I mortgaged my future with a Mac

https://rachelbythebay.com/w/2013/02/22/mac/

by pauljonas • 13 years ago

118 126 13 years ago

ybaumes• 13 years ago

This post would constitute a good/constructive reply to the latter article : 25 Years to Mac - How Ubuntu Pushed Me Away from the PC[1]

[1][http://randomdrake.com/2013/02/23/25-years-to-mac-how-ubuntu...]

rachelbythebay7• 13 years ago

Based on that article, I think Ubuntu probably would push me away from the PC, too. I used a variant called "Goobuntu" (guess where...) during my tenure at one particular company, and it was a mixed bag. I'm not sure how much was due to Ubuntu itself and how much was from the local meddling, but it was wonky in ways my Linux boxes normally aren't.

Put it this way - my machine at work was some beastly multi-proc Pentium 4 something or other, and my machine at home was some random gunk I put together using old parts from Micro Center. It was so old, I had to special order the CPU online because nobody in town still had them in stock. I live in the valley, and could drive to AMD in under 15 minutes. That's just nuts.

Still, my machine at home was far more responsive than my workstation ever was. There were tons of weird glitchy times where it would just sit there and lag for no apparent reason. I didn't even get the worst of it, since I ran a minimal window manager. People who went for the full-on "desktop environment" (KDE? GNOME? whatever it was on that distribution, I don't know) had even more anomalies.

When I hit my hotkey to pop open an X terminal and don't get my shell prompt in a blink of an eye, something is very wrong.

Edit: forgot something. My home machine was faster over my cable modem + ssh tunnel to work than my work machine was sitting on the corp gigabit Ethernet. Think about that.

keithpeter3• 13 years ago

Ubuntu is full fat and runs a lot of processes by default.

Once Canonical have the device drivers sorted for native linux on a range of hardware, there is nothing stopping anyone putting arch or slackware on the same platforms. Perhaps some extra gunk in the kernel.

derefr3• 13 years ago

> Still, my machine at home was far more responsive than my workstation ever was. There were tons of weird glitchy times where it would just sit there and lag for no apparent reason.

I never worked for Big G, but I've felt that exact pain before--that sounds like the classic "enterprise diskless workstation problem." Lots of big companies like to obviate reimaging their Linux boxes by just mounting /usr over NFS. Then, they don't fan-in correctly, so they have too few servers serving too many clients with too little disk locality between requests, so your request to read, say, a font from /usr/share/fonts has to sit in a queue.

Please, if you are a sysadmin who does this: just run a daemon which, in effect, rsyncs the system to the disk server instead. Your workstations have big disks, sitting around doing nothing. You can be as clever as you want, serving squashfs underlay images over bittorrent in the background and then switching out the rootfs link on download completion--just, please, do something other than NFS. NFS is meant for shared filesystems that change; it has absolutely no advantages for a shared read-only rootfs.

rjbond3rd• 13 years ago

DIY is a great lifestyle. And it comes with many positive benefits, not least of which affect mood and outlook.

I'm typing this on a 7-year-old Thinkpad X60s, and with the right Firefox add-ons, surfing feels more responsive than on my (untuned, unoptimized) i7. The clunker is way more fun.

Getting something relatively "perfect" and finished is just not as fun as having something which needs a lot of fixing, assembly, experimentation, etc. If only for the feeling of control, transparency and understanding how things work, it's worth it.

johnminter2• 13 years ago

One significant point that you made in your original post was that you did your Linux upgrades on your own schedule to meet your own needs. This cannot be overstated.

I understand David Drake's issues with Ubuntu 12.04 with the bloated GUI that comes out of the box - but there are less problematic alternatives, such as Xubuntu. Still, he was right about the time he spent searching for how to fix configuration issues. I would love to hear his take 6 months after he has been on MacOSX if he uses it for serious coding outside of the Apple ecosystem. I use Homebrew on my MacBook Pro and do just as much searching for how to get some code to port because of idiosyncrasies in OSX. Still, I do like my 2009 MBP on Mountain Lion.

conroe64• 13 years ago

It had me until she wrote (when comparing to iOS) " Android is obviously out of the question since it's just a different flavor of the same garbage". How can an opensource OS be just another flavor of the entirely closed and walled off iPhone?

comex2• 13 years ago

natermer, FYI, your comment is marked dead.

curiousdannii• 13 years ago

Maybe because of the last three words?

rachelbythebay7• 13 years ago

iOS: sell your soul to Apple.

