Yesterday when Esme and I visted Plaza Americas, a big shopping center in Xalapa (were a lot of things are 15-25% more expensive compared to shops in the center of Xalapa), I also looked again at some computers made by Apple: MacBook, MacBook Pro, and a Mac mini.
Read the rest of To Mac or not to Mac.
The only reason I still want a Mac (next to my Windows XP/Vista, Windows 98 and Linux SuSE), is to be able to check my designs in Safari. I don't think anyone should have it as their only machine though, unless you have too much money and/or don't need to use many programs.
BTW - that 'When the bough breaks' article does indeed make one wanna think twice before getting a Mac!
I was looking at the issue of MSN on a Mac for a friend. There is apparently a port of aMSN for Mac, which looks OK. And it supports webcams as well, so in theory, as long as you have a cam supported by the macam driver, it is possible to MSN.
Haven't done it yet though.
I was dying for OS X back in 2003 but I had no money. I just crossed my fingers and bought an upgraded Power Macintosh G3 (the beige ones) and installed Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar. It costed me MX$5900 and that's the price I put in my P4 1.5GHz back then.. Sold it, bought the other one, and since then things went better for me and after buying a G4 400MHz, upgraded it to 1.4GHz in 2005, then an iBook, then a Powerbook 12'', then a MacBook pro... Never regreted doing the first step.. If you don't want to spend the money into a new mac, just buy the cheapest one that runs OS X to dip your toes in it. If you like how things are done in OS X then resell it or pass it to your parents and buying yourself a fast one.
Obviously it is very much a personal thing as to what one prefers to work with regarding whether or not to go with MACOSX.
Personally I have no regrets. I need to use a Unix based system. I do most of my work on the command line and utilities designed for a 'terminal' window.
But when it comes to the GUI, the Mac has a very consistent approach which pays good attention to HCI research. It makes it very easy for people, especially those who use a computer just now and again, to learn and keep their knowledge valid across different applications.
I cannot say that I have found any of the recent Linux interfaces that I have tried either helpful or particularly easy to use... they mainly seem to be trying to emulate Windows and doing a bad job.
I can't think of any applications that I miss... the exception being Paint Shop Pro which was a very fast and easy way of editing images for the web.
The best thing is to borrow one for a few days and see how you feel about it.
Axel, we seem to share the same feelings regarding GNU/Linux user interfaces. On one hand I can understand that they look and feel like Microsoft Windows, since that's the biggest market that can move over to GNU/Linux
On the other hand, they also have included the same flaws (or what I consider flaws) that are present in the Windows GUI, for example that the Window with the focus moves to the top of the Window stack.
Of course this can be turned off, but somehow it was decided to make this the default.
Also, a lot of GNU/Linux user interfaces I have seen had their focus on eye candy. Often you could change everything visually, but the program itself was cumbersome to use and missed functionality. No idea if this still is the case because I haven't seriously used non-Windows GUIs for quite some time.
As for trying out MacOS X, I guess I need more time then just a few days. More like a few weeks, or even months.
On the other hand, the applications I will use the most are going to be Firefox, Thunderbird, and an editor. And for that the OS doesn't really matter much.
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Hi John,
I suggest that you also look at he following: Cory Doctorow says he is also leaving Mac OS X for Ubuntu
"Mac guru and software developer Mark Pilgrim recently switched to Ubuntu Linux after becoming fed up with proprietary Mac file-formats and the increasing use of DRM technologies in the MacOS. I've been a Mac user since 1984, and have a Mac tattooed on my right bicep. I've probably personally owned 50 Macs, and I've purchased several hundred while working as an IT manager over the years. I'm about to make the same switch, for much the same reasons."