Re: Big Mac Hoax 2: "OS X is Unix"
- From: George Graves <gmgraves@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 00:37:32 GMT
In article <44b67345$0$573$b45e6eb0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Geico Caveman <spam@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
bill wrote:
In <mr-50F129.16323212072006@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sandman <mr@xxxxxxxxxxx><lHO$>f0Bei"4a_%)"c6TQ+P/:53>;PNGuWUmkqyeN-qM65foJ[;T_(k;>]&G\T4Lhm:2
writes:
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{"y?BkBDW6e-.=I5
Xref: panix comp.sys.mac.advocacy:1309715
In article <e92joo$dru$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
kj <socyl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi everyone. Ever since Apple announced its switch to Unix, I've
been curious/tempted to give it a try. I'm now shopping around
for a new laptop, and I was ready to "take the plunge to Mac" this
weekend but I just learned from a co-worker that, in his experience,
Apple offers *no tech support at all* for Unix-related issues, not
even for "Unix-oriented" apps (e.g. Terminal or X11). Is this
true???
Yes, Virginia.
Without support for its Unix stuff, I find OSX *much* less attractive
relative to Linux. I know that not everyone finds this to be a
big deal, but it is for me. Huge... You see, I like Linux a lot.
The lack of adequate tech support is about the only gripe I have
with it. It really gets to me some times. But if Apple doesn't
offer something a whole lot better on *Unix* support, then it is
not worth it to me to change.
<snip>
If this word-of-mouth report about Apple's lack of support for Unix
is true, I find it shocking, considering that Apple makes such a
big deal of the fact that there's "Unix under the hood". It borders
on fraudulent advertising.
Apple doesn't really make a big deal out of it.
I remember the buzz in the Unix community when Apple announced the
switch to Unix. (E.g. punch "paul graham" and "macintosh" in
Google.) I think the OP has a point; I can't prove it of course,
but my very subjective impression was that there was some effort
on Apple's side to build cred among hackers and hacker-wannabes by
touting the switch to Unix.
Giving support on BSD is a little tricky for Apple, since it's not
their applications most of them. Plus, Apple doesn't give you phone
support for free either.
Apple won't even support Terminal.app or X11.app. The tech support
folks I've spoken to are adamant and unequivocal on this point.
When I installed X11, the first problem I noticed was that when I
used Command-Tab to switch to X11, the X11 window would remain
hidden behind other windows and would not gain the focus, even
though it said "X11" next to the Apple icon. No amount of command-`
would bring up the X11 window (xterm). This is not a problem that
one will solve by reading man pages. Since then I have run into
other similar problems resulting from poor integration of X11 with
OSX, not to mention flakiness that results from imperfect porting
of standard Unix commands (e.g. cp) to an HFS+ environment. Apple
tech support won't even *hear* about these problems.
Whoever is tempted to think of Mac as "kinda like Linux but with
support" is in for a rude surprise.
If you want help with using unix commands,
there's "man" and a huge world of knowledge on the internet.
By that standard, Linux is awash in "support".
b
However, you are not likely to catch a Mac advocate admitting to it. If you
want the cool looks, you should go for a Mac by all means (though Mac looks
can now be nearly replicated on KDE as well as GNOME). However, if you are
a normal user of a unix like system, Mac offers absolutely no advantages
(and indeed many headaches as I have discovered in my experience in porting
some Unix libraries to Mac, or even using it recently as a temporary
replacement for my Linux machine when I was travelling).
Apple definitely scores over windows in that it is more secure and
positively looks better (and yes, I have seen the Vista screenshots). But
it has no appeal to a Linux / Unix user. I am not sure that Mac even
supports filesystems like ext2, reiserfs, etc. (none of the BSD's do).
Given how good looking KDE can be made to look, Mac is fast losing even
that selling point to most of non-windows addicts.
Some people don't play with computers but actually do work on them. They
choose a platform because that platform does the job better, not because
it looks good or supports some arcane filesystems. I use a Mac because
it helps me do my job more efficiently than Windows can, and I can't use
Linux at all because the software I need doesn't exist on Linux or,
indeed, on any form of Unix except the Mac. And the fact that the Mac is
Unix is mere circumstance to most users who don't really care what's
under the hood as along as it works for them.
--
George Graves
The health of our society is a direct result of the men
and women we choose to admire.
.
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