I mortgaged my future with a Mac • Hacker News Board

Re: I mortgaged my future with a Mac

#51

Post by crististm » Sat, Feb 23, 2013, 6:21 PM UTC

crusso wrote: post #39

crististm wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Storing data in any application results in some restrictions [...]" - I think you understand her point pretty well.

No, because the author mentioned that it's some kind of Mac problem. You'd have the exact same problems switching from "free" software running on Linux. Really, I think the article should have been titled: I am Now Dependent on Modern Technology and Don't Like the Alternative

No, what? You end up confirming what I said: it's an application issue - be it free or proprietary. But in her case, phone syncing in a proprietary world is more of a problem.

I think she meant it like "I'm dependent on MAC Technology and I can't get out".

Re: I mortgaged my future with a Mac

#52

Post by philiac » Sat, Feb 23, 2013, 6:21 PM UTC

miles wrote: post #36

But, I'm stuck. All of my music is in iTunes, having been re-imported from the original CDs over a period of time. I can just re-rip all of it on my Linux box, but that's going to suck. Or, I can try to grovel around in their grungy database and try to make sense of it and "export" things, but I'm sure that will be even worse. You'll find all of your music neatly organized here: /Users/ username /Music/iTunes/iTunes…

The author seems to desire a needlessly complicated way to make these things happen.

Re: I mortgaged my future with a Mac

#53

Post by spartango » Sat, Feb 23, 2013, 6:22 PM UTC

niggler wrote: post #29

"So, I just sat there and lived the passive life of a consumer at home. I clicked around the web and read stuff. I talked to people online. I listened to my music and watched the latest cat videos. I watched a lot of TV. But I didn't write any code. Oh no." nothing stops you from writing code on OSX. Plenty of people do it for their business . IOKit is strange coming from a Linux world, sure, but it works as well as…

> IOKit is strange coming from a Linux world, sure, but it works as well as you would expect. It's a pain but it's possible to write kexts and other low level osx stuff.

Indeed, I've found working with IOKit and kernel-mode bits in OSX a nicer experience than in Linux. Some of the things were very well thought out and quite elegant, and their documentation is surprisingly good.

Re: I mortgaged my future with a Mac

#54

Post by hrktb » Sat, Feb 23, 2013, 6:22 PM UTC

iheartmemcache wrote: post #14

comex wrote: post #7

It's hard to tell what the author's actual complaints about OS X are (the reasons why she's moving away from it) - there's a Lion bug that's extremely unrealistically blamed on Steve Jobs, and some vague complaints about "going off the rails". It's possible to export from both iTunes and iPhoto, and probably not particularly harder than it would be to export from a similar application for Linux. edit: gender.

I think the whole point of OS X is for it to be user-friendly enough for people to not have to deal the nitty-gritty underpinnings of Linux. I don't mind getting close to the metal since I'm a software engineer née systems guy (wasted high-school youth? pff). In fact my primary dev box is Arch/emacs/awesome so needless to say I spend a fair amount of time in my dotfiles and editing scripts. I'm not entirely informed…

The comparison with linux makes it look like there is a tried and true way to export your data, and iTunes or iPhoto devs are just too complacent to so it, as linux devs are as well.

That's not the case IMO. There's just no perfect procedure for moving your data from iPhoto or iTunes to anything else. Most of the things the author lists (preferences, usage data, starring etc) can't be storred in any universally compatible format under any OS. You can export all your photo at once, but it will be the bare files and anything that can't be storred as exif or id3 data will be gone, except if you are willing to deal with the nitty gritty stuffs, and make a script to move these data by yourself.

Actually she's ranting about the lack of a universal data format keeping as much information as iPhoto or iTunes keeps in database. That's a gvalid rant I think, but it's a problem of a higher level than iPhoto or iTunes export functions, or using OS X or linux.

Re: I mortgaged my future with a Mac

#55

Post by scholia » Sat, Feb 23, 2013, 6:23 PM UTC

fatalerrorx3 wrote: post #30

It seems like backing up your media files to a Dropbox-like service instead of iCloud would solve the problem of being able to get your files from any device you want. I'm not attached to any one device in particular because all of my content is stored on a third party that can be accessed from anywhere. I could drop my Macbook Pro or iPhone 4 at any time and not feel like I'm missing something. Good thing about Appl…

I think that's the shortest definition of "lasts a while" that I've ever seen.

