As some of you may know, I had my very first taste of Mac a few weeks ago. I got a Macbook Pro (Penryn) which comes with the standard OS X Leopard. But for the sake of sanity, I immediately installed Linux, in particular Xubuntu “Gutsy Gibbon” on that new Apple hardware of mine with the aid of BootCamp.Xubuntu works on my MBP, but not that well as there are still important hardware issues that need to be fixed. I decided not to repair the problems any longer and just wait for the release of “Hardy Heron”. So while I waited, I used Leopard more and more the past week.
At first, I enjoyed playing with Leopard. I used it like an ordinary computer user and didn’t want to set-up my coding and development tools yet. I surfed the web, wrote emails and blog posts, took some funny photos using Photo Boot, watched videos, and listened to music all in that glorified operating system called OS X. I find its new multi-touch function really handy, and extending my laptop display to a secondary monitor was no sweat. Its fast start-up time is also worth noting. I’m beginning to love that sleek and cool-looking OS and have almost forgotten my humble Xubuntu partition…almost.
It started with an audio problem. While playing my favorite tunes on iTunes (duh!), I heard this crackling and popping sound coming from my Macbook Pro’s built-in speakers. I was worried because I began to think that it was a hardware trouble, but when I searched for answers by reading posts from several Mac forums, I learned that this was after all caused by MBP’s sound card that automatically turns off (or is turned off by OS X) when the computer is idle to save battery life. So I assumed that that was just a software glitch which can be patched up soon, I hope.
Next up is the web browser issue. Because I don’t like using Safari, I installed the greatest and safest browser in the world which is Firefox. Several days later, while visiting a number of trusted sites including my own site, Firefox automatically downloaded a file and then opened a new window containing some weird codes and an animated links to some advertised sites. I thought this can be fixed by cleaning the cache or browsing history, but it didn’t. I also tried using Safari but the same thing happened over and over again.
The last thing that I’m going to complain about my Mac OS X adventure is speed. While Leopard booted really fast, it was slow to open an application and seemed always running sluggish. I would rather start slow and be the first to finish, than to start fast but ends up last. I’m really into speed and it's the main reason why I prefer using lightweight Linux distros.
For now, I decided to quit using Leopard (except when I want to take funny and distorted pictures), and I am more determined than ever in making Linux (Xubuntu) fully compatible with my Macbook Pro. You may ask why I think Linux rocks. Perhaps an article here, here, and here can somehow help explain my line of reasoning.
If you agree or disagree with me, feel free to comment.
18 comments:
Dude seriously those are your complaints? Look I'm no Apple Fanboy and I am a huge supporter of Linux but you've got to do better than that.
The sound card issue I'll give you. I haven't heard it myself as I don't have a Apple Laptop but I will assume its significant enough to bug you. There seems to be a way to over ride that. Typically anything that is "automatically turned off" has a way to override.
Your browser problem. You couldn't clear your cache before writing your article? No instead lets complain about it. It's highly unlikely this is a OS related issue. Stop visiting so many porn sites :-)
Speed issue, hard to address based on the information you provided in your article. "seemed always running sluggish" isn't really a bench mark. I will say apps on my Ubuntu do fire up pretty quick compared to other OSes I've used but only by a second or two maybe as a biggest difference. Once up, they respond the same.
If your going to state one OS Sucks and how superior another might be, you may want to have a better argument. This equates to one persons interruption of their limited experience.
nteresting article! I though mac is always more stable.
Never sused so i wouldn't know. I will stick to ubuntu! Just buy myself a 300$ pc and it will work!
@Not-an-Apple-Fanboy: Search for "Macbook pro audio problems" in Google to know more about that serious glitch.
The browser issue is partly OS related. If you really are a Linux supporter then you will know that Linux is far more secure than OS X which means web browsing is much safer. By the way, I would rather surf porn in Linux where Firefox is a lot faster :)
"Ubuntu do fire up pretty quick compared to other OSes I've used but only by a second or two maybe as a biggest difference."
-If you open up plenty of applications the whole time then those seconds are crucial.
I know that I didn't make the best argument here, but at least I tried. :)
Well your first mistake is buying hardware from a vendor which treats its customers like shit.
Second, if you're linux doesn't work on MPB don'y cry. Next time buy a laptop from a company that supports linux.
here's a list: partial
system76, dell, sub300, linuxcertified,
empororlinux, zonbu, and probably more.
BE WISE, SAY NO TO APPLE, They are seriously worse then microsoft.
You are right. But these will not be the reason why I dumped Mac.
It should be the cultrue and personality. Apple is even worse than MS, why? For example, there are some libraries, MS buys books for their paid users to read, while Apple takes those free books to feed their users and require monre membership fee. While Linux is library all for free. Only Linux cares human being and the knowledge for all the world. This is why I love linux. What gentle and generous compared with Apple.
All of you are nucking futs. No substantive evidence offered by anyone. Comparing a lightweight Linux distribution to OS X is like comparing DOS/Gem or OS/2 to Vista. Yes, it probbably will take a few more seconds for Vista to boot. Firefox throws up unwanted pages, and it's an OS issue? "BE WISE, SAY NO TO APPLE, They are seriously worse then (sic) microsoft." WTF? Vague enough? Seriously, you don't have an argument.
