[Erin] Not what I'm used to
Monday November 19, 2007
Categories: Varia
This past weekend my husband was finally able to do something he's been wanting to do for a while: buy one of these. (I think what caused the balance scale to tip toward making this decision was the information that...
Filed Under: Computers
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Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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Wow, maybe Erin has explained the whole mystery wrapped in an enigma, (with salsa, onions and sweet peppers) that is sigaliris! I was a devout, Republican-voting Catholic all my life (or possibly just a simulacrum of one, if you believe our friend Cleveland, but anyway, I could have fooled me). Until the last couple of years. So what on earth could have happened? Now it is revealed. I bought an iBook. Be afraid, be very afraid . . . : )
You'll never be sorry, Erin. This is One Cool Computer. (I have one. I've run Apple for many years. And my kid works for Microsoft!!)
HOORAY NO VIRUS DANGER! The viruses won't work on your OS. When I occasionally (and reluctantly) use Windows (on my partner's machine) little boxes are constantly popping up saying BE CAREFUL BE CAREFUL. He has to constantly update his virus shields. I don't even have virus protection software. Don't need it.
Apple really has all four corners nailed down here. Beautiful, smooth operation, no hassles, no regrets. You do have to learn the OS, but it's very user-friendly.
Apple users are a little smug, OK, but as you're finding out, there are reasons for that.
How right, sig, that you and I are both Apple users. No wonder we nearly always agree about everything.
Sig, yet another reason why you rock!
C'mon in Erin - the water's fine.......
Having been a Mac fanatic since they were introduced in 1984, I have always preferred a Mac over any Windows computer. And as Windows became more and more aggressive in their attempts to control my computing experience, I moved more and more into the Mac camp.
Until OS X 10.3 hit, that is. Once that hit the streets I saw that Apple was beginning to incorporate some of the same kinds control mechanisms that I hated in Windows. I refuse to have any corporate interest looking over my shoulder, as it were, at what I am installing on my computer.
So, a couple of weekends ago a friend helped me install Ubuntu Linux on my Dell laptop, and I have fallen in love all over again. Not only is it faster than Windows by every benchmark I have found, it is OPEN SOURCE material. No more am I beholden to the whims of Microsoft or Apple.
Yes, it takes a bit more work, but it is well worth it. I heartily recommend it as something you should consider with your next computer (or even with your current computer, as many older computers will run Linux quite well...better than they run Windows).
Congrats on your new iMac, and good luck with your future computer purchases. If you are interested, check out Ubuntu at www.ubuntu.com. They will ship you a CD free of charge so you can try out their distribution of Linux.
Wow. That's really pretty. I want one of those.
I'm not very good with computers. I can type pretty fast & do the basics, but my husband fixes all of the computer glitches.
Don't you think that as Mac becomes more popular that the computer hackers and virus sending goofballs will start to pick on them? Or does that system have better software to prevent those kinds of problems?
Linux is only free if your time has no value.
Don't you think that as Mac becomes more popular that the computer hackers and virus sending goofballs will start to pick on them? Or does that system have better software to prevent those kinds of problems?
Two answers, and these from my expert children.
First, the Apple OS is inherently more stable, less susceptible to virus.
But yes, if we convert too many people, there may be virus attacks.
I take back everything I said above. Everyone here, stick with Windows. You suffering protects me and my kind; more power to you.
Dude, we got a Dell Dimension E310 with the last tax return. Love it, but I have always cast a longing eye toward the Macs. Cue Squeeze's "Tempted," I know.
But the sticker shock keeps me faithful to the PC clones.
Ditto on ridding yourself of the computer: we kept our old, wheezing HP tower. Partially for security concerns, but mostly for sentiment and the eventual setting up of a computer area for the children. Who lobby for "Flight of the Hamsters" and "Cursor Thief" most of the time, but eventually will see the educational value of the device.
Build your own: alt.comp.hardware
There is always the potential for what is called a "trojan horse" attack, basically someone gets you to install/run software that you think is safe to run. But yes, I am a former UNIX operating systems developer, and it would be harder for the sorts of viruses triggered by simply opening word documents, going to web pages, opening a piece of e-mail, to occur on a Mac platform.
An administrator who is determined to leave the network and login accounts completely unsecured on a Mac could compromise it by making it subject to attack from other systems.
And there is still an extremely off chance that a worm a la the internet worm of the mid-90s (based on a behavior of the old BSD sendmail program) could occur, but this is much less likely today in general.
Jim, this level of sophistication is really rare. I don't doubt it exists, but in 20 years of running Apple I have yet to be attacked or even to hear of anyone attacked.
You-all. BUY WINDOWS COMPUTERS. It's a public service to the rest of us.
I'm just sayin', Susan :-)
Jim
I became a Macintosh fan around 1990. I despised and loathed DOS and Windows 3 for their technical shoddiness (the word really isn't strong enough), never mind their usability. I was really happy with Macs till about 1996 or '97, in the 7.1 and later and 8.x OS releases. The two Macs I had in that period were the most unstable personal computers I've ever used. They were also grindingly slow compared to comparable hardware running Windows 95. They were also more expensive. What a deal!
