Posted on 07/05/2005 2:06:15 PM PDT by Panerai
One reason that Dell didn’t make my short list of companies with vision is its lousy business decision to remain the lone first-tier player not to add AMD’s processors to its server lineup. Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Sun Microsystems, among others, like Dell’s decision fine. They know Dell’s missing out on AMD’s secret sauce. AMD’s CPU line is so very manufacturer-friendly — meaning that it’s also profit-friendly, as system vendors evolve from model to model and reach into new markets, especially the higher-density value server market that AMD is certain to own.
Dell wants no part of this, choosing instead to cleave only unto Intel, and by gum, to stick to the idea even though competitors and their customers have proved the folly of it. Standing out like a Southern belle in a biker bar must make Dell a little squirmy. Even I must empathize with the pain of sharing a fishbowl with a bad decision. I suppose I should be glad that Dell has found a friend in Apple.
Dell has welcomed Apple into its exclusive club by cracking a joke about adding OS X to its list of preinstalled software options. Cold day in hell, says Apple — but Apple has certainly taught us never to say never. Dell, the butt of Steve Jobs’ jokes and scathing “2GHz G5 kicks 3GHz Xeon’s ass” demo at the Power Mac G5 launch, Dell, the epitome of the good Intel soldier, now has a seat next to Apple’s at Intel’s quarterly issuance of marching orders.
Hence the title of this column. Hence my loss of appetite for the lunch on my desk.
(Excerpt) Read more at macworld.com ...
mac ping
;-)
Kind of a stupid article. All opinion and supposition. I think everyone should wait until the new computers come out. As usual everyine is underestimating Jobs.
* Don't think I am a Mac basher as I am writing this comment on a G4 iBook.
Thanks to Panerai for the heads up.
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
And I will reply on my G-5 iMac!
How do you like it? I've been drooling over the 2.0G iMac but have held off because of the reported heat problems.
I know it's beautiful, and I want one!
I now live in Florida and Apple is not allowed to sell their extended warantee here, so I'm hesitating until I feel they have this problem resolved. Never had a serious problem with any Mac in 21 years, but this one has me concerned
This is what happens when you spend too much time in Macland - you lose track of how the other 95% lives :)
What this guy doesn't know - tech writer? really? - is that, clock for clock, the current Pentium M is very nearly as fast as the Athlon 64. That's the current single core Dothan P-M. By the time the first Mactels are rolling out, they'll likely be built around the next-generation dual-core Pentium-M's, and be quite credible chips. Jobs may be many things, but he's not stupid, and I suspect he got an extensive and thorough look at Intel's roadmap, and liked what he saw.
"clock for clock, the current Pentium M is very nearly as fast as the Athlon 64"
In 32 bit apps you are quite right. If you can get a Dothan core to run at AMD64 speeds. I've seen guys running Dothans with 32 bit performance comparable to my FX-55 at 3.2, but they gotta put em under freon to do it. The author is indeed a little bit misinformed. It's gonna be a fun year watching the Mac opinion writers twist in the wind about what will end up being a very nice upgrade to the Apple line.
At this point there's no reason to buy a mac.
If you're a technology buff, Linux is the most advanced around.(big 3) Every feature that OS 10.4 crowed about was already available. Some months earlier, some YEARS earlier.
If you're looking for something different, anything but MS's 94% marketshare will do.
If you're looking for ease of use, that really isn't an argument, at least with the big 3.
Unless you need that one app that apple only makes for it's own machines, or you're going after(apple's marketing is it's #1 department) "coolness" factor, apple is irrelevant.
At this point there's no reason to buy a mac.
If you're a technology buff, Linux is the most advanced around.(big 3) Every feature that OS 10.4 crowed about was already available. Some months earlier, some YEARS earlier.
If you're looking for something different, anything but MS's 94% marketshare will do.
If you're looking for ease of use, that really isn't an argument, at least with the big 3.
Unless you need that one app that apple only makes for it's own machines, or you're going after(apple's marketing is it's #1 department) "coolness" factor, apple is irrelevant.
Why have my posts been showing up as double lately?
I got the 2G, 20" a couple of weeks ago and am lovin' it. I had to stop my drooling somehow.... Haven't had any heat problems with it. I dropped in extra RAM 1.5GB total), and it is slicker than you-know-what!
Cheers, CC :)
I will continue to maintain three different tracks when it comes to computers.
