I received this postcard style advertisement in this mail yesterday at work. I find it funny how they are advertising the fact that they are “replicating” these new protected DVD formats. The last time I checked the services that they are offering is illegal because I have yet to see someone’s personal movies on a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray.
A Little History
When growing up around computers like I did one tends to believe that Apple computers are one of the worst things in the world. I refused to touch a Mac computer for many years, I would tell people to get a “real computerâ€. In all honesty I did not try OS X until recently, not because I did not want to, but because I could not bring myself to spending the money buying the hardware.
When OS X was being ported over to the x86 based Intel hardware I thought for sure this was going to give me the option to run OS X on one of my home computers. It turned out that to do this you have to do quite a few workarounds and it is not legal. For me personally, I did not have a computer at the time that would support the requirements needed. I quickly went back to my ignorant ways of hating Apple.
In the last few years I grew to love Linux. I ran it extensively at home for quite a few years and refused to run much of anything else. I did use the BSDs during this period, but nothing “mainstreamâ€. I loved (and still do) the power you get when running Linux. If you do not like how something works it is open source and you can change it yourself or talk directly to the developers. This works wonderfully when everything is running smoothly, but you get a few bumps in the road and everything is out of whack. I cannot remember the number of times I’ve reformatted because it was easier than trying to fix the issue(s).
My biggest complaint with Linux has been the lack of good wireless support. My primary machine is my laptop and if it is wired there is no point in even using it. I know I am going to get people saying, “Why didn’t you try XYZ, it works great!†To put it simply, I spent many hours working on wireless. You could even say that number in days. I’ve tried nearly everything to get wireless working easily, nothing has made it even remotely similar to the ease of Windows XP with Service Pack 2. There were a few I had high hopes for, but the pain of installing them took that ease away very quickly.
Search for a Great Laptop
In January of this year my laptop literally started falling apart. So, my search was off for a new system. My requirements were that the hardware had to support the *NIX environment very well, have a resolution better than 1280×800, and be powerful enough to do everything I need. After a bunch of research I came down to two systems; Thinkpad T60p and the MacBook Pro (15inch).
Both of these systems will work with just about any distro of Linux and both have great reviews from everyone I asked. I was really in a quandary of which one to choose. There is one that I’ve had bad thoughts about for almost all my life. As well as the one that I’ve actually had bad experience with while working in a PC Services center at Intel. I thought it was going to be an easy choice of going with the Thinkpad. I could just not bring myself to buying a product that I dealt with on a daily basis and it had issues.
What does that mean? Yes, I am a owner of a 15 inch MacBook Pro.
Well, what do you think of it?
First impression, the sucker just works. After spending countless hours tweaking Linux to get it to work just right it is an amazing feeling to have a computer that just works. I had the computer running wirelessly in under half an hour. Most of that time was waiting for some (stupid in my opinion) demo video on the first boot. It also took me a bit of time to find my crazy WPA password (generated by GRC’s password generator).
Software
Once I was on the internet I started looking into how to change the theme. I have always been a fan of dark color themes, you might have noticed by the color of this site. I started to find some theme sites around that did not really explain how they worked. After a bit of searching around I found that a third party piece of software was needed to customize the interface. At this point I am really confused, even Windows had a decent interface for changing the colors. How could this “superior “operating system could not have a way to change the color scheme without paying someone else money. Thinking that I was missing something I forgot about changing the colors for a while and moved on to something that would be better.
I opened up the terminal and was soon at home. All of my simple commands were intact, for the more advanced tools I use I found neat tool called fink that is very similar to apt-get in the Debian based distros. I used this tool to install quite a few tools that I use on a daily basis and now that my computer is setup I do not use the fink all that much.
One of the things I miss most about Linux is a good package manager. When switching from MS Windows to Linux the first thing I noticed was the sheer number of free pieces of software out there. Take for example the Synaptic package manager that comes preinstalled with Ubuntu; The ability to install nearly anything with a few simple clicks is wonderful. Now I am back in a state where I have to manually look for the software and install it.
I’ve also noticed that there is not all that much free software for Macs. Coming from a world of free open source software it is a wakeup call when you get that annoying shareware popup asking for you to pay them. Come to think about it, I do not believe that I even get these messages on Windows much anymore. The only programs that I can think of that still give these are GetRight and WinRAR. I do not even use these pieces of software anymore as there are less annoying free alternatives.
Most of the open source software that I have used and love will work in OS X… with a bit of work. As most of these programs use the X11 GUI you need to install that. This requires grabbing the second DVD that came with the computer and finding the correct file to install. Not the simplest task in the world, but nothing compared to trying to edit the xorg.conf file.
