[Cialug] distro for ibook

Tue Dec 8 19:01:50 CST 2009

OK, I've been wading through the thread (you guys get talkative during  
snow storms). I'll address the "why no defense of Apple?" question  
since it's repeated in this (or attempted to be answered). Several  
folks have popped in (myself included) with various bits, but I don't  
think anyone's going to go gonzo about it even if they are pretty  
heavily into macs (and maybe more so if they are) because many of us  
are tired of the process:

1. get baited by inflammatory remark about Apple
2. respond
3. get branded a fanboi, and have to listen to a bunch more of the  
same crap more personally directed.

It's pretty much the formula these things go by. I've been happy to  
see this one hasn't sunk to these levels yet, but I've been seeing a  
lot of tired, old, mostly outdated and overall wrong stuff cropping up  
here:

Evil Apple, bent on destruction of all who stand in their path  
(especially noble soldiers of openness).

This is pretty much a step away from a "Godwin" argument. Apple is a  
corporation. As such, it does look to make a profit, and protect it's  
interests <gasp> it sues those who violate it's trademark - because  
they have to (US law has defend it or lose it clauses for TM) and they  
do go after whoever else they see a real threat from (Psystar).  
Google, IBM, Novell and Redhat all share most of these traits - when  
you're public, you have to have nazgul on the payroll.

If they were so terrible about F/OSS, why have they contributed  
directly to (or started) many high profile F/OSS projects, off the top  
of my head:

Zeroconf (bonjour)
Webkit (wouldn't have those lovely Androids to drool over w/o it, or  
Chrome)
Darwin itself (Kernel, etc)
Darwin Streaming Server
OpenDirectory
OpenPlay

They have also been far better about simply adopting standards instead  
of "extending" them in encumbered ways, and employ many high profile  
personalities in some of the major projects that keep the *BSDs and  
Linux distros going. Do they have proprietary stuff they keep to  
themselves? Yup. You going to tell me that isn't their right?

On price points:

I think it's been nailed pretty well by others. Apple doesn't play the  
high-volume, low margin game. The low end of the line is really priced  
badly (and lets face it the price points have been pretty in-elastic  
there for some time). On the mid and high end the price is pretty  
decent value compared to truly comparable machines.

On "Closed" architecture:

Well, that must be why folks are trying to gin-up their own clone  
operations and others are happily shoe-horning OSX onto netbooks. (and  
why it's so easy to install Linux and Windows on one). Macs are pretty  
much regular PC hardware for the last 3 years or so. I'm almost  
surprised no one came up with the old "1 button mouse" chestnut. (also  
false for about 5 years, as far as Apple supplied and actually always  
false for 3rd party).

DRM:

Well, iTMS hasn't sold a DRM encumbered audio track in months iirc.  
There was also a fairly impassioned open letter from S.J. to the  
labels stating why DRM was a losing battle and should be abandoned.  
Simply put Apple added DRM to keep the labels happy (and it's still on  
the movies because the studios want it there). While it's true that  
the presence of that DRM kept outside hardware vendors out of the iTMS  
market for some time, that was a happy (from Apple's point of view)  
side effect of what the labels themselves insisted on. They ended up  
hoist by their own petard, since it ended up putting Apple in the  
Catbird seat for some time.

Also, the iPod family has NEVER required that a track have DRM or been  
AAC, the majority of my (and most people's) iPod libraries is likely  
to be ripped MP3s.

Josh makes a good point in the post that came in while I was typing  
this up:

I've done all the hardware/software "roll up you sleeves" stuff I  
really care for for some time. Been there, done that, bought the tee  
shirt - been using Linux since before OSX came out - back then Linux  
did let me do things I can't in OSX, these days not so much. I'd  
rather use my creative energies elsewhere (on my music these days) and  
my time on my family.

I still deal w/ Windows, Linux and OSX daily, but I spend most of my  
time where I work best (OSX).

Yeah, maybe I'm a fanboi, but a pretty decently informed one:

Started using DOS PCs in 1984 (for Wordstar), Macs in 1987, Windows in  
1990, OS9000 in 1994, Linux in 1996.

Enough. I've taken enough time and creativity on this. Let the ad- 
hominem begin.

On Dec 8, 2009, at 5:25 PM, Matt Stanton wrote:
> Oh, instead of replying to my recent post, I'll just tack this on and
> hope that everyone can follow.  Another reason why you aren't going to
> get much response for Apple is also probably because a large  
> percentage
> of the people on this list deal with PC technology and linux on such a
> frequent basis that they have absolutely no trouble setting up a  
> server
> or PC from scratch without experiencing any trouble whatsoever.  Im  
> not
> anywhere near that point, yet, but I'd imagine that some day I will
> catch up with the learning curve and be able to do so myself.  There  
> is
> a certain amount of pride involved with knowing that you've dealt with
> every problem that a computer can throw at you and you've come out on
> top and with the knowledge you need to avoid those problems in the
> future.  You can't always expect life to give you an Apple, so I  
> figure
> it's good to know how to deal with the lemons if I ever need to.
> _______________________________________________
> Cialug mailing list
> Cialug at cialug.org
> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug

--
Bryan "ka-klick" Baker
Singer/Songwriter
With a New CD for 2009!!!
Mr. Lincoln - Available NOW at:
http://cdbaby.com/bryanbaker3
http://tinyurl.com/mrlincolnatitunes
http://tinyurl.com/mrlincolnatamazon
ka-klick at ka-klick.com
http://ka-klick.com