Upgrade to Mac Tiger: Tips, Widgets & Issues to Look Out For

[dduardo]

xPAGANx, just a couple comments:

1) What about remote exploits that don't require user interventions? Ex. RPC, Blaster and Zotob.

2) You, as an end user, may not see the difference between IE and any other browser, but if you do any type of web development you would know how crippled IE is.

3) Blame developers for choosing directx over opengl. ID, creators of doom, uses opengl, and I'm able to play all they games they produce.

4) I haven't had to deal with dependencies for the longest time now. Installing is as easy as:

emerge <package name>

or using the point-and-click version called porthole.

5)I use Linux for a very simple reason: Windows = software lock-in, Apple = hardware lock-in, Linux= No lock-in.

 

[xPAGANx]

xPAGANx, just a couple comments:

1) What about remote exploits that don't require user interventions? Ex. RPC, Blaster and Zotob.

2) You, as an end user, may not see the difference between IE and any other browser, but if you do any type of web development you would know how crippled IE is.

3) Blame developers for choosing directx over opengl. ID, creators of doom, uses opengl, and I'm able to play all they games they produce.

4) I haven't had to deal with dependencies for the longest time now. Installing is as easy as:

emerge <package name>

or using the point-and-click version called porthole.

5)I use Linux for a very simple reason: Windows = software lock-in, Apple = hardware lock-in, Linux= No lock-in.

To start with, I am looking at this through the typical users eyes.

1. I will agree there was a little problem there. The problem has been addressed and corrected. If people left automatic updates on there wouldn't really be a problem. Much more often than not, the patches are available before the attack. Don't make any rash claims that Linux doesn't require security patches, because it does. I will agree that there are not as many though. Look at the user base though. Vastly different.

2. As far as IE being crippled, I am not really aware of that. Maybe you could enlighten me. I realize it is more susceptable to collecting garbage on the net in careless hands, but how is it crippled? I have used it exclusively for quite sometime now. I feel it is the most widely supported browser out there for surfing the web. With other browsers I occasionally experience anomalies. At work we have applications that run off ActiveX so I certainly do not have a lot of options.

3. Why blame anybody? It's not the developers fault for choosing a technology you can't use. Some games are designed for Windows. What is wrong with that? I am not anti-Linux by any means so don't take me the wrong way here. For the average person Windows is what is at home, and what gets their software running. My parents would not have a clue what to do with Linux.

4. As I stated package management has gotten a lot better. Installs are still dependent on either the command line, or another utility. Windows apps have installers that "Autoplay" which is a convenience for most people.

5. You are right except that Linux has limited software compared to Windows. Same goes for Apple. If you want the most options, Windows is the way to go. If you can settle for what is available Linux/Mac are fine. I like both Linux/Mac, but really it frustrates me when I have a limited scope of software. Most really polished software is for Windows or Mac. Yeah it is a little jab at open source, but I really commend anyone who contributes to the open source community. It is a great thing. There are a lot of great open source apps out there. Most apps just don't have the man hours involved for a real shine.

Installing Linux can be both easy and a total whore depending on the system you are loading it onto and what distro you are using. I have used a variety including Red Hat, Fedora, Gentoo, Slackware and Suse. I would rate Suse as being the easiest to get running smoothly. Red Hat and Fedora are fairly straight forward as well, but I give Suse the edge. The early releases of Fedora gave me significant problems with some of my hardware. Gentoo... wow... That distro can be a serious whore. Several releases (of Gentoo) would not even compile correctly for me. On another X was missing dependancies. On another release my mouse wouldn't work right despite my futile configuration attempts. Maybe my mouse just sucked lol, but still none of the other distros gave me any issues.

Slack is easily my favorite distro. No extra crap. Suse is nice, but I can spend a long time sorting what I do and do not want.

I have had both positive and negative experiences with Linux. It is a good OS to know, but for use in the home the software market is too small.

