Jul 26 2006
Apple & Linux: Bling-Bling versus the Real Thing
Published by Ivan Groznii at 12:08 pm under Linux How-To, Rants, Reflections |
My parents are coming to West Sussex for a visit in October; I got yet another reminder of their impending visit in the past few days. Technology is on the list of things I have to prepare for them; they are both avid users of the internet, and can’t live without e-mail, even though they require my guidance to set up Thunderbird correctly.
As they’re both Mac people, I decided to try a little experiment and see how “Mac-esque” I could get Ubuntu Linux to be. Call it laziness, but I really don’t feel like explaining a whole new operating system to either of them; I love them dearly, but playing technical support does wear on one after a while.
Fortunately, there is a wealth of information about how easy it is to make one’s Ubuntu desktop into a virtual Mac clone. By far the best guide is at www.taimila.com; after following the relatively easy steps the blog describes, I sat back, astonished. For all intents and purposes, I was looking at a Mac interface…put onto the cheap desktop PC that I had assembled last week. Yes, its beige, ugly case was nothing to look at - but many of the main attractions of owning a Mac, its excellent user interface and reliability were in my grasp for a fraction of the cost.
To be absolutely fair to Apple, there are some niches in which it excels, particularly in publishing, design and video editing. However Apple is not satisfied with this rather small market, and is now trying to expand its offering to encompass those who are merely looking for an alternative to Windows. For those people, Apple is more Bling Bling than the Real Thing.
It’s difficult to be too angry at Apple; after all, the machines they build are very good looking and they also have had the good sense to base their OS on BSD. However the bling of Apple’s styling and OS come at a premium. A Mac mini with an Intel Core Solo, 512 MB of RAM, a 60 GB hard drive and Intel Integrated Graphics (which is absolutely the worst in terms of graphics rendering) costs £399. Word processing, Office and graphics software are extra. The desktop that I built with an AMD Sempron processor, a 120 GB hard drive, 1 GB of RAM and PCI-E graphics costs nearly £100 less, and includes Ubuntu’s full range of Office and Graphics software.
The extra price also does not ensure extra performance. It has been proven that Linux is faster than OS X using the G5 processor; it is also clear that it is generally more efficient on the new Intel based Macs as well. In fairness, the latter may have something to do with porting some Power PC processor based applications to the new Intel architecture.
Strip away the advantages of the user interface and performance, all that Apple has is a machine that looks very nice on one’s desk; in other words, all that’s left is the bling. One can say one spent an outrageous amount of money on one’s Apple and invite others to “ooh” and “aahh” at the slick casing of, for example, a MacBook Pro. It’s the equivalent of rap artists who used to drink Cristal champagne rather than beer just to show how upmarket they were; they obviously didn’t care about the quality of the alcohol, it’s just the status symbol and the money spent that counts.
Those of us who care about genuine value and quality have better things to do than buy pretty toys; Linux still continues to offer better value and performance than anything produced by Microsoft or Apple and still looks good while doing it. Those that produce hardware and software bling should be worried; one day the public is going to catch on; there are signs this is already occuring. Once that happens, easy to use, reliable and yes, stylish computing will no longer be the province of merely those who can afford it.
One Response to “Apple & Linux: Bling-Bling versus the Real Thing”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Like your rants about MS - I totally agree with you, but all you have to do to understand why it’s so bad is look at it’s origins - one gui after another piled upon a bastardised OS - no wonder it constantly falls over!
As for the rant about Apple - I have only one question to ask -why? Why lash out at them at all?
As you might have guessed I’m penning this on a Mac - and with good reason. I want a computer that’s reliable, one with a stable OS and good software. A computer where I can configure the services so that only the ones I want to run do so, one where I can decide which ports are open and closed - I want a computer that runs MY way!
It’s pretty obvious that MS is not a contender then.
So which mainstream desktops does that leave?
Which are the most stable, friendliest OS’s around?
Linux and Apple.
Which leaves only one criteria - usability - and there comes the crunch. You see not all of us can get to grips with the language of the OS’s - we’re not all script kiddies!
So it’s a battle of the GUI’s and I’m afraid that in my book Apple’s OS X wins hands down for script illiterates like myself.
Why?
Here’s a typical example for me - I’ve installed Ubuntu on a beige box next to my Mac - “That looks good! - nice interface in a nice 1024×768 environment, I think” - network it to my Mac - so far, so good, power everything down to reclaim my dual monitor set-up, power everything up (having remembered to set up automatic log-in and remote desktop on Ubuntu), open remote desktop - and there’s Ubuntu - in glorious 640×480!!! and a nice little box saying ‘Hal failed to initialize’!!!
Hal!!! - didn’t he get lost in 2001 and destroyed in 2010???
OK so we’ll just go into the interface for Hal and tell it to keep a permanent display res of 10…. no interface!
An hour later surfing (fuming) through different sites - all of which want to explain the parameters, protocols, reasons and purpose of Hal but no script examples - I think of your column berating the Mac - HA!
Now perhaps you’ll appreciate who the Mac appeals to.
And yes - it is expensive - too expensive, in fact mine is second-hand.
But you have to remember that it’s about economies of scale.
Apple is primarily a hardware manufacturer, it’s NOT a battle of OS X vs XP (well… that’s just an added bonus). And in the sea of computer manufacturers Apple is small fry compared to the likes of Dell et al. So the expense comes in from not being able to sell in volume. If you want a cheap Mac either buy second hand or preach to the masses what a good machine the Mac is!
Oh and as for software - do the likes of Open Office, Gimp, Scribus, VLC, MPlayer, Abiword, Firefox, Opera, Ffmpeg, Thunderbird etc., etc all sound familiar - yes that’s right, open source - free - gnu - gpl - all kinds of software installable on a Mac - by GUI’s even! and if it’s the terminal that excites you check out the packages that can be installed by Fink and DarwinPorts - they run into the thousands!!!
And as for Bling!!! - what’s wrong with not being a beige box! If you are going to shell out the price of a Mac shouldn’t it look good too?
OK sorry if I’ve ranted on a little myself but your article happened to catch me on a bad day when Linux was tying up hours for something that I can do in two minutes on a Mac si I just thought I’d redress the balance a bit! Lol
Keep up the good work
J
p.s. any tips about Hal would be welcome