Few questions about OS X...

[hm_murdock]

The iPods do have issues with scratches. This isn't just a whine issue. It's a real issue. My nano has lived in my pocket most of its life and it isn't all pristine and perfect. It's made of plastic, not diamonds, so it's going to scratch. It's one of those facts of reality. If they'd used better quality plastic, it wouldn't be as noticable/bad. The earlier iPods (gen 1 - 3) used a polycarbonate plastic, and the recent ones use a cheaper variety of acrylic which scratches worse. The early nanos had issues with the LCD breaking.

No, it's not all perfect in Apple land. Real Mac users know that Apple's quality has slipped substantially of late. However, the MacBook contract went to a new maker (Asus), and aside from the discoloration of the plastic case, and heat issues (what 'book doesn't run hot?) I can't think of anything that's happened with them.

[toadlife]

Are you fucking serious?

A guy switches from OS X, wait, from one OS to another OS, with NUMEROUS GOOD REASONS, so he must be an "unappreciative whiner"?

No. Not him.  The guy that switched to linux switch because his customers (Apple users) where the unappreciative whiners. He spells it out quite nicely in the blog.

Have you seen an ipod lately? They tend to have alot of scratches on the screens. Mine did. My brother's does. His girlfriend's does. All my friends do.

Yes - they could buy protective covers or whatever, but the ipod screen is still just as cheap as it always has been.

I really don't know about ipods. I've seen maybe three or four of them in my whole life. If I ever bought a music player, it would certainly not be an ipod, because I recognize a product that's success if driven by marketing and looks instead of technical merit. If anything I would buy a Neuros audio player which supports ogg vorbis, flac, has open source firmware, and gives you more features than the ipod for less money.

[toadlife]

However, the MacBook contract went to a new maker (Asus), and aside from the discoloration of the plastic case, and heat issues (what 'book doesn't run hot?) I can't think of anything that's happened with them.

Speaking of Asus, we switched laptop vendors at work, and the new vendor started shipping laptops made by Asus. They were absolute JUNK. We switched back to Compaq/HP whose laptops cost a little more money, but are of much higer quality.

[piratePenguin]

No, it's not all perfect in Apple land. Real Mac users know that Apple's quality has slipped substantially of late. However, the MacBook contract went to a new maker (Asus), and aside from the discoloration of the plastic case, and heat issues (what 'book doesn't run hot?) I can't think of anything that's happened with them.

There's also this: http://www.smh.com.au/news/laptops--desktops/meltdown-over-macbook-battery-glitch/2006/06/23/1150845361154.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tommorris/186827370/

People go around saying "get a mac - they're better quality than what you get from Dell or manufacturer X" are talking bullshit if you ask me. Apple are as bad as if not worse than Dell, and I don't rate Dell very highly.

If you shop around you will get a good quality product for your money, and it might and might not (believe it or not!) come from Apple.

No. Not him. The guy that switched to linux switch because his customers (Apple users) where the unappreciative whiners. He spells it out quite nicely in the blog.

Ah I see.

[H_TeXMeX_H]

Speaking of Asus, we switched laptop vendors at work, and the new vendor started shipping laptops made by Asus. They were absolute JUNK. We switched back to Compaq/HP whose laptops cost a little more money, but are of much higer quality.

Compaq > ASUS ???!!!??? :confused: :eek: :scared: :nothappy:

[mobrien_12]

Voodoo 1 released 1996 with the Glide API in hardware.  
Direct3D did not exist until DirectX 2.    That release date was June 5, 1996.

There were other proprietary 3D chipset API's (S3's Virge was released several months before the Voodoo if I recall).  Each 3d accelerator back then essentially had it's own API, and since most games were DOS based, you had a special executable for each one.  Glide stood out because of ease of programming and the fact that the 3DFX boards were so much more powerful than the competition.

The nice thing about D3D back then is that it worked on pretty much every single 3D accelerator card.  Yeah it was a sucky API.  Glide was really fast but was 3DFX only and  OpenGL didn't run on alot of cards back then.  

Of course, that's not how it is now.  That's the way MS works... create something that's compatible across the board, bundle it with the OS, force out the competition, then use it to dictate to the hardware manufacturers, and use it as a weapon against your own customers (you gotta buy Vista if you want D3D 10, but Vista will only run the older D3D in software emulation so all the game developers will drop it and try to force everyone to "upgrade").

[toadlife]

Compaq > ASUS ???!!!??? :confused: :eek: :scared: :nothappy:

I think compaq's laptops were allways pretty decent. Their desktops may have been another story. The only experience I ever had with a "comcrap" desktop was a nightmare. It was a POS.  Remember that HP merged with Compaq a few years back and HP already had their own laptop line, so it may be that the new HP/Compaq laptops are really just HP laptops with an extra name stamped on them. All I know is they have been decent laptops for the last several years.

[H_TeXMeX_H]

Yeah, I mean HP usually makes pretty decent laptops, desktops, and printers, but Compaq better than ASUS !?! ... that's very difficult to believe. Every single Compaq I've had the misfortune to encounter has been a POS. As for ASUS, pretty much all my mobos are made by them and they are still running great (let's see the oldest one is 15 years old or so and still running).

[WMD]

I think compaq's laptops were allways pretty decent. Their desktops may have been another story. The only experience I ever had with a "comcrap" desktop was a nightmare. It was a POS.  Remember that HP merged with Compaq a few years back and HP already had their own laptop line, so it may be that the new HP/Compaq laptops are really just HP laptops with an extra name stamped on them. All I know is they have been decent laptops for the last several years.

I remember working with a Compaq Armada P2-333 laptop back in the day.  That thing was awesome...save for the 50-minute battery life and Windows 98.  (I think it was mistreated.)

As for Compaq desktops...my brother has been pretty lucky with his, a bought-used Deskpro with an extra hard drive, RAM, and a new video card.

[worker201]

Every single Compaq I've had the misfortune to encounter has been a POS.

That is correct - if by POS you mean 'Point of Sale'.  Because the majority of Compaq computers are mass consumer products, meant to be purchased at WalMart and BestBuy.  And they certainly do not put the best quality hardware in those things.  I'm sure Compaq/HP uses fine hardware in their other non-massmarket products.

[piratePenguin]

My auntie used a 750Mhz Duron with 64Mb RAM and it did her fine until just a few weeks ago when she bought a new, Dell computer.