Re: long time Linux user considering switching to OS-X
- From: Bob Harris <nospam.News.Bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2005 03:03:19 GMT
In article
<1135106176.011499.108670@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
nmdc69@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> My Dell Latitude D505 was just stolen (may they rot in hell) and I need
> to buy a new laptop very quickly. It was configured as a dual boot XP
> - Linux box.
> I've been using Linux for 10 years as my main OS, but I´m thinking
> whether I should switch to OS-X and buy a Powerbook. I'd really
> appreciate some feedback (I know, not exactly a new topic, but
> still...). I'm a scientist and in summary my concern is: will the extra
> money really save me from wasting time tinkering to get Linux to work,
> and will I be just as productive on OS-X as I am on a *fully functiong*
> linux box?
>
> Below are more details. I do all my work on the laptop. I'm willing to
> spend up to 2300 USD.
> Things I do 95% of the time are:
>
> - emacs and GNU applications like gnuplot
> - Latex, Mathematica
> - C and sometimes Fortran programming
> - a lot of number crunching
> - shell scripts and standard Unix utilities (awk, sed, etc)
> - Powerpoint, Word, etc.
Others have mentioned it, I'll second.
http://fink.sourceforge.net
http://opendarwin.org/
http://darwinports.org/
http://developer.apple.com/darwin/projects/darwin/
Powerpoint and Word can access can be provided by using Microsoft
office on the Mac, or
NeoOffice/J
http://www.neooffice.org/
Or OpenOffice, but that runs in the X11 environment which is not
as well integrated with the MacOSX GUI (cut and paste is a bit
more awkward, but doable - you get to learn about Command-Click,
and Option-Click, along with Cmd-C and Cmd-V).
Terminal based emacs is available, but if you want a GUI version
you can find them on the web. Search over at
http://versiontracker.com/macosx and you should find more than
one. If you want an X11 based emacs, you can get those, or build
your own from sources.
Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal is the terminal provided by
MacOSX. It is not bad, but I've been using iTerm almost full time
at work http://iterm.sourceforge.net/
You can also use xterm in the X11 environment, and download or
build your own alternate X11 based terminal emulators (see the
pointer to Fink above).
> Main reasons why I'm thinking to switch to OS X:
> 1. I don´t have the time to tinker with Linux any more. Getting it
> work on the Latitude was a chore and wireless still didn´t work. Plus
> I hate going under the hood of Unix, I´m just a user. My knowledge of
> Unix beyond user level is weak.
Much less tinkering (unless you want to). Although to get some of
the UNIX specific apps going you may need to tinker a bit more
than the typical Mac user.
The OS itself, and its upgrades are for the most part very pain
less. Then again, you do have to kick in some money every 18 to
24 months for major OS upgrades. Sorry, but it is a commercial OS
after all :-)
> 2. It'd be nice to have wireless, Powerpoint, and everything I need on
> a single OS without having to turn the machine off.
I have loved WiFi on my previous Powerbook and current iBook for
years. It has allowed me to spend time with my wife instead of
locked in the back room (she has a wireless iBook too :-)
> My main concerns about switching:
> 3. OS-X is slow. Or is it?
Everything is relative. And depending on how fast your current
system is vs what you get for a Mac laptop will control your
feelings.
> 4. I will still use various Linux machines. Is compatibility an issue?
> will all my C programs and Unix scripts work
> with NO hassle? will I have to relearn a different kind of Unix?
Mostly it is a FreeBSD UNIX environment (more or less). For
scripts, mostly I run the same identical scripts on Linux (RedHat)
and MacOSX. There are a few commands that are slightly different
(mostly around the admin space), and if I need to script them, I
do something like:
if [[ $(uname) = *Darwin* ]]; then
...MacOSX specific...
else
...Linux specific...
fi
The pre-installed shells are:
/bin/bash
/bin/csh
/bin/ksh
/bin/sh
/bin/tcsh
/bin/zsh
Bash is the default. I use Bash all around (Linux and MacOSX),
but I did find I needed to install my own a consistent version of
bash on all platforms (mostly because I was playing games with the
..inputrc and readline library version bash was built with. For
people that do not try to funny things with .inputrc, the default
versions of bash should be fine.
You mentioned awk. I couldn't function with out awk, and I have
had no problems using awk as distributed on MacOSX. But if you
are used to the extended features of gawk, you can use Fink to
install gawk.
As for C programs, you are using a GCC compiler so C should be
mostly the same. Of course you do need to install the optional
Xtools from the MacOSX installation DVD. Or you can become a
Associate developer member (free) and download the Xtools from
Apple http://developer.apple.com/
If you are calling non-POSIX or X/Open system or library calls,
then you may have operating system specific differences. For
these cases, I look in the "man cpp" help and dig out this command:
touch foo.h; cpp -dM foo.h
And see what pre-defined MACROs I can trigger off of. This trick
work on MacOSX and Linux system.
#if defined(__APPLE__)
...MacOSX stuff...
#else
...linux stuff...
#endif
Not sure if as a C programer you are also a cscope user, but
MacOSX comes with the cscope.sf.net version of cscope installed,
but you can get the Lucent version as well
http://www1.bell-labs.com/project/wwexptools/cscope/
I favor the Lucent version personally.
And while I have mentioned installing optional software from the
Installation DVD, you will most likely also want to install the
X11 package from the Installation DVD. Just click on the Optional
installation icon X11 should be an option to install.
You can also use Chicken of the VNC to control a remote Linux
system from your Mac. And MacOSX has its own built-in VNC server
if you want to control your Mac remotely (sys prefs -> sharing ->
Apple Remote Desktop -> VNC password).
> 5. will I have to tinker just as much as with Linux?
For the most part no. You will have to go through a learning
curve, as it will have a few things different, especially admin
stuff. But there is lots of help for this.
First there are books. Go to a bookstore and you should find any
number of MacOSX books for both the GUI side (lots of them), and
there are a few that take about the UNIX side.
There are also the Mac related newsgroups, such as this one, and a
valuable resource for any MacOSX *NIX user is
http://MacOSXHints.com
> 6. I've actually gotten used to a few Windows things (but I can live
> with the Mac equivalent I guess).
Of course you can :-)
> well, and price, but the research grant pays so not the main problem.
> thanks a lot.
> Matt
If you have an Apple Store near you, it would be good to visit and
play with some Macs. Generally speaking the staff will let you
play a great deal on the systems. And there is nothing like being
able to actually touch a system for awhile to get the feel for it.
And there are staff available to help answer your questions, or
even other shoppers, as there are sometimes experienced Mac users
just out sightseeing :-) Plus you should be able to see how well
WiFi work on Macs, as the Apple Stores have all the Macs hooked up
to the network.
Good luck.
Bob Harris
.
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