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Posted at 11:42AM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

Oh. And now I see that the rumour sites are promising a complete refreshed iMac line (new enclosures, chipsets and possibly other features) on August 7, so it'd be kind of silly to buy one now.

Sigh ... let's see if SuperDuper can make the bootable backup to one of my Firewire drives that Disk Utility won't.

Posted at 11:50AM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

With Leopard?

Posted at 11:53AM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

Oh, http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#iMac

Posted at 12:03PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

Russell - I'd like to hear more about how you made your computer choice. Is there specific software that you prefer on the Mac? Do you like the Apple design aesthetics?

Posted at 12:09PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

I need an an OS X upgrade badly but I am holding on until Leopard arrives.

My answer to Lex Miller would be "I choose Macs because they work."

Posted at 12:10PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

I'd like to hear more about how you made your computer choice.

I'm guessing style over substance.

**Don runs...

Posted at 12:16PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

The substance of Windows being thousands of viruses.

Posted at 12:20PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

Mac for productivity, PC for solitaire.

Posted at 12:22PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

1 powerbook. 2 years. NO problems. None.

Posted at 12:29PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

You're one of the lucky ones - apparently they can be a bugger to get fixed.

Like any tech outfit, Apple have had their share of dodgy products, along with the market-leading ones. The director of one IT dept I worked for got so pissed off at the runaround he got over one shonky apple lappie that he packed it up in a rubbish bin & couriered it to the boss of the local reseller.

Posted at 12:37PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

Yeah that is true. Fingers crossed eh.

Posted at 12:38PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

Please no mac v pc war.
maybe a survey? "Do you use a Mac or PC ?"
And "If price were no object, would you use a Mac or PC?"

Posted at 12:43PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

And:
"What was it that made you switch?"
"How was your first month or so of using a Mac?"

Posted at 12:46PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

I bought a macbook expecting to run windows in parallels for a lot of things, or vista in bootcamp.

I've not installed bootcamp, and I almost never use parallels. Everythng else just works as I want it to.

It's fun to use a PC again....

Posted at 12:55PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

I predominantly use PCs, but I've used and supported Macs in the past. I have PCs at home, but the kids use Macs at school. I can swing both ways with a mental gear-shift, but the kids barely notice the difference - its just another computer to them. Every computer they use is set up slightly differently, its just a different set of differences on the Macs.
The Mac is becoming just another bit of hardware, with the OS as the main differentiator, and OSes are becoming less relevant with the rise of the interweb and platform agnostic apps like the Google family.
By the time my kids hit the workforce mac vs pc is probably going to be nearly as irrelevant as Sony vs Panasonic for TVs. (for the average user, standard conditions apply, YMMV, results not typical, best results combined with diet and exercise, may contain traces of nuts).

Posted at 1:19PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

Back to the other subject, I share online videos with friends. If I come across a funny kitton clip on YouTube, I will not hesitate to share it with my online amigos.

I'm also one of those people who ranks videos and leaves comments on YouTube.

Funny thing about YouTube comments - no matter what the content of the video is, there will always be at least one comment declaring it to be rubbish ("Sorry, I just don't see what's so great about that stupid kitten.") and/or fake ("It's clearly a lame attempt at viral marketing for Whiskas").

And I've had friends recommend stuff on YouTube and bittorrents that have turned me into massive fans of TV series, and resulting in a DVD purchase or two.

Posted at 1:32PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

Russell - I'd like to hear more about how you made your computer choice. Is there specific software that you prefer on the Mac? Do you like the Apple design aesthetics?

Actually, I was inducted in a bizarre cult ritual whose nature I cannot reveal to non-initiates, unless I kill them afterwards.

But not having to worry about viruses, adware, spyware or DLL conflicts helps.

I do like the industrial design, and the silence.

But mostly, it's the everything just works thing.

Posted at 1:49PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

Thanks Russell.

I'm coming from a Linux background, and considering a Mac for a second computer.

i.e. I haven't needed to worry about viruses, adware, spyware, DLL conflicts and the like. I was also involved in a cult ritual, although my memory of it has been mostly erased. And I'm able to choose a pretty good design for my hardware (currently Dell Latitude X1 - which has no fan - blessed silence, while a little warm).

The "everything just works" bit is probably not what a Linux user wants. In fact I suspect that more Linux users would move to the Mac if it wasn't already so damn finished. It's like presenting a pristine condition vintage car to a restorer hobbyist - It's great, but there's nothing left to do.

For a second computer though, I'm keen. One of those MacBooks might be a good start.