1. For work, a cheap Dell.
2. For home, I will continue to build my own PCs and use WinXP. It is the only platform for the good games.
3. I'll keep a cheap Mac and a Wally World Linux box in the office just to keep my knowledge up-to-date. Gnome Mahjong is the best time waster in the office.
Spotlight? Core Image? Core Video? System-wide PDF? Quartz Composer? Advanced font management? System-wide dictionary and spell-check? Voice operation?
my mac never double posts.
my mac never double posts.
Dothan at 3.2? Don't have to go quite that high, nor do I think anyone's pulled it off, but have a look here. Pretty impressive considering that it is, for the moment, bottlenecked by a 533 MHz FSB.
They overclocked the FSB to 533 MHz, I should say....
I was saying that my FX runs at 3.2, and I've seen Super-pi times that beat me with an overclocked Dothan. Great post up there btw.
Ah, that makes more sense :)
You're not using a Mac?
Thanks for the input. I'm going to hold off just a bit longer until I understand the heat problem and whether Apple has really fixed it. There's quite a few posts at macintouch.com on the problem
^^^^^^^^^^^Voice operation?^^^^^^^^^^
You got me here. There's nothing like this AFAIK.(put this on at the top for a reason)
^^^^^^^^^^Spotlight?^^^^^^^^^^
Yep, months before. *nix project Beagle. Now, apple announced the desktop search project first AFAIK, but working software is a different story. Suse 9.3 had it integrated a few weeks before 10.4 release and it could've been installed for anybody at any time as a separate package.
^^^^^^^^^Core Image?^^^^^^^^^^
Core image is used for graphics that are mainly(but not limited to) for in-OS graphics, application graphics and the such.(non game, that's OpenGL) Project Looking Glass comes to mind. Metisse might also apply.
Here's a sample of what neither a mac or win could do, AFAIK.
(warning, this is a huge png graphics file, might take time to download)
http://www.jondesign.net/linux/captures/Capture-bureau3d2-2.png
That was done in Metisse.
^^^^^^^^^^Core Video?^^^^^^^^^^^^
That's a hard one to draw a relationship to, due to (coreV's) linkage with quicktime. I'll concede this one.
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/macosx-10.4.ars/16
^^^^^^^^^^^System-wide PDF?^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I'm not sure what you mean about this feature.(couldn't find anything on google either) Perhaps you could point out the project's name? Don't see anything on apple's new features of 10.4 page either. http://www.apple.com/macosx/newfeatures/
^^^^^^^^^^^Quartz Composer?^^^^^^^^^^^
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/macosx-10.4.ars/13
Updated API's aren't really a "new feature", but rather an updated one. Quartz already existed, and there are many api's for displaying on screen info in linux. Avalon vs direct X comes to mind and is exactly that.... An updated feature, not a new one.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^Advanced font management?^^^^^^^^^^^^
Font management is nothing new.(maybe for OS10.4 it is)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^System-wide dictionary and spell-check?^^^^^^^^^^
http://www.apple.com/macosx/newfeatures/
That must be a part of apples "200 other features" I'll concede this one too.
How about other "new" features? RSS? Had that for a long time now. Dashboard? Having another desktop is YEARS years old. ichat AV, I know there's software around but forget the name. And Mail? That's new?
Don't get me wrong, Apple does have good software. But they're in catchup mode with 10.4.
ROFLMAO
Should I introduce you to posts 19 and 20 from a user who's mac never double posts?
*chuckles*
It's obvious this is user error on both his and my side.
Interesting. I just read about the heat issue. Thankfully, I haven't experienced that. I do have the Rev. B, tho. It is very quiet and a joy to work on...
My brother has the Rev. A - I'll ask him if he's had problems.
Thanks.
bump for later
Beagle is not mature enough to be considered a Spotlight challenger. This is the free/proprietary nature: Free software comes out early, but almost non-functional, while with proprietary software you get the end version, missing the early, less functional builds (Windows excepted, of course, which is often pretty crappy upon a first release).
Project Looking Glass comes to mind. Metisse might also apply.
You're talking about eye candy. I'm talking about GPU-rendered UI (to the point that the CPU does very little work), and applications being able to use the GPU to apply filters to image and video in real-time on a regular video card. Tying in to the Quartz mention later, if you were to enable the latest Core* and Quartz 2D Extreme features in OS X, you can think of your whole UI as essentially one big OpenGL scene. The CPU just sends rendering commands and bitmaps (which get cached). This is far more advanced than anything out there.
