OS X thoughts
Aug. 8th, 2003 10:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterAfter a week or so of playing with OSX, I think I can say with a good deal of confidence that, by and large, it's even better than I expected it to be.
Most of my delighted ranting and raving comes down to four simple words: "It really is UNIX!" The terminal windows work exactly like they're supposed to work! It's rock-solid stable, just like Linux, and it doesn't take anywhere near as much fiddling and tinkering around! Sure, there've been some minor glitches, but they've mostly been resolved. I'm even not missing the other two buttons on the mouse anywhere near as much as I thought I would (though I do wish I had the scroll wheel from time to time).
When you get right down to it, OS X does almost everything I ever wanted out of Linux, including the command-line interface I've always liked...but unlike Linux, I didn't have to ask half a zillion people for their assistance in getting it set up how I wanted it. It just works right out of the box. And if I want to run an X application from my Linux box, I can just use Apple's X server and ssh -X to run it right on my desktop. (It's quite fun controlling my new speaker system hooked to my PC in the next room from a session of the xmms MP3 player on my laptop in the kitchen.) I now begin to see why most of my friends, including those working toward doctorates in Computer Science, have become Mac users. It all just works!
Now I'm starting to think about my next new desktop computer being some kind of moderate to high megahertz Mac machine, and leaving Linux behind me altogether (or at least relegating it to server-only status). I could put Virtual PC on board to run my Windows games, and get a multibutton/wheel USB mouse for it...sure, it'd be expensive, but Apples keep their value better than almost any machine out there...
Most of my delighted ranting and raving comes down to four simple words: "It really is UNIX!" The terminal windows work exactly like they're supposed to work! It's rock-solid stable, just like Linux, and it doesn't take anywhere near as much fiddling and tinkering around! Sure, there've been some minor glitches, but they've mostly been resolved. I'm even not missing the other two buttons on the mouse anywhere near as much as I thought I would (though I do wish I had the scroll wheel from time to time).
When you get right down to it, OS X does almost everything I ever wanted out of Linux, including the command-line interface I've always liked...but unlike Linux, I didn't have to ask half a zillion people for their assistance in getting it set up how I wanted it. It just works right out of the box. And if I want to run an X application from my Linux box, I can just use Apple's X server and ssh -X to run it right on my desktop. (It's quite fun controlling my new speaker system hooked to my PC in the next room from a session of the xmms MP3 player on my laptop in the kitchen.) I now begin to see why most of my friends, including those working toward doctorates in Computer Science, have become Mac users. It all just works!
Now I'm starting to think about my next new desktop computer being some kind of moderate to high megahertz Mac machine, and leaving Linux behind me altogether (or at least relegating it to server-only status). I could put Virtual PC on board to run my Windows games, and get a multibutton/wheel USB mouse for it...sure, it'd be expensive, but Apples keep their value better than almost any machine out there...
