It’s all Waterloo-Maple‘s fault, really: if they had maintained a version of their computer algebra system for the Amiga, I wouldn’t have found it necessary to switch to Mac. Or maybe it’s Commodore’s fault for mismanaging themselves into oblivion; I don’t know. Either way, I became painfully aware three years ago that my little Amiga would no longer satisfy my computing needs. I needed a new home computer.
The Problem
My biggest need was research. I didn’t have the time or energy to program a complete symbolic computation package for the Amiga; besides, I wasn’t supposed to program a symbolic computation package; I was supposed to use a symbolic computation package to research mathematics. There had been a version of Maple for the Amiga back in the early 90s, but by 2001 it was hard to come by. Waterloo-Maple didn’t even reply to my email inquiring about it. The Amiga, alas, had to go.
Previous attempts at a solution
I’d had experience with Microsoft software, having once owned a Òbeige boxÓ back in the days of Windows 3.1, and of course it’s nearly impossible to go through the world of computers without at least once using a Windows machine. My Programming 101 was done on MS-DOS machines that ran Borland’s Pascal. Those frustrating experiences with MS-DOS and Windows drove me into the arms of Amiga: the first machine I ever used that, with its combination of pre-emptive multitasking, color GUI, and integrated command-line interface (unique on home computers of the time) felt neither like a straitjacket nor like an unmanageable nightmare. It was on the Amiga that I really sunk my teeth into programming, both in C and in Modula-2. It was with TDI’s and later Benchmark’s Modula-2 compilers that I wrote my first symbolic computation software: to handle arbitrary-precision integers, to manipulate continued fractions, and to draw the graphs of particular solutions to two-dimensional differential equations.
In the years since embracing Amiga, I had seen nothing from Microsoft to stimulate my enthusiasm for the Windows platform. So, Microsoft was off the table. In 2001, that left Linux and Apple.
My other criterion was that my new computer be portable: two months before, I had been visiting my parents’ house. Driven by the desire to crack a problem, I stayed up all night reducing S-polynomials by hand. There is a reason we have computers, my friends: as I re-discovered the hard way, that reason is to make mathematics easier.
Why not Linux?
A few months prior, the symbolic computation professors at my university had purchased workstations for research purposes. This being a university, we decide things by general consensus — i.e., the loudest voices win 🙂 The consensus was that, since (a) Linux was free, (b) the university offered a modified RedHat distribution, and (c) two of the grad students ran Linux boxes at home, we should standardize on Linux. At the time, Linux really did seem to be the wave of the future.
One professor dissented, and purchased three dual PowerMac G4s for his students. The professor most in favor of Linux chose what I consider to be a most curious argument to express his distaste for the Macs: they made us look “less professional, like a mathematics lab instead of a computer science lab.” The fact that we computer algebra students are a lab in a mathematics department, and not a computer science department, didn’t seem to impress him.
We did not purchase the machines all at once, but over a period of several months. The first two purchases went very well. Mine did not: at the time, X didn’t support the Matrox Millenium G450 video card — or at least, the X server provided by our university’s version of Linux didn’t. Realm Linux is closely tied to RedHat Linux; at the time I tried to install it, it was built from RedHat 6.something; today they build off Fedora.
I was a complete newbie to this; in more than ten years of using Amigas, I’d never had this problem (probably because I was lucky). I couldn’t figure out how to make X and the G450 play nice, and there were working machines nearby, so — I worked on those other machines. On occasion, I would try to figure the thing out, but to no avail. The two colleagues who had made the successful purchases, and who ran Linux workstations at home, were unhelpful. A third officemate finally took pity and sat down with it one morning. Late that afternoon, he figured out how to make the video card work with the X server, and Žowyn.math.ncsu.edu was finally online. (After graduation, this gentleman rather appropriately took a job with RedHat, testing the installation of the operating system on differently-configured systems.)
My advisor purchased a machine nearly identical to mine, but his difficulties were even worse. He gave up on Linux altogether and installed Windows on it. There were serious problems with that, too, but I’m not one to beat the dead horse of the problems with Microsoft’s default security settings.
My new machine
Given that experience, buying an Apple was a no-brainer. I bought a brand-new 500MHz iBook, with all of 256MB RAM. (This, compared to the Amiga’s 33MB I had never been able to fill in ordinary usage.) I really wanted a blueberry clamshell — if you’re going to go crazy, go crazy in style, no? — alas, those had been phased out. I was stuck with a colorless, all-white iBook. Yuck. At least it ran Maple. I named her Parvula, and hoped for the best.
This was August of 2001, and OS X was still new (and still slow as molasses in winter). I didn’t mind the slowness too much; what mattered to me was that it ran Maple, and it wasn’t Microsoft or Linux. My machine dual-booted OS X and OS 9. Maple ran only in “classic” mode: that is, it required OS 9 emulation within OS X. So starting Maple was a chore that required me to wait, and wait, and wait… wishing all the time that my university had standardized on Mathematica instead, with its polished Aqua interface. To my dismay, the CD-burner didn’t write under OS X 10.0, but that was fixed before too long.