Meanwhile, Microsoft had introduced the Win95 GUI, and replaced the wretched DOS infrastructure with an entirely new OS, Windows NT, based on one of the classic designs, DEC's VMS. When NT4 put the new GUI on the new foundation, the Mac lost any remaining edge. I was using an NT4 machine at work and one day realized I liked it a lot better than the Mac--not only was it more stable, I found it more comfortable to use (the power of the right-click, if nothing else). The next home computer was a Wintel machine, and I've never looked back.
Apple may have caught up again, and their machines do look cool, but I have no incentive to change. In fact I have a strong disincentive not to change, since I pretty much have to use Wintel at work. I've been lugging the same Dell laptop back and forth from home to work for three-plus years now with no significant problems.
Maclin, for the love of God stick with Windows. For the reasons previously stated.
Congratulations! Sounds like Christmas came early, Erin!
The "other woman" in my husband's life will always be Dell, but I agree -- flat panel monitors are way cool!
>>
No, we can't really afford it, but when you factor in the cost of losing everything packed onto the hard drive of our elderly p.c., which has been acting very cranky and temperamental lately, it's not so bad.
>>
You didn't need a new computer, just a new hard drive. A crunch solution would have been to take the old hard drive to your local independent computer guy, buy a new hard drive and have the old drive copied over to the new one with maybe some virus scanning and optimization done afterwards.
Total cost, maybe $350 or so.
We got a Mac Mini and have been delighted ever since. It's the low-cost way to get into Mac; I think the newest model is about $599, and you supply a keyboard (cheap) a mouse, (cheap) and a monitor, which you probably have laying around somewhere in the garage. But I'm with Susan. Y'all stick with your Windows machines.
BUY WINDOWS BUY WINDOWS. It's wonderful. Go for it, you guys. The more the merrier. :)
Windows users, your suffering = my gain. What could be more virtuous?
Susan: "Linux is only free if your time has no value."
This of course presumes that more time is needed to manage a Linux system than a Windows or Mac OS X system. Having worked in the industry since 1983 I can assure you that today's distributions of Linux (especially the Ubuntu distribution) are as trouble free to install and maintain as any Windows distribution.
And, another reminder...Mac OS X is Linux with an Apple shell over it. Scrape away the user interface and it is Free BSD.
With over 400 computers in our network time is important. From my standpoint it is much easier to manage a Linux lab than a Windows lab...any day of the week. That is why we are moving away from Windows and towards Linux. Not only will our district save nearly $5K a year in licensing/update fees, but we will also reduce our exposure to malware attacks significantly and gain better compatibility with our OS X servers.
Calm down, Susan. I have no need or desire to revisit my Macintosh days; you are more than welcome to your gated community. :-)
Although you do raise an interesting theological point. I think I will retroactively offer up my unpleasant Macintosh experiences as a penance.
Not that I have any great fondness for Windows (even less for the company that makes it) but as a desktop platform it does the job. (Different story for servers.) If I didn't have to worry about compatibility I'd try Linux.
"If I didn't have to worry about compatibility I'd try Linux."
Which programs are you worried about? Many Windows based programs have excellent counterparts in the Linux world. I have been using Open Office for a few years now, and it is wonderful. Not only can I open any MS Office file (and save in any MS Office format), but I can also export directly to PDF format, and have been able to do so ever since I started using the program.
I would encourage you to explore and see what is available in Linux. More than likely you will find a direct replacement for any Windows based software.
Re Linux,
It's just too much computer sophistication for me.
I wanted to be a lawyer, not a computer tech. All my programs, including all my court forms(!!), run in Apple OS, or, failing that, in a Windows emulator. Linux asks so much in sophistication. I can make it through the Internal Revenue Code, that's it. Can you Linux guys get me to the California court forms, in fill-out-on-line form? No.
So shoot me.
Linux is free only if your time has no value. I bill at $250/hour, and I'm cheap. Linux just doesn't make the cut at that rate.
GO, you geeks!
THE REST OF YOU BUY WINDOWS.
Maclin,
Your sacrifice on my behalf (thank you!) is noted in your favor on the heavenly roster.
Emulate Maclin. BUY WINDOWS.
FreeBSD is not the same as Linux. Linux != Unix;
God bless you if you like Linux. I won't be going there anytime soon unless I'm buying a black box solution. As far as office suites go, Corel makes the best. StarOffice and the rest are worth the price you pay for them.
Wow, Susan, you don't sound cheap to me. I'm now more impressed than ever that you would take time to explain legal issues etc. (And I imagine some of you other frequent posters are probably lending us solid gold minutes, too.) Let's see . . . if you took 15 minutes to post, your comments would be worth . . . umm . . . $62.50! See, I can do simple arithmetic in my head, even though my time would probably bill at less than a dollar an hour in financial terms. I guess that explains why I can afford to be so talkative.
GO sigaliris! And your hourly rate (taking your books at their total take and all that) would be all that lower than mine??
I doubt it.
Congratulations!!!
I encouraged my mom to get that model and she absolutely loves it.
Congratulations on your new imac. ;)
I have saved a lot of the packaging and manuals from Apple products over 20 years.
They have been consistently great—which isn't easy to pull off.
"Can you Linux guys get me to the California court forms, in fill-out-on-line form? No."
Don't be so hasty there...not being a lawyer I have no idea if these forms fit the bill, but check these out.
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/forms.cgi
These are PDFs, and they seem to open just fine on this Linux laptop of mine.
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