[rescue] Re: [geeks] Why is everyone so OSX happy?

[vance at neurotica.com]

On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, Kevin wrote:

> I don't mean to offend anyone here (with the possible exception of Steve
> Jobs) but i am curious as to why so many people here seem to love OSX,
> especially people who understand and are familiar with other unices?
> In my eyes, OSX is an unpolished, tacky, eye candy bloated mess.

I tend to like the way OSX does its graphics.  I got OSX because I was
looking for a laptop, and the PowerBook G4 is IMHO the nicest laptop on
the market.  My dad has an IBM Thinkpad T30 1.8GHz that runs NetBSD and it
isn't even comparable.  That said, then my choice was between
NetBSD/macppc and MacOS X.  I chose OSX because I am used to NetBSD, being
that I run it on many other machines, and OSX *feels* like NetBSD, but
looks prettier and runs games and movies better.

> For instance:
>
> 1. There are seriously, a TON of UI inconsistencies, something that
> doesn't make sense because Apple has always been very good in this
> regard.

Examples?  There are a couple of things I find a little annoying, but no
dealbreakers.

> 2. I don't have any problems with them offering the eye candy stuff for
> those who want it or even with it being the default operation.  I do
> have major issues with them not giving users a way to turn most of it
> off.

There's nothing saying you have to use all of OSX.  Download Darwin if you
don't want the eyecandy.  Better yet, download NetBSD.  If you like the
eyecandy, use OSX.

> 3. OSX has several issues with USB devices on boot, especially if you
> are booting from SCSI devices and not IDE.  That circle with a slash
> through it, "prohibited" sign gets annoying when it comes up once out of
> every four or five reboots (yes the SCSI chain is properly terminated.)

Hmm.  That sucks a bit.  I don't have that problem on my one and only SCSI
OSX machine.  I can definitely see why that sort of thing would sour your
outlook.

> 4. There are several places where the code is just simply not finished.
> The file manager for instance.

What do you mean?  10.1?  10.2?  No difference between the two?

> Of course i prefer it over anything Win32 based and if it ever matures,
> and they clean up the inconsistencies, then i can see it being something
> i might want to work with.  But until then i only deal with the dual G4
> when absolutely necessary.

Well, put NetBSD on your dual G4.  Nothing says you *have* to run OSX on
your Mac.  It's pretty much about as straight-UNIX as you can get.

Peace...  Sridhar