At the time, there were very, very few Apples around the department. Linux was all the rage. There was talk that our university would soon be taking the cost-cutting measure of eliminating Windows and moving everything to Linux. That long-promised switch to Linux never actually took place, although one public lab in my building has switched to Linux and OpenOffice, another to Linux and CrossOver Office.
Insane, perhaps, but not entirely isolated
Most of my colleagues thought me insane, and said so.
Ray was the only one who owned an Apple. (Note: names have been changed, to protect the guilty.) He owned a nice PowerBook, and was lusting after a Cube. (Remember those?) He and I would chatter about our machines while my officemates rolled their eyes, or asked when we would remove that Mac virus, and install YellowDog Linux. Both of us were interested in the huge amount of Unix software being ported to OS X, through the outstanding work of the Fink project. I invested some hours learning how to fink -install some-program and later to dselect. Then came Fink Commander, and life became easier. Coming from a Realm Linux world where state-of-the-art was the antiquated rpm –install some.rpm, then gnashing my teeth in dependency hell (I never had to worry about that during ten years of installing Amiga software — but maybe I was lucky), it seemed just a little ironic that Debian’s dselect masterpiece was perfected… on a Mac.
Soon thereafter I was using my iBook not only to run Maple computations, but to type results and reports using Lyx, XFig, and the whole gamut of TeX-related software, and showing Ray how to get fink, X, and the rest running on his PowerBook. (Ray however prefers TeXShop to Lyx.) I’ve even downloaded Loria’s SmartEiffel browser and refreshed my memory of the Eiffel programming language. Both of us also enjoyed indulging in our non work-related, “consumer” uses of our Apples; here Ray had a definite advantage, since with a video camera he could create an entertaining video of his two year-old son running buck nekkid about the house).
We were both pretty happy with our machines.
Fast-forward nearly three years
Realm Linux finally became useable. With the advent of KDE 3.1, and the attendant eye-candy from Everaldo’s Crystal icons and Keramik, Linux also became pleasant to use. (Except when RealPlayer decided not to work — but Žowyn is a work computer, and there are more important concerns.) For a while, I explored the idea of converting the iBook to Yellow Dog Linux. In the end, I decided to stick with OS X…
…Mostly because OS X has also spent the last three years improving. I don’t have to pay full price for the OS upgrades — nowhere near full price, to tell the truth — so I didn’t mind the yearly subsidy of Apple’s software group. Besides, the upgrades have been worth it. Upgrading has been remarkably smooth overall. It is especially gratifying to type this at a time when one of my colleagues has struggled for a full week to get two of the Linux machines in the office to upgrade from Realm Linux/RedHat 8 to Realm Linux/Fedora Core 1.
Maple 9 finally runs natively on the Mac, albeit only in the new, ugly, slowish, Java-interface worksheet mode. Still, it allowed me finally to eliminate Classic emulation from my machine. In addition, I ran it overnight and found a counterexample to a conjecture I’d been trying for a long time to prove — no wonder I couldn’t prove it; it was false! With that one stroke, my PowerPC G3 machine justified my investment. The dual 1GHz Pentium running Linux SMP didn’t find the counterexample; such are the vagaries of Fortune and pseudo-random code. 🙂
The iBook has proven itself enormously useful in pretty much every aspect of my professional life, as well as many aspects of my non-professional life. The most mundane task of all is record-keeping for the occasional class I teach: recording grades and attendance (Appleworks), writing syllabi (Mozilla), tests (TeX), etc. There’s also a lot of fun to be had in digital photos, iTunes, and reading OSNews with the Camino web browser.
A simple twist of fate…
The distribution of Linux boxes in professor’s offices has changed; many professors have purchased Linux boxes, but some have replaced their Linux boxes of three years ago with Apples. I can’t tell you why; I don’t know these professors, and I’m a bit too shy to walk into a professor’s office and ask, “Say, I’ve noticed the old RedHat workstation has been replaced with a PowerMac — what’s up with that?” But there have been a few changes.
My roommate, who works in applied mathematics, decided to buy a G4 iBook, due both to my positive experience with it, and to his own advisor’s use of Apple hardware for his research. They run Matlab mostly, occasionally Maple. He has been quite satisfied with the iBook. I found myself occasionally on call to help him get software running on it. The most pernicious problems was getting his wireless ethernet router to communicate with his iBook, but that was due to the router’s shoddily-written manual, which gave the wrong name for the wireless network.
The biggest surprise came some weeks ago, when one of my office’s biggest Linux advocates showed up with a 12″ PowerBook. Peter had just won a research award, and wanted a portable to take his work with him to conferences, or even on the road. He decided to buy a PowerBook. Why? He didn’t want to spend two or three weeks researching which laptops were supported by Linux; nor did he want to waste time getting CygWin to work on a Windows box. He simply ordered a PowerBook, got it in the mail, and was using it the following weekend at ECCAD 2004 to give a talk using his TeX-generated slides (works great with Preview — and probably with Acrobat as well) and to demonstrate the Maple program he wrote to implement his research. He won’t shut up about how cool iTunes is.
