It's That Simple

Hi Chris, OS X looks like the Gnome desktop environment in Linux to me. I use WinXP Pro and Red Hat 7.3(beta). I know it's based on Unix, so… What are the advantages of your IMac over a PC or Linux box? Would you reccomend them?

Just a quick question — have you used IE 5.1 yet, and if so, have you noticed any of the problems I listed under “Rotten Apples” on 4/18? I'd love to hear a Tech TV Mac expert's opinion on this…if you ever need a segment idea…hint, hint. ;-)

The weird part about Mac browsers, is how when you design a complex page ( XML, Java, Jscript, etc.) you have to do a four browser comparison(Netscape Mac & PC, Explorer Mac &pc Explorer) although it's 2 companies each browser handles things differently in each OS. Not counting Opera or the other browsers a person making a web site can optimize it to each browser, but who want's to do that. Year ago apple did it's own browser as part (can't recall the name, but it a dog is somehow in there) which was very good and fast a 3D browser consept even leaked out into the market place. The browser they did took the consept that Notepad can be a browser and if you get to an HTML page pull up the plug-in, XML same, so it is posible to get a fast browser in MACs.
Knowing how the Mac community is working now, I would bet we see converted Linux browsers, before original Cocoa apps.

Actually my new Tibook G4 does great with the internet. I'm actually typing this from bed…. I love wireless connectivity. I agree though, this is my first personal apple and it is great. I've only had it 2 days and I have yet to have any major complaints, just a lot of “oh cool” statements. Need to get an updated driver for my unix_lpr printer though.

CHRIS!!!!!! This one is for you.
There's something weird in the fridge today
I don't know what it is
Food I can't recognize
My roommate won't throw a thing away
I guess it's probably his
It looks like it's alive…
And livin' in the fridge… livin' in the fridge
Livin' in the fridge… livin' in the fridge
There's something dross in the fridge today
It's green and growin' hair
It's been there since July
If you can name the object
In that baggie over there
Then mister, you're a better man than I
It's livin' in the fridge
You can't stop (dysentary) the mold from growin' (dysentary)
Livin' in the fridge
Can't tell what (dysentary) it is at all (dysentary)
Livin' in the fridge
You can't stop (dysentary) the mold from growin' (dysentary)
Livin' in the fridge
Tell me, do you think it should be carbon dated
Fumigated or creamated and buried at sea?
You try to save a little bit of you're home cookin'
Couple weeks later, got a scary-lookin' specimen
It always happens my friend
Again & again & again & again
Somethin' stinks in the fridge today
And it's been rottin' there all week
It could be liver cake or wooly mammoth steak
Well, maybe I should another peek…
Livin' in the fridge
You can't stop (dysentary) the mold from growin' (dysentary)
Livin' in the fridge
Can't tell what (dysentary) it is at all (dysentary)
Livin' in the fridge
You can't stop (dysentary) the mold from growin' (dysentary)
Livin' in the fridge
Livin' in the fridge
Don't know what it is, don't know what it is
Livin' in the fridge
Don't know what it is, don't know what it is
Livin' in the fridge
Don't know what it is at all
Livin' in the fridge, yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

Jumping 2 comments up to Brian's. I've been looking at the Ti Powerbook now for months (expensive) but I don't care I want it I need it….LOL ! I've also been struggling over the issue if I should switch over to “Apple”. Like Chris I'm getting tired of Windows and I need a new computer experience. OSX just sounds great and I also just hate Microshaft. Although I may need “winblows” for peer to peer file sharing. I wonder if I can just use virtual PC on the Powerbook to share my files. Also, using a chat messenger (ie. voice) is not compatible with a PC and a Mac. I want to convert but all my friends use a PC. I'm torn any suggestions ??

harumph.
you know my opinions on macs… :)

The new iMacs ARE great and they really appeal to my old “Amiga” way of life ;) I do need to upgrade this Pentium III 450 at some stage :P

Wow, I think hell just froze over ;-)

VirtualPC will be just fine for P2P and things like that. The only thing that isn't fun is 3D stuff.

