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iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

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Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#121

Post by re »

pyre wrote: post #115
__david__ wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And in particular, hardlinks to directories. That is why it is so fast (and also why it only works on HFS).

Why are hard-links to directories that much faster? It seems like creating a bunch of actual directories with hard-linked files in them is a trivial difference. They still need to scan the files to figure out what has changed, and that's where the really time sink is, no?

No. Time Machine uses the FSEvents API so that it only needs to scan directories where files have changed since the last backup, and branches of the filesystem hierarchy whose contents haven't changed can be referenced en masse with a single directory hard link to the previous backup; it's much faster than scanning or re-linking ~1M files and folders, and much more space-efficient (especially the way that hard links are implemented on HFS+).

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#123

Post by Angostura »

bxr wrote: post #61
jherdman wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The key differentiating factor is that the iCloud heralds an era wherein all of your data is decentralized, all of the time, and that this is the default for all users, on all Apple devices, all of the time.

>iCloud heralds an era wherein all of your data is decentralized You are correct, for all definitions of "decentralized" that are "rigidly centralized, almost appearing decentralized because centralization is so far outside your control"

Disagree. The key point with iCloud is that the primary storage for all your data is on the device the Cloud is used in the main simply for syncing and messaging.

That's why I like the Apple vision - it leaves my data with me. It doesn't lock it up in a cloud somewhere.

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#124

Post by Torn »

loso wrote: post #48
coliveira wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a difference between happy and comfortable. Most people using Windows are just comfortable enough not to make the effort to move to another platform. A lot of tech people are just like that (the ones that are not passionate about new Apple machines). On the other hand, these are the people that have less weight on the decisions of new users...

I use Windows 7 and I am happy with it. There are a lot of people in tech who are happy with it. I have switched platforms several times over the years but I always end up back at Windows. People who use Windows are only using it because they are "comfortable" is a very big assumption.

I triple-boot my macbook pro at the moment, and am happier with Win 7 over OSX for my personal needs. More stuff just works with it.

For development I'll take Ubuntu over messing around with macports, any day.

I only really use OSX for iTunes, as I don't want all the bloat that comes with it on my Windows installation.

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#125

Post by geedee77 »

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #100
eropple wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't find the link offhand but I recall it being said by someone affiliated with Office that pretty much everyone uses about 20% of Word's features. The difference is in which 20%. You might have a set of feature needs that Pages covers. I know that pretty much everyone in my company (that is, management and project people--engineers could get by with whatever, that's not a big deal) couldn't use Pages, and their…

My experience the vast majority of the time trying to get people to change away from Word is not that Pages doesn't have the features they want, but that they have to learn a new way to do it in Pages. This is not to discount that as a valid issue. Taking time to learn new software is time taken away from the real business of the company. I think Apple could help itself by having a rather large "I used to use Word, h…

This is an old concept that Microsoft themselves used in early version of Excel. I remember that there was a way to get early Excel to use the same commands as Lotus 1-2-3 which, I think, was the main spreadsheet application at the time. I'm going back 25 years though so apologies if my memory is not what it used to be!

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#126

Post by mtw »

Total_Meltdown wrote: post #19
mtw wrote: post #16

how are you going to run a good game on Mac?

Steam.

I didn't see on Steam mass effect 1&2, bioshock, dragon age origins, warhammer 40k, crysis, bf2, avp

The only games on mac are the hyper popular games, like world of warcraft or The Sims. I should know, I have a macbook pro, I tried but had to finally windows.

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#127

Post by mtw »

squidsoup wrote: post #84
mtw wrote: post #16

how are you going to run a good game on Mac?

Blizzard and Valve have both successfully integrated OSX builds into their pipelines. That's two developers of AAA titles at least, and there's plenty of great indie stuff available like Minecraft.

You do know that DirectX rules the gaming world right? Having 2 developers on mac won't change the fact that all games run faster/better on windows first. Games of the year like Mass Effect 2 (or many other top selling PC titles) were not released on mac.

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#128

Post by lloeki »

programminggeek wrote: post #3

iCloud is a great idea, so is Google Apps, so is Office 365. None are designed to "kill Windows". iCloud's real purpose is to sell more Apple hardware, not kill Windows. Hurting Windows sales would simply be a side effect. It's a smart move to put iPads and iPhones on equal footing as the Mac in that regard. If your docs, pictures, apps, and music are all on iCloud, your computers become disposable digital devices. W…

Everyone seem to forget (or willingly ignore) that there's both iTunes and an iCloud Control Panel (for Photo Stream, Contacts, and Calendar) on Windows, while the current iDisk is using WebDAV ans is perfectly usable on Windows (and Linux too, along with the new CalDAV calendars)

So only apps remain, and you don't really expect Mac OS X or iOS apps to work on Windows.

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#129

Post by rmc »

Having been shown the way by Apple, I expect Google to shortly do the same thing, adding automated backup, synchronization and migration to Android and Chrome.

Eh, this is already happening. You can use an Android phone entirely without needing to use a desktop machine. You install apps over the air, no desktop needed. You register the phone over the air, no desktop needed. Your contacts and stuff are synced over the air, no desktop required.

Re: iCloud’s Real Purpose is to Kill Windows

#130

Post by super_mario »

rimantas wrote: post #71
super_mario wrote: post #54

Seriously, UNIX guys have had this for decades. Ever heard of keeping your user directory and profile on the network server. So when you walk around the office and log into different machines your HOME "travels" with you. The network server now just lives on a server outside your organization/home what ever. The network speed now becomes the biggest limitation, and there are valid concerns with security as well.

Seriously, OS X is UNIX, I doubt you told the news to them.

I'm perfectly aware of that. I use OS X as my primary OS. My point is that who ever is saying that iCloud is all about killing Windows is missing the point completely, first because the technology not that new or amazing, and second if it does anything to Windows user base it's doing it indirectly and not as some planned consequence.
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