This caused quite the stir; Peter brought his PowerBook to a party at another colleague’s home. The goal was to test whether it worked with the apartment’s free wireless internet access. It seems Walker (the colleague hosting the party) has been considering buying an iBook himself, but he wanted to make sure the Airport Extreme card would pick up the apartment’s network. It was as easy as opening up the PowerBook: it woke from sleep, detected the network, and popped open a dialog, naming the network and asking if Peter wanted to join it.
The other mathematicians at the party (and two computer scientists as well) were eager to set their eyes on Peter’s PowerBook; it made the rounds and won general acclaim. Quite a few expressed favorable opinions, and said they would look into acquiring one. There were the usual comments on its stylish looks and its gorgeous interface, including from Peter — this from the man who used to mock me for my iBook’s “eye candy” 🙂
Triumph of triumphs: Peter’s advisor — he of the opinion that we Computer Algebraists should be using Linux instead of
Apple is making inroads in academia 🙂 My colleagues are catching up with my wisdom 😉
But will it mean anything?
I don’t know if Apple is aware of the potential market it has in academia. The Virginia Tech supercomputer cluster aside, I haven’t seen much of a marketing push at the university level. — Sure, there’s been a general push to attract users of Unix, but as someone who works in academia, I don’t feel Apple is making anywhere near the effort to attract me that they could. People like me are precisely whom Apple should be targeting: scientists and mathematicians who use Unix software to solve problems, and who can afford the price premium (real or imagined) necessary to avoid the troubles inherent to Linux or Windows or Sun or… Admittedly, I may not run in the right circles to notice such a push.
Universities have a legacy of using Unix; mathematicians and computer scientists are familiar with it, as are most natural scientists, and most of our software runs already on some flavor of Unix. Porting legacy Unix software to OS X is relatively painless (especially when compared to porting it to Windows); the Fink project has already made much progress in this regard. OS X is much, much easier to use than traditional Unix boxes: all the power, little of the pain. I don’t know what the statistics are in terms of installed computers, marketshare, &c.; to tell the truth, I don’t care. What I care about, is that I get my work done, using the software I need, in an environment that is user-friendly, and Òjust works.Ó
Okay, so what exactly is your point?
A month or two ago, another OSNews author asked the question, can you get “serious work” done on a Mac? His answer: maybe other people could, but for various reasons, he couldn’t. As I recall, his problem was getting his Apple to work in the Windows-dominated environment where he worked; at a low point in the article, he pointed out that Microsoft Office for OS X wouldn’t properly read PowerPoint files written by Microsoft Office for Windows.
For obvious reasons, I was genuinely dismayed to read the article. I’m lucky enough to work in an environment where the IT department is half-competent and runs a network that is truly open. All our information is shared on a centralized network that runs on AFS. I hadn’t invested huge amounts of my time and data using programs that don’t play well with other, like Microsoft Office. It isn’t hard to connect my iBook to the network, and the common Unix foundation underlying Linux and OS X make it easy to control Žowyn from Parvula. Getting the two machines to cooperate has been a snap.
Based on my experience: Yes, you can real get work done on a Mac, and a growing number of academics is doing just that. But has Apple noticed, and will they capitalize?
About the author:
Jack Perry is a research assistant at North Carolina State University. For some reason he can’t fathom, one of his web pages is (at the time of this writing) the #1 Google hit when searching for S-Polynomial reduction. (Something more useful ought to be #1.) In his spare time, he laments the greater popularity of the curly-brace languages over languages where statements such as
p++ = --q ? c = a(*p, **q) != *b(&p, q) : c = a(*p, **q) == *b(&,q);
are not merely “a bit much”, but make no sense at all 🙂
If I just got a shiny new G5 + Cinema Display I would be happy as well. But I must comment that his experience is that exact same as I got when I got a IMAC (Desklamp)
Its just such a nice experience working/playing on the Mac after a hard day’s graft with Windows.
Like today a windows 2000 server just starting locking(Crashing) for no reason after months of no hassle. and I get home, instant start the Mac and i’m browsing via the excellent Safari.
More people should try it, you just might like it!
Sorry wrong article, see “”I switched!” Ex-Microsoft employee falls for OS X”
my goal is to get a decked out 15″ G4 powerbook in the next six months. im a java developer, which makes mac all that more attractive.
Our Finnish teacher (who also teaches at the uni) has a nice Mac laptop. He uses it because “civilized people use Macs”. I.e. because his students use PCs.
Kudos on the great article! It is really good to read an article that is clear and well written on OSNews. While I am a faithful reader and I always love the original content, it can be a little weak at times. This reminds me of why I read this site everyday. Thanks!
//Like today a windows 2000 server just starting locking(Crashing) for no reason after months of no hassle.//
Strange. Out of the two-dozen Windows 2000 Servers I manage, I’ve never seen one lock up for “no reason.”