Android: sell your soul to Google.

The thing is, I already did the second one to a far greater degree than most people ever do. I'm not about to repeat it.

w1ntermute3• 13 years ago

> Android: sell your soul to Google.

Nobody is forcing you to use Google apps on an Android device. If the market decides that the Google experience is subpar, they will be replaced. This has already sort of happened with the Kindle Fire. It forced Google to respond with a better device (the Nexus 7).

noahl• 13 years ago

What about the Ubuntu Phone? It might also make an offer for your soul, but I think it will let you say no. (Not that we have too much information about it yet.)

vetinari• 13 years ago

I'm using an Android phone without Google.

It is business phone, so all the mail-contact-calendar data live on Exchange server, not on Gmail.

The only one thing that you really need google account for is the Play Store. If you do not need anything from there or can get the applications from elsewhere, I cannot not see why you could not use Android phone without google account.

Tichy• 13 years ago

Apparently you can install Ubuntu on the Galalxy Nexus and the Nexus 4. Might be an option? Firefox OS is also coming up...

epistasis• 13 years ago

I'm not sure I understand the specific complaints in the post. The metadata in iTunes is stored in a standard way, attached to the audio files themselves. All the playlists, repeated track infromation, etc, is stored in an XML file with simple structure. This should be as easy to convert as if the music database had been stored anywhere else.

Similarly, for iPhoto, much of the metadata is attached to the photos themselves. The album information is in very simple XML. I'm not sure how the cropping, rotation, etc, are stored, but the final JPEG can be exported from the UI, and nearly all these applications are highly scriptable.

Storing data in any application results in some restrictions in how that data can be transformed and/or used in the future. The iApps use fairly transparent data formats that are accessible to pretty much any programmer. I'm not sure if there's any open source alternatives to these apps that make it much easier to pull out data. Putting data in these apps is not mortgaging your future as much as putting your documents in MS Office format, for example.

crististm4• 13 years ago

"Storing data in any application results in some restrictions [...]" - I think you understand her point pretty well.

crusso3• 13 years ago

No, because the author mentioned that it's some kind of Mac problem. You'd have the exact same problems switching from "free" software running on Linux.

Really, I think the article should have been titled: I am Now Dependent on Modern Technology and Don't Like the Alternative

coldtea4• 13 years ago

No, he doesn't, and I don't too.

How would that be different with any Open Source application?

There is NO common interchange format for music information besides the embedded mp3 metadata. Of course iTunes (and ANY other player, OSS or not) has to store non-standard stuff outside those. And even if it stored them inside, there is no consensus about the naming and interoperability for metadata not in the standard list.

So there's nothing in her points that can be particularly applied to Apple or iTunes.

It just makes no sense to say "I'm going to use Ubuntu mp3 players because of this" -- because the situation there would be the same.

spindritf• 13 years ago

> Storing data in any application results in some restrictions in how that data can be transformed and/or used in the future.

And not all applications are equal in that regard. I store plenty of data in Dropbox, never run into any problems. Same with git, mutt, Shotwell, Rhythmbox... Usually, exporting doesn't involve any action. All the data is just stored in files that can be used by any application.

There is a strong correlation between free software and convenient data formats. Why pretend that all software has those same problems to a similar degree?

nirvana5• 13 years ago

Except that in the case of all the data she's complaining about the Apple products DO use conveneint data formats. The MP3 structure supports tags in the files as a standard going back to the 1990s and Apple supports it.

I don't think Linux storing MP3s in a directory is superior to iTunes storing them in a directory structure (organized by artist name).

ctdonath• 13 years ago

So...she admits settling on the best option available, and complains that downgrading would be uncomfortable?

comex2• 13 years ago

It's hard to tell what the author's actual complaints about OS X are (the reasons why she's moving away from it) - there's a Lion bug that's extremely unrealistically blamed on Steve Jobs, and some vague complaints about "going off the rails".

