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How I ended up with Mac

tirania.org

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Re: How I ended up with Mac

#61

Post by revscat »

meaty wrote: post #35
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…

Agreed. It doesn't just work. It works until you want an opinion, then it stabs you in the face repetitively. My first encounter of this was the stupid filesystem abstraction iPhoto decided to enforce upon me. After removing iPhoto, it was bearable. This slowly cranked on until I ended up with basically OS-X as a window manager for a terminal emulator, browser, ViewNX and Apple Mail connected to GMail (which didn't w…

> My first encounter of this was the stupid filesystem abstraction iPhoto decided to enforce upon me. After removing iPhoto, it was bearable.

This makes no sense. iPhoto stores your photos in a directory structure on your system. This directory is like any other. If you want to extract the photos from them you can. You can also just right-click on your photos from within iPhoto and extract them.

> After removing iPhoto, it was bearable.

What was bearable? Why didn't you try and fix the problem? I've been using iPhoto for almost 10 years, across ~6 different machines, and have never had any issues with it.

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#62

Post by calinet6 »

ImprovedSilence wrote: post #52
jug6ernaut wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/

I've switched over to mac as well. However, Finder is my #2 annoyance. #1 being I so fricking love Winamp, and nothing has come close to that on a mac (or linux) for that matter. And sure, winamp did come out with a mac app, but it was useless I found...

You have brought up a great point—why on earth is there no true quality alternative to iTunes out there? Are we Mac users that complacent?

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#63

Post by elsewhere »

jff wrote: post #50
kstrauser wrote: post #29

So after Miguel did everything possible to fragment and screw up Linux desktops, he's now complaining about fragmented and screwed up Linux desktops. Color me surprised.

Well, and after years of his project slavishly imitating Windows, its latest iteration is slavishly imitating OS X. So, good work all around. Edit: vvvv I stand corrected. Double Edit: What exactly do you mean, anyway? Things like http://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/2002020601120OPGNMS , dated 2010, seem to indicate he's still active within GNOME.

He has not been actively involved in what you call "his project" for more than a decade.

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#64

Post by timc3 »

jug6ernaut wrote: post #9
rrouse wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does A2DP stand for? I've likely never used the feature personally.

Advance Audio Distribution Profile [1]. I actually had to look up the name, but it is a bluetooth profile for passing audio over bluetooth. I personally use it to connect my MBP to my audio system wirelessly. It barely works even when the distance between between the MBP and the receiver is less then 3 feet. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth_profile#Advanced_Audi...

Can't you just use airplay instead? (yes I use it quite often)

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#65

Post by larrik »

lucian1900 wrote: post #25
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.

The answer to every OS X gripe: "oh, I just replaced that (Apple software) with this (paid software)."

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#66

Post by timc3 »

bratao wrote: post #41

I was always a windows developer. In my internship I was forced to use an Macbook pro and simply hate it. I was doing an TCP stack for blackberry and working with serial/Bluetooth communication for testing was a pain, in the end I just installed Windows on parallels. I really don't understand this cult of Mac. I really think that is a way to be "cool" and follow and wear the "nice start-up guys" mask.

Thats because you are used to your environment.

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#67

Post by jsnell »

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…

No. I used a MacBook Pro (2007ish model) for about 2.5 years. It was a miserable machine, where nothing ever "just worked" [1]. If I'd ever needed to use it more seriously than for occasional VPN access for ssh / a web browser, I'd have ditched it within months rather than wait for it to die of natural causes.

[1] It'd crash if an external monitor was connected after the machine had been asleep since the last reboot. WiFI connectivity was fabulously bad. There would be multi-minute black screen+beachball hangs when logging in after waking from sleep. The encrypted filesystem was a constant source of file corruption, though I only lost my home directory once. The DVD drive would vibrate like hell and make an absolutely sickening crunching noise for the first half a minute of a disc being inserted.

Even the industrial design was just ridiculous, like the gently pulsating LED light that was an order of magnitude too bright. So bright that it was literally not possible for me to fall asleep in the same room with the laptop without covering it up.

I'm not the target market of OS X either, but could probably had tolerated it if the basics really had just worked.

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#68

Post by calinet6 »

jug6ernaut wrote: post #4

I recently switched over to a MBP from using windows exclusively...ever. For the most part it is awesome, really love it. But not everything "just works" as people like to say. The one thing that stands out to me the largest is A2DP, idk if this is exclusive to the MBP(late 2011) but it is simply broken. Works 1/2 the time and when it does the quality is horrible. Another annoyance is theme engine is non existent. My…

The non-existent theme engine is, IMHO, one of the greatest features of OSX. I'm quite happy Apple chooses to enforce their minimalist aesthetic on the world.

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#69

Post by revscat »

simonh wrote: post #24
jug6ernaut wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why? What differences are there between the two? Also, Finder has Quick View, something Windows sorely lacks and is highly useful, as well as the integrated Spotlight search.

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#70

Post by calinet6 »

revscat wrote: post #61
meaty wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. It doesn't just work. It works until you want an opinion, then it stabs you in the face repetitively. My first encounter of this was the stupid filesystem abstraction iPhoto decided to enforce upon me. After removing iPhoto, it was bearable. This slowly cranked on until I ended up with basically OS-X as a window manager for a terminal emulator, browser, ViewNX and Apple Mail connected to GMail (which didn't w…

> My first encounter of this was the stupid filesystem abstraction iPhoto decided to enforce upon me. After removing iPhoto, it was bearable. This makes no sense. iPhoto stores your photos in a directory structure on your system. This directory is like any other. If you want to extract the photos from them you can. You can also just right-click on your photos from within iPhoto and extract them. > After removing iPho…

It's sometimes not intuitive that some directories on Mac look like packages.

Sometimes you just need to right-click View Package Contents to access the directory, and I'm sure that tiny fence solves many many support headaches for 99% of users.

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