple products (especially things like their itunes and ipods - yeech), and overpriced marked up sole proprietary items and formats...
 
Spartan said:
As much as I will admit MAC is good for some things like graphic design - it is horrible for customification. One thing that drives me nuts about Apple in general is that everything must be set to how Apple sees fit - and there is no compromising.
I'll admit I'm not a fan of MS on stupid ways they do things as well, but compared to the locked downess of any Apple products (especially things like their itunes and ipods - yeech), and overpriced marked up sole proprietary items and formats...

Whoa, Dude ... that's so wrong with Darwin ... take a look under the hood!  http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/unix.html http://www.applelinks.com/mooresviews/hacks.shtml
 
bms said:
I don't know. I think VMware Fusion is the best thing for Mac users who need Windows programs(http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/). Not only is it seamless integration, but you can use your Boot Camp Windows partition as a Virtual Machine as well. It's a fantastic piece of software.

As is Parallels. But I'll definitely check into it.

Spartan said:
As much as I will admit MAC is good for some things like graphic design - it is horrible for customification. One thing that drives me nuts about Apple in general is that everything must be set to how Apple sees fit - and there is no compromising.
I'll admit I'm not a fan of MS on stupid ways they do things as well, but compared to the locked downess of any Apple products (especially things like their itunes and ipods - yeech), and overpriced marked up sole proprietary items and formats...

Well, once you get unix shell and install dev tools, you can do everything since the OS is open-source.
 
Spartan said:
customification
What an awesome word! Similar to my all-time favorite word, optimization. Customification of course introduces an administrative burden that lots of people can't bear.
 
This might open your eyes to alternative choices: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqOC_RSbfVA&feature=related
 
I personally don't have a whole lot of problems with Vista... my slow as balls connection is my only problem.

That being said, I recommend anybody looking for a new, up to date laptop, for cheap, to look on ebay.

Edited to remove counselling of illegal activity


As you can see, great deal, as long as you can live with yourself for buying a stolen product haha.
 
I dunno if it is just me or not, but it seems like telling future officers to break federal laws seems to be against everything that an officer in this Canadian Forces stands for.  Seems like a bad idea to me.
 
Inexpensive computers and laptops are on the way:

http://www.technologyreview.com/Wire/20505/?nlid=978

Burst of low-end PCs could finally push Linux to become a true desktop alternative
By Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) -- The free Linux operating system handles big tasks like running supercomputers and ATMs. Now Linux has a chance to finally crack Microsoft Corp.'s hold on computing's most visible domain -- mainstream PCs -- because of the rise of innovative, inexpensive machines.

Of course, prognosticators perennially say Linux is on the verge. It gets high marks for security and stability and is widely used behind the scenes in corporate servers, making it a natural candidate to steal desktop thunder from Microsoft's dominant Windows. And yet Linux PCs still represent less than 2 percent of the market.

This time, though, there's actually evidence of momentum.

While the best features in the latest Windows release, Vista, require top-notch configurations that can quickly ramp up a PC's price, one of the hottest segments of the industry involves inexpensive computers.

Laptops under $400 are real possibilities now, and some of the most buzz-worthy use Linux, such as Asustek Computer Inc.'s EeePC and the One Laptop Per Child Foundation's $200 ''XO'' computer for schoolchildren. Linux also is available on slim little ''netbooks'' being pushed by Intel Corp.

Not only is Linux essentially free to the PC vendor, but the operating system also is better suited than Vista for cheap PCs' spartan hardware designs. (Windows XP is available on scaled-back PCs like Intel's Classmate, but it's unclear what will happen after Microsoft soon stops selling XP to the general public.)

Amazon.com's top-selling PCs include several Asustek Linux machines. Although Wal-Mart Stores Inc. recently stopped a test run of selling Linux PCs in some stores, the company says it will continue to offer them online.

Business computing suppliers are finding open-source desktops especially gaining traction in cost-conscious developing markets. For example, a PC distributor in Eastern Europe is packaging software from IBM Corp. and Linux vendor Red Hat Inc. to create Microsoft-free desktops for that market.

One buyer is Aleksandar Spagnut, a director of Moscow-based Rushotel, which needed new desktop PCs for a hotel-building project. Spagnut said his company saved 30 to 35 percent over comparable Windows machines. He added that Linux PCs are now common enough that a snowball effect is emerging, whereby technical support and ''drivers'' -- which essentially tell programs how to interact with hardware -- are much easier to find.

''This really makes the difference,'' he said.

Linux might benefit from a changing conception of what computers are for. With the rise of Web-based applications that reduce the need for desktop-bound software, more of the action comes through an Internet browser now. The feel of the underlying operating system is less important.

That means Linux consumers can get a lot out of their computers even if they are put off by what many reviewers still cite as Linux's biggest flaw: its uneven user-friendliness. Some tweaks to Linux machines require higher-than-average computing savvy, although this is less of an issue than in the past.

Perhaps more importantly, if the desktop operating system fades further into the background, PC makers could have greater incentive to save money on it by offering Linux. The price that big PC manufacturers pay Microsoft for Windows varies and is not disclosed, but is believed to commonly exceed $50 per PC.

''I'm a big believer in the inevitable forces of economics -- they're like glaciers,'' said Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Canonical Ltd., which this month is releasing a new version of Ubuntu, a leading version of Linux that can run PCs. ''Glaciers carve out terrain. It takes time.''

Linux on the desktop doesn't have to take off like crazy to really start to matter. Of the 981 million PCs in existence worldwide last year, 1.7 percent ran Linux, according to Gartner Inc. That sounds paltry. But Apple's Mac operating system accounted for just 2.5 percent, and Apple is considered a significant, influential alternative to Windows.

''Every point is billions of dollars to Microsoft,'' says Jim Zemlin, head of The Linux Foundation, a consortium devoted to advancing Linux. His group is meeting with top PC makers next week in Austin, Texas, in hopes of accelerating their efforts to sell Linux machines.

The top PC makers have so far treaded carefully. Dell Inc.'s Web site sells Ubuntu computers in a separate section for open-source PCs, out of direct comparison with Windows machines. Dell spokeswoman Anne Camden said the placement reflects the fact that Linux is still not a mainstream consumer product.

Linux is partly hampered by its greatest asset: its widely dispersed nature.

Linux is a core set of code called a kernel; developers build different layers of software on top of it to serve different computing purposes. (Open-source providers make money by charging for add-on services, such as technical support or security upgrades.)

As a result, Linux comes in many flavors, known as distributions, fracturing the push Linux might otherwise make. In fact, some programs written for one distribution don't work in another.

''We haven't figured out to how to federate the marketing of the technology as well as we've figured out how to develop the technology,'' Zemlin acknowledged.

Copyright Technology Review 2008.
 
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