resexcellence.com(mac users) continue the trend of mac-to-linux conversions

Resexcellence ^ | July 24, 2006 | Bryan O'Bryan

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

The great experiment

I was going to write up a big thing to post here. I was going to be all crazy eloquent and whatnot… then Chris wrote this as a draft of what he’d like to say. And his words cut to the point incredibly nicely. So here is what Chris has to say (and he speaks for both of us):

You have ruined this for us.

[rzeznikj at stout]

Yep...

But where's the grammar police?

[MikefromOhio]

LOL

The statement is so ignorant on it's face the horrible grammar is excused :)

[antiRepublicrat]

Corrected: Linux is from originated in Finland (although most of the current code is not from Finland), created by a foreigner who didn't want to pay for US foreign products.

It cannot be ignorance on your part since I've corrected you before, so it must be something else, maybe stupidity.

[zeugma]

I see that the Brass Buzzard is back to its old tricks. Seems like the last moderator slapdown it got has worn off. Too bad. There have been some good tech threads recently. Hopefully the short leash the moderators have it on will be jerked again soon.

[zeugma]

where's that "not this crap again" graphic when we really need it?

[zeugma]

After being sidetracked by our resident thread jester, I took the the time to read the original article (and many of the replies). Pretty interesting. I don't know if what he's saying about the Mac community is true, but if what he described is true, one can hardly blame him. 

I think you can see pretty nasty behavior from just about any community. I've talked with some folks who do development in the Linux space, and they sometimes have similar complaints. Many say that it is the occasional "attaboy" that keeps them going. 

So, I'd like to suggest to those out there who use some of the nifty utilities that make whatever computing platform you choose to use, be they freeware, shareware, or even commercial products, that you take a moment or two to write out a quick note and send it to someone affiliated with the software to let them know that 1) you like the software, 2) you're glad someone took the time to write it, and 3) thanks for doing it.

I'm going to choose the nifty little wysiwyg editor I'm using to compose this message as a starting point.

It's an extension for Firefox called "Xinhahere!"  and it works great. Highly recommended for posting to sites like Freerepublic!

[rzeznikj at stout]

Gotcha...

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^I think you can see pretty nasty behavior from just about any community.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I can agree. I've seen it myself among linux usergroups and used to see it when I was part of the windows crowd. But not to the extent that the mac community does. The mac really has become less about computing and more about looks and status, by and large. Freeper-mac-users seem to be the exception, you don't have one because of some mythical status, you have it because it's useful.

You don't ever.... *EVER* tell someone really into clothes and shoes and having the best label that their stuff looks like crap. They own flamethrowers like no others. :-P(I'm sure you catch my drift)

[zeugma]

I'd like to follow up to my post above briefly. 

Last night I sent a note to the lead developer of the Quanta html editor, which is a Linux KDE program that is a part of the KDEWebDev package, and already got a note back from him this morning with some suggestions of how to make the "fish://" protocol work better for me, as I'd mentioned trouble I'd been having with it in relation to Quanta. I didn't expect alengthy reply as I'd just mentioned that I was playing with fish:// to make editing remote documents easier, but his helpful suggestions have already let me set up things here in the house so I can edit documents on my server from my laptop as if they were local files. This rocks!

Any KDE users out there who haven't played with fish:// should check it out. Drop me a line for more details if you need it. I can't code, but I can help others as I've been helped in the past.

[DesScorp]

"Nobody is switching from Mac to Linux"

Yeah, that's almost laughable. Sorry, I'm a Linux user, and the only people that use Linux are technically adept people that prefer the Unix world over the Windows World, and while OSX is based in a Unix hybrid now, they go to great lengths to hide it, so the traditional "I need a computer so easy to use it's stupid" crowd would never go near Linux with a 10 ft pole; if anything, I've seen lots of Linux users migrate to the Mac because it gives them the best of both worlds....Unix and commercially supported GUI envirnoment.

"But Windows users are switching to Macs in droves"

Ummm, define "droves"? I don't see that many Windows users making the switch, sorry. Apple still has, what, 4 percent of the PC market? 5 at the most? They're making money, and their influence is far above their true market penetration, but for the most part, Windows people stick with XP.

[HAL9000]

Ummm, define "droves"? I don't see that many Windows users making the switch, sorry.

About half of the Mac sales are to people switching from Windows, so on Apple's scale, that is a large amount. It's still a small amount in Microsoft's world, but it seems that Dell is starting to lose a significant number of sales to Apple.

[bigdcaldavis]

Ummm, define "droves"? I don't see that many Windows users making the switch, sorry. Apple still has, what, 4 percent of the PC market? 5 at the most? They're making money, and their influence is far above their true market penetration, but for the most part, Windows people stick with XP.

If anything, most people who have bought the new Intel Macs have probably installed Boot Camp and have OS X and Windows XP on their machines. There was somebody who tried to use Boot Camp to install Linspire on their new Intel Mac...it didn't work, but I have heard of people installing the x86-based Ubuntu distros (Ubuntu, Kubuntu) using Boot Camp.

[HAL9000]

Apple Rumors Editor Switches to Linux!

[HAL9000]

According to the July OS Share statistics at Net Applications, the new Intel Macs, which have been available for only a few months, have already passed the entire installed base of Linux.

When the PowerPC Macs are added to the Intel Macs, the installed base of Macs is many times greater than Desktop Linux.

[Señor Zorro]

How some treat their foreign O/S like a religion.

It's funny that you mention that, because you, in your anti-Linuxism (a new word that I added to the English language about a minute ago), are the most zealous one here.

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

Thanks. As I said, your netstats page is useless for anything else other than the american market.

3.8% + .5% is 4.3%, which is *very* close to Gartner's predictions of the US market. The co-relation between the numbers is too close to be ignored.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1672182/posts#6

I stand by what I said at post.... 4?(mebbe post 5)

Apple has around 2% worldwide. Linux is above that, at around 2.5.

It'll be nice when Google does it's next Zeitgeist. Your source is unreliable for worldwide numbers. I've not really doubted that Apple has more of the american market. It'd be nice if you stopped with that bait-and-switch.

Remember, according to Apple themselves, they've got around 25 mil users. There's more linux users than that. Though in america, there'd probably only be 5 or so mil. If it's even that.

[HAL9000]

Thanks. As I said, your netstats page is useless for anything else other than the american market.

So what? The overwhelming majority of FReepers are Americans. We're not going to switch to Linux just because it is more popular in Communist China.

Currently, Apple's marketing efforts are focused on North America, Western Europe and Japan. At an appropriate time in the future, Apple will expand their international marketing efforts to other regions.

I recommend Macs for Americans. In the unlikely event that you need to call tech support, you'll be talking to a fellow American, not some Dell Dude in India.

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

^^^^^^^^^^So what? The overwhelming majority of FReepers are Americans. We're not going to switch to Linux just because it is more popular in Communist China.^^^^^^^^^^^

I wouldn't expect a freeper to switch based on popularity in any shape or form.

I'd expect them to switch because it's a better product, better put together, faster, has more features, easier to use, and other reasons.

^^^^^^^^^^^I recommend Macs for Americans. In the unlikely event that you need to call tech support, you'll be talking to a fellow American, not some Dell Dude in India.^^^^^^^^^^

If it weren't for Apple's closed nature, I'd do the same. It's too bad you can't install OS10 on something else.

[HAL9000]

I'd expect them to switch because it's a better product, better put together, faster, has more features, easier to use, and other reasons.

Those are reasons to use a Mac, not Linux.

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Those are reasons to use a Mac, not Linux.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Those are reasons to use *BOTH* over windows.