Re: advice: moving from linux to mac

les ander <les_ander@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[wants to try moving from Linux to Mac]
> I would really like to hear experiences of linux users that have
> switched to mac from linux.

Been there. Really quite happy. I've also still got a Linux box here at
work, but I scarcely ever even power it up any more; I think it has been
over a month.

One of the big things I like is that it is a Unix box (and I don't
really care about the fine arguments of whether it counts as Unix
legally or not; from my user perspective, it is a Unix box). Most of the
apps that I was used to on Linux (or other Unix boxes) are also
available for the Mac. That's particularly true of all the open source
stuff. And our homegrown Unix apps all pretty much built and worked as
is. Sure, it is possible to have some apps tightly tied to specific Unix
versions or even to specific hardware, but in general, Unix apps port
pretty easily.

The first homegrown app I tried took maybe 5 minutes for me to port. I
just selected the appropriate options for my makefile (particularly the
appropriate byte sex, since there was a little bit of byte-sex-dependent
stuff), typed make, and it built and worked correctly on the first try.
The second one took a bit longer as it used some X11 stuff that was in
different places on the Mac, but it was still no more complicated than
typical for porting between Unix systems - very reminiscent of porting
stuf from Sun to Linux, for example. It was still mostly just twiddling
the Makefiles, but I had to spend a little more time figuring out the
right twiddles.

So for me, the big plus is the combination of a Unix box that all my
apps work on, plus a well-integrated system. I've done my own systems
integration on Linux boxes... and I know that it isn't always trivial.
The GUI is a nice touch also, but that's not really a make-or-break
issue for me.

Oh yes, and a related plus is that it "plays nicely" with the Unix
servers of other brands. If I happen to want to run something on a Unix
server, I just ssh there and get a remote X display just like I would
with any other Unix box.

The negative. Well, that would be cost. The cost isn't as bad as some
people make it out to be. For desktops, I recommend Macs to people out
at work, as I think it actually costs less to get a Mac than to pay for
the extra support costs of doing the systems integration for desktop
Linux boxes...and Windows is just a non-starter for many of the apps.
But for servers, where the nice desktop doesn't much matter, and where
bang/dollars is a big issue, I find it hard to beat Linux boxes. So I
end up with split recommendations - Macs for the desktops, and Linux for
the servers.

Oh, and you sound like you are talking about a professional environment,
so I've emphasized those aspects. But at home, I sure like being able to
surf the web without continually worrying about picking up some new
piece of Malware. I've got Windows boxes at home, mostly for games, but
I keep the internet stuff mostly to the Macs (and my wife's Linux box,
though I keep threatening to replace that with a Mac). A while back, I
ended up with a "spare" oldish Windows XP box at home, after upgrading
one of ours. I was about to give it to my mother-in-law, who had an even
older box so that our "spare" would have been an upgrade for her. But
that was right when the Mac mini came out. I thought about how much
trouble I'd have in dealing with Malware on an XP system used by a
computer novice (my mother-in-law is a great woman, but not really a
computer person). I then went out and bought a new mini for her, giving
our spare system to someone else who I wouldn't need to manage the
system for. The $600 or so for the mini seemed an acceptable price for
the reduced pain level I'd have.

--
Richard Maine | Good judgment comes from experience;
email: my first.last at org.domain| experience comes from bad judgment.
org: nasa, domain: gov | -- Mark Twain
.

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