C4bl3Fl4m3 In reply to sAlxe [2009-09-03 04:24:30 +0000 UTC]

Mac OS X, of course.

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sAlxe In reply to C4bl3Fl4m3 [2009-09-03 10:26:02 +0000 UTC]

May I know the reasons?
Yes, I know, it is a good Operating System, but runs on few hardware, comes bundled with a over-priced PC (the so called "Mac"), etc.

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C4bl3Fl4m3 In reply to sAlxe [2009-09-03 14:10:12 +0000 UTC]

It actually runs on any Intel hardware. (At your own risk, of course. There are certain specific parts it was designed for and runs better on them... see below how I consider that a feature and not a flaw.) And because you don't have to screw around with it (unlike Linux, which usually doesn't "just work)... it "just works". The interface is elegant and you just don't have problems with the OS the way you do in Linux or Winblows. You also don't have to be a rocket scientist to get it to work when things do go wrong. I tried for years to wrap my head around the entirety of Linux and it was so overwhelming that I could never do it.

I want Linux to be at the point that OS X is. I really do. But it's just not. It's MUCH better than it was back when I started using Linux back in the early 2000s, but until the point when it truly is COMPLETELY plug&lay, it's not there yet.

And I don't consider the hardware to be overpriced. They've dropped the prices a lot, as well as you're paying for quality. I'd rather pay more for hardware that I know works well with each other and with the OS than with whatever was cheap at the time that may or may not work well with each other. (I've had my share of Dells, Compaqs, IBMs, etc. as well as I've built my own boxes.) I also know that the OS was written specifically to work with my hardware, which I believe is one of the reasons OS X runs so well.

Honestly, I've had as my main computer for years Windows boxes, Linux boxes, and Macs. And I can honestly say, after using them all, that the Mac has been the easiest and most fun to use and has given me the least amount of problems. And even when there ARE problems, stuff like reinstalling over top of the existing install actually WORKS. Stuff like downgrading to a previous version of a program actually WORKS the way you want it to with no issues. You don't realize the problems that Linux and Windows gives you until you use a Mac for a decent length of time and then try to go back. You'll find yourself realizing how problem-free computing can be. My support doesn't come out of zealotry, but rather out of experience. The ONLY thing I don't like about Mac is that the GUI is closed source. (And, of course, the lack of native support in iTunes for Vorbis files. But you can add that on yourself.) (And yes, that does matter to me.) And I run Firefox, VLC, the GIMP and a host of other open source programs. I just wish someone would port Pidgin to it natively instead of it having to run in an X window. I miss Pidgin.

Besides... it has a modified BSD in the background, so I still have the flexibility of running software written for *nix and I can still use the command prompt if I wish. (Very occasionally, it's nice to have the ability to go "kill -9".)

I hope this helps.

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sAlxe In reply to C4bl3Fl4m3 [2009-09-03 15:09:55 +0000 UTC]

Yes, I know, that's why there are other open source "hacks" that run into a wider area of hardware, like OSX86 or Hackintosh.
And about the thing of "screwing" with other OSes to make them "just work", it depends on the hardware, and the "packager" (Windows has always Microsoft has it's, and each GNU/Linux distro has their own dev team); yet as Apple only produces fully compatible PCs/computers with OS X, there you have less problems with things "just working". On the other side, Windows is sold as a product to other producers, that install OEM versions with a OEM license, on a "random" combination of hardware. The same happens with most GNU/Linux distros, but there are some people (like System76 ) that create the hardware around the software, so it's completly functional "out-of-the-box". Wider hardware support means less Plug & Play support.

I do. The "raw" hardware parts are much cheaper than the whole "Mac" computer, and Apple gets lots of money by just adding a white box with an apple symbol, and installing an OS. It's not really worth, in my opinion. And, as I quoted before, System76 does that, build a box around the software, for most Plug & Play compatibility.

I've been using Windows since this very year's January, when I bought a computer of myself, and installed GNU/Linux. About what you say of problems, in GNU/Linux (let's forget about Windows, we all know that is a lost boat) you can divide your filesystem in different partitions, being / (root) the most important. If your computer breaks, you can reinstall on top of a partition and keep your personal files (let's suppose /home/ is a different partition, as usual). You can also do a lot more of recovery, as you have greater control of your computer contents, for example if the X window system breaks, you can switch to a agetty terminal and edit files from there, reinstall or remove Z package, or anything. You can also enter a LiveCD and start recovery from there with a (supposedly accepted hardware) completely functional system.
Yes, also my support comes from experience. I've been using a "supposedly advanced" distro of GNU/Linux since my second week being active on the GNU/Linux world, and the hardest problems, were solved thanks to a nice documentation, and an awesome community; and the best is that I kept the experience. Solving something leaves a nice feeling

Oh, well, you are talking about a company that mostly took FOSS with a permisive license, and modified to it's needs, then closing whatever it could be. Microsoft is much more closed than Apple in terms of Software, but Apple (as far as I know) protects with stronger licenses and DRM. Like that part in the iTunes license, where you can't use it to create nuclear or biological weapons. Overprotective and kinda stupid

Nice to see you support Vorbis (and maybe that includes Theora and FLAC), as other FOSS things as well. "Pidgin" exist natively on OS X, just with another name: Adium. Adium runs the same backend as Pidgin, libpurple, so it's basically the same, with a different and native interface.

Yes, OS X is UNIX-like, so it can run some *NIX/POSIX programs, but not all, and many need porting. Bet you'd need much beer to see (the whole) GNOME, KDE, XFCE or any other thing running on OS X.

Discussions are great to wake up some lazy brain neurones

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