There’s usually a very good reason for such lockups. Much like the lockups I’ve experienced with Mac OS 10.3.
It strikes me that whenever people criticise “Linux”, they have often only tried RedHat (or Fedora, sometimes Mandrake), and they usually have a problem that doesn’t surface in Debian.
People, you haven’t tried Linux until you try Debian! The package management Just Works, and you won’t have to worry about dependencies at all. Whatever you install usually has reasonable defaults configured, and often integrates well with the rest of the system. Documentation is good (check the website), and configuration files go in the common places (i.e. not Redhat-specific ones).
BTW: people say that Debian is out of date. This is surely true of the stable branch. Try the unstable branch. It is as up to date as any good distro, and works at least as well, if not better.
Holy crap! You were using an Amiga up until 2001? Wow. In a way I’m not surprised though. The Amigas were amazing machines. I miss my A3000.
> my goal is to get a decked out 15″ G4 powerbook in the next six months. im a java developer, which makes mac all that more attractive.
I don’t want to sound like a troll … but I’m confused by your comment. Are you implying that Java doesn’t run well on Windows, *nix, *bsd?
Sorry Inglorion, as someone who’s used mostly debian for my Linux experience ,I have to strongly disagree with your comment, especially your suggestion to use unstable.
“Strange. Out of the two-dozen Windows 2000 Servers I manage, I’ve never seen one lock up for “no reason.”
There’s usually a very good reason for such lockups. Much like the lockups I’ve experienced with Mac OS 10.3.”
You sound very bitter dude. Listen to some Metallica. Maybe you’ll stop posting such lame comments then. “Enter Sandman” will really get the juices flowing.
Basically, i agree, however the APT system is particulary very nice and not tied to Debian; Debian-based distributions use it as well. Those might be a good choice instead of Debian.
“BTW: people say that Debian is out of date. This is surely true of the stable branch. Try the unstable branch. It is as up to date as any good distro, and works at least as well, if not better.”
Or Sarge, which is currently the Testing branch* which’ll become the Stable branch in some while. There are less possibilities Sarge will break, it is more stable than Unstable(duh, evil)/Sid(duh, evil), about as up2date as unstable while far more up2date than Stable/Woody. A perfect middle ground and many desktop computers use Sarge instead of Woody. Woody however is rock and rock stable.
(*) Debian branch system might be slightly confusing. Here’s a small, fast, incomplete learning curve for the reader who’s interested:
*** Potato ***
In this situation, which was the situation of a few years ago, Potato is the Stable branch. The testing branch is currently tested (and developed), which gets a flow from Unstable where you’ll never know what you’re gonna get. If you like to fix problems, help debugging, are a developer, etc. that is NP but if you want it to Just Work and if time == money then you’d better not use Unstable.
* Stable: “Potato”
* Testing: “Woody”
* Unstable: “Sid”
*** Woody ***
In the following situation a new Stable has been released and very well tested. It also took some time though.
* Stable: “Woody”
* Testing: “Sarge”
* Unstable: “Sid”
As you notice, Potato is the old Stable, Woody was Testing and became Stable after much testing, and Sid remained the same Unstable. It is because Sid is evil, and is and will always be Still In Development.
That’s the small course see http://www.debian.org for some information.
“I don’t want to sound like a troll … but I’m confused by your comment. Are you implying that Java doesn’t run well on Windows, *nix, *bsd?”
I think because Apple is the only computer developer that makes their own hardware, operating system and java machine. If we don’t think to Sun, sure! Anyway, Sun doesn’t make portable computers. 🙂
Yeah, there are no more Amiga machines being made these days, unless you count the very niche PPC-based AmigaOne motherboard, for which the Amiga OS 4.0 is being made. I think they missed out–they should have gone AMD64, and rewritten the OS so it resided on an exokernel (they could’ve had full backward compatability).
Ah well. On to MAC or Linux or elsewhere (anything but Windows).
Seems more and more OSes are popping up, as possible new experiences.
–EyeAm
“Finger to the status quo!”
http://s87767106.onlinehome.us/mes/NovioSite/index.html
//Strange. Out of the two-dozen Windows 2000 Servers I manage, I’ve never seen one lock up for “no reason.” //
Agreed, there is always are reason. We where copying a file that was 2 gig’s in size to it. No error in the event log. Services just died. Ho hum.
We where unable to find an issue and after 2 reboots during the day. All was well…
“It strikes me that whenever people criticise “Linux”, they have often only tried RedHat (or Fedora, sometimes Mandrake), and they usually have a problem that doesn’t surface in Debian.”
I gave debian a solid three months before going back to Fedora. Fedora has it’s share of problems, but I found debian to be too unpolished to use for a desktop/server combo (which is what I do). I spent so much time configuring debian compared to Fedora. I admit, apt is great and all, but for me it didn’t come close to being as usable as Fedora. If I were just running a server, I might only run debian, otherwise it’s just to much of a chore to setup.