Dear Jun,
I normally Like you posts, but this one was highly disappointing. You said that Mac OSX sucks and did not offer any valid reason to substantiate it. Your comments were vague. This was not expected from you.
Looking forward to your article on Xubuntu 8.04, when it releases. I would love if you can make it as technical as possible.
poor reasoning in a poor article. it seems you had your mind set on Xubuntu being better and OS X worse and nothing would change that.
That last paragraph pretty much sums up your bias and your article does not convincingly prove that Linux is better than OS X or even Windows.
I don't need to disagree and can't agree with you since you haven't really said anything substantial or conclusive.
if you are going to be a fanboy about linux at least provide something more than your opinion about why its better than OS X.
man with your reasoning i could do the same and say windows is the best OS in the world with the rest of the OS's feel like DOS to me.
@Abhay: Thanks for being here. I respect your opinion and I accept that some of my comments were a bit weak because all I did was complain about the personal problems I had with using a Mac. But, I’m glad that I shared it to you all.
I was just highly disappointed with OS X as I expected it to work well with its own Apple hardware. Linux may have plenty of hardware issues but it is understandable, and you can always find a way to make it work. In OS X, it's all locked up.
Yeah Abhay, I will be looking at Xubuntu “Hardy Heron” soon. So, stay tuned.
Best regards,
Jun
Haha Jun,
Ingon ana ang mga mac users. Kung imong silang sultihan parte sa problema sa MAc, magbalos sila (bisan kun tinuod ang problema)! Salamat sa article gihapon. I agree with you.
Dallin
@Dallin:
Thanks a lot, (Salamat kaayo) I really appreciate it. You are right (sakto ka). Some Mac fanatics really act that way.
Anyway, I’m so happy to know that someone from a foreign country is trying to learn or is interested in our culture. Really nice to have you here man (bay). Balik-balik unya diri sa Bohol.
Jun
I do agree, OS X Leopard sucks.
4 weeks ago I got a new 24-inch iMac Alu.
I had the same experience with both Safari and Firefox on OS X Leopard.
Also the way to operate OS X Leopard is for idiots, that are afraid of doing multi-tasking.
When I get the ATI driver problem fixed I will install Linux. Currently, the ATI driver for Linux is not working :-(
Right now I am running Linux using another machine.
I only started using OS/X while I'm here "hanging out" in East Africa. My friend has a iBook G4 with version 10.4.11. I hate Safari with a passion. Firefox is wassssy better. I had to go download it the other day and now lots of websites work BETTER. And what eats me up about this OS/X version is that there's no god damn CUT & PASTE built into Finder which is equivalent to the Windows Explorer. It's sooooo shitty not being able to Cut & Paste to the point of being ANNOYING. What's with that?? Although I'm a Linux/BSD fan, I've been having second thoughts on OS/X in terms of usability. No cut & paste? Here, I think Windows wins! Surprisingly. I'm actually looking forward to turn Server 2008 into a workstation after hearing glowing reviews about doing this. I'm skipping Vista big time like how I'd avoid driving in a seedy part of town after hours. :-)
I find that FreeBSD is the most sane operating system of all. Instead of using some weird conventions like some Linux distro, FreeBSD is fast, secure and sane.
Not only the configurations are consistent,
and intuitive but all BSDs are consistent with each other. Furthermore, the FBSD7 kernel is faster than linux kernels out of the box (not to mention u can optimise it manually). All the development tools can easily be installed via the ports (from haskell compilers, Java, IDEs to code analyzers). And of course, if u like your UI
you can install compiz-fusion. And guess what! it all works great.
In terms of MacOS X. It is indeed a pile of eye candy (regardless of its philogeny with FreeBSD). I find using it's UI slow and inefficient and that's why I stopped using the MacMini i got.
Linux, is just a pile of c**p. The best thing is: It's c**p undercover. U can't really see it's crap because:
(1) The kernel is glued together by hacks
(2) Each distro is either a mess (config files, package managers etc) and often counter intuitive.
Give FreeBSD a go!
Thank you.
What you say about FreeBSD was true _once_... FreeBSD used to have an edge on Linux. But not anymore, FreeBSD didn't have the man power to keep up with Linux and now the FreeBSD kernel has fallen behind.
(1) they only _look_ like hacks (FreeBSD people always hated the apparent chaos in Linux kernel deveopment, the plethora of copyright notices, etc..)
(2) this is true actually, using Debian right now and the config files are just nasty (you may prefer Slackware, but really none of the distros are that great - roll your own works too).
Holy crap people are stupid! If a person thinks Mac sucks it's their opinion deal with it. I hate Mac just because of the way it closes programs. Thats my opinion and I don't need to give any more reason then that! Damn Mac fanboys!
it's probably sluggish because of its terrible paging algorithm. apparently it uses some variant of the "least recently used" algorithm, but how recent seems to be hard coded for every process. if you leave your mac long enough, EVERYTHING will be paged out, no matter how much RAM is free. this morning i came to work and finder was paged out, and my RAM was almost entirely free. often i have to reboot the machine to clear out the swap file because it grows too big and i run out of disk space. that's what i call thinking different.
Firefox automatically downloading a file sounds like...a Firefox issue. How does the OS even play into that? That's entirely the application layer, and anybody who says otherwise has no experience at all with OS design and architecture.
Although I'm curious as to ask what exactly you consider "weird codes."
Very poorly crafted argument.
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