Once installed I could then go about installing my other applications that needed it; primarily GIMP and Open Office. Both programs installed quite easily once the required libraries were on the system. I found a huge problem with running X11 applications in OS X, they are resource hogs and have quite a few annoyances.
When running a X11 application in OS X you may notice that it runs really slow. This is because it has to run a ton of different processes it has to run to get that one program working. I saw it using around half of my RAM with all of the processes combined. This caused everything else to slow down while the program was running.
The issue that caused me to stop using any X11 applications was the inability to keep focus. I do a bit of image editing for various purposes and I find that GIMP more than gets the job done for me. The issue with GIMP in OS X is that the panes for the program are in different windows. When going between these windows/panes things get moved around. For example, trying to move a file from one open file to another does not work properly. I do not know why, but it is annoying. Also, if you keep the program open in the background and you hover over it the program all of the sudden grabs attention. After having this happen a dozen times I had to stop using the program.
After a bit of research I found alternatives for the two X11 programs I wanted to use. For GIMP there is GIMPSHOP which integrates directly into the standard OS X GUI. It works exactly like I would expect. There is also a good alternative to OpenOffice called NeoOffice. It is based on OpenOffice, but puts the OS X feel to it. With these two alternatives to the alternatives I no longer use X11 for my everyday software.
Hardware
One of the things that has always scared me about the Mac was the mouse’s lack of two buttons. Being that my primary system is a laptop and I use the touchpad exclusively on it I need a mouse that works great. I right click a ton and I need something that is easy to use; the touchpad itself on the MacBook Pro may only have one button under it, but if you use two fingers on the touchpad it turns into a right click. You can also use your two fingers to scroll. I love this feature; I end up missing it when I get on another laptop. The mouse is something that should not be feared by PC users thinking of switching to a Mac. If you want to use a normal mouse, you can use just about any PC compatible mouse. I did have a few issues with an old wireless keyboard/mouse setup where only the keyboard works. Replacing it with a similar, but newer model worked like a charm.
I am very particular with it comes to a screen. This is the thing you are going to be looking at nonstop and I for one want it to be perfect. For this reason I refuse to get a glossy screen. I’ve worked on too many systems with this type of screen where if the light hits the screen just right it is annoying. I was told that Apple fixed this with these laptops, but under the glaring lights of the local electronics store I saw different. I am not a designer and would rather have something easy to look at for countless hours at a time than something that could cause an annoyance.
Conclusion
Overall I am extremely happy about getting a Mac. I was extremely hesitant on getting one, but I am very glad that I took this step. I am so happy that I will be recommending Macs to most people who ask me for a computer recommendation. The only reason I would say to stick with a PC today is if you are a heavy player of games. I have noticed that quite a few of the popular games end up getting ported over to OS X if they are extremely successful. If you look at Blizzard Entertainment, creators of StarCraft, WarCraft, and Diablo, all of their recent releases are released at the same time for Macs as the PC.
A computer should work. If you do not like the way something works then odds are someone has created something better. The OS that works the best for me is OS X. I do not try to force any software on someone. I feel that a user should use whatever they are comfortable with. If you are happy with Windows, I see no need for one to switch. If you were unhappy with it, like me, look around to see what else is out there. You may just find something you like better.
One of the most common things I hear about a computer company is the fact that their tech support sucks. The main reason for this is the fact that most support is outsourced and the techs are not understandable. On top of that these people are not good techs, but read prompts on a screen. When you tell them exactly what you have done before they do not skip these prompts, but continue to ask you question after stupid question.
What it all comes down to is money. A good tech is not cheap,
they want to make decent money and if they can’t they will move to
something else. It is very hard to keep someone on tech support when
they can have more fun and make more money doing something else. Most
companies outsource their tech support to India to save even more
money. They can pay a fourth of the price or less and still provide
support to the users.
There are very few companies that still
have support that is in the United States. Two examples of companies
that still have tech support locally are godaddy and Sun Microsystems.
These are a small percent of the companies out there today who do not
outsource their support. When a company’s only objective at the end of
the day is to earn money outsourcing is the way to go. They forget that
the customers will follow the company that does not out source their
support because dealing with someone with an accent that is almost
impossible to understand is a hassle.
Most people who are calling
tech support are already in a bad mood as something is not working. It
is just more aggravating to have someone that you can not understand on
the other end of the line. This causes the customer to not want to use
that product any longer and look for something else. The issue with
this is that almost all companies outsource. So, the customer is the
one losing out.