I own two Macs, and love them. But my love of Macs doesn’t equal a hatred of Windows. Perhaps I’m the luckiest guy on earth, but I’ve rarely had any serious problems with Windows, especially since the advent of Windows 2000. At home, my client machines are Macs and the server is Windows 2000 Server, primarily because I love ASP.NET. (I also do lots of programming in Cocoa.)
In sum, I didn’t switch to the Mac because of any real, imagined, or anecdotal problems with Windows. I switched to the Mac simply because it’s better.
It’s true. I’m seeing tons of Macs at every conference I’ve been to in the last year or so. At the last workshop (on *compilers*, no less) it looked like iBooks and PowerBooks had at least 20% market share. Every few days I notice somebody coming out of the bookstore with a new iBook or PB box.
I just bought a PowerBook about 9 months ago–the first person in my lab to do so. It hasn’t been a totally smooth transition (from Linux) and I’m not in love with Apple as a company (I think they would be just as bad or worse than MS if their roles were reversed) but it’s definitely the most exciting machine I’ve ever owned, both in terms of hardware and software. It’s like the Porsche of laptop computers.
A labmate recently said that he was considering an Apple for his next laptop. This is pretty incredible, since the guy’s primary line of research involves heavily hacking the Linux kernel and Linux is not terribly well supported on modern Apple laptops. The thing is, he’s been really impressed by how well my machine works and he would be willing to do his research in an *emulated* Linux system if it meant he could “live” in OS X.
I like this trend, but I don’t know if it can save Apple. The educational market is big, but the general consumer market is where you need to win if you want to make the big money. Hopefully Apple’s progress in the educational market will act as a “hearts and minds” lever to get a bigger market share in the general market.
i noticed that the computer science dept at the prominent university where i recently completed an MSc were very much using apple macs.
but the labs are kitted out with cheap PCs with windows and linux (cost reasons, they don’t need support for USB cameras en masse) … and a few farms of Suns (probably because Sun gives them a discount to advertise the use of Suns).
but the staff themseves use apple desktops and apple laptops. this makes sense, they can do their unix coding on it, and they can do their office and admin and presentation work on office for macs. simple. and that really is the reason.
From my experince, our aging fleet of macs(mostly g4’s but a couple of G3s) are being replaced by window/linux.
Old setup:
-3 comp labs with 90% G4s and the rest G3s
-1 comp with 99% windows, 1% Linux
—Goverment Grant—
New setup:
-5 labs, all running Intel P4’s. 60% windows, 40% Linux
Lol we dont have a single mac left. I think our school got a good deal from HP!
sorry that should say:
-1 comp lab with 99% windows, 1% Linux
I’m going to Carnegie Mellon next year, and they are quite known for their CS programs… and guess what
http://www.apple.com/education/hed/compsci/vr_large.html
=)
I think I’m going to get a shuttle PC for the dorm and an iBook on the go…. or maybe JUST a powerbook (but I’m not sure if I’m ready to make such a complete switch)
Anyway, I’ve been craving an Apple for about a year now.
Macs are very expensive here in Brazil and we don’t like to change from a software monopoly (M$) for a hardware/software monopoly (Apple). Linux is FREEDOM and many people didn’t understand its importance. Mac is sexy but it is a proprietary and closed hardware, with programmed obsolescence.
My university have many scientific labs with almost 100% linux on PC beige boxes. Before we used many Solaris/SunOS Sun workstations to do the same job and linux with Pentium 4 or Athlon machines is faster to do calculations and much more versatile. We changed from the ugly CDE to KDE/GNOME desktops. Linux can not have all the “cosmetic” features of MacOS X but it is free, run on chep hardware, it is easier to install LaTeX, Scilab, Octave, etc softwares (you don’t have to “UNIXize” your system to run unix applications).
I am a happy user of 3 linux desktops, 1 linux notebook and 1 linux PDA (an iPAQ converted from M$ PocketPC to Familiar linux). I see many “sexy” Mac hardware in shopping centers at very expensive prices but I don’t see a rational argument to buy Apple hardware whe I can do the same job with a cheap linux/grey PC, specially academic activities (run Matlab, LaTex, write scientific papers, etc).
I do CS grad work and just got a powerbook as well. Haven’t seen a huge number of them around my school, but I think that’s due more to the attitude of some of the admin types here than the desire of students. Many of the admin’s here simply hate anything proprietary. A lot of the workstations tend to run debian stable, which actually causes problems because it’s so out of date at this point that some of the new scientific software won’t even run on it.
We did get 3 new mac G5’s though. But instead of giving them to students as workstations, the G5’s were made into 2 headless computers and a guest computer. Given that our cluster is x86, headless mac’s (which probably don’t even run panther server) are completely useless. Mac’s are good desktop machines, as servers I don’t think Mac’s have many advantages over Linux.
Apple isn’t a monopoly.
Hardware side is an IBM PowerPC Open Platform machine with Open Firmware in ROM. Also, today the PowerPC is the only open processor architecture.
