Fred Stluka on 27 Jan 2011 06:56:33 -0800


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Re: [PLUG] why apple


Yeah, I finally moved to Mac once they were Intel hardware and BSD
Unix OS. Here's my experience moving to Mac for its Unix CLI, and
moving friends and family members to Mac for its GUI:
ÂÂÂ
http://bristle.com/Tips/Mac.htm#getting_started

I've since moved the entire development team at a current client to
Mac for its great Java/Web/FOSS development environment. All very
positive experiences.Â

And yeah, their support is great! I no longer get support calls
from friends/family who've made the switch. I can now go to family
gatherings and NOT have to spend all my time doing computer chores.
I love it!
--Fred
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Fred Stluka -- mailto:fred@bristle.com -- http://bristle.com/~fred/
Bristle Software, Inc -- http://bristle.com -- Glad to be of service!
Open Source: Without walls and fences, we need no Windows or Gates.
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David Coulson wrote:
I have to admit, I'm a little confused by your post... Either you've not used a Mac in a long time, or you're going by what the press and popular blogs have to say about Apple products.

Disclaimer - I own a couple of Macs. I'm a die-hard Linux fan and used a Linux desktop since 1996. I support a 200+ server Linux, UNIXÂ and SAN environment for a huge retailer and get a Windows XP laptop provided by my employer.

Current Macs are Intel CPU based, so you can run Windows, Linux or OS X on the hardware. Pretty much the guts of it are standard as far as memory, disk and external connections go (I agree Apple have weird video ports, but all of my monitors are DVI or HDMI and work just fine). Apple hardware is more expensive than most PC stuff, but it's rock solid and Apple stand behind their products - I had a battery fail on a MacBook pro from 2007 long out of warranty and they replaced it for free last week at the Apple store next to my office. Totally painless experience.

OS X is BSD under the hood, so I can SSH into my Mac and do 95% of what I can do via the GUI. By virtue of it's 'BSD-ness', it has native X11 and most popular Open Source apps are available for OS X as part of MacPorts. I was working from home over the weekend on an upgrade at work and needed to be able to read a pcap file. I was able to download, install and load the pcap into WireShark in about 30s on my Mac using MacPorts. Many sys admins in my group use eXceed to get into UNIX/Linux systems and run X applications - I can bring up a terminal window on my Mac and just run it all via SSH without an additional X app, and it all integrates into my OS X GUI environment.

Apart from the hardware and MS Office, I've pretty much not paid for anything on my Mac. If I can do it on Linux, I can do it on my Mac, but with a nicer and more consistent GUI. I'll be honest, I used a Linux desktop for 6-7 years, using GNOME/Enlightenment and other window managers. Having install Ubuntu and FC14 on various systems and VMs, I'd never drag myself back to a Linux desktop when I've got a Mac - I've got native MS Office, all the Open Source tools I need, and when I have to use a Windows app I can bring up Windows7 in VMware Fusion and off I go.

Trying to avoid sounding like I love to throw my cash at Steve Jobs, but there is a lot of practical value to Apple products and it's not just for 'writers' who hang out at Starbucks all day (I actually saw someone with a Dell at Starbucks a couple of weeks ago... ;-)

David

Sent from my MacBook Pro using Thunderbird

On 1/26/11 5:38 PM, Ron Kaye Jr wrote:
my daughter is almost 30
she wants an apple mac

dad hates apple ( i go back to apple iic!)
proprietary, more expensive, gotta pay for everything (ugh)

i am sure age can be a factor
and it is free bsd
why are you younger folk so enamored with apples.
i will listen- i am a reasonable guy

Ron Kaye Jr
914-7294734
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___________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
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