There are people who think that Sony computers are top of the line because they are more expensive. This is far from the case. Yes, they are more expensive, but they are filled with horrible hardware. They think they are special and do not follow the industry standards for hardware. This means that if you want to replace a component you have to purchase their hardware only, which is price around double what the industry price is.
Besides the hardware there are other issues, one is spyware. About a
year and a half ago my Dad purchased a Sony computer without my
advice. He got the very best Sony desktop the salesman could sell him,
probably $5k in total. The computer came loaded with spyware and
horrible hardware.
As soon as I heard about the new computer I
has them scan it for spyware, around 60 pieces in a 3 day old system.
None of which were from browsing the web, all pre-installed. I don’t
see how a computer for $5k can come with so much junk on it, it’s
outrageous.
Once the computer was cleaned up during a 3 hour
Zac-support call the computer was up and running. Well, it ran for
about 6 months until the hard drive started making funky noises. After
running a few tests I decided that the drive was dying quickly. Since
the computer was so new it was still under contract which included on
site service. Within not all that long a tech was out to replace the
hard drive. They did not offer any backup services, only to replace the
drive and start a format. The tech did not stick around long enough to
wait for Windows to finish installing. They had to finish the install,
not that unusual in tech support, but nothing special for an expensive
computer.
Another few months go by and another funky sound –
this time I found out that it was the graphics card. Instead of having
them try to deal with Sony to get a new graphics card I just had them
purchase one from the local computer store. The install went fairly
easy for them and the computer was back up and running, at least for a
while.
It was not much long after that the hard drive started
having problems again. This time everyone was mad enough at the
computer to replace it. The computer was in service for approximately a
year and a half and was replaced with a Dell that was less than half
its price.
This is just one of my experiences with Sony
computers. I have had many others that have turned out just about the
same. The horror stories with Sony far outweigh the success.
This
along with the recent rootkit event with Sony music CD’s makes me
really wonder what Sony’s intentions are. They clearly do not want to
make a superior product when it comes to their computers.They have made
a decent product with the playstation 3, but I can only imagine that
they use bad hardware in them as well. I do not have any experience
with them, but that is the conclusion I would draw in my other Sony
experiences.
I think that Sony just has too many buns in the
oven, they have so many different products that they are unable to
produce all of them very good. They have done a good job with their
TV’s, but they are overpriced and nothing all that special. I just
prefer not to use any Sony products if I have the option.
With the recent release of Intel’s quad-core for desktop systems it is making me wonder what they are thinking. Desktop systems in their current state can barely use two cores in their entirety, much less four. The issue with multi-core systems is the fact that no program for the desktop is made to utilize this feature.
Most people do not really know what cores are, much less what they
really do. The easiest way to think of a core is in its single-core
stage, the core is the part of the processor that handles the function
of processing. By this I mean its the thing that follows the
instructions given by a program to execute a task. In most cases the
more cores you have the slower each of them become. This is just a
limit of the technology of today.
One my think, “great, so
having more cores that follow the instructions things should get done
faster!” I really wish that was the case, but there are limits. In its
most basic state a program or process loads once and the instructions
can only be handled by one core. The problem becomes the fact that if
the program is processor intensive it is only handled by one of the
cores. This is wonderful if using a program that will create multiple
processes, also called threads. Most good server technology was
designed to work to work this way while the desktop is not.
Take
for example most games, they are not multi-threaded so the program will
do no better having multiple cores. In actuality they will normally
preform worse as the core speed is slower in a multi-core system.
There
are some situations where dual-cores do help in desktop computing. One
of these is if you are a multi-tasker. Each program you run has its own
thread so if one program is a resource hog the other core will handle
the other operations.
So, in all reality if you are buying a
multi-core system without a specific task in mind you are wasting your
money. There will be a time where multiple cores are necessary to run
programs, but that is in the future. The good thing I see with the
quad-core systems for the desktop coming out is that the price of all
other processors should be dropping.
There was a point not that many years ago that the United States lead the pack when it came to technology. Nowadays we are the followers rather than in the lead. Just take a look at South Korea, they now have cable that operates at 100mb/s and they have had FTTH (fiber to the home) running at those speeds for months if not years. This is just one country that is sitting at these speeds, there are many others that are just like it.
Another example where the US is far behind, cell phones. We are at
least a year and a half behind Europe and Japan. The networks are not
being upgraded nearly fast enough. The ability to play video over the
phone has been around for long while, but just recently in the States.
How can the US just sit back and stay on the 5 meg internet
connections and even slower cell networks of yesteryear? It is almost
2007 and our connection speeds are almost identical to what they were
in 2000. One theory is that the government is not pushing to upgrade
the speeds. Another is that the telecom companies are not fulfilling
their promises made in the past.