Posted from my almost-8-year-old desktop running Windows XP.

Re: I mortgaged my future with a Mac

#56

Post by rdouble » Sat, Feb 23, 2013, 6:24 PM UTC

Music and photos and associated metadata on OSX are stored in standard file formats. It's trivial to write a program to extract them, using a programming language already installed on the machine.

Re: I mortgaged my future with a Mac

#57

Post by phaus » Sat, Feb 23, 2013, 6:24 PM UTC

keithpeter wrote: post #41

noahl wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the Ubuntu Phone? It might also make an offer for your soul, but I think it will let you say no. (Not that we have too much information about it yet.)

Oddly enough, that was my first thought. My takeway from the article was that the real annoyance in her life (therefore the itch that a programmer has to scratch, and thus help the rest of us) was iPhone related. Rachel-by-the-bay is a dyed-in-the-wool linux-sysadmin so I gather from her Web pages, and has recent experience with software defined radio. Ubuntu phone is 'proper' linux but at a very early stage of devel…

Have you heard anything to suggest an off switch for the Amazon integration? I love Amazon, I like Ubuntu, and I even liked Unity once the performance issues were fixed, but I don't want to see Amazon advertisements unless I open my browser and navigate to amazon.com.

Edit: Thanks guys. I wasn't aware that we already had a work-around.

Re: I mortgaged my future with a Mac

#58

Post by Anechoic » Sat, Feb 23, 2013, 6:25 PM UTC

iheartmemcache wrote: post #14

comex wrote: post #7

It's hard to tell what the author's actual complaints about OS X are (the reasons why she's moving away from it) - there's a Lion bug that's extremely unrealistically blamed on Steve Jobs, and some vague complaints about "going off the rails". It's possible to export from both iTunes and iPhoto, and probably not particularly harder than it would be to export from a similar application for Linux. edit: gender.

I think the whole point of OS X is for it to be user-friendly enough for people to not have to deal the nitty-gritty underpinnings of Linux. I don't mind getting close to the metal since I'm a software engineer née systems guy (wasted high-school youth? pff). In fact my primary dev box is Arch/emacs/awesome so needless to say I spend a fair amount of time in my dotfiles and editing scripts. I'm not entirely informed…

Saying "its as easy to do in OS X as it is in Linux" isn't really a fair defense.

If it's "easy" that she wants: drag and drop her music/pictures from iTunes/iPhoto window to a network drive/USB drive/Firewire drive.

Re: I mortgaged my future with a Mac

#59

Post by joshlane4 » Sat, Feb 23, 2013, 6:25 PM UTC

I agree with the author.

I resisted Apple products for a long time for the same reason. As someone who was brought up with a command line OS and a basic knowledge of file structure I hate how Apple "tries" to take this away from their users.

I say try. I bought a MBP in 2009 because I loved the physical machine (aluminum unibody). With time I was able to use the OS without it controlling me. All of my music is ripped on EAC in MP3 VBR format. I add the folders to iTunes and do not allow it to "organize" the folders for me. I do not use iPhoto because of the way it treats the files. I maintain my own file structure. I can see how this would frustrate a lot of people. I put up with it because I think it's the best combination of hardware and software available at this time.

Re: I mortgaged my future with a Mac

#60

Post by derefr » Sat, Feb 23, 2013, 6:25 PM UTC

mtts wrote: post #45

niggler wrote: post #29

"So, I just sat there and lived the passive life of a consumer at home. I clicked around the web and read stuff. I talked to people online. I listened to my music and watched the latest cat videos. I watched a lot of TV. But I didn't write any code. Oh no." nothing stops you from writing code on OSX. Plenty of people do it for their business . IOKit is strange coming from a Linux world, sure, but it works as well as…

>> "Then there's my phone. How do you use one of these things without a computer upon which to sync your data and backups?" >> Windows VM? That only works when you disable USB on the host (which makes USB keyboards and mice temporarily unusable) while the Windows VM is running. And even then it sometimes just stops working after a while. It's one of the reasons I ditched my iPhone and got an Android device.

What VM program were you using? In VMWare, at least, whenever a device with a "new" USB hardware ID is plugged in, it prompts you whether it should attach it to the host or guest (and you can change this for each device at any time.)