about a week and a half worth of WinTel

[psyjax]

Ok folks, my G4 Quicksilver sat unused for about a week and a half while I ploded around in the wonderfull world of Win98SE and RedHat Linux 8. Today I am happy to say that my G4 is plugged in, and acting once again as my main computer.

There is nothing you can do on a PC that I woulden't much rather be doing in OSX. I hate to say it, but everything I try to do, weather in Linux, or in windows, has proven to develope into a troubleshooting nightmare one way or the other. While I like Linux very much, it's just not user-friendly enugh for day to day use. I don't mean, "not usable" I'm perfectly capable and willing to learn the intricacies of the system, but come on, user friendly is a GOOD thing! That, and the lack of big name software are the biggest downers to Linux.

Although, I must say, I really love Linux and the way it is going. I can't wait till it starts really drawing in the users. For my PC, I configured GRUB to autoboot linux unless told otherwise.

Windows, well, we all know how much it sux. Where as a complaint about linux is that it demands the user to have too much knowledge and controll over the systems iner workings, windowz is the compleat oposite. I never know what the fuck is going on, and something is ALLWAYS going wrong. No wonder gamerz gravitate to this ludicriss OS, that's the only thing you can do with the goddam thing!!!

You can hit install, and click the play icon when your CD autoStarts (hope it didn't have a virus! (I turned this shit off the first day I got the sucker)).

Any other steps, say, moving the mouse a bit to fast, sneezing, doing something productive, will likely render the system unstable and result in a crash.

Oh, don't give me that install win2k crap, it dosn't crash as much, I'll give you that. But I feel even MORE alianated from the system with windowz's strange bastardization of a permision based OS. Windowz sux, it really does.

I mean christ, look at the amount of disorganized 1k files it belches everywhere to get a single fucking program to run! The amount of dependancies span the gamut of the HD. How the hell can anyone successfully install or de-install anything. Maybe it woulden't be so bad if there was some documentation explaining what everything does!!! RETARDED!!

OSX--- a dream. A fluffy land of clouds and happyness. Almost like startrek "computer, I wan't a ham sandwich" ta-da, a ham sandwich, oh joy!! Except my G4 is not just a computer, it's my friend    I don't know about PC guys, but to me, my Mac has a personality.

Everything OSX does makes sense, the files are organized, the system relinquishes as much controll as you demand, be-it "Im a point 'n click moron", or "I just wanna get my work done", and "I am l337, bring on the pain!!!!"

Applications don't puke their content's everywhere and are removed simply by draging them to the trash (in some cases their application support folder as well (which is also easily located allways in the same spot)).

The system is beutifull, windows is ugly, KDE is passable (I dig bluecurve and I love how snappy it is), OSX shines with artistic polish only the BAUHAUS could adore. Form follows function and all that.

OSX never fucks up. It simply dosn't. Granted, I have had problems, but christ! I never new problems till I used a modern PC for a week! My god... how can the computer forget it has a CD-ROM drive! Issues like this are inconcivable on a Mac. Mac problems are offten easily fixed.

Now on to speed... benchmarks are idiotic. It's an athalon XP 1700. Suposedly faster than my dual 800G4 tower. I see no fucking diffrence! Except of cource that doing things on my G4 often results in productivity, doing things on the PC often results in me digging thrugh FAQ pages wich I am compiling into a handy dandy operating manual.

Ahhh... I remember my iMac instrictions. Plug-in, press power, enjoy! Yes, maybe it makes me an idiot to apreciate that kind of simplicity, but configuring jumpers on a motheboard has never been my idea of a good time  

Ok... ok ok...

I'm a Mac user, after taking a dip in the dark side, I'm back and reafirmed. Some may say, born again!

Any other Mac users on the board ever tried using a PC for an extended amount of time? Jimmy James (is he still on?) I know you got a PC recently, what's your reaction?

I'm eager for the flames, and praise so bring it on  

PS: plz note, I still like Linux, it just ain't as good as OSX, no offence, in a few years maybe, not now.

[Pissed_Macman]

It's great being able to switch between YDL and OS X. Linux is really fun to mess around with, even though I still know very little about it. I can see why the ex-Windows tech-heads like it so much.

I also agree with the personality thing. Every Mac I've ever owned or used has had a unique personality. They all like to do things their own way, but Macs still remember their users. Even if they can't do something, they never forget to give us a good explanation as to why. The system is independant but still under the user's command. My current Mac doesn't seem to like it when I play Starcraft, but thats okay, theres always a way to change its mind.

The best thing about Macintosh though, besides its user-friendliness, is its ability to do almost anything. You may have to beat your head a little bit, but eventually any problem is fixable (except for physically taking an axe to the hard drive).

