[ale] linux and apples

[aaron]

I've been extensively using and maintaining several Mac OSeX systems for a 
little over a year now at a small media production facility. Once a Mac OSeX 
box has a two button mouse attached, I find these computers are truly a 
pleasure to work with. [The fondness is a bit surprising for me since I 
seriously disliked pre-OSeX Macs and found that their rigid ideas of "user 
friendly"  quickly became "user frelled" for anyone with a brain and multiple 
fingers.]

On the user side, OSeX systems are extremely fast and the Aqua interface is 
highly responsive and consistent. The Columns View for file browsing makes 
GUI file management on OSeX almost as logical, easy and functional as Worker 
on Linux or DirOpus on Amiga. The "Look and Feel" presentation is VERY clean, 
VERY readable and even (dare I admit it?) more than a little elegant. There 
are enough logical improvements over the older Mac environment (like true 
multitasking, multithreaded operation) that Apple's obsessively rigid style 
guides now border on beneficial. There are still serious user hindrances in 
Apple's [Jobs'] concept of "user friendly", notably that OSeX and Aqua lack 
multiple work spaces and most every other GUI customization feature one 
expects from flexible, user empowering environments like those on Linux. 
However, overall, I find that very few of the "cutesy" style guide aspects of 
the Aqua interface get in the way of logical functionality. [My primary 
personal annoyance is that the Dock/Task Bar can't be set to hide and reveal 
via keyboard or click tab; without multiple workspaces the screen real estate 
is limited and it is a huge annoyance to have the Dock / Taskbar jumping in 
the way every time the mouse pointer hits the edge of the screen.]

>From a system maintenance view (acknowledging that I only have to manage a few 

machines) I find the stock OSeX system utilities and settings tools extremely 
well integrated with the FreeBSD core. Setting up networking, file sharing, 
print sharing and other common features is largely a point and click no 
brainer. The system software update mechanism has been entirely auto-magical 
and problem free through several utility and OS upgrades.   

Finally, from the Geek view, it is wonderful to experience a User Empowering 
Mac with an actual shell interface providing full access to the system. OSeX 
comes with a complete suite of the stock, free *nix shell programs and one of 
these days I hope to find time to get the Apple supported Open Source 
Xwindows layer working, too. OSeX is FreeBSD at heart, so the boxes are 
extremely stable, reliable and secure.

Based on my 25+ years of experience in video and media production using a 
broad range of computer systems and state of the art tools, I have no 
hesitation in stating that Mac OSeX systems and software tools present the 
most powerful, functional and productive Media workstations currently 
available. Further, based on extensive exploration of a number of OS 
environments, I think Mac OSeX machines are also the most complete, reliable 
and simple to use computer systems presently available for common personal, 
internet and business oriented Desktop computing applications. The 
functionally integrated nature of OSeX provides tangible and substantial 
value that (finally) makes current Mac systems well worth their price. I 
think Apple has done an admirable job of leveraging their very durable 
commercial and marketing structures to deliver the strengths of free, Open 
Source *nix to those in the general public who haven't (yet) earned the noble 
title of Anarchist Geek.

peace
aaron


On Tuesday 23 September 2003 04:38, Stephen Turner wrote:
> hey does linux outperform mac osx? i realize its based on bsd which makes
> me wonder. LOL if it was 9.X i wouldnt be asking, that was one slow os!
> =====
> **  computers are a lot like air conditioners, they stop working properly 
once you open windows **