On 1/18/08, Noah Slater <address@hidden
> wrote:
On Fri, Jan 18, 2008 at 02:26:05PM +0100, Andrew Savory wrote:
> I think it's in Freakonomics where the idea of "common wisdom" is
> demolished. And I think it's on the Apple and Dell websites where the
> performance/cost issue is refuted ;-)
Can you provide specific specs vs. prices instead of hand-waving?
> Meanwhile I don't think the ability to tweak or upgrade will ensure the
> dominance of the PC platform. The upgraders and tweakers are a tiny
> minority. Most people simply don't care.
It's not the ability to tweek or upgrade that I was complaining about,
it's the ability to take the machine to any old computer shop and say
"replace my PSU please" and get the job done for 50 quid.
Instead, I have to take it to a "Genius Bar" in Sheffield and pay 600 quid.
> Heh. So my luxury-designed superquiet laptop on which I can wordprocess,
> develop software etc is more expensive than your email and web machine?
> Well, gosh .... :-)
>
> Seriously, this is just FUD. And we're supposed to be anti-FUD.
No, this isn't FUD. Where is the fear, uncertainty or doubt I am casting?
"Macs are expensive"
"Macs are difficult to fix"
"You can't upgrade a Mac"
So it's a failure of my technical skills that a compuer I bought is
braindead enough to dump me into OpenFirmware. Sure, makes sense.
At least in Open Firmware you can still do something. If you're dumped into the BIOS of a PC, you're stuck. EFI may be better, but it's still a poor substitute for Open Firmware IMHO. It's a pity even modern Macs have ditched it.
> Perhaps you should not have changed OS? Whilst I defend your right to
> switch and do whatever you like with your machine, I also defend the
> manufacturer's and the audience's right to go "har-har" when it breaks.
Well, it seems we come from very different worlds and it surprises me
you're even subscribe to this list with that kind of outlook. You may
find it acceptable for a hardware manufacture to put obstacles in your
place when you try to tinker with the stuff you have bought and to
laugh at you when you have problems...
I'd hardly call "designing for your typical customer" putting obstacles in the way. It's not like Steve Jobs sat down and thought "I know, I'll screw Noah by using a software eject. Bwahahah!".
If you change the exhaust on your car, it's your problem if the engine explodes. If you change the OS on your machine, it's your fault if the CD fails to eject or the GUI segfaults.
With great freedom comes great responsibility.
> So pick an OS that has been tested.
Debian is very well tested, it still breaks occasional on exotic
hardware.
So pick an OS that has been tested on your hardware, I should have written.
> Or donate to a project so they can afford to test.
Oh, I help out where I can.
*) FSF member #5472
*)
http://qa.debian.org/address@hidden
*) http://www.gnu.org/people/people.html#n
Hmm, can't find a list of bug reports for X on Mac there :-)
All I am saying is, if you want to run free software and you want to
own an Apple computer, caveat emptor.
There's something funny about "free software ... buyer beware" :-)
(Yes, yes ... libre not gratuit.)
2) I don't hate freedom and wanted to run a free software OS.
A.