This latest Quartz bit may be just updated, but it is a major architectural change under the hood.
I'm not sure what you mean about this feature.(couldn't find anything on google either) Perhaps you could point out the project's name? Don't see anything on apple's new features of 10.4 page either.
PDF has been integral to OS X since it was released, which is why you don't see it as a new feature. 2D data is handled internally as PDF, copy/paste operations result in PDF data, and all programs can save as PDF.
Font management is nothing new.(maybe for OS10.4 it is)
Advanced font management integral to the OS is new. I used to pay a lot of money for such packages. But, yes, the concept is not new.
How about other "new" features? RSS? Had that for a long time now. Dashboard? Having another desktop is YEARS years old. ichat AV, I know there's software around but forget the name. And Mail? That's new?
I notice that you think of things available on OS X as having to come from Apple to apply, yet you count third-party projects with Linux. Many Linux applications that provide features (like RSS and mail) have also been available for the Mac. And I haven't seen chat software that's the equivalent of iChat AV.
Don't get me wrong, Apple does have good software. But they're in catchup mode with 10.4.
I'm still of the feeling that everyone else is in catchup mode to OS X. About the only important thing OS X got with this release that others had was finer-grained locking in the kernel, and they finally locked down their APIs.
Since my response was tongue in cheek (very firmly) I thought about double posting my response... someone beat me to it.
Nice to see that the alleged journalists devoted to Mac coverage have finally begun to see the light about Steve Jobs. :')
Oh, there are plenty of reasons to buy a Mac. I'll start with how solid and price competative their laptop hardware is. Yeah, I actually can get about 5 hours of batter life on my iBook and feel confident enough in the strength of it's case that I've carried it on to airplanes in an unpadded canvas bag.
If you're a technology buff, Linux is the most advanced around.(big 3) Every feature that OS 10.4 crowed about was already available. Some months earlier, some YEARS earlier.
Can Linux run Microsoft Office native? How about dozens of other important commercial desktop applications not available for Linux? No, OpenOffice will not be as good as Microsoft Office for me until it can do real time spelling and grammar checking. And, no The Gimp (yeah, let's name Linux's primary Photoshop replacement after a homosexual rape and bondage scene in Pulp Fiction -- that's sure family friendly) is not a perfect replacement for Photoshop, Canvas, etc.
If you're looking for something different, anything but MS's 94% marketshare will do.
Why not pick the alternative that's actually simple, secure, has a polished and easy to use desktop interface, and has plenty of commercial software available for it? Oh, and if you really want a Unix interface or Open Source software for Linux, you can get that, too. With the Mac, I get just about everything that either Linux or Windows has to offer. It's the best of all worlds.
If you're looking for ease of use, that really isn't an argument, at least with the big 3.
Yeah, sure it is. As someone who uses all three, the Mac is still the easiest to maintain and use.
Unless you need that one app that apple only makes for it's own machines, or you're going after(apple's marketing is it's #1 department) "coolness" factor, apple is irrelevant.
Show me another Unix machine that can run Microsoft Office and other key commercial software and I'll consider a switch. Please bear in mind that I used Linux as my primary desktop system from 1995 to 1999 (before it was trendy) and administer Linux machines at work so I'm quite able to handle Linux, thanks. I left Linux for Macs once Apple got their act together again and get the best of all worlds that way. If Linux passes Mac OSX, I'll consider switching back. Until then, Macs are a better pick.
I'd buy a Mac from Dell as long as I can dual-boot it with Windows; otherwise, no sale.
^^^^^^^^Beagle is not mature enough to be considered a Spotlight challenger.^^^^^^
Define "mature". I've used it a few times and it works fine. Doesn't crash and is fairly speedy.
^^^^^^^^^^Windows excepted, of course, which is often pretty crappy upon a first release)^^^^^^^^^
Agreed. MS's catching up to both of us. Their constant beta state gets boring really quick. If it wasn't for two things.... cost.... and knowing a few mac users who gripe(one of them) has a G4 which won't boot OS9. Making the choice to move to a less open platform or a more open platform was rather easy.
^^^^^^^You're talking about eye candy. I'm talking about GPU-rendered UI^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Looking glass does that. What percentage, I'm not sure. But it is a GPU-rendered UI.
http://today.java.net/pub/a/today/2004/07/06/3ddesktop.html?page=last&x-order=date&x-maxdepth=0
=====quote====Video card support?
