simon.gillespie
November 29th, 2005, 01:27 PM
My first post so excuse mistakes.
I have just finished packing up an ibook that I ordered from Apple. To send it back.
It must be noted that I am a power user. So for a complete beginner it might have been different. I wanted an OS that worked and looked good and needed low maintenance.
Heres why:
1. I expected tight OS hardware integration:
Finder crashed with strange lines across the window. It and Safari would often stop and take little coffee breaks so they could chat amongst their mutually cool selves with their backs facing me. Strange pauses for no reason and long... about a minute.
The backlight control didnt work from the keyboard.
2. GUI is not as great as the legend says:
Idiotic behaviour of the zoom icon in a window and no second mouse button. The zoom really doesnt work like maximise. It tries to do only the information in the window. As the information changes it doesnt adapt so in safari had to manually resize. In fact it appears most mac users dont use the zoom button for this reason see google for discussions...
No second mouse button is like being a fish out of water. This is typical Apple geekery. They really need to think about this one.
Finder would not let me set default to list mode. Oh no! only gave me an option of a new fangled column mode which made little sense.
No applications menu: Applications have to be considered as files. You have to go to Finder to find them. This is really silly and bad for system reliability. No wonder MacOS needs the new extended file attributes so badly. This whole file kick of Apples is bad. Users dont care about seeing apps as files. Ubuntus Install system is quicker and doesnt need a web browser to download etc.
There is a sense here that Apple knows best and is forcing you to adapt to their interface.
2. No quick access to GPL software, Cant get Open Office 2 installed easily. In fact Xwindows seems to throw a spanner in the works as it cant be integrated into carbony Aqua wossit.
3. Apples proprietary hardware rules:
- My logitech 4000 camera wont work. Apple wont let any usb cameras work
- The power adaptor was extremely non standard. No adaptors for US and UK and its an international ibook. would have to buy $$$ adaptor set.
- Wierd keyboard, not news but true. Whats with the need to have apple keys and an unknown up arrow bar key. I ordered an 'International keyboard' which Apple interprets as US keyboard. IE no Euro no Pound, hello! Page up and Page down were mapped to arrow keys. Dang, cant easily scroll by page in Safari then.
- No microphone socket!! Yeah great, Itunes only then?? The register observed this also as "X marks the stupid". Again $$$ adaptor set.
4. Mac help is rubbish and quite terse. I searched for many things that were simple requests and could not find them. Its really just like Microsofts dummies user gripe database.
5. License aggrements on every update!!! Legalese raised to a new art. Imagine if I upgraded automatically?
To be fair I must also say what was good:
1. Beautiful interface:
Completely true. The icons are great and the gui drawing faultless with nice antialias fonts. Did note that Safari fonts seem substandard though. Why did I feel as if I wanted to get out the spray can and tag a bit?
2. Nice looking hardware design:
A very stylish box. Too stylish however and a bit like driving a Ferrari around in the Bronx. Packaging, manuals and presentation are the usual high Apple standard.
3. Flash player, Quicktime, DVD player worked nicely out of the box.
Why Ubuntu is better for me:
Flexibility:
Ubuntu downloads Open source programs in a flash and installs 99% of the time without problems. This is so huge. OpenOffice, GIMP, Inkscape, etc, at your finger tips.
Powerful:
Ubuntu shines over MacOS because it works fast and keeps going when you zip around the screen quickly. I'm using a slow 600Mhz Epia board for the PC and it still seems relatively similar if not faster than the ibook. This is what the phrase 'it just works' really should mean. Maybe the frills are a bit loose but the fundamentals are very solid.
Useful:
Gnome in Ubuntu is not perfect, however Nautilus's list mode is exactly the ticket and beats Finder hands down. Applications menu for speedy access. Second mouse button for contextual menus. Ohh I feel giddy.
Freedom:
I dont feel as if I have big brother Apple over my shoulder consulting their style manual at every turn I take and slapping my wrist for all my DCMA sins.
Summary: I found the ibook beautiful but impractical with an OS that doesnt set you free. Ubuntu is human and doesnt live in an ivory marketing tower. Ubuntu is the new philosophy of computing. Macos is style over function whereas Ubuntu is function followed fairly closely by style. Oh how fresh it feels to realise how free I am. Like ditching a beautiful girlfriend who didnt want you to do anything fun.
