linux = impossible? (no offense meant!)

[Byron Q. Desnoyers Winmill]

On Tue, 11 Nov 2003, Taavi Burns wrote:
> Um...this is still/again the de facto way to install Mac software.

It never really went away, but it did become less common during the
System 7 to Mac OS 9 era.  It seems to be more popular with Mac OS X
because a lot of stuff is being crammed into bundles.  Don't ask me how
this is any different from resource forks (more portable, but it is
serves the same function), but the drag'n drop installation is a lot
better IMHO.

> it's a very nice, SIMPLE installer

Yes.  It reminds me of the System 6 and System 7 era installer.  Very
nice.  Also, I doubt any application needs root privilages to be
installed:

drwxrwxr-x  36 root  admin  1224 29 Oct 21:24 /Library/
drwxr-xr-x   4 root  wheel   136 29 Oct 21:24 /System/

The /System/Library path is supposed to be for Apple only.  The /Library
path is for system wide stuff, ~/Library is for user specific stuff, and
finally there is (supposed to be) a /Network/Library path.

So how many Linux users has Apple confused.  ;-)

> Have a look at the OSX Server admin utils if you ever have a chance.

I'm only running Mac OS X and Linux on this machine.  BTW, have you had
any luck with XFree86 under Linux on your PowerBook?

> And yes, OSX does provide all the CLI utils to do the GUI work

This is the bit which really impressed me: yes the standard utilities
are there, but Apple included their own CLI utilities for the netinfo
database, managing disk images, setting up AppleTalk, and certainly
others.  You can certainly use Mac OS X without the GUI, but you may
as well use Linux if you are going to to that far.  (Why lock yourself
into a subset of the available applications or restrictive licenses?)

> But why shouldn't the GUI be an art form?  Really, it should be.
> http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/index.html

The GUI isn't an artform, and that is the whole point of Apple's HI
guidelines.  The GUI should provide a consistent interface, and be based
on solid research.  Unfortunately, X11 applications do not offer either,
which may be why people find Linux difficult to use (recall, they think
the GUI is the OS).

Byron.
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