We expect this to run on 32MB VRAM video cards and above. We leverage the GPU to help push the performance down into lower layers, keeping the computational hit off the main CPU.=======end quote======
I'd assume that Metisse does also, though not having a major name behind it I'm sure it's more cpu dependant than PLJ is.(or quartz and/or core*'s)
^^^^^^^^^but it is a major architectural change under the hood.^^^^^^^^^
I'll agree to that.
^^^^^^^^^which is why you don't see it(pdf) as a new feature.^^^^^^^^
Then why did you bring it up? Most apps I can think of save to PDF as well in linux. PDF is an open standard so naturally it's friendly to all OS's. MS is the only one who seems to be straggling in this area. Apple has always been pdf friendly.(and linux ever since I switched)
^^^^^^^^^^^^Advanced font management integral to the OS is new.^^^^^^^^^^
Sorry. It's not.
^^^^^^^^^I notice that you think of things available on OS X as having to come from Apple to apply, yet you count third-party projects with Linux.^^^^^^^^
Not quite. The basis is what are on apple's website as "new features". I did link to it in the last post. That and Apple's business strategy is to be a one-stop-shop.(just as MS) It's not a secret that Jobs is a control freak. It shows glaringly in his products.
Apple is crowing as if it's new features are just that. New and unique, and they're not.
Not only that, but third party projects really are all that exist. Red hat doesn't have a red hat browser, red hat office, red hat chat agent, red hat APIs, and so on. Nearly everything about linux is third party.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^And I haven't seen chat software that's the equivalent of iChat AV.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
What's your basis for equivalent?
^^^^^^^^^^ I'm still of the feeling that everyone else is in catchup mode to OS X^^^^^^^^^
Apparently that feeling is unfounded. I wasn't gonna mention the kernel as I wasn't sure how technically minded you were, in your own words the kernel too is playing catchup. Their kernel still needs alot of work from what I've seen.
I still say they offer a great product, unlike what 94% of the market uses, but technologically speaking the mac is a close second.(and I still say their switch to intel is partially fueled by losing the #2 OS spot to linux, mainly fueled by IBM friction)
^^^^my response was tongue in cheek^^^^^^^^^
heh heh..... so was mine. but sarcasm is very hard to convey in this rather bland white background/black text.
that's why I left the chuckle in there.
^^^^^^^^^^^I'll start with how solid and price competative their laptop hardware is.^^^^^^^^^^^
Not a bad answer I'm a big fan of the brushed metal powerbook. It'd match my Lian Li tower I have now. :-D
But for the money, I'd rather an alienware. When Apple starts implementing intel and loses alot of the price premium that answer will be alot different.
^^^^^^^^^Can Linux run Microsoft Office native?^^^^^^^^
Who needs it? I can open the files natively. I'll agree that MS Office is the best office program around......
it's better but it isn't 6 or so hundred better.
As I think of it, crossover office allows the installation of MS office natively.
^^^^^^^^^^No, OpenOffice will not be as good as Microsoft Office for me until it can do real time spelling and grammar checking.^^^^^^^^^^
OO will do spelling. But grammar I'm not sure of so I'll concede that.(like I said, MSO is better but it isn't 6 or so hundred better... unless you're a THIEF then clearly MSO is for you)
^^^^^^^^^^^^How about dozens of other important commercial desktop applications not available for Linux?^^^^^^^^^^^^^
As it sits now, most commercial desktop apps have an equivalent. MS Streets and Maps is the only one I can think of that I haven't seen an alternative for. How good they are has become the primary debate, not the absence of them.(I've seen scribus at the center of these debates lately,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^The Gimp (yeah, let's name Linux's primary Photoshop replacement after a homosexual rape and bondage scene in Pulp Fiction -- that's sure family friendly) is not a perfect replacement for Photoshop^^^^^^^^^^^^
You ever use it? Even a recent article in macaddict(I think) puts them very close. The delta really only remains with plugins.
Besides, the name is the least of it's worries.
^^^^^^^^^^^Why not pick the alternative that's actually simple, secure, has a polished and easy to use desktop interface, and has plenty of commercial software available for it?^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I am using one that's simple, secure and has a polished and easy to use desktop interface. The commercial software, I agree, you're right on that. But not as right as you think you are.
^^^^^^^^^^As someone who uses all three, the Mac is still the easiest to maintain and use.^^^^^^^^^^
Considering you're talking to someone who also uses all three, I disagree. I personally tweak my own machine out, but for my grandparents and mom they use just fine what comes out/off of the disk(s).