Thanks for the rant space.
Simon.
I have just finished packing up an ibook that I ordered from Apple. To send it back.
It must be noted that I am a power user. So for a complete beginner it might have been different. I wanted an OS that worked and looked good and needed low maintenance.
Heres why:
1. I expected tight OS hardware integration:
Finder crashed with strange lines across the window. It and Safari would often stop and take little coffee breaks so they could chat amongst their mutually cool selves with their backs facing me. Strange pauses for no reason and long... about a minute.
The backlight control didnt work from the keyboard.
2. GUI is not as great as the legend says:
Idiotic behaviour of the zoom icon in a window and no second mouse button. The zoom really doesnt work like maximise. It tries to do only the information in the window. As the information changes it doesnt adapt so in safari had to manually resize. In fact it appears most mac users dont use the zoom button for this reason see google for discussions...
No second mouse button is like being a fish out of water. This is typical Apple geekery. They really need to think about this one.
Finder would not let me set default to list mode. Oh no! only gave me an option of a new fangled column mode which made little sense.
No applications menu: Applications have to be considered as files. You have to go to Finder to find them. This is really silly and bad for system reliability. No wonder MacOS needs the new extended file attributes so badly. This whole file kick of Apples is bad. Users dont care about seeing apps as files. Ubuntus Install system is quicker and doesnt need a web browser to download etc.
There is a sense here that Apple knows best and is forcing you to adapt to their interface.
2. No quick access to GPL software, Cant get Open Office 2 installed easily. In fact Xwindows seems to throw a spanner in the works as it cant be integrated into carbony Aqua wossit.
3. Apples proprietary hardware rules:
- My logitech 4000 camera wont work. Apple wont let any usb cameras work
- The power adaptor was extremely non standard. No adaptors for US and UK and its an international ibook. would have to buy $$$ adaptor set.
- Wierd keyboard, not news but true. Whats with the need to have apple keys and an unknown up arrow bar key. I ordered an 'International keyboard' which Apple interprets as US keyboard. IE no Euro no Pound, hello! Page up and Page down were mapped to arrow keys. Dang, cant easily scroll by page in Safari then.
- No microphone socket!! Yeah great, Itunes only then?? The register observed this also as "X marks the stupid". Again $$$ adaptor set.
4. Mac help is rubbish and quite terse. I searched for many things that were simple requests and could not find them. Its really just like Microsofts dummies user gripe database.
5. License aggrements on every update!!! Legalese raised to a new art. Imagine if I upgraded automatically?
To be fair I must also say what was good:
1. Beautiful interface:
Completely true. The icons are great and the gui drawing faultless with nice antialias fonts. Did note that Safari fonts seem substandard though. Why did I feel as if I wanted to get out the spray can and tag a bit?
2. Nice looking hardware design:
A very stylish box. Too stylish however and a bit like driving a Ferrari around in the Bronx. Packaging, manuals and presentation are the usual high Apple standard.
3. Flash player, Quicktime, DVD player worked nicely out of the box.
Why Ubuntu is better for me:
Flexibility:
Ubuntu downloads Open source programs in a flash and installs 99% of the time without problems. This is so huge. OpenOffice, GIMP, Inkscape, etc, at your finger tips.
Powerful:
Ubuntu shines over MacOS because it works fast and keeps going when you zip around the screen quickly. I'm using a slow 600Mhz Epia board for the PC and it still seems relatively similar if not faster than the ibook. This is what the phrase 'it just works' really should mean. Maybe the frills are a bit loose but the fundamentals are very solid.
Useful:
Gnome in Ubuntu is not perfect, however Nautilus's list mode is exactly the ticket and beats Finder hands down. Applications menu for speedy access. Second mouse button for contextual menus. Ohh I feel giddy.
Freedom:
I dont feel as if I have big brother Apple over my shoulder consulting their style manual at every turn I take and slapping my wrist for all my DCMA sins.
Summary: I found the ibook beautiful but impractical with an OS that doesnt set you free. Ubuntu is human and doesnt live in an ivory marketing tower. Ubuntu is the new philosophy of computing. Macos is style over function whereas Ubuntu is function followed fairly closely by style. Oh how fresh it feels to realise how free I am. Like ditching a beautiful girlfriend who didnt want you to do anything fun.
Thanks for the rant space.
Simon.