Re: A convert to Apple needs friendly advice

James Taylor <spam-block-@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Sorry about the length of this. If you can answer even *one* of
> my queries, please please do so without feeling you have to
> answer them all. I'll be hugely grateful for any help. Thanks.
>
> I am a London based Linux and RISC OS user who is in need of a
> new laptop and I've heard good things about MacOS-X. I've never
> owned an Apple machine before, and my experience of playing with
> other people's machines is limited. The few Apple owning friends
> I have are not technically savvy enough to troubleshoot for me,
> or even guide me in the right direction, so I'm really hoping I
> will find a mentor or two here in this group. If I am to convert
> to Apple, I want to be reassured of a few things before I take
> the plunge. I am also helping and advising a friend in the same
> situation as myself, so there are two possible converts here.
>
big snips
>
> What about wireless ethernet (Wi-Fi)? Which 802.11 standards
> are supported? Is there anything proprietary or even just quirky
> about MacOS Wi-Fi? Can I assume 11g frequencies and speed are
> fully supported, or is it still only 11b? Are the 11X
> authentication mechanisms supported, and the 11i encryption
> protocols such as TKIP and especially CCMP (AES)? If not, how
> soon can I expect these standards to be supported?
>
yes apples airport ie wifi supports wpa2 ie so TKIP and AES encription
its whats i have running here on my wee network.

more snips
>
> What is the track record of MacOS-X on security matters such
> as viruses, worms, spy-ware, email & browser bugs, open ports,
> buffer overflows, and application macros? Is it necessary to feel
> paranoid and hide behind constantly updated security software,
> or is it more like RISC OS where nobody can remember the last
> time a virus was even seen? Does MacOS-X have a robust
> permissions system that protects system files from modification
> by the user or any insecure software the user might be running?
>
mac is mach/bsd based so unix permitions etc...

> Both Susie and I have been put-off by the shiny white plastic
> look of the iBook, which reminds us of a cheap kitchen appliance
> (think kettle or toaster). Susie is an incurable aesthete, and
> I just want something that won't look tacky in a professional
> environment. Matt black would be far more to our taste. The
> brushed aluminium PowerBook we saw looked *much* smarter, but
> the price seemed way too much to pay for cosmetic considerations
> alone. Do Apple produce any better looking laptops at a more
> reasonable price?
>
no cheaper laptops, yes the ibooks do have kitchen plastic look.

> I am used to a three button mouse on both Linux and RISC OS.
> The purpose of the three buttons are particularly well assigned
> on RISC OS and greatly contribute to the fluidity of everyday use
> and productivity; not just in the OS but in all the applications
> too. I am worried that a one button mouse will cramp my
> productivity considerably. I've heard that it is possible to get
> a three button mouse for the Mac but I imagine that the
> assignments of these buttons are not well integrated into the
> operating system or applications. In fact, I suspect they may
> even be arbitrarily assigned by the driver software supplied with
> the mouse and not actually recognised as separate buttons by any
> other part of the system. Can anyone offer enlightenment or
> reassurance on this matter?
>
plug and play, you can config the buttons to your hearts content.

> And now for a philosophical question: Coming from a RISC OS
> background with some experience of Linux, I am acutely aware of
> the importance open source, open file formats, and open protocols.
> I naturally *hate* Microsoft and everything their ruthlessly
> monopolistic practices have done to the world. As a minority
> platform, RISC OS has a culture of supporting open file formats,
> and, like Linux, many of the applications are hackable or
> customisable in ways the original author never imagined.
> My experience of MacOS is that it is a very *closed* system,
> ie. it is not possible to look "under the hood" of either the OS
> or the applications, and it is not customisable or hackable
> beyond what the software authors foresaw and allowed for. This
> makes me nervous because I am used to being able to fix problems
> by investigating and tinkering under the hood, or even enhance
> software by writing programs that convert application file
> formats, or by writing glue-code that calls the command line
> interfaces (or other APIs) of the applications I use. I do not
> wish to place any of my data into a proprietary file format that
> ties me to one particular application, and which might crash and
> corrupt my data. Has the advent of MacOS-X's BSD underpinnings
> brought with it a cultural revolution resulting in more of the
> kind of openness I'm used to? Or are the OS and apps all still
> very closed black boxes?
>
some parts are closed some are not. apple has kept its crown jewels and
lots of programs are closed box but, on the other hand there is a lot of
open stuff as well.

> The ugly reality, however, is that we live in a world dominated
> by Microsoft, its file formats, protocols, bugs & viruses.
> Is it possible to read and write the common MS formats (Word,
> Excel, PowerPoint, Access) *without* using Microsoft software
> or inadvertently letting a single penny slip Microsoft's way?
>
you can open most .doc files etc in textedit ( apples simple text editor
)

there is openoffice port neooffice and openoffice it's self though it
lags some what behind which will cope with light use.

> Finally, I am a web developer and Perl programmer and I want to
> be sure that I can do my development work entirely on the laptop.
> This means that I would need at least Perl, Apache/mod_perl,
> MySQL (or a DBI accessible equivalent), a decent programmer's
> text editor, good graphics creation & conversion software, and
> a good modern web browser that fully supports all the latest
> standards. Are all these things possible? Are they pre-installed,
> or easy to install? Are they likely to cost much money?
>
textwrangler is free texteditor or you can use vim/emac etc...

> PS. Is anyone planning to visit an Apple showroom in London
> who might be able to team up with us and offer the kind of
> power-user insights that sales staff tend not to possess?
> It's a long-shot, I know, but it would be invaluable to us.

there is a expo october time so there will be crowd about then...

Roger
.

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