Ohh and Moonbear... Sorry for jacking your thread. ;)

 

[mattmns]

If people are uneducated and can't stick to quality sites that is their problem not mine. Windows does not infect itself. People take that upon themselves. Do not blame Microsoft for the community's ignorance.

Personally I don't see any serious need to change it [IE]. I have been a happy IE user for years. It works well and is the most functional browser I can think of.

So IE is the most functional browser, but only use IE when visiting "quality sites"

 

[xPAGANx]

My definition of "quality" is site that are not intent of spreading spyware.

I guess if you enjoy browsing spyware hell holes then yeah I would suggest a different browser.

I will make sure I define everything clearly next time.

 

[dduardo]

xPAGANx, I'm a gentoo user and never had any major compiling issues. I prefer gentoo on the desktop because I like the control the distro provides. The only packages I have installed on my machine are those that I explicitly told portage to install -- Nothing more and nothing less.

 

[xPAGANx]

xPAGANx, I'm a gentoo user and never had any major compiling issues. I prefer gentoo on the desktop because I like the control the distro provides. The only packages I have installed on my machine are those that I explicitly told portage to install -- Nothing more and nothing less.

I really didn't intend to rag on Gentoo too much. It is just much more complicated to perform an install. The difficulty of installing Gentoo also totally depends on your hardware. I have had far less problems installing Gentoo to my laptop than to one of my desktops.

I didn't mean to imply Gentoo never works. It does. I am simply comparing its complexity to other distros. I am just declaring that in my experience Gentoo is prone to more issues than other distros I have used. If someone has the patience to work out all the quirks Gentoo is untouchable in the performance realm.

 

[rho]

To start with, I am looking at this through the typical users eyes.

1. I will agree there was a little problem there. The problem has been addressed and corrected. If people left automatic updates on there wouldn't really be a problem. Much more often than not, the patches are available before the attack. Don't make any rash claims that Linux doesn't require security patches, because it does. I will agree that there are not as many though. Look at the user base though. Vastly different.

2. As far as IE being crippled, I am not really aware of that. Maybe you could enlighten me. I realize it is more susceptable to collecting garbage on the net in careless hands, but how is it crippled? I have used it exclusively for quite sometime now. I feel it is the most widely supported browser out there for surfing the web. With other browsers I occasionally experience anomalies. At work we have applications that run off ActiveX so I certainly do not have a lot of options.

3. Why blame anybody? It's not the developers fault for choosing a technology you can't use. Some games are designed for Windows. What is wrong with that? I am not anti-Linux by any means so don't take me the wrong way here. For the average person Windows is what is at home, and what gets their software running. My parents would not have a clue what to do with Linux.

4. As I stated package management has gotten a lot better. Installs are still dependent on either the command line, or another utility. Windows apps have installers that "Autoplay" which is a convenience for most people.

5. You are right except that Linux has limited software compared to Windows. Same goes for Apple. If you want the most options, Windows is the way to go. If you can settle for what is available Linux/Mac are fine. I like both Linux/Mac, but really it frustrates me when I have a limited scope of software. Most really polished software is for Windows or Mac. Yeah it is a little jab at open source, but I really commend anyone who contributes to the open source community. It is a great thing. There are a lot of great open source apps out there. Most apps just don't have the man hours involved for a real shine.

Installing Linux can be both easy and a total whore depending on the system you are loading it onto and what distro you are using. I have used a variety including Red Hat, Fedora, Gentoo, Slackware and Suse. I would rate Suse as being the easiest to get running smoothly. Red Hat and Fedora are fairly straight forward as well, but I give Suse the edge. The early releases of Fedora gave me significant problems with some of my hardware. Gentoo... wow... That distro can be a serious whore. Several releases (of Gentoo) would not even compile correctly for me. On another X was missing dependancies. On another release my mouse wouldn't work right despite my futile configuration attempts. Maybe my mouse just sucked lol, but still none of the other distros gave me any issues.

Slack is easily my favorite distro. No extra crap. Suse is nice, but I can spend a long time sorting what I do and do not want.

