Re: I really prefer Linux over everything else

["Jarod Wilson" <user=74@nabble.blu.org>]

 On Jan 21, 2008, at 17:58, Charles C. Bennett, Jr. wrote: 

> I'm a total Linux bigot.  For a host of reasons mostly tied to the 
> system config and install tools I've stuck to the Red Hat & Fedora   
> camp. 

/me works for Red Hat, thanks Charles for using the fruits of his   
labor... :) 


> Chrismas came.  We bought the iMac.  Within 48 hours I hated it. 
> 
> 1. focus-follows-mouse.  This is an integral part of how I interact   
> with 
> the computer.  If I had a nickel for the number of times I typed 
> something I should not have typed in the wrong window under Windows or 
> Mac OS I'd be a rich man.  Fire up the GIMP or Dia and try to get on 
> with your work using click-to-focus: yikes! 

Again, people seemingly thinking that you can't do anything to change   
stock behavior in OS X unless Apple provides a knob... 

http://www.atomicbird.com/mondomouse

Will only comment on things I can actually comment on... 

> 1a. Gnome often screws up here by allowing apps to pop new dialogs   
> with 
> focus that I didn't ask for.  Damnit, I was typing my password in   
> *that* 
> *window* *there* that I had selected for focus. 

Yeah, that's a pet peeve of mine as well. 

> 2. launchd.  I needed to throw open a high port for incomming sshd.   
> On 
> linux I edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and restart the daemon.  On OS/X I   
> do 
> the same edit, then edit /etc/services, then hack up a fresh XML file 
> for a second instance of the daemon.  Launchd reinvents sysv-init. 
> Badly. 

Never tried that, I've only got Linux boxes directly hooked to the   
'net. But on those, I simply do local port-forwarding. Not that I have   
a clue off the top of my head if that would be any less gnarly on OS X. 

> 2a. On the Mac, everything just work, except when it doesn't.  When it 
> just works, everything is pretty good.  When it doesn't, welcome to 
> hell. 

They have a single-user mode and a "safe mode" too. And log files. I   
admit to being a bit lost when things go wrong on OS X vs. on Linux,   
but its just different to me, not hell. 

> 4a. EVERYTHING COSTS MONEY!  There are dozens of MIDI/Audio   
> applications 
> in the Linux world that simply mow GarageBand flat in terms of   
> features 
> and workflow that are available for $0.  The nature of the OS/X 
> ecosystem (or something) has made it so that none of the ALSA apps are 
> worth porting to OS/X and anybody that builds cool stuff for the 
> platform expects to get Real Paid. 

I must admit to knowing very little about MIDI/Audio apps, but the one   
I do know (audacity) certainly runs just fine on OS X, and is   
available for $0. 

> 5. Finder+NFS.  For crying out loud, use a secure port. 

Yeah, Apple's NFS support kinda sucks. Still only NFSv3 to date, and   
the secure port issue... My file server at home (running Fedora)   
shares out via both NFS (for the Linux boxes) and samba (for the Macs). 

> 6. Spaces...  I've been using something like 'spaces' for more than a 
> decade.  I want to see little representations of what's in those   
> spaces 
> visible in *this* space. 

Yeah, spaces is a bit lacking in that respect. Its swell that you can   
see what's on all the desktops by hitting a key or mouse button, but I   
do like the little representation in my gnome toolbar. 

> I'm still running on all Coppermine-era gear. 

Hey, I still have one of those... And a dual Katmai box... But mostly   
64-bit stuff now. Die, 32-bit, die! :) 

> My experience with Apple support people 
> has been like a Stepford adventure: like "do you folks know how to 
> blink?". 

I don't think I've called Apple support in at least 10 years. 

> Now for the other elephant in the room. 
> 
> If X11 sucks so bad, why not step up and do X12?  Given the number of 
> available hands we'd have a working core in 6 months and a port of the 
> entire bundle of toolkit stacks in 18. 


Assuming that was targeted at me, well, I'm not an X guy, I'm a kernel   
guy. And all *I* really want right now on the X front to be more or   
less completely happy with my ThinkPad is the ability to hot-plug an   
external monitor and have it auto-configured, and that's already being   
worked on. I've actually seen it done with some experimental X code in   
our office, and I believe it should show up in rawhide soonish, slated   
for Fedora 9 inclusion (as well as upstream Xorg 7.3). Me, I'm busy   
hacking on the firewire kernel drivers these days. 


-- 
Jarod Wilson 
[hidden email] 



-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and 
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is 
believed to be clean. 

_______________________________________________ 
Discuss mailing list 
[hidden email] 
http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss