Return of the Mac (2005)(paulgraham.com) |
Return of the Mac (2005)(paulgraham.com) |
I'm interested to know what the proportions of OSes are today.
Total responses: 1539 Linux: 564 (36.65%) Mac: 557 (36.19%) Windows: 365 (23.72%) Other: 53 (3.44%)
I just spent the weekend at a hack day (http://leedshack.com) in the UK, with over 100 hackers. I barely saw any windows machines, almost everyone had a Mac.
One could speculate about the reasons, but I do know that seeing hackers I respect with pretty shiny Apple laptops is what triggered me to buy my first Mac back in 2002.
I've had essentially zero issues with Windows. I do 99% of my development in Linux (access my devbox through VNC). For desktop use, I have absolutely no problems. I work very fast zooming around with keyboard shortcuts. I don't get viruses or bloatware. Everything is calm and familiar.
Every time I get my hands on a Mac, even to simply Google something, I immediately hit issues. Paste is crazy squiggly hash v (or maybe apple v?), I can't right click, I can't win+d to the desktop. I'm sure all of these things are possible, but I'm fumbling around like my grandpa when I taught him to email.
At this point, I'm pretty sure it can't all be brand hype (my thoughts a few years ago). I'd really like to know what the incentive is for throwing away years of muscle memory, familiarity, and tweaking ability.
So, go ahead, someone sell me on Macs.
You seem to hit issues because you want to hit them.
> Paste is crazy squiggly hash v (or maybe apple v?)
The key is called "command". Does "Command V" not make more sense than "Control V"? And free up the Control key for more interesting stuff?
> I can't right click
You can, unless it's a 4+ years old machine it's just a preference (if you're using a trackpad). Any 2+ buttons mouse will natively "right click". Even on older machine, Ctrl+click will open a contextual menu.
> I can't win+d to the desktop
"Show Desktop" is natively bound to Command-F3 on modern macs, on older ones it was on F11. It may also be bound to an active corner.
> So, go ahead, someone sell me on Macs.
Don't know if that will sell you. For me it was a combination of several things:
* Unix environment with an actually useable terminal. By default. Even in 10.3/10.4 (and Terminal has come a long way since then). cmd.exe never "felt" right, I never found a windows shell worth using (even Putty is a pain), and if you're going to remote log into a nix machine anyway why not use one in the first place?
Spotlight works much, much better than Windows Search, and dedicated launcher applications (QS, Alfred, QSB, Butler, etc...) take that a step further
* 99% of the time, managing applications is Simply Easier. No fudging around with installer or painfully browsing to your Program Files folder (and wondering if the soft is 32 or 64b and in which program files you should put it and if you should create a shortcut so the bloody windows search can find it and...). Instead, open your archive (zip or dmg), drop the .app bundle in the Applications directory (via the dock or your finder sidebar) and launch it whenever. You can even launch it right there, nothing to do, no time wasted.
* A thriving indie community with loads of good software at fair price. I did buy licenses one Windows, but not many, and I did not find much which made me go "damn I have to give these guys some dough back for their work", even after I stopped being a poor student.
* Package managers. Whichever your pick is between Macports, Fink and Homebrew having one is invaluable.
* The machine is generally useable as is. Even if you don't download anything it can be used, you have a good PDF & image viewer (Preview is fairly amazing), lots of serviceable software, and it does not "feel" as clunky as windows long did.
Only negative I've found is that Finder is not as good as the Windows Explorer. Though with Windows 7, they've become significantly closer in that search has become shit in 7's explorer.
Essentially, OSX is a full unix with a bearable interface, softed by people who care.
Now if you don't do any dev on your box, it might lose some of its appeal.
I'll say, cmd.exe is complete shit and almost enough. The OSX terminal has essentially been the only thing I've seen in the past that makes me want to switch and maybe one day that will do it.
Also, I guess the compatibility mode and admin mode constant switching around is a bit of a PITA. So, that's probably a good reason as well.
Maybe it will come down to apps though. So far, I'm quite happy with Win desktop apps, but I guess I can get most in OSX anyway.
Thanks for your comments.
OS X is fine. There are the initial annoyances which I was expecting, like the different hotkeys. Fine, I got over most of those pretty quickly. But there are things that still annoy me. For instance, there seems to be only one hotkey that opens the application menu. On Windows I am used to pressing the alt-key and then the given underlined letter of the menu that I want to open. I have a lot of "secondary" hotkeys memorized this way. In Photoshop for instance, "alt+i, p" is "crop" -- there is no (default) hotkey for crop and now I have to use the mouse.
Not using Lion yet so I couldn't say if the fullscreen mode is going to cure my longing for maximize but the point of that green plus-thing on every window is completely beyond me. The reason I maximize windows is because I want to focus on a single thing, not because I want to see a bit more of content.
I prefer Explorer to Finder. I'm sure this will get better but again it feels like Finder was made for the mouse more than the keyboard, compared to Explorer (mac-gurus, how can I see and copy the path that I am currently browsing?). I also prefer the behavior of alt-tab in Windows of switching between windows rather than apps. The fact that two documents happen to be opened by the same executable seems arbitrary to me and it annoys me that I have to first switch to the app I want and then to the window I want.
There is, I think, a noticeable difference in the way processes and threads are prioritized. I am sure OSX is better at this but it mostly just feels different to me. Processes seem less able to take down the entire system but on the other hand, music playing apps will sometimes lag which seems to never happen on Windows.
All that said, I am still happy. I love the hardware. The air has enough performance for me (even running two simultaneous win7 vm's with visual studio) and I get happy every time I double check my bag to make sure I remembered my laptop because it's so light. And there are definitely upsides to OSX such as Spotlight which feels like your own personal google (with everything including calculator and dictionary) whereas on Windows it feels like all search gets me is the indexer eating up all my cpu.
Step One: Come up with some lame excuse for why you probably need a Mac. You know, Testing. Gotta make sure it looks right on Safari and all that. Maybe we'll be doing an iOS version at some point.
Step Two: Convince yourself that you'll install Windows 7 on it to see if you can maybe use it as your dev box. It'll just be a windows machine on cooler hardware.
Step Three: Go to Apple.com and configure the most pimped-out Macbook Air they'll let you specify. Hey, it's only Two Grand. That's less than your last laptop cost. And look at it! It's half an inch thick.
Step Four: Actually buy it. Get it home, take it out of the box, pick it up (between your thumb and forefinger it's so freaking light), and play with it.
(optional by this point) Step Five: Install Windows 7 and Parallels. It really does work as well as they say. It'll be the fastest windows box you've ever run. Oh, and if you're doing VS.NET web dev, specify a big partition because it won't let you run in debug mode if your project files are sitting on the main partition.
... And that's it. Now you have a Mac. It's actually a pretty cool little machine.
I am amused by the number of people who actually run Windows in // or vmware or vbox on their Mac cause they need apps that don't exist on Macs, or just have crappy support. Likewise for Linux apps which they run on OSX that way because the so great OSX underlaying unix makes it too complicated to port a couple of CLI apps (not even mentioning the GUI apps - UI toolkits for OSX all look horrible)
Running OSX is actually just to be part of the hype.
The only problem is buying any other notebooks that are good. It is very difficult to find notebooks with acceptable design and specs.
I have to say I am not a Mac power user. I am too lazy to learn gestures (and hence don't want to update to Lion, either). I never use the F3 to show the desktop because I keep forgetting the key (Linux and Windows have clickable icons in the taskbar, much better for me).
I heavily use the gestures, but I still find these rather handy
My setup is; Top Left: Show Desktop Top Right: Expose (on Lion, Mission Control) Bottom Left: Blank Screen (without sleeping) Bottom Right: Screensaver
The Mac is honestly more pleasurable to use. Copy/Paste are Apple-C, Apple-V, and the other keyboard shortcuts are honestly more sensible than on windows. Not perfect -- there is no such thing as a perfect mapping, but very good. You can tell that someone on the UI side (or rather, many someones) actually cares about the little things that make the system easy to use.