Software side is an Mach 3.0 open microkernel with a 4.4BSD-Lite layer that comes from FreeBSD with elements of OpenBSD and NetBSD. Cocoa is based upon OpenStep. Safari is based upon KHTML (webcore of KDE). Quicktime technology is open.
And if you think that Macs have programmed obsolescence you don’t know that MacUsers change your machines less than common PC Windows/Linux users.
I think you cannot install MacOS X if you are using any PowerPC mainboard made by IBM or other company. Am I right ?
PowerPC is a good processor but it cannot compete with the Intel’s or AMD’s large scale of production. G5 is good but is very expensive when compared to the last Athlon 64 or Pentium 4 HT processors.
Darwin is open but nobody uses it because the Mac OS X appeal is your proprietary and closed GUI.
Safari is good but I can use konqueror and gecko-based browsers also in linux.
Here in Brazil we not change our old computers by new computers like americans. We make incremental upgrades (we buy more RAM, change hd, install new processors, etc) year by year because our “beige” PCs are assembled by the own users or by little shops. Technical support is cheap and software licences are very very expensive (it is based on over-priced dollar).
…Also, today the PowerPC is the only open processor architecture. …
Unlike SPARC for instance ?
Quicktime technology is open.
Right! Ill belive you when you can show me how to use QT VR technology on linux. Heck even the QT video codecs are illegal.
@sabon,
“tech_user – I think it would be pretty hard to get an MSC using either Linux or Mac machines.”
por que? i am proud of the fact that i completed it entirely using Linux and free software, from the document layout to the printer drivers, from the graphing to the programmimg, from the presentation software to the gantt charting, from the data generation to the final implementation of the algorithms, .. all done using free software.
you’re not thinking of “mcse” are you? i meant MSc == Master of Science.
mac laptops are really big in the comp sci circles at the college i go to. especially the linux/freebsd crowd. they’ve just flocked to powerbooks and ibooks. computer science house, where i live, now has almost 13 mac laptop users (probably getting close to 40% of the laptop owners on floor having a mac laptop). i was one of the first to take the plung, and after showing it off around floor all the time more and more people keep buying them to replace either their aging laptop and some have even sold their fairly recent laptops for macs
if apple advertised to our market directly, they’d dominate.
Of course Macs are great. They’re fantastic and I would certainly expect a Linux user–someone who naturally has broad interest in operating environments–to also be interested in owning a Mac. Good for him.
Slamming the door in the face of Linux is a big mistake, however. Especially in an academic environment where access to the guts of the machine by smart people is incredibly valuable. You’re experience is of the “I couldn’t figure out how to do this one thing in Linux so it sucks” variety–pointless.
I prefer Linux strongly, but other *good* systems are always worth knowing. Don’t you agree? Furthermore, Free code trumps features any day.
…the success of Macs in Academic circles has anything to do with their pretentious image. It is always the image Apple has had (in my eyes).
Not necessarily a bad thing. just wondering.
Me, I’m not able to switch to Linux or Max (though it would be linux). One simple reason: I game on my pc.
(and no, I don’t think consoles are satisfying enough to completely take over. They can supplement pc gaming. Though in all honesty all console games would work on my pc with good gamepads)
They are decisively too expansive.
“I don’t want to sound like a troll … but I’m confused by your comment. Are you implying that Java doesn’t run well on Windows, *nix, *bsd?”
I think because Apple is the only computer developer that makes their own hardware, operating system and java machine. If we don’t think to Sun, sure! Anyway, Sun doesn’t make portable computers. 🙂
Apple ported Sun’s VM over to OS X and added some nice features like VM sharing and Swing intergration into the OS. So Java apps on OS X look exactly like native apps, which is nice.
On the other hand, the Apple VM does have problems of its own and since its Apple maintaining it, bug fixes tend to be slower than that of Sun. The performance of the VM isn’t much to shout about either. Apple only ships the client VM which is much slower than the server VM on certain tasks.
Apple’s Java VMs are also lagging behind Sun’s VMs by about a year. Java 1.5 is about to be released. It’ll take quite some time (unless things have changed at Apple) before the latest version of Java gets shipped.
Maple is the better application AFAIAC. Java based might seem too sluggish to anyone who has not used java programs at all or has an underpowered machine but it is the best way of having a constant UI in more than one platform. And yes, Java (generally) on the Mac is NOT 1 year behind. The bad thing is that Apple wants to totally control both hardware and software and thus has taken alone the burden of developing JDK implementations. Mac developers have to wait for betas a bit more than Solaris/Linux/Window$. But after a long period of inactivity (remember, many universities used to have Macs for teaching Java in the early days) Java on the Mac is getting better.
Nevertheless, Amigas are fantastic machines. I use them even today. Maple V for Amiga was maintained until version 3.0 and Amiga was mentioned in most Maple textbooks until mid nineties.
“Here in Brazil we not change our old computers by new computers like americans.”
Ehr… First, I’m italian! 😀
Second, I change my Mac one time for three years. I buy the best conf for my use and money and for three years I’m sure that I’ll must NOT change anymore.
