Re: OT: Let's welcome Apple to the 80's

On 2009-03-22, Mark <spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

The earlier Mac minis aren't a good advert for MacOS, but it's the fault
of the hardware not the OS; too little memory, graphics underpowered and
(particularly the first release) a poor choice of CPU.

But a similarly-featured Linux distribution would have struggled too.

It didn't. It wafted along, this was a Gnome desktop-equipped distro
with all the bells and whistles, not a stripped-out flyer. The Mac
Mini is too slow for Mac OS, but not for a less resource-intensive OS.
Unlike with Windows there were no options to tone down the frippery.
The first machine I bought was the core-duo, even that was fast
enough, the core2-duos are still quick enough now, I'm typing this on
one of them connected to a 46" LCD screen in the lounge. It can't
handle high definition video and the graphics are slightly
underpowered but not badly so. It certainly is a quick little machine
when it's not being sapped by an overly-flowery OS.

I _hated_ early MacOS (prior to X). It was flakey as hell. I couldn't
actually get them to them to do any real work without them crashing
every 15 minutes or so.

I actually rather liked it, it was very clean and simple and the Mac
Classics were joyful little machines, but I could never afford one.
By the time I could afford a Mac, I was too far down the linux route
to need any other computers. I have two Mac SEs (I think) in the
loft, the classic case with a hard disc in, mono screen, still got the
OS on them but I doubt I'll ever use them other than possibly making a
really nerdy pair of room lamps out of them! I wonder if I can make
them do the monkey squeak sound when I switch the lamp on ;-)

Which OS? Linux?

Unix-likes, I started on Solaris at University in 1991 or thereabouts,
and when I left, I moved to Linux as it was just getting useable then.
I think that would have been about 1996 or so. While at Uni I used
Solaris during the day and when I came home I had an Acorn Archimedes
running Risc OS, some elements of which could do with living on,
particularly the file save dialogues which I sorely miss. I got more
and more frustrated at the poor underpinnings of Risc OS as I got more
and more enamoured with Solaris and the way it worked, and Linux gave
me something very close to Solaris, and nowadays I find Solaris
lacking and Linux to be much richer. I've still got some old Sun
hardware up in the loft somewhere.

--
Blast off and strike the evil Bydo empire!
http://youtube.com/tarcus69
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tarcus/sets/
.

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