With all that said, why not use a linux box? On major platforms (e.g. lenovo), they're reasonably well behaved on laptops, and really, it's more than good enough (in my book, windows is playing catch-up with ubuntu in usability now) for daily use.
(for the record: Ubuntu desktop at work, Mac work & home laptops, solaris desktop at home (long story))
So, go ahead, someone sell me on Macs.
I immediately hit issues. Paste is crazy squiggly hash v (or maybe apple v?),
I can't right click, I can't win+d to the desktop.
It's hard to understand where all this aggression around operating systems comes from. We're all extremely lucky because we get to choose freely from a great set of systems. You can pick any one of them that relates to you the most and then you can go out and be productive with it. Why is there any need to evangelize, criticize, sell, pressure, or judge other people based on their platform choice?
I simply don't get why people feel it's necessary to make statements like "XYZ sucks so much, I don't understand how to do the simplest things with it, can someone please sell me on this stupid XYZ?"
I never again want to use Windows but I won’t be caught dead recommending OS X to anyone. It’s just stressful. (I’m suddenly personally responsible for any and all failures of the OS and hardware or I feel that way at any rate.)
I also wouldn't recommend one solution over the other. I prefer APPLE (or COMMAND) as a command key more, but I'm sure thats because its positioned more favorably on the mac keyboard.
Four finger swipe upwards if you are on a macbook or have a magic trackpad. Cmd-F3 otherwise.
Bottom line, if you're used to driving a car, getting around on a motorcycle is going to take some investment of effort and willingness to learn. I got to my mac from windows via a year or two of linux. I'm happy using all three. Happiest on mac.
Sure, keyboard shortcuts are different. But you kind of knew that beforehand, right? Seriously, if that is your biggest complaint, how did you ever get used to Linux?
* Command-F3/the Exposé function button to reveal the desktop (on Apple keyboards, or you can change it; just search for Exposé in System Preferences).
* Enable right click in System Preferences > Mouse or Trackpad.
It just takes a little getting used to. But in the end all that really matters is what makes you most productive. All this elitism is stupid.
Linux on laptops was inevitably painful in one way or another, and with a small price premium, I get the best of both worlds with Mac laptops now.
I can only tell you why I use one: OS X just gets out of my way and lets me get at my work.
What I do is systems administration - Windows, Solaris, Linux, BSD. Some light coding on the side.
Your mileage may vary.
It seems to me that a main overarching idea behind the design of OS X is "let's not overcomplicate things" and this really makes your life simpler, not just as a user, but also as a developer.
There no need to switch. It's not because everyone would start jumping off the cliff that you need to be convinced to do the same, right? Same story.
It was cool 10 years ago, but not today. Apple is turning into what M$ was back then: a control and patronize the users company. The main difference to Microsoft is, that Mac OS is a really good operating system.
I use Macs since 1995. Nowadays I hesitate to recommend a switch, although Mac OS is certainly better than Linux and, in my opinion, also Windows.
Apples notebook hardware was also superior for a long time. But today, look at Sony, Samsung, Lenovo. Not bad at all what you see there. And they still include optical drives :o).
I was so upset the first week I owned my PowerBook that I actually wrote Steve Jobs saying "Why would you ever separate Java externals into so many different directories? Where's the documentation for this Terminal.app program? You're going to lose my business if I find more shenanigans like this in your OS."
I got an e-mail back that week from Apple saying "You'll learn to love it, we promise." I was skeptical, but I quickly realized that there's a sanity to Apple's FHS (and Unix's moreso). I also grew to love scripting on the G4 far too much to be able to return the computer as I'd threatened to.
Now, I can't imagine ever going back to the "Windows Way", or anything close to it. I still have that G4, and it runs (Arch Linux) like a charm.
The one thing I haven't grown fonder with Apple's popularity is that customer service now feels cold. In 2005, it was a legitimate pleasure to talk with an Apple rep on the phone. Several of them were happy to explain the internals of the OS to me my first time through, as they were thrilled to have any Windows convert they could get.
Now, things are different, and I don't get the warm, fuzzy feeling I did 6 years ago.
