In article , Larry wrote:
Justin C wrote in
:
In what way is OS X a closed
environment? You get free development tools with the OS, more than can
be said for Windows. Also, it's based on Unix, which is far more stable
than anything MS has produced so far ... and they've had plenty of time
and $deity knows how much money to throw at the problem. As a multi-
user
environment it's second to none, program install and removal is better
the MS, no registry to foul up, and no stray files around your system.
You said OS X. I said MAC. Apple has a long history of trying to keep
the hackers from developing software for Apple Computers that the company
sold. They used to go after them with lawyers. Has that changed?
I've not used Macs prior to OS X, but a quick Google for OS 9 shareware
found many hundreds of small apps and utilities, the sort, I assume, you
consider are made by the hacker community. It's difficult to find stuff
for earlier versions, everything either being updated for new versions
or not being highly ranked by Google for whatever reason.
Windows sucks. It always has. But, alas, Windows is the OS most of the
software is written for, not MAC, for the above reason. I'm not sure of
its current statistic, but It's probably 98 to 1?? You don't have to beg
to find 24 widgee programs for XP. www.tucows.com, www.download.com, and
a hundred others. "Do they make this for the MAC?", is the next question
the left-out MAC owners ask. I've seen it for years and years.
OS statistics aren't too easy to come by either. The last I heard was
something like Windows 93%, OS X 5% and Linux 2%[1]. The sites that
display statistics based on bowser supplied information use flawed data,
many people using OS software set their browsers up to spoof both
browser and OS. This is necessary because there are an awful lot of
broken web sites, that if you visit with anything other than Windows and
IE will only show you a page with links to upgrade your browser.
WRT software availability, there's not much you can't do with either a
Mac or a Linux box. It may not be written by the same people but it'll
do the same job.
They finally came out with Skype for MAC. It's still in beta. It needs:
System requirements
Mac computer with G4 800 Mhz processor or faster.
Mac OS X v10.3.9 Panther or later.
512 MB RAM.
40 MB free disk space on your hard drive.
Microphone.
Webcam: suggested webcams include Apple iSight, Philips SPC900NC, or
Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000. Drivers for the Philips and Logitech webcams
can be downloaded from http://webcam-osx.sourceforge.net/.
Internet connection (broadband is best, GPRS is not supported for voice
calls, and results may vary on a satellite connection).
Why does it need X v10.3.9 Panter or later?
There were updates to the underlying webkit that came in with that
version. If the writers of Skype for OS X wanted it to work on earlier
versions they'd have had to write more of the code themselves, with
10.3.9 they were able to take advantage of what was already in place
from Apple.
Why are so FEW drivers written that will work with the
cameras?
An awful lot of cameras work with OS X, they just happen to recommend
the cameras you mentioned. No one said that other cameras won't work.
Now, if that was a "required" line, as opposed to "recommended"...
Why doesn't APPLE come with drivers for every camera at Circuit
City...by default??
It's not up to the OS to provide drivers, it's up to the hardware
manufacturer.
Why do I have to go to sourceforge hackers for a
camera driver?
See above.
Why do only CERTAIN cameras work?
See above.
Why is this not
supported or that not supported, every time you see some program ported
to a MAC?
I have not idea what you're referring to here. I've no trouble with
Adobe CS 2, XChat, Google Earth, DreamWeaver, OpenOffice, slrn. All of
which are available on at least two platforms. Those are the apps I use
which aren't Mac only, so I can't comment on any others.
I buy a camera/USB anything or something for a Windows
computer...plug it into XP...it works, 99% of the time.
You try plugging it into Vista. A USB camera might not be much of an
issue, but anything that can even vaguely come into DRM data can cripple
your system.
Apple bull****....that's why. It's always been that way.
They ****ed you off, big time, eh?
I ran LINUX on 2 computers for a long time. There ARE very good Linux
softwares, even ones never quite ready-for-issue. LINUX, itself, is
quite stable, but, of course, it helps if you're familiar with root
commands even if you have a working gui. LINUX, for example, expects to
find things in certain places. It doesn't PLACE them where it wants. It
expects YOU to know where to place them so it can find them...just as an
example. This makes it unusable to most computer USERS, who know little
about the OS, its quirks, its structure. They are USERS. They are also
car USERS. They know nothing of the cars ABS brake system. They are not
mechanics...or electrical engineers...or combustion engineers. They are
USERS...same idea.
I know what you mean. Things are improving, and in some instances are
very good. It depends what you require from your system. MS gets you so
tied up with proprietary formats that you can't move to another OS and
still read your data (easily, there is always a way, but the hoops are
many). If your data is in mostly open formats you may like to try Linux
again, Ubuntu is very popular at the moment, and it's very highly rated,
has excellent hardware detection/support. It can manage most of your MS
format data, be it video or word documents.
You gotta give Billy credit. He trumped
them with his crappy OS and it STUCK.
It's going to take a while but the OS war is over. With the migration to
web applications the OS is going to become irrelevant, providing you've
got a browser, your access to your software will be over a broadband
connection. If you store your data with someone like Google you'll be
able to work where ever you have an internet connection, Palm,
Blackberry, OS X, Linux, Windows, OS2, Amiga, whatever; we're moving on.
Justin.
[1] It's all, lies, damn lies, and statistics anyway
PS. Please, it's Mac, not MAC, it's not an acronym. The same goes for
Linux.
--
Justin C, by the sea.