It's possible to export from both iTunes and iPhoto, and probably not particularly harder than it would be to export from a similar application for Linux.

edit: gender.

slater• 13 years ago

She.

iheartmemcache• 13 years ago

I think the whole point of OS X is for it to be user-friendly enough for people to not have to deal the nitty-gritty underpinnings of Linux. I don't mind getting close to the metal since I'm a software engineer née systems guy (wasted high-school youth? pff). In fact my primary dev box is Arch/emacs/awesome so needless to say I spend a fair amount of time in my dotfiles and editing scripts.

I'm not entirely informed as to the details of the export procedure. But I think it's a fair expectation for an OS X user to not to deal with all of the nitty-gritty details of Linux. Saying "its as easy to do in OS X as it is in Linux" isn't really a fair defense.

hrktb• 13 years ago

The comparison with linux makes it look like there is a tried and true way to export your data, and iTunes or iPhoto devs are just too complacent to so it, as linux devs are as well.

That's not the case IMO. There's just no perfect procedure for moving your data from iPhoto or iTunes to anything else. Most of the things the author lists (preferences, usage data, starring etc) can't be storred in any universally compatible format under any OS. You can export all your photo at once, but it will be the bare files and anything that can't be storred as exif or id3 data will be gone, except if you are willing to deal with the nitty gritty stuffs, and make a script to move these data by yourself.

Actually she's ranting about the lack of a universal data format keeping as much information as iPhoto or iTunes keeps in database. That's a gvalid rant I think, but it's a problem of a higher level than iPhoto or iTunes export functions, or using OS X or linux.

Anechoic• 13 years ago

Saying "its as easy to do in OS X as it is in Linux" isn't really a fair defense.

If it's "easy" that she wants: drag and drop her music/pictures from iTunes/iPhoto window to a network drive/USB drive/Firewire drive.

mgkimsal3• 13 years ago

I mortgaged my future with KDE several years ago, and the KDE project "went off the rails" with v4. My usual ways of working weren't improved with new benefits - the entire rug was pulled out from under me. All my effort in learning KDE stuff, and putting my data in KDE apps was wasted, as I had to spend time to migrate all that data to other apps.

I'm being somewhat sarcastic, but also honest - I used KDE as a primary desktop for several years, but v4 was too radically different, and migrating away to another system was not fun.

w1ntermute3• 13 years ago

You should've just waited a year or two and not upgraded to KDE 4. KDE 4.10 (the latest version) works just fine.

That said, I'm an Xfce user, and I love it because things never change.

mgkimsal3• 13 years ago

I didn't like the direction it was going at all. I tried it again last year in a VM - it's OK, but doesn't have whatever it was that attracted me to KDE3 (and 2 before that) in the first place.

crististm4• 13 years ago

When I could not bear the KDE4 anymore, I tried KDE3 again for a while and then switched to Xfce. If they deviate from their goal I'll figure out what to do. But for now, KDE4 and Gnome3 are out of the question.

iso-8859-1• 13 years ago

You don't need to see KDE SC 4 as the successor of KDE 3 even if they have the same name. Just use http://www.trinitydesktop.org/

KDE people just reused the name because of marketing.

webwielder2• 13 years ago

I would be able to stomach this vague, disjointed rant if it had a different title, something like "I am experiencing minor inconveniences as a result of wanting to switch computing platforms".

ishansharma2• 13 years ago

But why would she want to switch? Some of the best code editors are there for the Mac. Why fix it if it is not broken?

helmut_hed• 13 years ago

IMO she did a good job of capturing the Linux vs. proprietary system tensions a technically sophisticated user might experience. I've had (and have) similar problems myself.

ishansharma2• 13 years ago

Now that makes me think twice before getting a Mac. Though I own an iPhone and an iPad and am happy with both devices. iTunes 11 is good and actually much better than iTunes 10.

And I have no idea why someone would stay on iOS 5. iOS 6 has quite a lot of new features. Only reason to stay on an older version would be to make sure that your phone stays speedy(I have noticed that iPhones tend to get a bit slower with each major upgrade).

