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Return of the Mac (2005)

paulgraham.com

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Re: Return of the Mac (2005)

#91

Post by rimantas »

mironathetin wrote: post #78
walexander wrote: post #19

OK, someone convince me to go Mac. I've had essentially zero issues with Windows. I do 99% of my development in Linux (access my devbox through VNC). For desktop use, I have absolutely no problems. I work very fast zooming around with keyboard shortcuts. I don't get viruses or bloatware. Everything is calm and familiar. Every time I get my hands on a Mac, even to simply Google something, I immediately hit issues. Pas…

Want to go Mac? Today? Forget it. It was cool 10 years ago, but not today. Apple is turning into what M$ was back then: a control and patronize the users company. The main difference to Microsoft is, that Mac OS is a really good operating system. I use Macs since 1995. Nowadays I hesitate to recommend a switch, although Mac OS is certainly better than Linux and, in my opinion, also Windows. Apples notebook hardware w…

Hey, maybe some even have FDD?

Re: Return of the Mac (2005)

#93

Post by nicholasjbs »

reemrevnivek wrote: post #37
r0s wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A sane OS would let me delete a file with the delete key(!).

It does. You just have to add the Command key. Command-Shift-Delete empties the trash, finalizing the action.

Add Option to the mix, and it won't ask you to confirm the action.

Re: Return of the Mac (2005)

#94

Post by nazgulnarsil »

jorisw wrote: post #48
alanfalcon wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You use the command key to issue commands and raw keys to type. So: command-delete means it's fast and easy to delete a file without the worry of accidentally losing a file when your cat jumps on the keyboard.

> I should have the option though No. This is what good software design is. The designer chose this path, offering you the option to change this is what makes software bloated and unmaintainable.

I think everyone has stockholm syndrome with regard to OS GUIs. Windows and OSX are both pretty awful when it comes to consistent and logical design cues.

Re: Return of the Mac (2005)

#95

Post by nirvana »

olefoo wrote: post #66
adambyrtek wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean? You can "virtualise every OS" on other platforms as well.

You cannot legally run OS X on anything other than Apple hardware. This gets really annoying when you want to set up a headless browser testing cluster because you can't virtualize any of the Mac OS's you might be targeting.

Well, you can set up some headless mac minis and run a variety of virtualized OS X instances on them.

I personally don't see the advantage of using other hardware, Apple hardware is a better value to me. (I value reliability over lower initial price, and I don't find generic PC components to be cheaper for the same thing, nor to have adequate reliability. )

Re: Return of the Mac (2005)

#96

Post by 5hoom »

mathninja wrote: post #39
elithrar wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why do hackers like Macs that much? Wouldn't it be better to use cross-platform tools? I think a lot of us like OS X because we get a Unix build environment with a fairly slick GUI and good third-party app support. Being able to use the same OS for day-to-day tasks (Word docs, Photoshop/Lightroom, etc) and for development is nice, and despite some inconsistencies, the quality of third-party applications is pretty h…

This is exactly what I say when I explain why I like using a mac. Also the touchpad is amazing. For most of my day-to-day tasks its better than a mouse. I would have never imagined that this was possible.

Totally agreed. The MBP trackpad is a wonderful thing & when combined with various swipe gestures I find it really efficient for getting around.

Things like being able to do a two finger swipe to scroll an out of focus document or four finger swipe to show active windows are just really nice.

Re: Return of the Mac (2005)

#97

Post by evilduck »

iaskwhy wrote: post #85
masklinn wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every time I get my hands on a Mac, even to simply Google something, I immediately hit issues. You seem to hit issues because you want to hit them. > Paste is crazy squiggly hash v (or maybe apple v?) The key is called "command". Does "Command V" not make more sense than "Control V"? And free up the Control key for more interesting stuff? > I can't right click You can, unless it's a 4+ years old machine it's just a…

Why is a package manager useful? (I really don't know what's wrong with the default environment of OSX, if there's anything wrong at all.)

If you're coming from a linux environment, you're probably used to having Apt or Yum available. OSX has no built in package manager so you've either got go out and find compiled binaries somewhere or install from source, both of which are tedious and searching the web for it is time consuming vs. the `brew install wget` commands that you can probably guess and it'll take care of installation in the background while you do something else.

See here for stuff you can install with one command: https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/tree/master/Library/Formula...

Re: Return of the Mac (2005)

#98

Post by jodoherty »

Jach wrote: post #77
masklinn wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every time I get my hands on a Mac, even to simply Google something, I immediately hit issues. You seem to hit issues because you want to hit them. > Paste is crazy squiggly hash v (or maybe apple v?) The key is called "command". Does "Command V" not make more sense than "Control V"? And free up the Control key for more interesting stuff? > I can't right click You can, unless it's a 4+ years old machine it's just a…

Good points. Though it seems like you and the other repliers are selling him based purely on downsides of Windows. A modern Linux such as Ubuntu has more or less all of the things you've mentioned, and as a biased Gentoo Linux user I'd argue in many cases Linux does it better. ( http://www.thingsfittogether.com/2011/08/start-developing-fo... ) So it seems like you're arguing "Mac is a better environment to use VNC fo…

You get the features of Linux with the ability to run commercial content creation apps like Flash, Photoshop and Cubase. It's very win-win for someone who does a lot of different kinds of work. And since all the shortcuts use Command, the Control key gives you free Emacs keybindings in every text field.

I was only able to give up on Mac OS X when I decided to give up on Adobe software thanks to Adobe's abysmal customer service. Now that I don't need to be able to run Photoshop, I just use Linux.

Re: Return of the Mac (2005)

#99

Post by jodoherty »

swah wrote: post #86
jonnathanson wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. The percentage of laptop users out there who actually seem to "need" a laptop is a lot smaller than we might think it is. Maybe even a minority of all laptop users. Pretty much everyone I know who isn't a hacker, gamer, or Excel jock can get by with just an iPad for the sum total of their computing needs (web, Facebook, email, Angry Birds).

Also, anyone who writes long documents probably wants a laptop, so everyone who is in college.

If you have Pages for iOS, an iPad stand, and an Apple wireless keyboard, you can actually get by pretty well using the iPad for word processing, assuming you sit at a desk to write.

Re: Return of the Mac (2005)

#100

Post by iaskwhy »

evilduck wrote: post #97
iaskwhy wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is a package manager useful? (I really don't know what's wrong with the default environment of OSX, if there's anything wrong at all.)

If you're coming from a linux environment, you're probably used to having Apt or Yum available. OSX has no built in package manager so you've either got go out and find compiled binaries somewhere or install from source, both of which are tedious and searching the web for it is time consuming vs. the `brew install wget` commands that you can probably guess and it'll take care of installation in the background while y…

Oh, I see, so you cannot use yum on OSX? I never realised it (or its packages) wouldn't be compatible.
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