OT: The new iMac!

[Jay]

A couple points...

* I used Apple products exclusively from 1979 (Apple ][) through the late
80's. Then Apple got boring and fell behind the pack.

* I have been a Linux zealot since 1995 and have used it exclusively for
both servers and desktops since (although I do have VM Ware for a couple
of Windows apps, but only run it once a month or so). I have mainly used
Slackware, although relatively recently I've started using Mandrake.

* About three or four months ago, I just couldn't resist the Mac OSX
"urge" any longer and went to the Apple Store in Chandler and bought a
Titanium PowerBook G4.

* In a matter of HOURS, I was instantly re-converted to an Apple zealot
for the desktop. I'll still use Linux and *BSD for servers, but ANY
desktop/portable products I buy from now on will be 100% Apple and OSX.

The early OSX releases were kinda' slow sometimes (OSX loves RAM, but hey,
it's cheap these days). However, current OSX releases absolutely 100% KICK
ASS - no question about it. I know of at least one other long-time Linux
zealot, now OSX-on-the-desktop/portable zealot, on this list. In reading
online forums, mailing lists, etc... it is quite clear that GEEKS LOVE OSX
and I couldn't agree more.

The system is just so perfectly seamless and beautiful. Everything always
just works. No drivers, no hours of obscure configs, no library problems,
no muss, no fuss. I can't stress this enough - everything just works -
period.

A couple of examples...

* I bought a new 802.11b base station. Getting my TiPB online with it -
easy - turn on the laptop. That's it. OSX auto-finds the basestation,
reconfigures the OS's networking configs, all instantly and automagically.

* I took a bunch of pictures with my Sony digital camera and I needed to
get them onto my computer. How do I do that with OSX? It was pretty tough
- not only did I have to turn on the laptop, but I also had to plug in the
camera's USB cable (I know, horribly complicated, eh? :).  That's it - OSX
recognized the camera, mounted it as an external drive, placed an icon on
my desktop, launched the Image Capture app, and downloaded all my pics to
my Pictures folder - all automagically (remember, all I did was turn on
the laptop and plug in the camera).

* I'm sitting at Coffee Plantation the other day and thought to myself,
"Self, wouldn't it be neat-o if I could get online with my cell phone
right now?" The obvious answer was "yes, that would be neat-o." What did I
have to do to accomplish this mess (my cell phone came with a PC data
cable). I plugged in my cell phone to my laptop. THAT'S IT! OSX recognized
the device and automatically figured out that it could act as a modem. I
clicked on the network connection icon, typed in my ISP's phone number,
typed in my username and password (OSX can't quite guess those things
automagically :), and clicked "Connect." A few seconds later, I'm
connected. No muss, no fuss.

* Uh oh, someone emailed me a MS Word/Excel/PowerPoint document... now
what. Oh! I know! I double clicked it...that's it! Yes, like it or not, MS
Office controls the business world. And yes, MS Office runs NATIVE in OSX!

* Now I want to "get my hands dirty" and open a Bash shell, launch Vi
(or Emacs, but I'm not into self-mutilation) and hack up a quick
shell/perl/python/ruby/whatever script and make it a cron job. Hey, no
problem! OSX is built on a FULL COMPLETE FreeBSD system. Not only that,
but you have total access to it. Bash? Yup. Cron? Yup. Python? Yup.
Sendmail? Yup. Apache? Yup. Vi? Yup. Pine? Yup. ls? Yup. grep? Yup. Bind?
Yup. MySQL? Yup. SSH(d)? Yup. I could go on forever...you get the point -
IT IS ALL THERE.

* Although OSX has tons of commercial apps support (and more every day),
let's say I prefer Gimp to Photoshop. No problem there either. I can run
XFree86 at the same time (even interleaved with) the OSX GUI (Aqua /
Quartz). That's right - I can run almost all the XFree86 apps right there
NATIVE on OSX. Gnome? Yup. Abiword? Yup. StarOffice? Yup. Xeyes? Yup.
XTerm? Yup. GNUCash? Yup. TuxRacer? Yup. You get the point - they're all
there. Additionally, just like any other XFree86 implementation, I can run
XFree86 apps from my Linux box over the network on my OSX XFree86 server.

* Just a side note, if you have used Linux for a while, no doubt you've
seen the "less than readable" fonts that some XFree86 apps like to
produce. Personally, I absolutely LOVE a good looking screen with
excellent fonts and readability. OSX borrowed an incredible point from
NeXT here - the entire GUI and rendering engine is all PDF. Everything is
antialiased, sharp, and super clean looking. Using OSX is great on my
eyes and REALLY is FUN and ENJOYABLE (is that sadistic?) to look at. It
really is a great experience to read documents/web
sites/email/usenet/etc... on OSX. Everything just looks georgeous.

Did I mention that IT IS ALL THERE (full UNIX and seamless GUI and killer
apps) and that EVERYTHING just simply works?  :)   (Of course, the UNIX
system gives you the ability to do everything manually and "break" it if
you want to. All the power is there.)

No question about it; OSX is geek paradise. Period.  :)

~Jay




On Mon, 7 Jan 2002, Kevin Brown wrote:

> Don't know much about Macs either since almost all my exp is with Intel based
> hardware.  I guess you wouldn't, but then again, I like a box where I can.
>
> > Maybe I just don't know anything about Macs, but, do you really upgrade them
> > that much?
>
> > > Very weird looking IMO.  Probably runs OSX.  Guess the nice thing is the
> > lack of
> > > wires coming out of it, but would probably not much in the way of internal
> > > upgrades do to the oddly shaped case.
> > >
> > > http://www.apple.com/imac/
> > >
> > > > If you haven't seen the new iMac check it out... very cool!
> > > >
> > > > http://www.apple.com
> > > >
> > > > You maybe asking why I posted this on a Linux list. I run Debian Linux
> > > > on my powerbook along with Mac OS (Occasionally I do graphic design and
> > > > I'm too attached to all my fonts, Photoshop filters, and other personal
> > > > stuff that I'm not ready to deal with because I can't afford psychiatric
> > > > help... he he) Linux on a mac is very cool cause of the speed and
> > > > performance and I'm dying to run it on a G4...
> > > >
> > > > I also think OS X is not too bad either... but it's super slow and
> > > > crashes... but fun to play with...
> > > >
> > > > Anyways check it out or don't...
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-- 
~Jay