I played with a Mac in a showroom today and it seemed much better than the mess that Windows 8 is right now(tried it for 3 months, now back to 7!)

__david__3• 13 years ago

I agree with you about iTunes 11. I was scared since I knew they were changing the look up dramatically, but I have to say after giving it a fair shake, I like it much better than the old one. The "up next" list is absolutely 100% better than the old way.

Now when I'm coding I put it on random, go through the list pruning away all the crap I'm not in the mood for (which takes about 1 or 2 minutes) and then I've got an hour or 2 of solid music that's random but vetted. It's great for setting up a nice zone.

I used to get yanked out of my zone every time something came on that I didn't want to hear (it's a small yank, but a yank nonetheless).

S_A_P• 13 years ago

I think that the mention of "post Steve" jitters is largely false. OSX has never been perfect and has always had quirks. iTunes has never been a flawless interface and missteps happened while Steve was there (mobile me, etc). People seem to be misremembering apple as being perfect while Steve was there. For the most part, the people that make macs/iPhones, etc are the same as when Steve was there. Sure Steve was a great inspirer of polish and set the bar high, but he didn't create these things. Apple hasn't gone to shit since be died. I'm not even sure you could really say their trajectory has changed since he left. She seems like she gets bored with tech after a while, and she just wants to change so she is constructing a reason to switch.

rayiner• 13 years ago

Sitting here, still using a Mac as a dev/everything machine. I know Lion is supposed to suck and all, but my 2010 MBA still gets insane battery life under OS X, the tool chain is top-notch (Clang, LLVM, etc), there have been a ton of improvements under the hood (TLS support being a big one), and I actually appreciate full-screen XCode or Emacs given the 13" screen. Even Xcode seems to, in 4.6, be getting back to the stability levels of 3.x.

I'm not seeing it. This "Apple doesn't care about the Mac" "OS X is going downhill" griping is lost on me. Was 10.4 -> 10.5 really a much bigger change? Or 10.5 -> 10.6? OS X has always had very incremental, gradual changes, and now that it's pushing more than a decade old it's pretty mature and doesn't need to be revamped every other day. At the same time, for all the teeth gnashing about walled gardens, Apple still ships the thing with a terminal, there is XCode in the App Store, etc.

niggler2• 13 years ago

"Apple doesn't care about the Mac"

There are two different arguments here:

1) Apple axed xserve and basically made it a risk to depend on osx servers (they may decide to axe the mac pro without warning). This is a legitimate argument.

2) The OS feels more consumer based and buggy. I think osx coasted on the lack of popularity for years (if you are writing malware, are you going to target a small mac population or the wide windows population?) and the market penetration is improving. So what we are seeing now is the world adjusting to the idea that osx is a more popular OS.

nirvana5• 13 years ago

If OS X hasn't advanced as much as people would like, I suspect that has a lot to do with iOS sucking up a large portion of Apple's developer resources.

However they are over that hump and over the past 2 years with Mountain Lion they're moving faster on OS X than they have in the past.

IF they keep to what they said they intended to do, we'll have the follow on to Mountain Lion announced pretty soon.

bitcartel• 13 years ago

I've never managed to get the advertised battery life out of an MBA, even when straight out of the box. What kind of battery life are you getting? What is your battery cycle count?

crusso3• 13 years ago

Yeah, this is a really weak set of complaints to sail to the number one HN spot on a Saturday.

None of the problems seem like real problems.

Even the concern that Apple is post-Steve is insubstantial. I'm watching for signs of that eventual decline as much as the next Apple user, but there isn't any product degradation evidence... yet.

revelation• 13 years ago

Not an OSX user, but many of the complaints seem to stem from Apples crusade on filesystems. For many (even not power users) this can lead to data loss; you open a file and sketch out some changes, and everything was magically written to the disk without you ever noticing so now you can't get the old data back.

nirvana5• 13 years ago

This perspective is inaccurate. The auto-save feature is versioned, so if you want to go back to an eariler version, you can, and in fact, it's much easier. In the past if you made changes and saved the file, only the latest save was on the filesystme, now you can go back in history even past the last save.