Anyway, Sun doesn’t make portable computers.
If you want to run Solaris on laptop the get a Tadpole from http://www.tadpolecomputer.com.
Yes, I know it, but it isn’t like an integrated hardware/software platform.
What’s my point? I thought I answered that on page 3, under the heading, “What’s your point?” 🙂
Slamming the door in the face of Linux is a big mistake, however. Especially in an academic environment where access to the guts of the machine by smart people is incredibly valuable. You’re experience is of the “I couldn’t figure out how to do this one thing in Linux so it sucks” variety–pointless.
Reading this, I have a strong feeling that you focused too much on why I bought a Mac, and either missed or discounted my remark that Linux had become useable, and that I explored the idea of converting the iBook to Yellow Dog Linux. We continue to use Linux in the office even now, and these days I enjoy it.
Having said that: It’s not “pointless” that I couldn’t install the OS because the X server would not work with the video card; it’s not “pointless” that several thousand dollars of taxpayer money effectively bought me a paperweight for several months because I couldn’t figure it out, while the people who had advocated for Linux were too busy to figure it out.
It’s not “pointless” that my advisor couldn’t figure out why Linux wouldn’t install to him machine, in fact even the Linux experts couldn’t figure it out (hence his switch to Windows).
It’s not “pointless” that my colleague encountered difficulties upgrading the OS on two machines, which went down for an entire week.
Not a single one of us struggling with these problems is “a computer newbies” — most of us have 20+ years of personal computer experience, and after 25+ years of personal computer evolution, the very least we ought to expect from a modern OS is a smooth installation. If we can’t install it, the OS is unusable. That’s not “pointless”.
Free code does not trump features if the free code won’t work.
As for freedom, I addressed that above.
Linux can not have all the “cosmetic” features of MacOS X but it is free, run on chep hardware, it is easier to install LaTeX, Scilab, Octave, etc softwares (you don’t have to “UNIXize” your system to run unix applications).
Actually, I think that Crystal and Keramik look somewhat better than Mac. Also, most things seem to work a lot more smoothly than they used to since KDE 3.1.
However, it is not necessarily easier to install LaTeX, Scilab, Octave etc. I say this, having done so on both Realm Linux, and on the iBook. You don’t have to Unix-ize a single thing in order to install LaTeX, thanks to Gerben Weirda’s i-Installer: http://www.rna.nl/ii.html
Since Apple now includes a nice X-Windows configuration with each iBook (such was not the case at first), there’s very little manual labor left to be done, if any. Some X applications start rather transparently from icons (Matlab, IIRC).
A fantastic and intelligent article. Well done.
Personally- I made the jump to Apple a few years ago- I was flirting with the idea of running Apple hardware / Software for quite some time.
Now I run a Graphic design department which has just been upgraded from G3 and G4 systems to single processor G5 systems. Add that to my freelance Studio which I just upgraded from Windows XP systems to a Dual 1.8 G5 as my main workhorse, and an old G3 iMac which I use as a server- and I must say, I can’t remember why I lived with windows inefficiency for so long.
I too am not particularly interested in Apple’s marketshare etc. The only point of interest for me personally is I am achieving a high level of work using these tools and having a helluva time doing so
Bottom line; imo If your time is worth money, try Apple.
I’ve bought myself a powerbook just for the same reason mentionned in the article : I can’t stand the idea of paying the price of a tight integration ‘laptop/XP software bundle’ to then redo all the work to get Linux to work on it.
Had Linux been available preloaded and with all hardware supported (wifi, bluetooth, dvd player, cdrw, firewire, usb2, etc) out of the box in Europe, then I wouldn’t own a Mac. And that’s still what I think after 6 months of owning a Mac. MacOS is nice but Linux is what suits me.
Outside of the nice hardware integration, there is nothing that would drive me to replace my desktop with another Mac, except video editing and video chat.
Furthermore, Free code trumps features any day.>>
Not if your computer has been rendered into a f’in doorstop because of it.
Or, where I work, not if a *server* has been rendered a f’in doorstop because it didn’t like an update. And it took Systems 2 weeks to figure out what was wrong and fix the problem.
Two. Weeks.
Server.
I don’t care if the code is free or not.
I care if it WORKS when I need it.
New IBM notebook (R50) + experienced Linux user and Debian stable release.
vs.
My mother (53 years old), just a little computer experience as a user (win 2000) and her iMac.
Both computers: out of the box.
Wel, in short … within 2 hours, my mom was surfing the web (including making the connection over Cable!) and making photoalbums, burning them to CD, with no support, just by reading the step-by-step manual.
