Posted on 03/30/2009 12:03:41 PM PDT by martin_fierro
Edited on 03/30/2009 1:00:06 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Exactly. Try the penguin search without the quotation marks and see what comes up. That is essentially what GLDNGUN was doing.
And how many of those are really useful to you? How many packages of "101 Casino Games" and "Clip Art for Every Occasion" and "Font, Fonts, Fonts!" do you really need?
On my Mac I have 8 Web browsers, 9 drawing programs, 10 photo editing programs, 6 word processors, 3 spreadsheets, 15 music and video editing programs... (I write about software and enjoy trying out different types.) I really don't lack for solutions, and I don't think having access to 9,000 more pieces of lousy software would improve my life.
Just this morning I downloaded something that brings up a little search box when I hit a hot key. I can search Google or Wikipedia from within that box and see the result in my browser--no need to switch to the browser first. It was free, written by a hobbyist Mac software developer who just thought it'd be a cool thing to have.
Jack, pry yourself away from humping Bill Gates’ leg and get your facts straight. First, my reply regarded home hobby types writing their own software. The gentleman to whom I was replying seemed to think that this was not possible. The fact is that Apple’s superb coding environment, XCode—the same tool they use for writing their own software for MacOS machines including the iPhone—comes free on every OS X disk. This is an industrial-class coding environment, as professional as they get. It’s not an entry-level tool or trialware.
Plus there’s a host of freeware out there for writing OS X apps in various C variants, Perl, Ruby, Java, you name it.
As to those aisles of Mac software, there’s plenty, and it tends to be stunningly good stuff. MS Office for the Mac, for example, tends to be a generation ahead of Office for Windows. But maybe you’re impressed by the rows upon rows of Windows antivirus, anti-malware, anti-spyware, anti-crash, anti-intrusion, please-make-it-run-fast-again, rejuvenate, fix, clean-your-registry, back-it-up, defragment, recover and all those other little Windows accessories, not included in the price of a Windows machine, that will get you a bit closer to what the Mac provides out of the box in terms of security, stability, built-in backup, self-optimization, file security, plug-and-play peripheral support, and all that other good stuff.
Yes, I said plug-and-play peripheral support. My family runs a heterogeneous mix of computers, ranging from the WinXP machine I’m typing on to several Macs (both Intel and PPC), some Linux machines, and even a Sun workstation. (Okay, I’m a geek.) I really have no dog in the fight. But even I, a Mac admirer, was taken aback when we brought our first OS X machine home and configured it for our network and our networked HP printer. The printer installation process on Windows requires a crash-prone twenty-minute session with a CD and then a reboot. The Mac found the printer on its own and, blink, it set itself up and was done. I expect a good experience from Apple, but I was stunned.
My 85 year old mother in law went from screaming daily at her malware-infested Windows machine, which I and my brother-in-law would routinely had to fix during any family visit, to installing her very own Mac with no trouble at all. At first she was peeved at the guy in the Apple store: “How do I set up my email?” she asked. “Just plug it in,” he said. She thought he was blowing her off. In fact, that was the entire process: plug it in, and it figured out her email settings for her based on her email address.
Sure, she could have paid less for a stripper Windows machine than her iMac. But she’s way happier with her Mac than she ever was with Windows. And, it’s been two years, without a single “support incident” for my brother-in-law or me. That’s worth a bit extra, IMHO. Plus, the thing is freaking gorgeous, a work of art. Classes up the whole room.
You get what you pay for, is all I’m saying. Meanwhile, mind the Wintard catechisms. Windows has its place, and there’s no reason to spread urban legends about it.
Not only that, but 9,999 of those “vast” amounts of software are filled with adware or are really crippled copies of some higher version they want you to buy anyway.
Apple has always had the best in Audio and Video software and in this age, that is what everyone is doing. Even Micro$hafts ads try and show how easy it is for kids to make movies and send photos.
But then, you get those software packages and find the instruction manual is 126 pages and as user friendly as an IRS audit.
I was being sarcastic. There are no Apple branded drives. Apple and the PC makers all use the same drive manufacturers.
I didn’t actually voice an opinion comparing Wintel vs. Apple.
I merely stated a fact, which I will repeat: Apple does not make it as easy for cottage industry programmers to create software as Wintel does. Nor does it encourage the creation of Mac clones. The Apple world is a relatively closed system.
You can jump up and down, hold your breath and have a hissy fit all you want. Tis a fact.
What mac person writes about windows? I know of no one? I mentioned we had a Dell for 2 years before it died it was the shortest lived computer we ever owned but other than that? Most mac I know people would rather dig a ditch by hand than be forced to run windows. :)
LOL you just don’t know where to look and btw with the intell processer those isles of windows software work just fine on Paralells with XP installed.
You just did.
Oh, and one more thing. About those clones. There are parts of me that would be happy to see Apple encourage clones, especially cheap ones. (A Mac Eee, anyone? Yum.) But they tried it a long time ago, and it wasn’t the greatest experience for anyone.
The trouble with clones (as anyone with significant Microsoft experience can attest) is that with each additional hardware choice comes an exponentiating probability of hardware and driver conflicts.
Part of Apple’s vaunted user experience is that they provide an integrated system and take responsibility for all the bits and pieces and their drivers. Many of us Windows users (and recall I’m using Windows right now, it’s not like I can’t tolerate the stuff) can sorely testify to the painfulness of chasing down a blue-screen-of-death issue that Windows helpfully identifies only as a “driver error” or somesuch.
Right now, when I boot my XP system, I get an error message that my video card is unsupported by the driver I’m using. (Fortunately the system seems to work fine despite the error.) Now, being an uber-geek, I know my way around a PC better than most, yet I have no earthly clue what could have caused this, what to do about it, or who to contact. That just doesn’t happen with Macs.
I was addressing people who write stories like this one not someone giving their honest life experinces. Incase you didn’t notice I also mentioned having had PC’s too except that they seem to only last about 3 years?
You did it again.
XCode dev environment - included (and help to build interfaces, code profiling)
Support for misc languages - check (c, c++, java on the box already)
When you click on 'new java app', it even creates a default 'hello world' for you.
By day, I do eclipse(plugin/plugin/plugin)/oracle/weblogic/you-get-the-idea development. 'Fact'...In my opinion, my macs(3) at home come better equipped for development than any of my dell/hp/toshiba/compaqs ever have. Without the internet and/or a bunch of purchased software, none of them has come with any developer tools.
And bears poop in the woods! ;-P
And all made in China I bet??
Probably.
10s of thousands of iPhone apps is an obvious sign that no one is writing any code for Apple. hehehe
They do write code for Apple, just there is no reason to make thousands of worthless little apps for OSX because it comes with about everything you would need built in and working, not bundled shareware you need to wipe out before it hogs your system resources.
Ok, today I went to my local Micro Center and took a look in the book section.
There were a lot more Apple programming books than I thought there would be: The ratio was only about 9 to 1 Microsoft to Apple.
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