Hiya,
I've been using OSX since it was released officially. I skipped the pre-release beta because I wasn't too up on unix at the time. Ever since installing OSX 10.0.0 I've been hooked.
side note: I just bought a card reader (6 format type) for my digi-camera. I pluged in the usb cord, saw the light go green (power) slipped in my smart-card and bingo, OSX was asking me where I wanted to download my photos. Ok, fickle folks while complain about color contrasting and what not. I imported directly to my drive. If I used an application like photoshop I bet that I could've cleaned out most of the browness. (hey, my camera was pretty cheap.) Plug and play.
Apple has had some rumors flying that an OSX X86 might happen. Apple is finally going after M$ big time. They got the tools now. A killer system, some great products, Unix famous developer (Hubbard) and looks like SUN is happy to share beds.
staroffice coming to OSX? [url="http://news.com.com/2100-1001-946714.html"] here is a cnet story [/url]
Apple's own email :::
Quote:
----------------------------------------
COMPANY NEWS
----------------------------------------
[2] Apple Unveils Shake 2.5 for Mac OS X
Apple announced Shake 2.5, the industry-leading compositing and
visual effects software, is available for the first time for Mac OS
X. Shake has been used in the production of over a hundred motion
pictures including the past five winners of the Academy Award for
Best Visual Effects: Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,
Gladiator, The Matrix, What Dreams May Come and Titanic.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/jul/22shake.html
Yep, I'm on the developer's mailing list.
here is the [url="http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=4559"] X86 link [/url]
Think about it ... looks like M$ has put the up-grade deadline to July 31 ... [url="http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0729/news-micro-07-29-02.asp"] story here [/url]
Here's an artcile [url="http://www.insanelygreatmac.com/news.php?id=719"] granted on a mac site, about OSX vs XP updates[/url]
If you're really interested in learning about macs and what kind of news comes through the door check out these sites.
http://www.macsurfer.com/ http://www.macosxhints.com/ Macosxhints.com gets into the down and dirty part of the system. Be amazed by how unix apple is now. they're no longer some stray dog, but rather what Gnome or KDE or even Nautilus was aiming for.
If I were in an office situation, and had several thousands of dollars to reinvest in system update insurance like fees, I'd seriously consider the Mac as an alternative. They only thing that might hurt would be those entourage using offices, but then again I hit by wormz/klez/strange picture things everyday. Thankfully I use the built in email app and just laugh over all the attempts that got stopped. Although, I bet an entorage substitue will be in the works since a built-in calendar thing coming in 10.2 will allow communal usage.
Mac hardware debate was done in another thread where crapshoot and I went off in rants. I agree it's a bit more but ... I still bet long term you're making out.
cheers and hope that this was useful
openoffice + gimp + sketch ...