Maintenance, from what I've seen they're about even.(depending on what breaks)
^^^^^^^^^^^Show me another Unix machine that can run Microsoft Office and other key commercial software and I'll consider a switch.^^^^^^^^^^^^
I hope you don't feel threatened, I'm not trying to convert you.(not specifically) Just as any mac user, conversions don't come with with brute force zealotry, but rather just getting the name out there. I've encouraged on quite a few occassions a MS-mac switch, but I'll also go linux if the user qualifies.
But like any other forum dweller, argument/debate is fun(and informative). Sometimes we agree, sometimes we don't.
^^^^^^^^Please bear in mind that I used Linux as my primary desktop system from 1995 to 1999 (before it was trendy) and administer Linux machines at work so I'm quite able to handle Linux, thanks.^^^^^^^^^^^^^
They've come a long way from 1999. And... what are you currently using at work?(name, version?)
general_re
My inhaler, quick! Where is that GD inhaler?
Search me, linux boy boy
;op
It's good, but not up to Spotlight. First, it's not well-integrated into the OS, everthing has to be added-on. Second, it doesn't naturally search network shares (unless you have the app on the share host, not good if you have your share on a RAID rack) or keep live folders.
Looking glass does that. What percentage, I'm not sure. But it is a GPU-rendered UI.
Looking Glass uses the GPU to help render, but a lot of work is still done on the CPU. Quartz 2D Extreme requires one of the later programmable video cards because it essentially sends small applications to the GPU to offload even more processing. That Ars Technica article you linked to explains it in more detail, especially making sure that anything that's bandwidth-intensive stays within the video card.
And that still doesn't cover allowing a video editing app to use a standard GPU to do real-time filters instead of having to buy an expensive RT video editing card.
Then why did you bring it up?
Because it's an old feature that still nobody else has. The difference between it and other PDF functionality add-ons is that in OS X PDF is a core functionality of the operating system and even part of its screen compositing subsystem. I'm not just talking about new features, but the whole of the OS as compared to others.
Sorry. It's not.[advanced font mgt shipping with the OS]
Where else have you seen it?
Apple is crowing as if it's new features are just that. New and unique, and they're not.
Some are are first for any mass market OS (especially the graphics subsystem), some are just new to OS X. BTW, if I download Linux and install it on a few boxes, is it as brain-dead easy to get a cluster going as it is with XGrid?
Their kernel still needs alot of work from what I've seen.
As of 10.4, it's pretty ironed-out. The Linux kernel isn't exactly perfect either. I do have to admit I have a bit of a bias, having always been partial to BSD over Linux.
and I still say their switch to intel is partially fueled by losing the #2 OS spot to linux, mainly fueled by IBM friction
Their switch is mainly "once bitten, twice shy." They got burned badly by Moto over chip problems because Moto wasn't interested in maintaining their PPC line, and now IBM is showing that its interest in the PPC for desktops is waning. I can understand from the supplier's point of view, because Apple's volume isn't enough to justify the R&D for such chips.
Apple finally went someplace where they know they won't have supply problems, and have an easy replacement in AMD in case even Intel can't deliver.
As for what I use at work, my desktop is a Windows 2000 machine because that's what they gave me. The servers that I specified and purchased are Xeons running Red Hat Linux. As a server, Linux is my preferred platform at the moment. But please note that I can run all the software that I've written for those Linux servers using Open Source tools on my OSX iBook because both are Unix. And that's part of my point. Mac OSX gives me the ability to run nearly everything I could run on a Linux desktop PLUS it opens up a whole other selection of commercial software that I can't run on a Linux desktop. It's also the reason why a friend who is a Solaris sysadmin got an iBook and then a PowerBook. They are great laptops, especially if you are maintaining Unix or Linux machines.
^^^^^^^^^First, it's not well-integrated into the OS,^^^^^^^^
Honestly, integration isn't all it's cracked up to be.(though I honestly think that linux is a little TOO modular) MS's ideals of integration are insanity, anybody who's had serious problems with IE is aware of what I speak. :-P
Besides..... Have you actually used a distro that comes with beagle?
^^^^^^^^^Second, it doesn't naturally search network shares (unless you have the app on the share host, not good if you have your share on a RAID rack) or keep live folders.^^^^^^^
Who has a RAID rack in their house?(i'm only half kidding) Apple's main market is the home user, not servers. So netshares and RAID rack compatibility isn't really.... I could bring up Xen but that would be just as irrelevant as well.