[cloudstrife]

i have used pcs and macs extensively.  I have been using my g3 to do everything for the past few weeks.  frankly, i really really like osx.  i mean, really, it is the best OS i have ever seen, as far as ease of use goes.  HOWEVER... proprietary.  Very proprietary.  Doesn't work with my network card (i wanted it to be my router).  Doesn't work with a WD drive as master.  WTF gives? i mean, i tried 3 different network cards!  (one a 3com, one a linksys, and one a novell NE2000 compatible)

And the WD drive issue.  WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THAT?  i was FORCED to go REFORMAT my server's drive because i *NEEDED* the BRAND SPANKIN NEW western digital to be slave.  umm, WHAT KIND OF SHIT IS THAT?

ok, rant done.

and BTW, did you try win2k?  i mean really, did you?  because it sucks, but not that much.  i would put it on par with, if not better than, os 9.

[Kintaro]

Windows is simply unlogical... Drive letters for example. I made my own Shell for Windows in BASIC, and it had a about 4k of code, just so it could handle fucking drive letters.

Linux is much better then OSX because i value freedom over convenience.

[Pissed_Macman]

X11, OS X is the first commercial OS thats also open source. thats gotta count for something!

[lazygamer]

I agree, Linux's drive letter system does make more sense. I doubt you'd see me owning a mac, PC's are what I've grown up with. What about when im 25? I'll be linux competent by then and feel mac hardware to be a waste of money.  

I will say that in my limited time I've used a mac, they've always been every bit as good as a PC, if they aren't better, then they're certainly not any worse.

Anyways, I do have one big nitpick with Linux and Unix. WTF is up with case sensitive stuff? Can that be turned off if you know what your doing? Sure Windows made case in-sensitive popular, but unlike the drive letter issue(in addition HDA, HDB etc. sounds cooler then C,D,E etc.), I see no advantage in case sensitivity.

[voidmain]

There are no drive letters in UNIX/Linux. It is one file tree no matter how many physical drives or partitions you have.

As far as case sensitive being turned off. FAT partitions are case insensitive. Case sensitivity is a good thing. I say WTF when it comes to case insensitivity in Windows. Case sensitivity has many advantages. If you don't get dumbed down on Windows you will have no problem with it.

[Kintaro]

Unix, logical
Windows, fucked!

[lazygamer]

Well I am a former windoid(a neutraldoid because I never believed it was great, but never wanted to do  anything about it, or refuse to use computers because of windows) who just woke up from a drinking binge of epic proportions(windows user lifelong propaganda), and now has a hangover.  

So you can say that case senstivity rox, but until someone takes the time out to explain it(unlike the windoids I always listen and think), I cannot understand it.  

[psyjax]

quote:Originally posted by cloudstrife:
and BTW, did you try win2k?  i mean really, did you?  because it sucks, but not that much.  i would put it on par with, if not better than, os 9.

Ya, I used to share a AMD 1200 box with my friend. It ran 2k, I admit it was much more stable than 98SE, but aside from crashing, system performance seemed to degrade after extended use, the system was still disorganized, and I didn't like the permissions scheme. Basically, it's everythin that I find wrong with 98, with less crashes.

We reinstalled twice after 2k keeld, for no aparant reason. Crap about some .dll being corrupted.

In any case, who had the trouble with the WD? I have two HD's onb my G4, a WD and a Maxtor. The Maxtor I got third party and configured it as Master, the, but the WD (apple's) was origionaly master. I had no trouble switching it to slave. Are you sure about this? I have installed blank generic drives on Mac's and had them work.

hmmm... wierd.

[ December 22, 2002: Message edited by: psyjax: plain 'ol psyjax ]

[cloudstrife]

yes i am quite sure about the WD drive problem... i believe it is only on the yosemite that this problem exists.  Bu

[voidmain]

quote:Originally posted by lazygamer:
So you can say that case senstivity rox, but until someone takes the time out to explain it(unlike the windoids I always listen and think), I cannot understand it.      

It's pretty simple really. 'A' != 'a'. Just like when you were in preschool and learned capital letters. You didn't have just 26 letters on your blackboard, you had 52 letters. If you were in a writing class and started out all of your sentences with lower case letters you probably wouldn't do very well.

If you look at the ASCII chart you will see 'A' and 'a' have different values.

file
FILE
File
FiLe
FIle
FILe
fILE
fIlE
fiLE
filE

are all different file names, you can have all of the above files in a directory in UNIX, you can't in a brain dead OS. But I suppose it's like preferring VIM over notepad. VIM = smart, notepad = dumb.

[ December 22, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]

[psyjax]

In OSX you can have it eather way. Depending on the fs you use.