Let me first talk about the FCC
and the US government in general. The people who make the laws for
telecommunications do not know what they are talking about. Yes, they
probably have a staff who do, but when you have a Senator who calls the
internet a “Series of tubes”
it is hard to believe that this person has any control over our
internet. Not to mention the fact that the average age of Congress is 60.
How many 60 year olds do you know that are technically advanced, or are
even able to do more on a computer than some basic tasks? These people
are following the lead of the RIAA’s thinking that if the internet was faster there would be more pirating. This is another story though.
The
other theory, which might be the same in the end, is that the telecom
companies are not fulfilling their promises to upgrade their networks.
At the moment most telecom companies around the country are stagnant,
at least when it comes to home services. These companies are not
upgrading because they do not have the competition to force them ahead.
It also helps them that they have most people in Washington D.C. in
their back pockets.
Without the US Government forcing the
telecom companies to upgrade their network they will not do so. This
will not happen until we get some people in D.C. who are technology
advanced. I do not see how the same people control telecom laws are the
same as the ones who control abortion. There is the FCC, but they
really only control the laws that are passed by the Senate and House.
To
get the US back on track there needs to be an uprising of citizens.
People need to realize that we are falling behind fast. If we are not
careful we will still be on the same slow connections while the rest of
the world runs at gigabit speeds.
Most tech savvy people know how defragging their hard drive to keep Windows running smoothly, but most do not think about how to keep the disk from failing. That is where Steve Gibson’s SpinRite comes into play. This great program is a boot CD that checks each and every bit on the hard drive to see if it is a bad sector or not. If it finds a problem it will mark it so that your Operating System will not use it.
The really neat part about the program is the fact that if the hard drive has already failed this program can still help. There is the option for recovery! The process is very similar, but it will recover the bad sectors on your hard drive as well.
The program is well worth the $89 they charge for it.
I recently found the Sun Try and Buy program which sounds too good to be true. You get a computer free for 60 days with no credit card or anything. All you really need is a business tax ID and a bit of time.
Most people, including my previous self, think that Sun only makes
servers that run the SPARC processor. It turns out they offer AMD x64
processors and workstations using these processors.
After
finding the program I gave Sun a call to figure out what the catch was.
After half an hour on the phone with the salesman I found out that Sun
believes in their products so much that they are willing to give you
this hardware for a trial period. At the end of the call, which was
only supposed to be a fact finding mission, I placed my order for the
Ultra 20 M2. They have three versions of this computer you can get small, medium, and large. I got the large. Hey, if you are getting a free computer for 60 days might as well go all out.
About
two weeks later two FedEx packages come with my name on it. In one
package the keyboard, mouse, and a few other things. The other box is
the good one, the computer and all the paperwork the comes along with
it. I immediately forgot what I was doing prior the the package arrived
and started to get the new computer setup.
The
first thing I did after taking the computer out of the box was opened
it up. The first thing you can tell is that it is made to upgrade.
Every single part is easily accessible to replace or upgrade. It looks
like a really good custom computer inside a retail box. It’s simply
amazing.
The
first bootup was almost scary, no video output. The problem was I was
using the analog VGA output rather than the DVI on the NVIDIA card. The
computer has a VGA port that gets disabled if it has a PCI card
installed. After a bit of research to find this out I took the video
card out and it booted up like a charm. I later grabbed a VGA to DVI
converter to use the graphics card to get better resolutions. 1024×768
just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Solaris comes preinstalled on all
Buy and Try systems. This was my first experience with this OS and it
reminds me of a bad cross between Windows and Linux. The GUI reminds me
of Windows while the command line of Linux. It also took me 4 hours to
get all of the latest patches for the system, hey that’s like Windows.
It came preinstalled with quite a bit of software, but it was all quite old. I tried to compile my own version of GAIM
without any luck. I looked for guides to get stuff up to date, no luck.
All of the software sites I found were just as out of date. After a
half day of playing with Solaris I decided that if I really wanted to
test the system I would have to install Linux.
A quick install
of xubuntu I was up and running in my native environment. I tested the
system with quite a few different tools and the sucker scored in the
top rankings all the time. I grabbed a copy of SETI and ran it for a
while, great speeds.
After testing it for quite a while and compiling a few things I moved over to Vista.
One neat feature about Vista is the fact that it rates the computers by
their hardware. I have no idea how they come up with these numbers, but
it gave an overall 5.1 score.
Overall this is one of the
nicest systems I have used in quite some time. Everything in the
computer is made for speed and to grow with the user. This is my new
recommendation for anyone who wants a non-entry-level computer.
