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How I ended up with Mac

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Re: How I ended up with Mac

#11

Post by Wilya »

rrouse wrote: post #5
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…

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

A2DP is bluetooth audio, in "headphones mode" (high quality). And yeah, I can attest making it work on OSX can be tricky.

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#14

Post by pifflesnort »

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 suppose I'm just not the target market.

Given that your complaints are Samba and weird file name encodings? Yes, I think your assessment is true. (HFS supports UTF-8 file names, so I'm guessing you're doing something weird with file systems that treat filenames as 8-bit ASCII supersets and hope for the best).

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#15

Post by chimeracoder »

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 also dealing with using two separate package managers for the same operating system.

Oh, and don't forget that anything installed via the App Store is completely independent of all of the above.

As a Linux user, I find this concept mind-boggling. I don't have time to keep track of a thousand different package managers. I just want one that handles everything.

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#16

Post by jug6ernaut »

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/

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#17

Post by austenallred »

The interesting part about this part for me is how subtly differences in software and hardware change what we use.

Without noticing, I stopped turning on the screen for my Linux machine during 2012. By the time I moved to a new apartment in October of 2012, I did not even bother plugging the machine back and to this date, I have yet to turn it on.

That represents to me exactly how new technology is adapted and how old ones die off. Fascinating.

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#18

Post by rrouse »

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...

Yeah, I've definitely never used it. I barely use any of the bluetooth stuff. That explains why I'v never run across any problems

Re: How I ended up with Mac

#19

Post by meaty »

Perhaps I'm strange. I always seem to be going the opposite way to everyone else.

I've fallen in love with Windows again. It just works. Power management rocks, battery life is good (8 hours on my 2007 Lenovo T61!), the hardware is damn cheap, the licenses cost me virtually nothing, literally everything I plug into it works, the tooling is pretty damn good, utils I wrote for Windows NT4 literally 14 years ago still just work flawlessly. My Linux machine is just a VirtualBox VM.

Yesterday I bought my second Windows Phone (Lumia 820). This also just works. Email is the same everywhere, all the apps just works, plays any mp3 without complaining (my sodding iPhone never did!), Nokia Drive just works, maps actually work (again something my iPhone shot down), talks to exchange without problems, is exactly the same as my old Windows Phone 7.8 device (no who moved my cheese), opens all my documents nicely, reads any pdf fine.

Seriously, it's just all boringly functional and uneventful these days.

Bear in mind I am coming from a background on hardcore UNIX machines (big Solaris, HP-UX machines), through FreeBSD to Linux to OS-X.

The worst pain I had was with Solaris (on Tadpole SPARCbook) and just about everything Apple, particularly their unreliable hardware (4 Macs returned for repair!), app compatibility problems, piss poor battery life on iPhone 3/4, shit crock of a POSIX environment and shoddy attempt at online services.

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