OS X Wants You To Take It Easy
from the slow-down,-and-enjoy-the-surf dept
Well, this article won't do much to help my reputation concerning Apple, but since it's a factual piece and not an opinion one, I don't see how the Apple folks can complain. Anyway, it's been pointed out (and confirmed) that the way Mac OS X currently is, it makes web surfing a slower experience than on a comparably equipped PC. It's apparently annoying some new Mac owners. This was apparently a conscious decision by Apple to upgrade the user interface first, and the performance later.
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true true.
1. Microsoft is evil. From screwing inter-city public schools on license violations on donated computers to forcing hardware manufacturers to load windows and only windows on new machines (evan after being punished for this) to using the desktop monopoly to crush competitors (Netscape, Lotus, Novell, etc) I fail to understand why informed people (i.e. Mike Masnick) don't have serious issues with supporting microsoft by buying their products. Apple is not without similar failings (revoking OS licensing, their hyper-aggressive trademark lawyers etc.) but the difference in scale is like the difference between squishing rolly-polys and dumping agent orange on a rainforest.
2. If you don't want to use Microsoft, Apple is the only alternative that lets you get stuff done. I'd love to switch to linux full time for the joy of building my own hardware from scratch and the ability to do the very rare software hack. Unfortunately, Linux is even further behind the curve for the average desktop user than Apple.
For example: If you plug a USB device into an Apple box, it works or it doesn't. If it doesn't work and you can't find drivers for it in 10 minutes of internet searching, you take it back and get a different brand. I think hardware incompatabilities are more common for Wintel users than for Mac users because of the unity of the mac platform. (i.e. a colleague installed a USB 2.0 PCI card in his top-of-the-line Athlon yesterday. Plugging in any USB 2.0 device forced an instant-reboot. Nice.)
Back to the real point:
If you plug a USB device into a Linux box and it doesn't work, you don't waste only 10 minutes and then send it back. Rather, you start thinking about hacking the drivers written for similar linux devices. Two weeks later, your scanner scans 256 grays and you can't figure out why it won't scan full color like it will if you just used the manufacturer's drivers in a wintel box.
So I tinker with Linux, marvel at how fast KDE is maturing and how quickly Konqueror renders, and do work on my mac.
The speed difference, though, is becoming absurd. With Intel pushing cheaper 2.4GHz processors running on 400MHz busses and apple stuck at expensive 1GHz on a 133 bus and a transitional (slow) OS, I'm waiting for Apple to pull a rabbit out of the hat as they always seem to do when backed against a wall.
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overhype!
In any case, I think Apple's choice was geared for its audience. This article is just MS's PR engine at work.
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No Subject Given
I do wish the web browsers on OS X were faster though. But it's really not that annoying.
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factual?
Overall though I'd say this is a trend.
However, Apple saying they've decided to focus on performance later, wel that "fact" remains to be proven. Sure, 10.0->10.1 was much faster, and we all hope 10.1->10.2 will show similar speed increases, but nobody really knows.
Heck, maybe when the G5 finally rears it's ulgy head it will slaughter AMD and Pentium chips too.
msykes
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Re: False False
Second, if you are willing to buy only a small specific set of hardware devices, Linux will be just as simple as a Mac. However, a Mac doesn't give you the option of working around with it and getting it working after a while.
As has been stated before: "Unix doesn't stop you from doing stupid things because it would also stop you from doing clever things."
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'the only alternitive'
Funny. I'm using the software (FreeBSD) that Apple has used as part of the Mac OS X Base. And I'm able to get stuff done.
Given the 190+ different Linux forks there are, its no wonder you are confused about getting stuff to work. You might find FreeBSD to be less of a problem than some linux fork of the week.
(FreeBSD announced USB support one week before Apple shipped its 1st mac's with USB support, BTW)
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The difference is like minutes
Okay, as an Apple user I took a keen interest i this story. How much slower, is it a significant time? The times differences I have seen quoted by people who have run tests seem to show that Windows boxes to be slightly faster, but not enough of a difference that I would consider switching.
Besides. there are factors other than raw speed that keep me in the Apple camp.
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No-win situation
Then again, I can't stand Windows either. Blue screens dance around in my head. My registry is messier than my room, and well, it's Microsoft. The only reason why I use Windows is because I know it better than other OSs. I figure when I graduate and have more time to learn (or less? will a work schedule be more hectic than 18 credits + other stuff...), I'll switch over to a Unix-based system.
So far it's a no-win situation as far as I'm concerned.
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Mac OS X is a unix based solution
Mozilla on my Dual 1 GigHz Intel processors:
Starts off eating 8 Meg of DRAM. By the time I crash the browser, it will eat 201 Meg.
If browsers on Mac OS X do this, and these Macs have 'no memory', of course its gonna suck.
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