You're able to get old data back now in a way that you couldn't before... and can't on other systems.

Whoever represented it as some sort of data loss was confused or lying.

itistoday2• 13 years ago

HN... why are you upvoting this to #1...? I say HN "is going downhill". There's so very little substance here.

stevejb• 13 years ago

The concluding sentence, "I'm not looking forward to the next couple of years in tech.", strikes me as incredibly odd. The technologies and software that we have available, whether you use Linux, OSX, or Windows, or anything else, has more potential than ever before. It seems like something to be excited about.

johnminter2• 13 years ago

Perhaps because she realizes how much work it will be for her. If one uses many non-standard applications, changing platforms or even a clean install of an OS - Win, Mac, or Linux takes a lot of effort before one can get back to the productive work one bought the system to do. That is complicated by interoperability with auxiliary devices. Choice can be great but often comes with consequences that can be costly. Hmmm - isn't that really the message of Rachel's rant...

dechols• 13 years ago

It does not matter the platform you use. The data you use is far, far more important.

I use Windows 8, Linux, and Mac OSX boxes on a daily basis. I play music from all of them. I watch movies, view photos, and browse the web from all of them. I code on all of them.

The reason I'm able to do this is because I've relentlessly managed my data and set up systems to allow that data to be shared effectively between environments.

All of these people who say, "this OS is way better!" are missing the point. Each one does a good job at something. Here's a surface analysis:

Linux: Best for automation. LAMPP. Industrial strength box for administration, security, and development. Great performance. Has problems with applications that require advanced graphics or specific sets of drivers (read: games). Can accomplish almost all basic computing tasks without an issue. All of these things make it a great server OS and great for high performance applications too.

Mac: Best for consumption. Beautiful UI, intuitive software, merging of hardware and software. Has problems with any sort of software that requires performant hardware because hardware is far more expensive. Can accomplish almost all basic computing tasks without an issue. All of these things make it a great laptop OS.

Windows: Best for games. Good performance. Not as good performance as linux, but incredible driver support means that most users will see better performance on Windows. Can accomplish almost all basic computing tasks without an issue. Makes Windows by far the best gaming box, but also very comparable to other OS in other applications (except server role.)

The lesson here is: Use the right tool for the right job, and make your data tool agnostic.

scholia2• 13 years ago

You left out: "Windows: Best for business and enterprise software"

olefoo• 13 years ago

Enterprise software is a game; corporations are just really boring LARPs.

pro-tip: 5th level marketing droids can be defeated if you ask them to sell something to themselves...

eric-hu• 13 years ago

If I may ask, what do you code on each platform?

I've got my vim files set up to be mostly cross compatible between OS X and Ubuntu, but I recently borfed my build process on Ubuntu (12.04) by upgrading vim to a newer version on a custom PPA.

niggler2• 13 years ago

"So, I just sat there and lived the passive life of a consumer at home. I clicked around the web and read stuff. I talked to people online. I listened to my music and watched the latest cat videos. I watched a lot of TV. But I didn't write any code. Oh no."

nothing stops you from writing code on OSX. Plenty of people do it for their business. IOKit is strange coming from a Linux world, sure, but it works as well as you would expect. It's a pain but it's possible to write kexts and other low level osx stuff.

"All of my music is in iTunes, having been re-imported from the original CDs over a period of time. I can just re-rip all of it on my Linux box, but that's going to suck. Or, I can try to grovel around in their grungy database and try to make sense of it and "export" things, but I'm sure that will be even worse."

I don't understand the itunes complaint here. If you are leaving the mac ecosystem, the most you lose is the playlists -- the metadata is still stored in the individual files and VLC is perfectly competent in playing those files. It's not like itunes magically combined all the files in one big mess.

"Then there's my phone. How do you use one of these things without a computer upon which to sync your data and backups?"

Windows VM?

mtts2• 13 years ago

>> "Then there's my phone. How do you use one of these things without a computer upon which to sync your data and backups?" >> Windows VM?

