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How I ended up with Mac

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Re: How I ended up with Mac

#21

Post by nilkn »

Wilya wrote: post #7

I'm always amused by these posts praising how everything just works on the Mac, and how it's so nice not having to worry about [annoying linux/windows stuff #351]. Am I really the only one blind to this effect ? I've used a mac. It's nice. But it "just works" only until you want to productively use Finder, or you want to connect to a Samba server, or you want to shuffle files with UTF-8 filenames around, or a dozen o…

Finder is indeed a bit disappointing, but it's really pretty minor in comparison to all the much bigger issues I've had with Linux over the years.

At least there are very easy solutions for Finder. At the very least, you should check out the free XtraFinder extension.

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#22

Post by chc »

Wilya wrote: post #7

I'm always amused by these posts praising how everything just works on the Mac, and how it's so nice not having to worry about [annoying linux/windows stuff #351]. Am I really the only one blind to this effect ? I've used a mac. It's nice. But it "just works" only until you want to productively use Finder, or you want to connect to a Samba server, or you want to shuffle files with UTF-8 filenames around, or a dozen o…

I'm confused. I use share with Windows computers and use files with international characters in their names all the time. What problems did you encounter?

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#23

Post by rayiner »

Wilya wrote: post #7

I'm always amused by these posts praising how everything just works on the Mac, and how it's so nice not having to worry about [annoying linux/windows stuff #351]. Am I really the only one blind to this effect ? I've used a mac. It's nice. But it "just works" only until you want to productively use Finder, or you want to connect to a Samba server, or you want to shuffle files with UTF-8 filenames around, or a dozen o…

The people who are limited by Finder use Terminal... The people who can't use Terminal don't need more than Finder. Apple is great at hitting sweet-spots that way.

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#24

Post by simonh »

jug6ernaut wrote: post #16
Wilya wrote: post #7

I'm always amused by these posts praising how everything just works on the Mac, and how it's so nice not having to worry about [annoying linux/windows stuff #351]. Am I really the only one blind to this effect ? I've used a mac. It's nice. But it "just works" only until you want to productively use Finder, or you want to connect to a Samba server, or you want to shuffle files with UTF-8 filenames around, or a dozen o…

When developing on a mac the Finder is probably the single largest annoyance. I never thought i would ever miss Windows Explorer, but WOW is Finder bad! With that said PathFinder[1] is an awesome replacement for Finder. Expensive but worth every penny. Still not as clean as Windows Explorer, but it is night & day better then Finder. [1]: http://cocoatech.com/pathfinder/

When I came to Mac back in 2007 I assumed my dislike of Finder was just a matter of what I was used to. Six years of using Mac at home and Windows at work and nope. I do like column view, and you'll get my new Mac Mini out of my cold dead hands, but if I had a choice I'd have Windows Explorer on my Mac in a second. No hesitation.

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#25

Post by lucian1900 »

Wilya wrote: post #7

I'm always amused by these posts praising how everything just works on the Mac, and how it's so nice not having to worry about [annoying linux/windows stuff #351]. Am I really the only one blind to this effect ? I've used a mac. It's nice. But it "just works" only until you want to productively use Finder, or you want to connect to a Samba server, or you want to shuffle files with UTF-8 filenames around, or a dozen o…

TotalFinder makes it a lot less stupid. Not particularly expensive either.

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#26

Post by nohuck13 »

I remember reading the Reddit AMA with Linus Torvalds where someone asked him what his home computer setup was and Linus said MacBook Air. Running Linux of course, but I thought that was interesting.

Good hardware can make a huge difference in the experience whatever you are running. I sometimes think people don't give enough credit to Apple for the power of sweet homogenous hardware to make a whole OS/software ecosystem that much smoother. Or maybe they give too much credit to apple for the other parts of the stack.

I run a Scientific Linux desktop at work and have a MacBook Pro for personal stuff, with Virtualbox for (mostly) Ubuntu. Granted Ubuntu is pretty easy wherever, but Virtualbox setup for me tends to have fewer kinks. I wonder if it's down to the same environment homogeneity.

Props to Miguel de Icaza for writing this. Talk about being transparent.

EDIT: typos

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#27

Post by lucian1900 »

chimeracoder wrote: post #15
McUsr wrote: post #2

I just want to add, that once you want packages and such, for a tool chain, you'll at least discover some problems, as there is a package anarchy out there compared to GNU/Linux! But http://macports.org has a solid repository of packages. When it comes to "private packages" packages I have found outside repos, I do install them as "account installs", that is ~/opt/bin, ~/opt/man/man1 .. and so on, so it is easier to…

> But http://macports.org has a solid repository of packages. The problem comes when you start wanting to use things that aren't on Macports, and are only on homebrew (or maybe fink). But homebrew won't work with macports! So either you have to install one package or the other manually, or you have to install both macports and homebrew, which means that not only are you dealing with an unsupported setup, but you're a…

I've found that with Homebrew's very simple recipes, you can find one for pretty much anything. I've been satisfied with some binary vendor-provided packages + app store + homebrew for everything else.

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#28

Post by niels_olson »

jxc3 wrote: post #10
Wilya wrote: post #7

I'm always amused by these posts praising how everything just works on the Mac, and how it's so nice not having to worry about [annoying linux/windows stuff #351]. Am I really the only one blind to this effect ? I've used a mac. It's nice. But it "just works" only until you want to productively use Finder, or you want to connect to a Samba server, or you want to shuffle files with UTF-8 filenames around, or a dozen o…

I too have switched from Linux to Mac in the last two years. Every OS has its annoyances, but the problems you describe are minor/few compared to the problems I experienced routinely on Linux.

I would agree with this, except for my Cr-48, which just keeps trucking along with Ubuntu. My daughter chooses it over a 2008 MacBook with twice the CPU, twice the RAM, the chic of the Apple logo, etc, etc. That and my 2003 Dell tower running SuSE as a home server refuses to die.

A chronic problem with any macbook I actually travel with is that various programs seem to dislike waking up in a different network environment. I'm not sure what gives with this, but it seems to have not changed since I started using them in 2007.

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#30

Post by juiceandjuice »

Wilya wrote: post #7

I'm always amused by these posts praising how everything just works on the Mac, and how it's so nice not having to worry about [annoying linux/windows stuff #351]. Am I really the only one blind to this effect ? I've used a mac. It's nice. But it "just works" only until you want to productively use Finder, or you want to connect to a Samba server, or you want to shuffle files with UTF-8 filenames around, or a dozen o…

Coming from a linux and programming background, I find neither Finder nor Explorer nor Nautilus terribly useful.
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