Linux drove me to get a Mac

Christopher Browne cbbrowne-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
Fri Jan 9 16:01:57 UTC 2009


On Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 10:04 PM, Kamran Khan <linuxdarkstar-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On 6-Jan-09, at 3:54 PM, John McGregor wrote:
>> Ultimately platform choice is about getting your own work done. Your
>> message indicates that you have discovered that Apple provides a more
>> efficient / productive platform for you. That's a good thing. There is,
>> however, an undercurrent in your post that seems to state that the rest
>> of us on this list don't get it. We do. Linux is our platform of choice.
>> It empowers us to get our work done.
>>
> Sadly you don't get it.  It would seem that many of your cohorts on the list
> do not either.  For example the solution to print on Linux(Desktop) is to
> buy a postscript printer.  The solution to allow me to sync my SE Smart
> Phone with applications running on the Linux Desktop is?  Yes I know, buy
> hardware that works with Linux.  Like I said you don't get it.  I fail to
> see how your operating system empowers you when clearly you are a slave to
> it.

Stones can get thrown at "slaves" in all directions...

*ALL* OS platforms are restrictive in one degree or another in what
hardware they support...

- MacOS doesn't support *every* printer or scanner or network device out there;
- Nor does Linux;
- Nor does the latest iteration of Microsoft Windows;
- I had a conversation last night about Plan 9, where I mentioned that
the last time I tried installing it, I was rebuffed because it
wouldn't talk to my disk controller.  At the time (about 10 years ago
:-)), it would only "play well" with certain NSC SCSI host adapters.
Almost Mac-ish, in a way ;-).

In ALL cases, there are fairly large sets of "slightly deviant"
hardware that they won't be able to cope with terribly well.

The cross-sections of "coping" and lacking thereof are different for
each OS, and it's probably fair to say that the respective communities
each develop a certain amount of myopia surrounding their coping
mechanisms.

I decline to insult you by calling you "clearly a slave" to MacOS;
that would indeed be insulting and counterproductive to attempting to
hold a meaningful dialogue.

We see political milieus around us where the participants have
"ossified" into positions that essentially prevent them from
meaningfully communicating with one another.  In the US, Democrats and
Republicans seem to be stratifying their population into mutually
exclusive subcultures.  Canada seems to be seeing some of the same.

I find it quite distressing the degree to which I see people that
*can't imagine* how people in the "other stratum" could possibly be in
that stratum.  I quite frequently see this phenomenon in individuals
who seem to believe that they have a capacity for imagination; their
inability to grasp "other strata" seems to belie this belief of
theirs.

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that this lack of imagination
visits us here in a context such as inter-platform comparison.  But I
decline to participate.
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