I can’t believe I am about to ask this, but should I get a Mac?
I’m borrowing my Mom’s Mac again. And I notice that it’s really, really light. Like, half the weight of a comparable PC. So, one of my deep reflections:
I loathe Microsoft Windows. I haven’t used it in years, using instead one version of Linux or another, and Ubuntu is nice enough to spread on toast. Also, I love free-as-in-speech software and hate DRM and spyware. But Macs have this bizarre ability to “just work” when you try to do things, in the way that Google “just works”, and that’s a tune gets stuck in one’s head. And they usedappropriated the Linux kernel, so there is no forgivable reason that what I’m about request shouldn’t be possible. Maybe — just maybe — a Mac is like one of those yummy Victorian writing desks where cool stuff (such as pages of young adult adventure fiction) happens when you hold a lever down and push somewhere else. Or maybe they’re like a Furby, and if you scalp it there’s wickedly-cool stuff underneath. Or maybe it’s like a Ferrari that’s delivered to the customer with the engine compartment welded shut, and another welding torch (?) would let you do something like — um — bore out cylinders (?) — don’t really know what Im talking about.
So: A largish minority of my readers are Mac users (if Google Analytics is to be believed) and a statistically-significant percentage are techie guys (if comments are to be believed). Is there overlap? Huddle together and evangelize — y’allz groupies are into that shit, right? — or, if you’re Marcus, give me an appointment at the Apple Store and sell me one.
Whatever you want to say, Say. It. Here. I don’t want to collate Facebook, email, and Twitter kthx.
What I absolutely need:
- Hard-core access to a command line (found this already!)
- A full platter of indispensable command-line goodies (named pipes, STERR redirection, various
awks/seds/whatever;egrep, sort, wc, uniq, and all the other stuff that makes computing worth doing in the first place. PERL. In bold:PERL, with full access to a debugger.emacs; cron; sendmail; whatever I’m forgetting- The ability to completely ditch Finder in favor of something that doesn’t blow gangrenous goats.
- The ability to customize keyboard shortcuts as arbitrarily convoluted as I need, and remap any — any — exiting ones
- Full access to
psthat will hide nothing from me and full access tokillthat the OS will not override. - The ability to add arbitrary DRM-free media to the drive without complaint, tagging, or tattling.
- Access to a proper, free package repository and a fully-featured package manager (I. Don’t. Care. Which. Just something.)
- The ability to add software that Apple really doesn’t want you to use, such as
aircrackandjohn, with, again, no tattling
Second tier:
- ability to be a SAMBA client or server
- ability to play DVDs regardless of region, and, ideally, to strip or bypass PUAs (running DVD Decrypter in an emulation mode or VM would work, which leads me to …)
- emulation mode or VMs at least as good as
wine - some way of upgrading these toy keyboards. No, sorry, that’s mean to toy keyboards. Toy keyboards at Target have greater key travel and less rattle. Ideally I’d like some kind of fancy piano-hammer-type “breaking” keys (pressure/Pressure/PRESSURE/PRESSURE/snap!) but it’s not a deal-killer
And tertiar(il?)y?
- Ability to fold into a tablet that I can prop up on the table and use a Twiddler to type with
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5 Responses to “I can’t believe I am about to ask this, but should I get a Mac?”
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October 11th, 2009 at 23h08
A netbook has been suggested. There’s something to be said for that. Maybe a tablet PC with no keyboard would be OK. What I really want, though, is just a light, fast box — no display, no keyboard, no touchpad, no optical drive — with a brazillian different connectors around the outside (VGA or other video, audio, 4 – 6 USB, FireWire, a multi-card reader, and — well — maybe that’s it.) Circuit boards, battery, and a as many connectors as fit. And the max size I want is a mass market paperback at less than 2㎝ thick. Best answer gets the normal prize (banana through the mail).
October 12th, 2009 at 04h07
Joshua,
To be honest, it sounds like you want Mac hardware, but I don’t know that you want the Mac software. Apple did indeed build Mac OS X on top of FreeBSD (not Linux), and Mac OS X 10.5 (and perhaps 10.6) are indeed certified by the Open Group as “official” versions of UNIX. So there is a lot of goodness underneath the pretty GUI. There is no native package manager, though; you’ll have to rely upon third-party tools (like MacPorts) to find and install UNIX tools and apps.
As a long-time Linux user, I also suspect you’ll find the level of control/customization/twiddling/tweaking unsatisfactory. For example, while Mac OS X supports and run X Window-based applications, they aren’t necessarily handled in the same way as Cocoa (Mac-native GUI) applications. It’s a bit odd, if you ask me.
Now that Apple is on the Intel bandwagon, there are a number of ways to handle other operating systems. VMware Fusion offers great support for Linux, so you could always run Linux in a VM on your Mac, side-by-side with Mac OS X. There are also various versions of WINE, including commercial versions, should you find a need to run a Windows application.
Unfortunately, I think you’ll have to get used to the toy keyboards. To be honest, I’m using one of the external “toy keyboards” right now, and it’s not as bad as I had feared.
October 12th, 2009 at 05h49
Thank you Scott. This kind of information is just what I was hoping for. Light, thin, bright, good-quality hardware — it seems Apple is really good at that stuff — and wiping the OS with an Ubuntu install. I don’t know how to choose BIOS boot sequence on a Mac, but presumably I can get it to boot off an installation DVD or USB key (even automatically)? Any ideas? How long have MacBooks been shipping with “Intel Inside”, and what was it before (some kind of RISC architebure?) All this for the likely case that I want to buy an older one used.
Also, to others: Johnny Five requests more input input input.
October 12th, 2009 at 06h21
I’m certainly not willing to do this on a borrowed machine, but it seems that with (very little) sanding, the computer could fold open book-style on a table. Slightly more adventurously, I think I could pop a couple pieces of plastic off and remove the LCD assembly entirely, leaving just a headless computer to which I could link another display (what appears to be) built-in HDMI. It’s what the connector looks like to me, anyway. Might as well just put the keyboard portion in a shoulder pack or backpack, and halfway between lug and wear it. From an external examination, it seems the keyboard-plus-touchpad-plus-”On”-button is all held in by at most four screws, and when I disconnect the leads, I could probably just jumper the I/O and built-in-display stuff off on the MB. Then I could replace what used to be the rattleboard with something actually useful, such as a dry-erase board or an empty surface for bumper stickers. Are Mac motherboard specs (jumpers, switches, power connectors, pinouts, etc.) documented anywhere, if you know?
I’m pretty sure that this kind of hacking I would not merely void any warranty for the product, but Apple will so take offense that they might voide any and all other warranties I have for other products (including like toasters floor paneling and stuff) — just for spite, you know.
October 12th, 2009 at 08h13
Joshua,
I haven’t personally installed other operating systems on my Mac hardware, but I would imagine that it’s not that terribly difficult. Finding drivers for the hardware would probably be the only challenging portion. BTW, you can boot from the optical drive by holding down the C key on the keyboard during the boot sequence, IIRC. (Or, while booted into OS X, go to System Preferences and set the optical drive as your boot device for the next boot sequence.)
And yes, prior to using Intel CPUs, Apple Macs ran RISC-based PowerPC chips. I haven’t done it myself, but I’ve heard of people with a reasonable level of success installing PowerPC versions of Linux onto older Mac hardware. They’ve been Intel-based since 2006, so the vast majority of Mac hardware is now x86.
Good luck!