Forums » MacOS X
life as a mac weenie
i used to use windows. windows 98. for a long time. actually before that i was on Win 3.11, and Win 3.10, and DOS 5.0, Dos 3.3, Dos 2.1.... back into the mists of time, into the Ti 99/4a and the Apple II.
Fancy that , ha ha, full circle. The first computer I remember using was in 1st/2nd grade, the old Apple II. And now, 20 years later, here I am, using an Apple again.
In between, I went, as I said, through Dos and Windows. 8088, 386, 486, Miscellaneous Pentiums, Athlons, Opteron, and god knows what other silly nonsensical name they obtained from the hell hole of corporate naming conventions.
Then I even got Windows 98 SE, and worked with Windows NT 4, 2000, and XP.
In there somewhere around the 486 I got into Linux, starting with Mini Linux and moving on through various incarnations of Slackware, Redhat, Debian, SuSE, Ubuntu, and so on.
I even dabbled in FreeBSD, and had short encounters with BeOS, QNX, NetBSD, hell I even tried Plan 9.
I could carry on endless conversations about disk defragmenting, autoexec.bat files, .ini, various anti virus and/or recovery programs, 'power tools' with shiny covers and some dude in a collard shirt looking all professional and shit, likely affiliated with some glossy rag written to impress clueless business dudes and hype shit in exchange for payola. (yes i used to read those things too btw)
I went further, into various device driver linux things, RAID array stuff, kernel tweaks, various compiler versions, a.out to ELF, auto conf, automake, rpm, m4, bash, awk, sed, grep, and so forth and so on.
==============================================
the other day someone told me his computer was full of viruses. another person told me about the difficulties of installing windows 98. someone else wanted to know why Windows XP was displaying a message about some sort of auto update and internet explorer.
I also hear people going into great detail about all the differen things they try to get their machines to work. Exhaustive lists of symptoms and solutions and possible solutions and, my personal favorite, strident opinions on various corporations and/or products, laced with epithets and 'clever' uses of vulgar language.
I just, you know. I don't care any more.
I'm a Mac weenie now.
I don't see how 57 different version of some horrible program with no user interface is supposed to mean 'freedom'. Programmers payed by government or big business to write software that is given away for free.... wonderful, if you are getting payed like that. The rest of us have to earn money so we can eat and have a place to live and buy clothes.
I don't really give a rats ass about how you had to reinstall windows, fuck aroud with your drivers, turn on/off updates, dick around with your registry, or god knows what. I just don't give a shit.
I'm a Mac weenie now.
==========================
Yes. My Mac has problems. No, it won't play the latest games and so forth. But for the most part, it just sits there and works like it is supposed to. The time I spend 'dicking around' with my computer has declined like snowfall under global warming.
Yes, my Mac costs more. Then again, my time has value too. Uninstalling and reinstalling and farting around with drivers and other garbage - what can I say? To me, my time is worth at least 10 dollars an hour, and the dozens of hours I would spend 'fixing' other computers is not worth it. I don't mind paying some dudes in California 100 bucks for an operating system if it saves me 10 hours of labor.
In short, non Mac computers are like American / European cars. If you like fixing crap all the time, go ahead and get one, because stuff is probably gonna break. If, on the other hand, you like driving, go get a Honda or Toyota.
So if you like farting around on your computer, and pretending that doing so is making you 'smart' and enabling you do 'understand it better' (no, it isnt), then go ahead and stay on Linux/Windows.
If you want to do something with your computer, get a Mac. And then pray someone writes some software for it. Lolly lol!
===
If you really want to 'understand your computer better' via Linux, then go build your own distro. There are plenty of instructions out there how to do this - including single floppy distros that will guide you through modifying their init scripts and kernels and drivers and etc. Yes, that might teach you something about your computer system. And taking a few CS courses might too.
But really. Most people who say they want to 'learn about their computer', don't really. They want to feel like they are learning, and look like it, when in fact they just memorized a bunch of actions they can copy, parrot like, and tell everyone else and sound impressive. "Yeah you need to optimize your disk with defragmenting, its like, it increases seek time and de randomizes the access profile". "You get the most speed when you recompile your libc and your gcc on your own machine. And don't forget to set your xmodmap and xinitrc to deglaze your icons, so they look decent. "
Go ahead, enjoy. Tell yourself you understand the computer. Keep on telling yourself.
=====
I'll be busy.
Fancy that , ha ha, full circle. The first computer I remember using was in 1st/2nd grade, the old Apple II. And now, 20 years later, here I am, using an Apple again.
In between, I went, as I said, through Dos and Windows. 8088, 386, 486, Miscellaneous Pentiums, Athlons, Opteron, and god knows what other silly nonsensical name they obtained from the hell hole of corporate naming conventions.
Then I even got Windows 98 SE, and worked with Windows NT 4, 2000, and XP.
In there somewhere around the 486 I got into Linux, starting with Mini Linux and moving on through various incarnations of Slackware, Redhat, Debian, SuSE, Ubuntu, and so on.
I even dabbled in FreeBSD, and had short encounters with BeOS, QNX, NetBSD, hell I even tried Plan 9.