That only works when you disable USB on the host (which makes USB keyboards and mice temporarily unusable) while the Windows VM is running. And even then it sometimes just stops working after a while.

It's one of the reasons I ditched my iPhone and got an Android device.

derefr3• 13 years ago

What VM program were you using? In VMWare, at least, whenever a device with a "new" USB hardware ID is plugged in, it prompts you whether it should attach it to the host or guest (and you can change this for each device at any time.)

ChrisClark• 13 years ago

You don't have to disable USB completely. With VirtualBox I just pass through the specific USB device I want to use, everything else remains working on Linux for me.

spartango• 13 years ago

> IOKit is strange coming from a Linux world, sure, but it works as well as you would expect. It's a pain but it's possible to write kexts and other low level osx stuff.

Indeed, I've found working with IOKit and kernel-mode bits in OSX a nicer experience than in Linux. Some of the things were very well thought out and quite elegant, and their documentation is surprisingly good.

gammarator• 13 years ago

"But I didn't write any code. Oh no."

I think this was a reference to burnout from work, not a complaint about the OS X dev environment.

onedognight• 13 years ago

> If you are leaving the mac ecosystem, the most you lose is the playlists

Right-click -> "Export" -> Select M3U8

fatalerrorx3• 13 years ago

It seems like backing up your media files to a Dropbox-like service instead of iCloud would solve the problem of being able to get your files from any device you want.

I'm not attached to any one device in particular because all of my content is stored on a third party that can be accessed from anywhere.

I could drop my Macbook Pro or iPhone 4 at any time and not feel like I'm missing something.

Good thing about Apple products is that they last awhile, my Macbook Pro is now 3 years old, and my iPhone 4 is 2 years old, and I haven't had any issues and don't plan on upgrading them until they break.

scholia2• 13 years ago

I think that's the shortest definition of "lasts a while" that I've ever seen.

Posted from my almost-8-year-old desktop running Windows XP.

zoidb• 13 years ago

the way I read this is that it is less about not having control over your data (pictures and music?) less about freedom and software and more about just wanting a piece of portable hardware that works for simple tasks. I can sympathize with you if that's the case; It seems like every laptop I've bought for the purpose of running Linux has been a hassle and I don't enjoy the tinkering as much as I used to. I haven't given in yet though.

Alex3917• 13 years ago

Given the choice between having all my files stolen and my credit destroyed by russian hackers and having to eventually figure out how to get my photos out from iPhoto, I'll choose the latter any day.

miles• 13 years ago

But, I'm stuck. All of my music is in iTunes, having been re-imported from the original CDs over a period of time. I can just re-rip all of it on my Linux box, but that's going to suck. Or, I can try to grovel around in their grungy database and try to make sense of it and "export" things, but I'm sure that will be even worse.

You'll find all of your music neatly organized here: /Users/username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Music

Another problem is going to be iPhoto. I've cropped, rotated, geotagged, sharpened, level-adjusted, and done countless other things to my thousands of pictures. They all also live in some database which is effectively opaque. While there's probably some way to get it out, it will be far from trivial.

It's pretty trivial:

http://macs.about.com/od/appleconsumersoftware/ss/Iphoto-Lib...

You can export the original or current versions, as well as converting to JPEG, TIFF, or PNG, retaining location info, metadata, etc (depending on the chosen format). Exported photos can be assigned filenames by title, original filename, sequence, or album name with number.

philiac• 13 years ago

The author seems to desire a needlessly complicated way to make these things happen.

mgkimsal3• 13 years ago

Perhaps converting some of those processes in to shell scripts that invoke libraries which only compile with custom-patched versions of GCC would help. Having the entire set of scripts be solely located in a ZIP file on a tumblr page from 3 years ago would be icing on the cake.

astrodust• 13 years ago

When you're working for a company that has priorities other than you fussing around with your open-source this and open-source that, then naturally the OS X way of doing things becomes easier.

When you're on your own and might appreciate a distraction from the day-to-day coding by, you know, source-patching your open-source media player to fix an irritating bug, the Linux ecosystem provides endless opportunities.

