Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS
Tim Bray back on Mac
Remember all that hubbub about Mac geeks switching to Ubuntu? Well, Tim Bray (one of those geeks) is back on the Mac and he thinks that it beats Ubuntu, though just barely. He lists a number of interesting reasons for why one would choose OS X or some other Linux distro, all of which seem very reasonable. He has decided to keep his data in non-proprietary formats, which means that any OS can open up his stuff which, in turn, means that he can choose whatever OS he wants. We could all learn a little something from Tim's attitude towards computers.
[via Daring Fireball]
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
AlMeister said 4:24PM on 8-17-2006
Any person who switches OS's because it is only *slightly* better is a person who is only interested in mucking about with the latest and greatest. The type of person who likes to hack around installing stuff, configuring stuff, tweaking stuff just for the fun of it. They're not so much interested in actually getting any stuff *done*. You'd waste a heck of a lot of time switching back and forth like that. I personally don't give a whole lot of credence to any arguments from a person like that, no matter what OS of the day they're pushing.
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dave said 4:29PM on 8-17-2006
Bray didn't switch, his PowerBook bust and he used Ubuntu while it was in the shop. His original announcement post was titled "Involuntary Ubuntu":
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2006/07/31/Ubuntu
Other people did switch for various reasons, and they've not switched back. So the fact that someone who was forced, at short notice, to use Ubuntu rather than the Mac thinks Ubuntu nearly does the same job (except for free, and on a wider range of hardware) is not a good thing, for Mac lovers.
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adm said 5:44PM on 8-17-2006
Does the Mac platform really need a sometime-advocate who says stuff like this:
"Every week iCal gets slower and every week I hate it more. When I was on Ubuntu, I maintained my schedule by typing it into a plain-text document in Emacs, and that was so much less painful."
SO USE EMACS ON YOUR MAC, GUY. OR ANY TEXT EDITOR. This guy can't see the forest for the trees.
I totally agree that Linux vs. Mac is a debate worth having, but Tim's view on iCal is all noise and no signal.
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Silver said 5:47PM on 8-17-2006
"Bray didn't switch, his PowerBook bust and he used Ubuntu while it was in the shop."
So why were the Apple haters all over the nets trumpeting the fact that "prominent Mac-heads" were abandoning the platform like rats from a sinking ship?
Oh yeah, because Apple haters are prone to irrational exaggeration like that...
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Guillaume said 5:53PM on 8-17-2006
I believe that one OS X great strength will just disappear when KDE 4 is released. The KDE team will release this year the whole new version of KDE, which is done with pro graphists & designers. Their website describes nice features coming with Oxygen, Plasma, etc. If you have ever seen XGL or Looking Glass working on a computer, then you become suddenly less mac fanatic.
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ultim8Fury said 6:27PM on 8-17-2006
@Guillaume
KDE is far more reminiscent of Windows UI than that of a Mac and to be totally honest with you, if you choose your OS based on pretty graphical effects then you perhaps need to re-evaluate what you use a computer for. ( if anything )
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Ryan said 6:33PM on 8-17-2006
"We could all learn a little something from Tim's attitude towards computers."
That's alright, I think I'll stick with consistency over child-like indecisiveness every time I run into one feature in my current OS that bothers me.
If I were like Tim, I'd have tried just about every OS (both better-known and completely esoteric) by now, and found something in every one of them that bothers me. Why? Because none of them are perfect, but Tim's finally realized that OS X is about as close as it gets these days.
My guess: work on the Tim Bray OS-for-people-who-complain-too-much will start soon. And it'll look a hellofalot like OS X.
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starwxrwx said 9:40PM on 8-17-2006
I agree with #6 - KDE is just a sad windows clone. The best linux/unix window managers use their own paradigms, not copy the hideous start bar. Give me dockable areas, middle click menus and other random different ways of working. I switched from linux a long time ago, so I can't say for sure, but it seems all the innovative ideas have been superceeded by copying. Sad.
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