I could carry on endless conversations about disk defragmenting, autoexec.bat files, .ini, various anti virus and/or recovery programs, 'power tools' with shiny covers and some dude in a collard shirt looking all professional and shit, likely affiliated with some glossy rag written to impress clueless business dudes and hype shit in exchange for payola. (yes i used to read those things too btw)
I went further, into various device driver linux things, RAID array stuff, kernel tweaks, various compiler versions, a.out to ELF, auto conf, automake, rpm, m4, bash, awk, sed, grep, and so forth and so on.
==============================================
the other day someone told me his computer was full of viruses. another person told me about the difficulties of installing windows 98. someone else wanted to know why Windows XP was displaying a message about some sort of auto update and internet explorer.
I also hear people going into great detail about all the differen things they try to get their machines to work. Exhaustive lists of symptoms and solutions and possible solutions and, my personal favorite, strident opinions on various corporations and/or products, laced with epithets and 'clever' uses of vulgar language.
I just, you know. I don't care any more.
I'm a Mac weenie now.
I don't see how 57 different version of some horrible program with no user interface is supposed to mean 'freedom'. Programmers payed by government or big business to write software that is given away for free.... wonderful, if you are getting payed like that. The rest of us have to earn money so we can eat and have a place to live and buy clothes.
I don't really give a rats ass about how you had to reinstall windows, fuck aroud with your drivers, turn on/off updates, dick around with your registry, or god knows what. I just don't give a shit.
I'm a Mac weenie now.
==========================
Yes. My Mac has problems. No, it won't play the latest games and so forth. But for the most part, it just sits there and works like it is supposed to. The time I spend 'dicking around' with my computer has declined like snowfall under global warming.
Yes, my Mac costs more. Then again, my time has value too. Uninstalling and reinstalling and farting around with drivers and other garbage - what can I say? To me, my time is worth at least 10 dollars an hour, and the dozens of hours I would spend 'fixing' other computers is not worth it. I don't mind paying some dudes in California 100 bucks for an operating system if it saves me 10 hours of labor.
In short, non Mac computers are like American / European cars. If you like fixing crap all the time, go ahead and get one, because stuff is probably gonna break. If, on the other hand, you like driving, go get a Honda or Toyota.
So if you like farting around on your computer, and pretending that doing so is making you 'smart' and enabling you do 'understand it better' (no, it isnt), then go ahead and stay on Linux/Windows.
If you want to do something with your computer, get a Mac. And then pray someone writes some software for it. Lolly lol!
===
If you really want to 'understand your computer better' via Linux, then go build your own distro. There are plenty of instructions out there how to do this - including single floppy distros that will guide you through modifying their init scripts and kernels and drivers and etc. Yes, that might teach you something about your computer system. And taking a few CS courses might too.
But really. Most people who say they want to 'learn about their computer', don't really. They want to feel like they are learning, and look like it, when in fact they just memorized a bunch of actions they can copy, parrot like, and tell everyone else and sound impressive. "Yeah you need to optimize your disk with defragmenting, its like, it increases seek time and de randomizes the access profile". "You get the most speed when you recompile your libc and your gcc on your own machine. And don't forget to set your xmodmap and xinitrc to deglaze your icons, so they look decent. "
Go ahead, enjoy. Tell yourself you understand the computer. Keep on telling yourself.
=====
I'll be busy.
Nice speech, I am also a mac "weenie" :) Macs just work, period. Plug in some 3rd party whatever and it works. etc endless list. Its worth whateve they want me to pay. If iMac cost double i would pay double for it.
M. Duncan
M. Duncan
ahhh thats a pretty picture roguelazer
i bet you made it on a mac
i bet you made it on a mac
Completely unrelated! As if that matters in this thread!
http://www.weebls-stuff.com/wab/Christmas+4/
http://www.weebls-stuff.com/wab/Christmas+4/
Pretty gay troll pic. Where's the blood and the fangs? I mean, if I wanted to cross a bridge guarded by THAT troll, totally no way I'd pay it. I'd just kick its ass and cross anyway.
Damn Ananzi, you are almost as old as me...
I started with a 64k Apple IIe in 1981. Always had Apples though... signed (First 1000 off the line) 128k Mac upgraded to a 512k and then a Mac Plus (1MB, a faster 68000, and new ROMs) as soon as each became available... remember when Apple actually let you upgrade things? Course... the Mac Plus upgrade was a full motherboard swap... but still, least you could get a motherboard to swap. Had Macs ever since... though sometimes there was a Windows PC sitting around mostly unused too.
For some reason I thought you were just a kid...
I started with a 64k Apple IIe in 1981. Always had Apples though... signed (First 1000 off the line) 128k Mac upgraded to a 512k and then a Mac Plus (1MB, a faster 68000, and new ROMs) as soon as each became available... remember when Apple actually let you upgrade things? Course... the Mac Plus upgrade was a full motherboard swap... but still, least you could get a motherboard to swap. Had Macs ever since... though sometimes there was a Windows PC sitting around mostly unused too.
For some reason I thought you were just a kid...
He's too well-spoken to be a kid...
And the troll in teh troll pic is from a Bande Dessinée, I think from Belgium, possibly from France.
And the troll in teh troll pic is from a Bande Dessinée, I think from Belgium, possibly from France.
france yes... good comic, since i am part-french i can read it
ok so, anyone been in a snowstorm recently? Just to get back ON TOPIC. hehe