ugh ... gonna take me an hour to write my reply
@tech side
First let's clear this up once and for all. OSX is BSD based Darwin. Only real *nix heads can really comment on the finer points of UNIX vs BSD vs Linux vs OSX. From the bits and pieces I understand, FreeBSD still seems to in the lead. Hubbard who was with the BSD(open, free, net) is now at Apple. So, we need to get somebody that really knows what's going on to sort this out for us.
OSX is Darwin which is basically freeBSD so they didn't rip off Linus or Linux but rather BSD. Darwin is a modified/restricted open source project. And Yes, OSX gets better because of this but at the same time limited by which functions they will include in their distro. IE: wget has been dumped and curl is included in the standard distro but we can still install wget on our own. 1 hassle that many of have faced was with a poor GCC distro. Yet, this has been getting better with every update.
Darwin itself has been ported (or is in the final stages of being ported) to regular PC hardware. Of course, the gui is not included but quicktime streaming server is included.
If anything that is up to debate is the Mach based kernel which still has lot's of legacy code from NEXT included. So folks are complaining that it's not as fast as the Linux based ones. lol ... who am I know different or even dare to comment on this.
Being Stable is a good question. Which *nix distro is the stablest?
Personally, the time I frigged up my computer was when I ditto'd a fully functional system to a another larger drive. Hey, even then I was extremely surprised. Almost all permissions went over properly. "." directories were ok. MySQL database carried over.
@gui side
As for X11 I thought that it was the main gui engine for the other *nixs outside of OSX. Gnome and KDE are just a theme engine like enlightenment ice and the others but much more developed. OSX vs X11 would be a little diffcult because X11 is now probably legacy coded while OSX has been able to start basically from scratch and uses PDF technology to produce it's outstanding graphics. Colors and design is not what I referring to here. But rather the ability to produce GUI based graphics, like icons that never pixelize due to re-sizing.
Apple still uses what they call the finder which I think controls the main themeing of the system (lol .. never did bother to study up on this) but a few folks have started their own projects to replace this finder with their own version.
Apple is very protective of their gui, I never did find any real reason for this.
@control panel like abilities
I mentioned webmin since it's an easy package to identify with. Caldera bought the rights or sponsors the developer. Gee, why would they do that? Anyway, back to topic. A user here "maxpico" would probably be able to explain this better since he uses the OSX server distro while I just use regular OSX.
Let see now. I was thinking of the ability to start and stop of services like apache, ftp with out going to the command line. An called Netinfo Manger is included that let's you control domains, vhosts, user and stuff that's way out of my league. Ping, finger, whois and such are all in one quick and easy app. I haven't tried OSX server but reports have been that maintaining a server is really easy and quick. I wasn't referring to over speed of the server but more to servicing and maintaining it.
@windows
ughh, I thought I had made a mistake. Thanks for the correction.
But still, NT doesn't compare to *nix
I agree that M$ has gotten better at designing products. Their recent release of Office for once made me remeber what they were able to do back in the late 80's. Ahh Mac users bitch about Billy swipping ideas but in reality who doesn't ?
@school
you mentioned:
Quote:
Now all we have to do is teach our youngins to learn UNIX and linux from a young age...instead of a windows interface...you know what I learned in school using windows...HOW TO POINT AND CLICK...it has come to good use...but I mean you can practice to a point...
I had replied:
Quote:
Teaching youngins to use unix. .... Apple just opened the market for that ... offering iBooks and what not to the schools. How many now? A few million machines. Not even Dell teaches *nix to school children.
So why now?
Quote:
Dude just because they donate computers Dell and Apple do not create the computer curriculum as we know it...I know that our school
I used Dell because they are the PC counter part to Apple in many ways and also has been aiming strongly for the educational based sales. OSX is Darwin is BSD so ... Apple is helping students learn *nix in a round about way.
gottcha.
@harware
lol ... how true. Not many people really need better parts except for those that do rendering and movie production probably. So, let's just agree and say we buy parts because we just "want" them
True, overall speed is affected by the slowest part which can even include your harddrive. (adding info only)
imacs and the cube don't use fans. The cube had vents on top, so you've already out of business for that idea.
Regarding memory, I mentioned that macs require better "made" memory. (long post confusion at work I guess
) Meaning that any cheap five and dime stick shouldn't be used; even in your PC. Memory failures and misses and what not I guess.
Ok, sure you won't see many mac users buying and changing their cases. But you mentioned that you can't do box upgrades for an imac. LOL ... can you upgrade an e-machine or the Mattel barbie and matchbox machines? These machines have a monitor built in the box.
If you don't like the iLamp well who am I to complain. I haven't had a chance to whack the monitor around on the iLamp to test for base stability and arm wear so I'm holding off on passing judgement on the "iLamp"
@CPU
I was referring to CPU as "C.P.U" dang what was it "Control Processing Unit" or is it "Computer Processing Unit" lol ... who cares.
So to make it easy for you
CPU = chip for your computer.
OK, Apple is taking a beating on CPU speeds and what not. I really wonder if Apple shouldn't just rethink it's alliance with Motorola and IBM. Possibly add in AMD or Transmeta.
But, like you said above, this speed is just a "want" not a "need" feature. I'll try to explain a bit more about this at the bottom.
@???????? -- lol what are you trying to say?
Quote:
An AMD processor inside a server would outperform the OSX server dude...and who is willing to pay the money when you have tha kind of option...in MY opinion Mac should stick to graphics . Its just that AMD does sooooo many processes per clock cycle...its insane..double that of the P4 processor...and i think that it was 1.3x or something like that more than the Mac CPU.
Please check out
Apple's 1U xserver for more details. Now, I wonder if an AMD chip is that necessary? Also, don't forget that xserver uses
Mac OS X Server which is the server package of OSX.
Expensive ???? the xserver comes in at around US$3,000 for the bottom of the line model. What would a similarly equipped PC machine cost?
hehe ... I'd love to buy one of these babies for my next home use machine.
You go from AMD does sooo many processes to a P4 chip to a Mac CPU. ??? lol I got lost. Anyway, G4 chips are basically by Motorola and the G3 line by IBM. All 3 companies work together building chips in one form or another, at times like recently pursuing slightly different paths.
Why is "Mac should stick to graphics" fit in here? ???? (long-thread-osis) ?
@graphics
I'm glad that you think that Macs are great for graphics!
Name one *nix distro that influenced Adobe to port their products. Or any major piece of software.
I wonder if Apple is gunning to destroy SGI or just to bring total editing ability to your desktop? Or to keep on top of SONY and their efforts?
cnet.com article about Apple's latest purchase.
@linux box
I've been thinking about either getting a used G4 powerbook or a new Dell laptop. Of course, XP, isn't even an option since I want to be able to do web work at my desk while at work.
My ideal machine would be fast, easy to use, and powerful and of course reasonably priced.
I'm not against PC machines or even PC based systems. I just have preferences.
I was thinking a Dell notebook and use a Linux distro with openoffice, gimp, sketch thereby having all I need but ... having used OSX for a while has been addicting and getting used to a new enviornment is a bit troublesome. ughhhh ... the "want" factor at work.
Best solution probably would be an old PC notebook with Linux / Darwin / freeBSD.
So, here I spend all my time fitting for an Apple based system but when it comes down to it "need" and "want" should be thouroughly evaluated before making any decision.
Cheers!!!
openoffice + gimp + sketch ... 
