Mac OS X v. Linux

[Michael Shigorin]

On Tue, Jun 28, 2005 at 01:20:59PM -0400, Eric Dunbar wrote:
> OS X is Linux's big brother.

No it's not. :)

Apple may yet have to realize the mistake they made with deciding
for proprietary, again -- it's their family mistake since around
day 1 I believe, "we'll do the software ourselves" and through
the redux of the move to open the hardware platform and let the
competition in (PowerCurve and friends) finally to OSX being free
software based to a large extent -- but being "stolen" that
(DISCLAIMER: perfectly according to the licenses TTBOMK, so it's
purely emotional, just like of TCP/IP in win2k), not
co-developed.

The cloud already has a silver lining since KHTML/Safari news
became thoughtful again though, so maybe some 12.x will have real
chance to be free software in its core -- I mean, core *being*
_free_ software, not "buried under the hood and NDA" one.

So "big brother" has to learn from "little one" big time,
on keystone matters -- he's older, but not really bigger.
(hm... "older" like in "more worn", not "more wise"; "bigger"
like in "big mind", not "big body")

That's just my personal opinion, time will tell.  If Apple stays
Apple, it may just happen either during the next "revolution" or
be the one after the next for you. :)

> It's the show case of what *can* be done with Linux, if only
> there was some will to abandon the Windows paradigm.

Uh-oh.  Thre are people who like it (Windows paradigm) as is,
there are people who find a lot of sane decisions when analyzing
them.  Still many of them realize that a lot of decisions there
are imperfect for backwards/bug [[in]experience] compatibility
or "silly" reasons like that... folks from Samba team once lend
me a bunch of links to interesting stories on that matter.

To recap, people who like MacOS have done much to reinvent it in
free software -- be it K/G projects, AfterStep or WindowMaker, 
and so on.  So it's no use of handwaving there.

> For a group of OSes that capture a lot of Windows escapees
> there's far too much Windowsification of the interfaces.
> GNOME/KDE designers haven't done their homework when it comes
> to examining good GUI design and GNOME (or KDE) is exactly the
> place to do it!

Get yourself WindowMaker, a flashback and maybe things shine
again. :)

> I don't think being a Windows clone (which is what Linux really
> feels like nowadays)

BS (and overgeneralizing). (DISCLAIMER: ...uh, not backspace)

I have more to say on cloning vs implementing from scratch [ideas]
but it's more time and I've already missed the shower again. :)

PS: saved as "for-homepage-when-it-is" in "free-vs-non-free"
department.  Maybe will elaborate there -- some time. :)

-- 
 ---- WBR, Michael Shigorin <mike at altlinux.ru>
  ------ Linux.Kiev http://www.linux.kiev.ua/