I was one of those hackers that stuck with Apple through the 90s. In 1996 I learned how to install netBSD on my mac and in 1997 I installed MkLinux (an Apple sponsored project). I was incredibly excited when Apple announced that it was going to integrate this new (to me) exciting world into the next generation of their operating system. In 2001 I finally got my first machine that was powerful enough to run OSX. But I was a little disappointed. There was no native software, my OS 9 software barely worked and the thing kept breaking. When two power cords broke, the screen broke and the disk drive crashed, I traded for a ThinkPad.
"In the fall of 1983, the professor in one of my college CS classes got up and announced, like a prophet, that there would soon be a computer with half a MIPS of processing power that would fit under an airline seat and cost so little that we could save enough to buy one from a summer job. The whole room gasped. And when the Mac appeared, it was even better than we'd hoped. It was small and powerful and cheap, as promised. But it was also something we'd never considered a computer could be: fabulously well designed."
I remember owning (and loving - for some reason) an iBook G3 that was basically unusable for a few months whilst I awaited more RAM for it. I think this was when their laptops had 64Mb RAM but Mac OS X really needed 512Mb. And remember when Mac OS X had OS 9 built into it? Ugh.
It's crazy to think how dominant Apple is now, compared to those days, and the even more pathetic days before that.
I cannot even think of a reason why any consumer wouldn't now go out and purchase a Mac or iPad for their next computer.
I've made a hobby of embarrassing myself with recommendations to friends not to buy AAPL.
This really often explains upcoming trends in the computer / tech world.
I think a lot of us like OS X because we get a Unix build environment with a fairly slick GUI and good third-party app support.
Being able to use the same OS for day-to-day tasks (Word docs, Photoshop/Lightroom, etc) and for development is nice, and despite some inconsistencies, the quality of third-party applications is pretty high (i.e. Transmit, TextMate/MacVim, Pixelmator, Adium, etc).
Battery life, when it comes to portables, is also a bonus; most Macs have better battery life and less weight than a similarly specced Dell/HP/Lenovo machine (anecdotal, but I think I'm in the ballpark here).
The last two issues together: sane OS, manufacturer support, basically knock out the rest of the market.
Like all Love, it seems mac love is often irrational.
Does anyone here know and use a good iPad Office app, that I can recommend to people? The store reviews of the top apps don't seem too encouraging.
Windows still has dominant market share and, as such, is still supported far better by developers. More programs come out for windows than for mac by a long shot. The consumers are also familiar with windows which further increases the chance of them not buying a mac.
Anyways, the point of this comment is to refute your last statement. I'll first say that "purchase a .. iPad for their next computer." is completely ridiculous. A tablet cannot fill the needs of a user yet. I'll focus on why many consumers would not want to purchase a Mac. 1. Software support. A large amount of software is available only for windows. 1b. Video games 2. .Net developer/other developer. Many software developers will work on windows because that's their target platform due to the market share. 3. Familiarity. That's a big one. People are familiar with windows and so they stick with it. 4. Price. Because pcs are sold by various venders there are many pricepoints. Apple doesn't allow that. 5. Business relying on legacy software for windows.
Do I really need to name more? "I cannot even think of a reason" .. You really couldn't think of any of the above reasons or one of the several more? Macs are great and all, but they aren't the answer to everything. They still have many issues. Apple's tight grip leads to higher quality but higher prices, reduced variety, and reduced content. For now, a windows machine can do almost anything an apple computer can do at less cost. The consumer also has far more choices. A mac can only do a portion of what a pc could do; if the user installs linux than the mac has almost no features left that the pc is incapable of. Perhaps you'll harp on hardware quality, but it's perfectly possible to get machines of similar or better quality to any mac aside from the macbook air.
You'd be surprised by how many people just use a computer to check their email and browse the web, all of which can be handled on an iPad simply and beautifully. My Wife and Mother have both stopped using computers altogether, iPad is all they need.
Its the "beyond what most users need" thats the important part. A prime example for MacBook (Pros) are Batteries: they come with good, high-capacity batteries that are expensive at any manufacturer. If I buy the strong-battery option at Dell, it gets expensive quick as well. If I buy the best screen option, the same. The problem with Apple is: they don't allow you to settle for the "second best". You can only buy the best option that they will sell you in a machine class, only rarely a second one.
