The power of the open source ecosystem
For a number of reasons, I was recently "forced" to work on an Apple machine for longer than I would have liked. Don't get me wrong: I like OS X, and I think there is a great deal the open source community can learn from it. However, it doesn't seem to be geared up for people like me: 11000 emails literally kill Apple Mail, for example; or, spotlight can be fine for a small home-user folder, but try it on my home directory...
What have I learned from my Apple experience? I learned the power of integration.
Linux is all about choice: there are many, many ways to do anything. The divide between KDE and Gnome is a prime example.
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RE: The power of the open source ecosystem
I had to call the author on this one, here is what I posted on his blog's comments:
Thunderbird is available for Mac OS X, as well as most all the other open source mail clients, web browsers, and many many other open source applications just like any other UNIX. Also available is both apt-get style package managment (Fink) and ports style package managment (MacPorts) that offer even window managers and full blown desktops like KDE and Gnome.
There is plenty of 'choice' on Mac OS X. Actually even more so then Linux as Mac OS X has all the open source applications available, and much more commercial software then Linux.
Please understand I love Linux, but there is no need to bash Mac OS X and Apple because you happened to have a problem with Apple's Mail.app, much less try to claim there are no software choices for Mac OS X.
EDIT: I seldom post without an edit.
*ahem*
And why does OS X have all that open-source software? Because some caring Linux user bothered to port it.
Besides, it's a Mac: for the price they want for one of those things, I shouldn't have to download free software to do what I need to do.
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Ubuntu is lame as a duck- not the metaphorical lame duck, but more like a real duck that hurt its leg, maybe by stepping on a land mine.
RE: *ahem*
Why would Linux users port to an operating system they do not use? Mac OS X users port to Mac OS X.
Anyway, I'm not a Apple salesman. I'm just pointing out that the author of the original article doesn't know what he is talking about. Advocating Linux with false claims against Mac OS X helps no one and makes Linux look bad.
EDIT: I seldom post without an edit.
Wait just a minute... the
Wait just a minute... the author of the post is advocating open-source software. Nowhere does he claim that Linux is superior to OS X. You yourself pointed out that Thunderbird is available for OS X... but the author merely stated that he had a problem with the closed source application Mail.app, which he did not encounter in the open-source Thunderbird. In the world I live in, real-world experience tends to trump theory. I can speculate that the processor in my laptop runs at 12 GHz all I want, but until it actually does, my theory cannot override reality.
In the same way, believing that Mac is automatically superior in all areas and all ways to Linux doesn't make it so. Mail.app chokes on 11000 emails. So, the solution is not to claim that the person encountering this problem is stupid/biased/offensive, but to see what you can do to resolve it. Spotlight has a hard time indexing a sufficiently large home folder... in my experience, Kat quits trying after about 3% of mine. Beagle and Google Desktop may have the same problem. So what? I'm still trying to use Kat, because I want that functionality. I'm aware of its limitations, but that doesn't make me a heathen, mentally deficient, or a heretic.
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Ubuntu is lame as a duck- not the metaphorical lame duck, but more like a real duck that hurt its leg, maybe by stepping on a land mine.