Comments on: Use OS X you Git!

By: Braydon Fuller

Braydon Fuller — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:16:43 +0000

What I’ve recently found to be very annoying w/ my computer:
1. Troubles w/ making internet connections, sometimes I need to restart a few times to get a connection to “stick”. I’ve tried restarting networking /etc/init.d/networking restart, and have tried rerunning dhclient, however nothing seems to do the trick. Perhaps I should just not try and switch networks, and environments so often to solve my problem.
2. Booting takes too long, which is especially annoying when needing to restart when trying to get an internet connection. Again physically moving not encouraged, just leave it on, and don’t turn it off.
3. There is a lack of a common interface language used across all applications I use, and because there is a common hardware interface, it’s easy to make the mistake of thinking that there _should_ be a common software interface.

My computer does not like to move, change networks, or have a common interface for all it’s applications! It’s unlike me, that’s the problem.

By: Eric LEBIGOT

Eric LEBIGOT — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:35:41 +0000

I’m sorry, but there are serious errors about OS X in the original post.

No package manager? How about Fink (& Fink Commander, based on debian packaging tools) and Darwin Ports?

I don’t have any other comment, as I stopped reading the main article after realizing many things in it might be incorrect. Please check your facts better!

By: Mackenzie

Mackenzie — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 18:15:11 +0000

One of my friends uses OSX+TextMate for his RoR and Nu coding. We had yet another vi v. emacs argument in our last ACM meeting, and he said something which is totally true. If the thought of switching editors doesn’t make you uncomfortable, you’re not using yours right. I hit when typing in text boxes in Firefox. If I use any computer other than my own, I go nuts because is all the way at the top of the keyboard instead of replacing Caps Lock like it is on mine. I like my .Xmodmap and .vimrc and anything else just slows me down.

Armin: don’t feel bad about the difficulty installing applications on OSX. I double clicked the DMG and saw the Firefox logo and double clicked that and it ran, so I figured it was installed (what other logical conclusion would there be?) and deleted the DMG. Um, oops. I had to ask around before I learned that it’s apparently “intuitive” to drag the program to the /Applications directory. It’s also apparently “intuitive” to throw your walkman in the trash when you want to eject the CD.

@AnitaOnRails:
I don’t *have* to tweak everything every which way to use Ubuntu. I *want* to tweak everything every which way. I want control. OSX tries to take away my control. If I ever own an Apple product, I will have splurged on a by-then antique Apple ][ and a pile of 5.25″ floppy disks full of Oregon Trail and LOGO goodness. If I never use that blasted Photoshop again in my life, I will be happy. It has a more complex GUI than anything KDE could dream up! And we can indeed apt-get install openoffice.org, thanks. Yes, OpenOffice. OpenOffice’s word processor is much better than Microsoft’s, which doesn’t even support frames for doing proper layout. That’s one reason why after my boss paid too much money for MS Office for Mac, I installed NeoOffice. Regarding window managers, we have choice. KDE lets you do that infernal universal menu bar thing that drives me bonkers when using a Mac. GNOME keeps the menus in the applications to which they belong—where they belong. Aqua does not give you choice. This is a bad thing. I want to be able to shade my windows. I want to be able to do “set above.” I want to use focus follow mouse. Aqua is *extremely* lacking in any useful features.

@Florian:
Thinkpads have a *very* nice design. If you don’t like hard edges and want something rounder, though, check out ZaReason’s UltraLapSR. I want that laptop.

By: Igor

Igor — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:30:37 +0000

I have been sitting in #git IRC channel for a while, since its my favorite SCM for years now and I see many stupid questions in the last couple days, all coming from Rails users, so that’s sad, RoR people use the best tool, but that “tool”(osx) makes them really stupid users.

By: Florian

Florian — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 14:32:57 +0000

aptitude install reason and shut up

By: Chris G.

Chris G. — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:54:08 +0000

“installing applications via drag/drop is just crazy. The first thing I did when I got my Mac was dragging the Firefox out of the DMG into the Dock. Then I noticed that I want to have it in the applications too and draged it there. What happened? I deleted it.”

This is comical! You deleted an alias to firefox on the DMG!! The Dock is not a directory to store files in!! It merely references items on your HD for easy access!! Real hard concept, I know.

“The same way I managed to delete a file when moving from my harddrive to a network share. I lost the wireless connection and the file was lost. That’s ridiculous and must never ever happen on an operating system.”

??? Not sure how you lost a file during a COPY to a network share??? Sounds like you might be over your head :)

Application management on OS X is stupid anyways. To fully remove an application from your computer you better buy a shareware that is better as that. Seems like most functionallity you want to have on a computer comes as third party application on OS X.”

I think you should be frustrated with yourself not wanting to do things different than what you are used to.

By: cp

cp — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:47:48 +0000

no cut/paste of files in the finder? try selecting a file/folder and then look at the edit menu. or just command-c, go somewhere else in the file system, and command-v. just sayin’.

By: Aitortxu

Aitortxu — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:55:22 +0000

“And why in god’s name is there no cut/paste of files in the finder? I don’t want to start ranting about the finder as I think it’s OS X weakest point anyways but that’s a stupid limitation.”

There’s no need to cut and paste, there’s “Spring Loaded Folders” functionality besides drag and drop. Much older than Gnome, by the way.

In my country we use to say “Ignorance is bolder than science”, but I digress.

You can start ranting about this feature under this line:

———————–

By: K. Aning

K. Aning — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 10:02:53 +0000

I am very impressed with the detail on this post. For a very long time a friend (mac user) and I have always argued about which the better OS was. I use Ubuntu Hardy beta and even in beta I think it’s better than the tiger can ever be. But of course he doesn’t agree i’ll have to send him the link to this post.
Nice one!!!

By: Oliver Lorton

Oliver Lorton — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 07:54:41 +0000

@AkitaOnRails - I sat down last night and attempted to write the same reply that you’ve just done. Thanks for doing it instead, cause I really couldn’t be arsed. One quote I particularly like:
“Again, you like vi or emacs? No problem, they are easily available in the Mac as well. As well as a plethora of other open source projects. I run Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL and many other tools everyday in my Mac without a problem. The good thing is that I can leverage the power of the open source community and still use a very confortable environment, one that I don’t have to tweak every inch of the way.”
But would go on to add…
Not only do I have the choice to use any number of open source apps on my mac, but I actually have to freedom to install proprietary software too!