Posted at 2:23PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

I'd use a Mac if it would run Windows.

Actually, can't Intel-based macs boot Windows?

Posted at 2:25PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

Hey Lex, how's Japan?

I had an all-Ubuntu environment at home but bought a Mac mini for my partner. She loves it. Everything does indeed just work. Almost everything just worked with Ubuntu, and I still mostly use that environment myself, but it was too much to ask her to do her own research to resolve obscure issues with video codecs etc. I like having bash and friends on OSX, that's for sure.

There is quite a difference in GUI behaviour which could be annoying at first.

Biggest downside: any applications that were not installed at the outset are probably not free (as in freedom or as in cost). There is a lot of free (libre) software ported to OSX but it's often not very well integrated into the platform, thus losing you the "it just works" user experience that you bought it for in the first place. So if you are used to typing apt-get install superfoo every time you take a fancy to try something new you'll find the Mac rather sadly limited. The garden is beautiful but it is walled.

It is quite liberating in a bizarro sort of way to have a proprietary box in the house. When things go wrong in Linux land somehow it's always my fault, but if there's a problem at the Mac -- well, what would I know? Please contact the manufacturer :)

Posted at 2:26PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

Lex: Out of interest (non-geeks can stop reading now) what does happen if a piece of Linux software installs a shareable library under /usr/local somewhere and another one wants to do the same, but with a different, incompatible version. (which amounts to a DLL conflict)?

Posted at 2:43PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

DLL Hell.

Posted at 2:43PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

Rich - I'm not certain why Linux seems to have less problems in this area. I suspect:
1. The libraries tend to be in their own package - not part of the software you are installing. So you don't have software fighting with other software, each trying to get it's own version of the library installed.
2. Linux libraries tend to be backward compatible. You may have a software installation which triggers an upgrade of a library, but you won't often see an installation which demands you downgrade a library.
3. Most modern Linux distributions take care of the dependencies for you. I'm not sure if Windows provides the same level of governance on what are often 3rd party libraries.

Posted at 2:44PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DLL_hell

Posted at 2:45PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

This Musician Magazine story about the yoof and digital technology was interesting.

Posted at 2:51PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

Almost everything just worked with Ubuntu, and I still mostly use that environment myself, but it was too much to ask her to do her own research to resolve obscure issues with video codecs

The most annoying part of that issue is that it is related to idiotic DRM legislation in the USA the like of which this Government is trying to introduce here.

Posted at 2:52PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

Rich: there are a few options.

1. Some programs are simply compiled without shared libraries, but statically linked. Hey, disk is cheap.

2. More commonly, Linux applications use a sneaky system relying on symbolic links in the filesystem. In essence you have multiple versions of libfoo, with their version numbers as part of their names, and a link in the filesystem from a generic name to the latest one. Programs that need a specific version can ask for it if they need it. So your program can ask for libfoo.so.2, and actually get libfoo.2.15. If your program needs libfoo.2.14, it can install it, and ask for it when it needs it. There is no actual library called libfoo.so.2 on your system, only versioned ones, with a link to the latest one for programs which don't care. (The naming and linking is a bit more complicated than that. I'm glossing over it).

3. In practice, because most programs on Linux come with source, they can always be tweaked and recompiled against new libraries. You probably wouldn't do that, but the people who work on your Linux distribution do. It's not like the Windows world where you get some piece of software and it won't work (or worse the installer clobbers your existing DLLs and other things then don't work) and you have to plead with the author (if you can find them) to re-release a binary version.

Gory details.

Posted at 2:53PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

Hi Stephen - Japan's fine. Good grief - Cell phones are used here for TV viewing (1seg), paying for things (at shops, train tickets, etc), mail, blogs, video phoning, etc. I guess there's more of an environment for cell phone use when you commute on a train instead of in a car (or in Stephen's case, on a bicycle).

Thanks for the Ubuntu/Mac story. Perhaps Ubuntu is the Linux for people on the Mac end of the spectrum.

Posted at 2:58PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

Actually, can't Intel-based macs boot Windows?

Rich - I believe the options are:
Boot Camp - Allows you to boot Windows.
Parallels - Allows you to run Windows applications in the Mac OS X environment.

Posted at 2:59PM on 26 Jul 07. Permalink.

Yeah I saw that crazy outta control shopping using the square bar code thingies on posters at Christmas in Japan before I left.

Picture if you will people on the train - rammed together I might add - scanning barcodes on train advertising and doing Christmas shopping. Kind of did my head in.