But I agree. Beagle doesn't have as many features as spotlight. They still weren't first to market though.
^^^^^^^^^^I'm not just talking about new features, but the whole of the OS as compared to others.^^^^^^^^^^^
Oh, ok. Fair enough.
^^^^^^^^^^Where else have you seen it?^^^^^^^^^^^^
There's a font manager in what I'm using right now.
^^^^^^^^^^BTW, if I download Linux and install it on a few boxes, is it as brain-dead easy to get a cluster going as it is with XGrid?^^^^^^^^^^^
I doubt it. But given OSX's still-crippled kernel I don't see why you'd want to.(in this instance is one which the kernel still shows it's immaturity)
http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2436&p=9
^^^^^^^^^^I'm challenging the idea that there aren't any good reasons to buy a Mac.^^^^^^^^^
Oh, heh sorry about that. That's my anti-mac propaganda coming out...... I was talking to my dad shortly before posting at #13. He's the resident mac user in my family. I love rubbing his fur the wrong way on the topic. :-P
Until MS goes out of business there will always be at least one reason to buy one.(and considering apple's #1 department, it's marketing division there are two reasons that I don't see going away any time soon)
^^^^^^^^^^And let's just say that our milage varies on what's easier to maintain.^^^^^^^^^^^
Well that of course depends on what your definition of is is.
^^^^^^^^^^^As for "equivalent software", that argument never worked when Mac advocates tried to sell the Mac to Windows users and it's not really persuading me.^^^^^^^^^^^^
You think if macs were free(or at least the OS) that statement would still hold water?
Besides. If you've ever used the "equivalent software" argument yourself you know it's more accurate than you're now trying to make it seem that it's not.
^^^^^^^^^I've played around with some of the Open Source "equivalents" and let's just say that I wasn't all that impressed.^^^^^^^^^^
The first place I was gonna go for linux software was not an OSS piece. I've never actually used it, but Quasar is supposed to be pretty close to Quickbooks. Quasar is a complete commercial product.
The biggest problem with the OSS "business model"(in this argument) is that when the first couple of revisions come out they are purposely sent out untested.
^^^^^^^^They are great laptops, especially if you are maintaining Unix or Linux machines.^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Agreed.
Oh, and just out of curiousity...... When you boot up your machine what's your memory usage look like?
^^^^^^^^I have servers with Red Hat 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 as well as their latest server OS.^^^^^^^^^^
Ouch! That explains alot.
Yes, I'm a red hat user as well, but I'm using Fedora.(their free product)
The only thing I do upon a fresh install that isn't graphical(meaning ease of use) is changing one switch in a file as I've personally grown to prefer KDE. RH is a gnome distro.
Not always, but I'd think a system-wide search utility should be.
For the market, it's the difference between open and closed source I mentioned. Beagle has been out since shortly after it was initially conceived, while Spotlight was only released after it was mature. In any case, the Beagle authors admit it's still in the early development stage.
Still, it's quite impressive and shows that OSS projects can be competitive. Barely a year after launch and it's almost up to what Microsoft will release in beta in several months.
There's a font manager in what I'm using right now.
What one? I've never seen a standard OS font manager that could compete. I have always had to purchase a font manager such as ATM separately. For example, with your standard font manager can you group your fonts and enable or disable them by groups? Can you preview fonts including ligatures, glyphs and kerning? Can you search them including by family, style and language? Can you scan documents for fonts and save them as a group for archiving (extremely useful in DTP where you may have loaded several special fonts for one document, and want to save them together with the document in case you want to edit it again)?
.(in this instance is one which the kernel still shows it's immaturity)
The performance is a result of the OS X design philosophy, which is a hybrid microkernel. You take a performance hit whenever you go down the microkernel road because of all the message passing (although being a hybrid lessens this a bit), but it does have its advantages, such as stability and portability. That's why it was so easy for Apple to maintain both PPC and x86 versions of OS X all this time.
You mean..... as of 10.4 they caught up?
Basically. As of 10.4, it's finally mature (although I think 10.5 next year will really solidify it). That's pretty fast considering how long it took MS to mature NT into server 2003 and finally get it somewhat right, and for Linux to mature into the extremely capable 2.6 kernel.
If we waited for the software we wish we had, we'd never use anything.
True. I've been avoiding buying a new Mac until 10.4, and now I'm considering waiting for the Pentium M Macs. I can wait.
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