At thats my main reasons for not suggesting a Mac to everyone. I know a lot of people that want a notebook, but they don't hours of battery life and are on a budget. With a cheaper battery, they could easily save a hundred+ Euros. Why should they waste it on a machine that does not allow them to do so? Macs are just not the machines for people on a budget anymore.
All Apple owners I ever met were showing off. For them it's status to have a Mac. They think that when they have a Mac they belong to the group. Or they think they need to have a Mac because they are designers/hackers.
This feeling of belonging to a group knocks out the rest of the market.
I'm not saying Apples are crap. But to me they are not better than lets say a nice Lenovo Thinkpad installed with Ubuntu. In the end of the day it's just a tool to get the job done.
(Why do all iPhone owners put there phone on the table while having a meeting? Just turn the thing off and put it in your wallet!)
Also, trackpads.
I was only able to give up on Mac OS X when I decided to give up on Adobe software thanks to Adobe's abysmal customer service. Now that I don't need to be able to run Photoshop, I just use Linux.
Things like being able to do a two finger swipe to scroll an out of focus document or four finger swipe to show active windows are just really nice.
"Readers awarded AppleCare a score of 86 points, dwarfing the competition; Lenovo/IBM came in second place with just 61 points."
http://www.macworld.com/article/160089/2011/05/apple_laptops...
Pretty much everyone I know who isn't a hacker, gamer, or Excel jock can get by with just an iPad for the sum total of their computing needs (web, Facebook, email, Angry Birds).
Edit: On a Macbook Pro, home/end are fn-left/right-arrow and page-up/down are fn-up/down-arrow.
Alternatively: Command+← and Command+→ .
But it made shortcut listings more confusing, because that would become Ctrl+← and Ctrl+→ (which I'm pretty sure I tried in Terminal but would always skip to the end of the command line, not the end of the screen line). The only keyboard shortcut that hurt after switching command and ctrl was in chrome. Chrome's History is Ctrl+H on windows, but Command-Y on mac, due to Command+H hiding the current window. That got me every time.
I personally don't see the advantage of using other hardware, Apple hardware is a better value to me. (I value reliability over lower initial price, and I don't find generic PC components to be cheaper for the same thing, nor to have adequate reliability. )
I'm virtualizing OSX on PCs, I don't care that Apple put a virtual limitation saying "you've no right to do that! its our software!".
It's just as broken as software patents. I pay for it, I use it as a please. Sue me.
Funny than when it comes from Apple its ok and good reason to buy a Mac tho. Imagine if Microsoft did that? Really, just imagine it one second and how bad you'd hate them.
Humans.
Edit: wow, downvoted for expressing a fact. Stay classy.
Don't forget on a Mac you're much less often moving your mouse to the top right corner (window closing is on the top left of a window.
The further most icons are always the Apple on the left, and Spotlight on the right. Both of which I rarely open by hand. If I'm using Spotlight it's always by keyboard command Cmd-Space (though often I use Alfred instead).
And at least on a Laptop I rarely need to shutdown the Mac, which is all I'd use the Apple menu for. Though again, anything I'd go to that menu for I use Alfred for instead.
May be worth turning it on and see how you get on with it?
I move the mouse to the top right whenever I want to just get it out of the way.
May be worth turning it on and see how you get on with it?
I don't use a Mac. Wait, let me correct that -- I use a MacBook, but with Windows on it almost all the time.
$ brew install package_nameSee here for stuff you can install with one command: https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/tree/master/Library/Formula...
Homebrew/MacPorts/Fink are nearly the same thing, they just don't come installed by default on OSX.
I'm just kidding, it's a superficial annoyance.
I should have the option though, and what's the purpose of a "recycle bin" if not for feline file administration?
No. This is what good software design is. The designer chose this path, offering you the option to change this is what makes software bloated and unmaintainable.
Command-Shift-Delete empties the trash, finalizing the action.
Options should only be there as a last resort, not in any other case.