Re: I want to be convinced; convince me.


"TheLetterK" <theletterk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:mzTHe.7147$pp.5598@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> brian wrote:
>> "Scott Meyers" <Usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> news:MPG.1d599d32b43009789897e8@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>
>>>Several people I know like Macs. A lot. I use Windows. I don't like it
>>>a
>>>lot. (Parse that either way -- both work.) I want to want to move to a
>>>Mac, but I'm having trouble convincing myself to do it. Today I visited
>>>an
>>>Apple store for the 2nd or 3rd time to talk about getting a mini to add
>>>to
>>>my Windows network, and for the 2nd or 3rd time I came away with less
>>>enthusiasm for the Mac than before I went there. However, I worry that
>>>the
>>>people who work there aren't terribly well versed in the products they
>>>sell, because they often can't answer my questions. I'm hoping that
>>>perhaps people in this newsgroup can help me out.
>>>
>>>I need a reason to move to a Mac. The reasons I hear most frequently
>>>have
>>>to do with the stability of the Mac OS and how it's generally not a
>>>target
>>>of viruses and other malware. I don't find these convincing, because
>>>Windows 2000 has been very stable for me for many years, and between
>>>virus
>>>and spam filtering by my ISP and me, I have had no problems with viruses
>>>and malware for the same period of time. (One might argue that with a
>>>Mac
>>>I wouldn't have had to set up virus and spam filtering, but I've already
>>>set it up and it works well, so not having to set it up on the Mac is not
>>>a
>>>persuasive argument.) Also, I find it hard to view the lack of negatives
>>>as a positive. That is, telling me that the Mac doesn't have the
>>>problems
>>>of Windows strikes me as a hollow argument. I need something more
>>>compelling than "the Mac sucks less." Can somebody please offer
>>>something?
>>>Like Mulder, I want to believe.
>>>
>>>For as long as I can remember -- at least 20 years -- I've been using an
>>>OS
>>>where, when the mouse moves to a new window, that window gets the focus.
>>>Getting out of that habit would be very hard and very unpleasant. The
>>>Mac
>>>"genius"
>>
>>
>> Your expectations were out of wack, not the genius' skills. Usenet is
>> far more capable of answering your question. Google "window focus osx"
>> for a good discussion. The general consensus seems to be "not worth it."
>>
>> But you could always strip off OSX and run X windows... ah, you mention
>> that below.
>>
>>
>>>I talked to today at the Apple store did not know how to implement
>>>this behavior under Tiger, though he did try mightily. I would
>>>appreciate
>>>it if somebody would assure me that there is some simple way to have the
>>>focus follow the mouse, so that when I move the mouse into a new window
>>>and
>>>start typing, the text will go into the window where the mouse is instead
>>>of into some other window. Eschewing the normal UI and running an X
>>>window
>>>manager that behaves the way I want it to doesn't sound like it qualifies
>>>as "easy," but I'm willing to listen.
>>
>>
>> Well, again, I think your expectations are a bit skewed. If you want an
>> SUV you should buy an SUV rather than trying to jack up a Honda Civic.
>> Sorry for the dreaded car analogy.
>>
>> So anyway, you should expect changes. If you go into it saying, "I can't
>> drop 20 year old habits" then the answer is pretty clear. The Apple
>> interface has always seemed clumsier than Windows to me. About the only
>> place Windows annoys me in zooming around is the alt-tab shortcut with
>> many windows.
>>
>> I dunno. Maybe I'm not experienced enough with the mac, but using every
>> shortcut key possible, the UI still feels clumsy. There's some
>> redundancy that could be eliminated (at the cost of having to remember
>> meta keys or ... ADDING A SECOND MOUSE BUTTON!)
>>
>>
>>>If I were to get a mini, it would be part of a network with an XP Pro SP2
>>>machine and a Win2K machine, and I'd want it to be able to see the files
>>>on
>>>the Windows disks (some are NTFS, some are FAT32) and the Windows disks
>>>to
>>>be able to see its files. I got ambiguous information from the Apple
>>>genius, whereby he assured me that this was doable, then launched into a
>>>description of how I'd have to run special software on the Windows boxes
>>>to
>>>make it happen. (I don't remember the name of the software -- some free
>>>download with a french name.) Can somebody please assure me that a mixed
>>>Windows-Mac network will work seamlessly and that giving everybody in the
>>>network access to everything will be easy, automatic, and
>>>straightforward?
>>
>>
>> OSX 10.3 + Samba was an awful time sink. It took more trying to get it
>> to work properly than getting usable functionality out of it. Compare it
>> to, say, WINE for Linux as far as productivity goes.
> I'd say you've got a network problem. Works fine here.

Works fine with Solaris, Linux and BSD. OSX has been a good network
citizen since 10.0. And I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. :)

But, like I said, I haven't used 10.4 with Samba yet. It's a "fool me once"
kind of lesson. I bought 10.0 specifically for the hopes of seemless
integration. I bought 10.1 hoping they fixed it. They didn't. I skipped
10.3.

It's a lesson in customizing too. I know that people have pinned down
better Samba builds and gotten them to work on early versions. I'd hate to
think what happened once Apple got its act together and proved the marketing
people correct.

>>
>> I haven't tried with 10.4 yet. I'm kind of sick of it to be honest.
>>
>> But there are plenty of proven file transfer techniques besides Samba
>> that should work fine. SFTP, FTP, and NFS should work no problem.
> So should SMB, via Samba. Works fine for most people.

macosxhints has plenty of Samba related articles, for those few ghost people
who aren't really experiencing any issues with it of course.

>>
>>
>>>Thanks,
>>>
>>>Scott
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>

.

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