Re: Did Wilkins take me out of his killfile or did the hall monitor

John Wilkins wrote:
In article <h9c05c021cb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, William Morse
<wdNOSPAMMorse@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

John Wilkins wrote:
In article <h90ljn$fi1$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Paul J Gans
<gans@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

John Wilkins <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In article <WY2dnYbUhNUHAizXnZ2dnUVZ_qednZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,
*Hemidactylus* <ecphoric@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 09/16/2009 07:56 PM, John Wilkins wrote:
In article<1j64zse.1py08zp16mob4xN%macaddicted@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
macaddicted<macaddicted@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

John Wilkins<john@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article<apagano-3u10b5d2b46tku65cfos6bonca71kcngs3@xxxxxxx>, T
Pagano<not.valid@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Did Wilkins take me out of his killfile or did the hall monitor
Harshman run for help.

New newsreader that didn't preserve my old filters, but I feel no need
to put you back yet.
Thoth?
Yes. MacSOUP hasn't been updated in yonks, and it lacks spell check and
various other features.

When are you going to give up on Mac Ohhh...$$$ and go open source? Come on you know you wanna...

I have an old Dell box I may one day set up with Linux, but I loves me
my Mac.
And your Mac loves you. But check carefully. Under all that
makeup lies a slightly modified Unix operating system. That is
what gives the Mac its stability.
Well yes, and I first used BSD Unix in 1983, so I loves me my Mac for
that, too. But Linux is fun to play with, if you don't actually want to
be doing any work.

Depends. My server at work has been based on Linux for over ten years, since at the time I set it up my alternative was Windows 95, which was notoriously unstable. And of course my web site is hosted on a Linux box. But all the workstations run Windows 2000 or XP, because all the engineering applications we use (AutoCAD, ArcMAP, HEC-RAS, TR-20 derivatives) are based on that platform. This follow is written at home on a Linux box, but I primarily use that for web surfing, email, and simple spreadsheet and word processing stuff that I can do in OpenOffice.

However I did use GRASS on my linux machine at home to process some LIDAR point clouds to create a DEM, because I was too cheap to pay for the Spatial Data Analyst extension for ArcMAP. I think that might count as doing work.

OK, let me rephrase: for *me*, Linux would be a playground, not an
office. I am deeply attached to my Keynote, Pages, ecto, Endnote (I
know, but I have 7500 references and copying them to a freeware program
like BibTeX would be horrific), OmniOutliner, and so forth. I have
OpenOffice and find it less than useful (because it follows the MS
Office paraigm, and *that* is less than useful). Besides, I know this
OS so well I don't have to think about it when I am doing things.

If I needed to run a WIndoze program, I have three virtualisers (I
collect them). So far I have never run one in anger.

Rarely, I drop down to the CLI, to do simple things that graphic UI's
do not do. Ten years ago, I might have shifted to Linux in preference
to the then Mac OS, but OS X was just over the horizon anyway, and I
knew it would be good, having played on a NeXTStep.

Of course, if I had gone Linux then, then I might have learned TeX as
well. Oh well...


If I had the time, it would be fun to do an analysis of personal computer operating systems with regard to the niches they have filled, and how that has been influenced by the available software. Linux seems to be used either as a heavy duty OS for web and network server apps by command line geeks, or as a play OS for those like me who dislike Windows but are too cheap to buy Macs. Macs are used by those who either want a computer that works without hassle and are willing to pay a slight premium, or those who are into serious publishing applications - provided they don't need specialized manufacturing or engineering apps.
Windows machines are used by people who don't know any better or by those that need engineering or manufacturing apps that so far tend to only work well under Windows.

And "killer apps" clearly also play a role. Visicalc was key in the initial success of the Apple II breaking into the business market in competition with CP/M machines. Lotus, and the rapid appearance of software suites in general, helped IBM clones to displace Apples as the dominant personal computers, albeit with the considerable help of the (at that time) formidable IBM presence as _the_ business machine manufacturer.

I don't know how closely one could draw parallels between operating system evolution and biological evolution - could the IBM name advantage be considered similar to the improbability of reversing an established developmental pathway? - but it would be an interesting exercise.

Yours,

Bill Morse

.

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