There is a very noticable difference between the speed of IE on the Mac and browsers like Mozilla and Opera. I would say that the performance issue lies squarely with Microsoft. Now that they've basically said that they will not be putting more effort into IE on the Mac, I think it's safe to assume that they didn't go overboard to begin with. The Mac business unit has done an awesome job with Office v. X, to be sure, but IE leaves something to be desired. Overall web compatibility is quite good, but speed is disappointing, to be sure.
Intentional? You be the judge, but Mozilla is at least twice as fast in loading the same page. It's not the Mac that's slow…
-Furo

Well, you know, in Windows, MS can use all sorts of OS API calls to make their stuff look and run better than the competition. Presumably, on the Mac, they're on the same playing field as other third party developers. It wouldn't surprise me if the IE development team and project managers just didn't care that much to optimize their code for the Mac. It doesn't pull a profit like Office, does it? And of course, Opera and Mozilla are developed by people who are used to ferreting out performance boosts. Am I wrong about any of my assumptions?

Actually the reason IE is so popular now, and to a point why Microsoft was able to survive the “Internet revolution” was because they took a program (mosaic) and made it better and faster (Netscape 4 vs IE 4). They will have to do the same with the next version because the browser war part two is brewing.

Hey Chris, I know you bought the best iMac available but how much RAM did you get (the standard 256 mb) or did you up that for some more bucks ? I've heard that OSX needs at least 512 mb to run decent. Just curoius …..thinking about my own conversion.
Later Mirk

Aye! And what a glorious battle it shall be! I've got IE6 and Mozilla and Opera installed right now. I use IE6 because it's fairly snappy (on WinXP) and it renders pages the best. I'm not saying that it renders them according to the standards: it renders them based on what the author meant. Most people write for IE these days, sadly. I love Moz, but it seems just a little sluggish compared to IE. Hopefully, 1.0 will take care of this. Is there a lot of debug code to get rid of? Opera has me sold with the gestures. I love them to death! I haven't been using it much. I actually don't know why. ::shrugs:: Really, my number one feature in a browser is tabs: Opera and Mozilla have them. IE6 doesn't. I should really switch, shouldn't I?

No, MacOS X does not need 512MB to run well. Of course, if you plan to run every app installed on the machine simultaneously, then maybe, but the same holds true for Windows. For general use (email, web, documents, etc.) 256MB will likely serve you just fine. If you plan to do a lot of video editing and such, meaning more than just pulling a few clips from a video camera now and again, then higher than 256MB would likely help. I've outfitted my mom's PowerMac with 384MB and she runs Photoshop, Quark Xpress 5, Illustrator and Office v. X without any problems at all.
OS X will actually run fairly well with 128MB if you're just doing email, web browsing and a few other misc. apps here and there. 256MB is a good comfort level though. With RAM prices where they are today, spending a bunch of money to go to 512MB is likely a bit of a waste unless you're really planning to do some serious work with large files.
-Furo

MacMall has a sale when you buy an Imac you get an additional 256 megs for free, plus a free printer.

I wouldn't recommend a 128mb mac os x system to my worst enemy. It's torture. Why not just give them a G3 300mhz to run it on while yer at it :)
The system needs at least 256mb, and 384 is the start of the sweet spot, esp. if you use photoshop. 512 and above is gravy.
To the guy who said IE runs slower than other techs… did you read the article Chris linked to? This is a “known issue” with the Mac OS X and how it uses the CPU to draw many elements on the screen. I'm all for MS bashing, but only when warranted.

Looks just like KDE.

CoffeeKid: Yes, I did read the article, and my contention is that if Mozilla can be significantly faster, why can't IE? Or Opera for that matter? The performance of each will obviously be different on something less than my 933MHz G4, but it truly is a very dramatic difference even on my machine. Mozilla renders the pages about the same as I see on Windows machines.
Once 10.2 hits the road, hopefully it will bring performance improvements along with it, though there will be an on-going effort to improve things, as one would expect. Remember, this OS is only a year old. Remember Windows NT at one year of age? It was the first version of the “advanced” operating system from Microsoft, on which Windows 2000 and Windows XP are based. Look how long it has taken for even Microsoft to bring a decent effort to market (read Windows 2000) and the number of drivers and applications that are still incompatible.
-Furo

Furo: On our iBooks (600mhz g3, 100mhz bus, each with 384mb ram), Mozilla isn't any faster rendering pages than IE is. I haven't taken out a stop watch, but that's what I notice.
As a side note, I often wondered why Apple kept using the dated, near legacy ATI Rage cards in their notebooks (except the newest Ti books)… then the info about how the OS offloads very little work to the vidcard (relative) kinda makes me realise why… either that, or Steve has a garage full of the vid cards he needs to get rid of.