I have had both positive and negative experiences with Linux. It is a good OS to know, but for use in the home the software market is too small.

Ohh and Moonbear... Sorry for jacking your thread. ;)

you say your talking about typical users, then you say there is insufficient software available on the mac, what could they possibly need that is not available?

I do agree that games do suck on macs, my top spec powermac can barely run quake 3, lol.

 

[xPAGANx]

Where did I say that? I said that if you are happy with what Linux/Mac offer then to each is own basically. Then I also said that the limited scope of software frustrates me.

Other than that I said that the Linux software market was small.

I stated both Mac and Windows offer polished software. Not that Linux doesn't have any, just not as much.

I feel like the whole world is against me. ;)

 

[rho]

sorry I misinterpreted what you were saying.

 

[xPAGANx]

sorry I misinterpreted what you were saying.

No problem... That seems to be happening a lot. :)

 

[Moonbear]

Okay, to return to my original topic...
Tiger arrived today, and it's already installed (wow, that was the easiest OS upgrade I've done in my life! Click "upgrade", walk away for a half hour, come back, restart, and it was all set to go. Popped over to the software updater, got the latest update, one more restart, and I have Tiger, fully functional! Woo hoo! My airport express showed up today too (I've been on a shopping spree), so now I can play my music without having a cord tethering me to my speakers too.

Widgets! I love widgets already! Yep, I already downloaded the RPN calculator recommended above. *jumps up and down and dances in a circle* I can't wait to show everyone at the lab so they can be jealous.

 

[Anttech]

The fact of the matter is that there are no remote exploits for OS X, Linux, or any of the BSDs and to hurt your computer or turn it into a zombie

That is soooo not true: http://www.insecure.org/sploits_remote.html

Unix has many remote exploits. I used to work with checkpoint firewalls a lot, now mainly Cisco Pix's. I spent a lot of time, having to update the OS, or have a system admin do it, because it was the weaklink, in an otherwise good Security product...

Look *Nix OS's (OSx falls in the category) CAN be much more secure that any other OS. But you have to contiunally patch them, just like you would with Windows.

uhh, yes it is actually. It is in the kernel space which makes it part of the OS.

Reference? AFAIK IE does not run in the windows Kernel

 

[Moonbear]

Okay, one more question for the Tiger users and then I'll leave you folks to your OS wars.

When I empty the trash, it now makes a crumpling paper sound...very annoying...is there a way to tell it to just empty the trash quietly and not announce it so loudly?

 

[ComputerGeek]

Okay, one more question for the Tiger users and then I'll leave you folks to your OS wars.

When I empty the trash, it now makes a crumpling paper sound...very annoying...is there a way to tell it to just empty the trash quietly and not announce it so loudly?

mute the sound

 

[rho]

Okay, one more question for the Tiger users and then I'll leave you folks to your OS wars.

When I empty the trash, it now makes a crumpling paper sound...very annoying...is there a way to tell it to just empty the trash quietly and not announce it so loudly?

In preferences > sound > you can switch off all the interface bongs and crumples but not just the empty trash one.

Maybe you could ask here: http://forums.macrumors.com/

 

[Moonbear]

In preferences > sound > you can switch off all the interface bongs and crumples but not just the empty trash one.

Thanks, that's what I wanted to do...it's obnoxious having sound effects accompany your every move. I hadn't noticed they were back on for other things until I started playing with more stuff today. The trash bin I've emptied a few times already to notice that quickly. I had them off in Panther, and just needed reminding of where the control was for that (I had looked in sounds and missed it the first time ).

I'm having so much fun with these new features. I love that I can see everything open on my desktop with the press of a function key! It was making it so easy to switch between files I was working on today.

And since I like shiny new toys too, I'm just fascinated by widgets...I can make a big mess and clutter up everything with them, and then just one click or press of F12, and they all go away and I have my nice clean desktop again.

And F11 is wonderful for when I'm goofing around in GD and someone knocks at the office door who doesn't need to know I'm goofing around.