While the Linux crack was doing a new install of the Debian Unstable edition because the stable one didn’t work… and then to Suse, then to Fedora …. and then to RedHat some commercial edition ($300,-) and after five days, he was finally ready to do something on his brand new notebook, like synchronising his Nokia 6600 with Bluetooth …. ehhhhh.
try, tried, perhaps just tired.
debian’s great if you want the star-destroyer of package management systems….and i guess it’s needed with over 16,000 packages.
i’ll stick to slackware, gentoo and suse.
debian, thanks but no thanks.
p.s my brand new 12″ ibook is awesome-o
You’re absolutely right that it needs to work to be useful and the author would even admit that the code wasn’t really faulty–just way too difficult to get working right. More importantly, I meant Free (as in speech) rather than free (as in beer) and that is more important than whether it works. It may be a total p.i.t., but it is crucial to continued innovation and for programmers to be able to work well.
Just check the price difference:
IBook
US EU/Dollars (1.22) %
1099 1462,78 33%
1299 1706,78 31%
1499 1950,78 30%
PowerBook
US EU/Dollars (1.22) %
1599 2186,24 37%
1799 2479,04 38%
1999 2624,22 31%
2499 3353,78 34%
2799 3645,36 30%
PedroEloy,
The figures you quote for Europe include VAT, which the US prices do not. Although that still leaves the European laptops overpriced, it is still not as much as by 30%.
The main reason is that the US dollar is undervalued against all western European currencies and Apple clearly is not indulging in short-term price adjustments. Since, however, there is no sign of the dollar coming anywhere near parity with the euro, perhaps it is about time that Apple readjusted its currency forecasts.
Hi Versu,
So if the US doesn’t have VAT then the price difference should be around 18% i guess…but it’s not, in extreme cases it’s around 38%! crazy!
I understand what you say about the dollar being undervalued, but that is just a reason why the price in euros should have been reduced!, it is not…
I guess apple considers europe to be a niche market in it’s own niche(!). Marketing-wise it’s just an opportunity to get higher margins without any serious investment. Just see how in Europe the education sector is absent from any campaigns from Apple.
I now see that even the “design people” has been changing from Mac to white box pcs, the price difference is so great that the change becomes inevitable. Only the geek crowd is getting very interested, and that is a bad sign IMHO.
Your support, defense, and promotion of Apple represents the highest level of hipocracy. What were the reasons you gave for being able use an Mac? It ran OS X and FREE and OPEN SOURCE programs on it such as TeX, etc. Apple STOLE this technology and code from the open source community. What have they contributed to the likes of the user interface or installation “niceness” of the GNU/Linux software (something Apple actually does well)? Nothing. Correct. Apple has in effect stolen millions of man hours donated by programmers worldwide who developed the very code that allows your Mac to be useful at all to you. And you unabashedly give glowing support to this “den of thieves.” WOW! And all that for a bunch of “eye candy.” WOW! If Apple gave up something for the user space, code, and profits they are now stealing from the worldwide open source developer world at least you could claim one small bit of redemption for your participation in Apple’s corporate power-profit grab. But, alas, no there is no such redemption to be found. Sure – you “considered… Yellow Dog Linux,” but adultery is so much more fun than sticking with the commitment.
Your support, defense, and promotion of free, open source software, while bashing people for legitimately utilizing it in a commercial product represents the highest level of hipocracy (free as in freedom my ass).
What were the reasons you gave for being able use an Mac? It ran OS X and FREE and OPEN SOURCE programs on it such as TeX, etc.
Sound like some good reasons to me… wasn’t it mentioned how easy it is to use?
Apple STOLE this technology and code from the open source community.
You brainless, dimwitted fool. Apple only did what was allowed by the various open source licenses, and have produced a magnificent OS where most Linux distributers have faild, in many cases with the same software. It’s a shame that you’re too stupid to realize this.
What have they contributed to the likes of the user interface or installation “niceness” of the GNU/Linux software (something Apple actually does well)? Nothing.
InCorrect.
Apple doesn’t work with Linux, and only uses GNU software where there are no better, more free alternatives available (GCC).
Apple has in effect stolen millions of man hours donated by programmers worldwide who developed the very code that allows your Mac to be useful at all to you.
Again, idiot, they took freely available code to produce a fantastic product. Why are you such a retard that you can’t see this? Were you born stupid, or have you just been a fan boy of RMS for far too long?
And you unabashedly give glowing support to this “den of thieves.” WOW! And all that for a bunch of “eye candy.” WOW! If Apple gave up something for the user space, code, and profits they are now stealing from the worldwide open source developer world at least you could claim one small bit of redemption for your participation in Apple’s corporate power-profit grab.
Right. It’s criminal to want to be able to feed, clothe and house your families. Businesses that pay people to do these things are the tools of the Devil himself.
In addition to a total brain transplant, you sir or madam require therapy. Lots, and lots of therapy.
But, alas, no there is no such redemption to be found.
So you admit that Apple has not given back to the open source community. IBM has, as have many other corporations which have used open source products and code for profit. Get your head out of APPLE suck up *** and smell the closed source – closed architecture fumes that got Apple into its downward spiral. Apple is only still around because of the likes of Microsoft and other corporations which have propped up the puffed up – over-hyped company so as to have a “competitor” in the OS / computer world for anti-trust problems (which didn’t work by the way). Apple deserves the low market share it has.