[geeks] Apple software: the stuff you "gotta have"

[Shannon Hendrix]

On Oct 10, 2007, at 12:11 PM, N. Miller wrote:

> I know what you mean, but as an emacs user.  I would love to find one
> text editor for all platforms that has emacs key bindings and was
> easy to integrate as the default text editor for all apps.  At least
> it's easy to swap control & caps on the Mac.

Yep.

One thing too that annoys me is Macs using command where most other  
interfaces use control.

It's probably a better way of doing things because it prevents some  
conflicts and overloading, but it makes it hell to go to KDE or  
Windows, where control is used for both movement and things like cut  
and paste.

My brain and fingers will adjust soon, it's just one of those things  
that is annoying at first.

> Me, too.  But if you're off at the library working, or somewhere else
> where access to your test boxes is slow or fiddly, a local stack is a
> nice to have.  I replicated my subdirectory structure from the Linux
> test box locally so one easy rsync command (minus the db) sets me up
> to go out of the house.

Good point.

I don't have a laptop yet, so I'm always here at home when doing that  
kind of work.

> I think it was just the conspiracy of MySQL plus 10K+ library of
> songs.  The box only had 512MB at that time iirc, as well.

I found the Mac Pro totally unusable with only 1GB of RAM.

In fact, I don't see how people can make it with only 2GB.

The apps are nice, but very piggy.

> I haven't had the need to use it much, so maybe I shouldn't have put
> it on my favorites list, really.  Anyone want to comment on Pages as
> a replacement for Word and similar.  Bonus points for comments about
> it's page layout capabilities.

I'm trying to get time to play with it.

> A quick google turned up a few articles, including this by Mike
> Bombich: <http://www.bombich.com/mactips/automount.html>  Looks like
> it requires *nix geekery.

I'm up for that... :)

However, I can't help but think this is odd, given that the old MacOS  
did this such that anyone could do it.

Oh well, maybe in Leopard.

> One thing I really like about the Mac
> community is that there's a lot of good info out there, and it's
> relatively easy to find.  Not like searching through all the chaff
> you have to do when you've got a Linux problem you need to resolve b/
> c of the 15 million flavors of Linux.  (Maybe that's why I prefer
> Solaris, too?)

Personally, I saw no difference between Solaris and Linux camps in  
this regard.  Linux is confusing, but the people far more friendly  
than the Solaris and BSD camps, especially BSD.

For one thing, the apps are the same on all three, and the apps are a  
huge source of the problem.  Very few are well written, polished, and  
finished.  UNIX in general has had a problem of nothing ever being  
finished for many years.

Everything else, the server apps, is pretty much well done and the  
same on all platforms.

That said, I usually do prefer to talking to BSD and Solaris people,  
mainly  because I don't usually have to filter out zealots in the  
process.

Linux takes up too much mindshare and commercial interest, which is  
too bad, because it could easily operate as a catalyst to support the  
whole industry instead.

>> I will not install any version of hack/dungeon/etc on my machine ever
>> again.
>>
>> Never.
>>
>> I mean it.
>
> Sorry if I touched a nerve there. ;-)  That's how I got my RSI, so I
> can relate.  I suck so badly at it these days I rarely can play more
> than a half hour or so.

I just made up my mind about four years ago to just stop.  I would  
stop for months or even years at a time, but always came back and  
wasted huge amounts of time dredging through ascii dungeons.

Plus, I have to admit that now that D&D graphics games are getting so  
good, I find them more interesting.

Unfortunately, the industry seems to have stopped making them for the  
last couple of years.  I was really hoping to see some new stuff from  
Bioware.

Neverwinter Nights 2 wasn't very good.  Pretty, but threw away a lot  
of things that made the original so nice, and of course, neither was  
quite as good as the old Baldur's Gate series.

Too many games these days forget the story and the interface.

All this new graphics power, and they keep screwing up the interface.