There's a lot to be said for both environments. If you want to be an active participant in building the software you use on a daily basis, Linux is certainly more open in that regard. That's not to say that there aren't a lot of first-class open-source packages on OS X that can be contributed to.

trotsky• 13 years ago

Sometimes when you're down everything looks like a huge mountain to climb. I'm all for relinuxing! The itunes is just a tree of mp3's now, so it'll be super easy to import into whatever. Best way to take control of your phone (no mater the brand) is to jailbreak it. Poof, your mortgage is paid off.

manaskarekar• 13 years ago

I am at a point where a computer is an appliance to me. The requirements while I develop a workflow try to keep it that way. There is of course some limit to this, but given the options I try my best.

The often discussed but rarely given the credit it deserves in such discussions value in linux/open source software is the, well, openness.

As I just mentioned in one other post, I loved Ubuntu until 10.10. With Unity, they pulled the rug from under me. It became buggy even after choosing Gnome-Classic etc to be used with latter versions.

But I had tens of options to choose from without affecting my workflow too much. Colleagues have since moved to Linux Mint without as much as a 'I miss this from Ubuntu..' and I have moved to Lubuntu.

There's Arch and Slackware if you know what you're doing.

None of these make you wonder what tomorrow will bring and if it does bring something you don't like, you're not cornered. You can choose what to do.

I mean this is the simplest most obvious advantage of choosing Linux. Some people choose to give in to the walled garden for the seamless experience, but you live by the sword, you die by the sword.

And that's really okay, just choose what works for you best.

step3• 13 years ago

So if there's not any good software for exporting iTunes and iPhoto data, sounds like a great opportunity to write something you can sell for $10 a pop.

I'm pretty sure there are already some decent options, though, especially for a programmer.

Regarding the commentary on the phone, it doesn't sound like the complaint is specific to Apple. The author categorically lists every major type of phone and dismisses them all.

There comes a point where it's useless to talk about what you don't like, and figure out what you do like. I take all of these "I'm going to start carrying around a regular phone, a regular camera, a Fodor's guide to the city I live in, a compass, a map, a notebook, a pen, and a gameboy" posts with a grain of salt.

matwood• 13 years ago

I'm confused about this line. I ripped all of my CDs to AAC using iTunes over the years and recently upped all of it to Google Music without any issue.

Oddly enough, the only format that has ever given me any problem with interoperability has been OGG.

celerity• 13 years ago

I moved my music from iTunes to Linux and back many times. It's really just a matter of finding the files (trivial) and copy-pasting (trivial).

I also don't understand the author's preferences. Macs weren't good enough for programming, so (s?)he switched to Linux. This was the whole cause of the iTunes trouble. Why does it, then, matter whether Macs are going downhill or not?

ricardobeat• 13 years ago

So she never actually used the MacBook for development yet says it "wasn't cutting it"? What specifically was missing that you can only get on Linux?

She also paints the consumption-only device picture, yet it has nothing to do with the machine, only herself; that and the post-steve thing makes it look like she's just regurgitating the stereotypical anti-Apple ideas.

rdouble• 13 years ago

Music and photos and associated metadata on OSX are stored in standard file formats. It's trivial to write a program to extract them, using a programming language already installed on the machine.

joshlane42• 13 years ago

I agree with the author.

I resisted Apple products for a long time for the same reason. As someone who was brought up with a command line OS and a basic knowledge of file structure I hate how Apple "tries" to take this away from their users.

I say try. I bought a MBP in 2009 because I loved the physical machine (aluminum unibody). With time I was able to use the OS without it controlling me. All of my music is ripped on EAC in MP3 VBR format. I add the folders to iTunes and do not allow it to "organize" the folders for me. I do not use iPhoto because of the way it treats the files. I maintain my own file structure. I can see how this would frustrate a lot of people. I put up with it because I think it's the best combination of hardware and software available at this time.

derefr3• 13 years ago

> All of my music is ripped on EAC in MP3 VBR format.

Why exactly? MP4 (M4A) is a less patent-encumbered format, and also has higher sound quality for the same filesize, and still plays on everything (except, I guess, decade-old MP3 players.) I can understand not wanting to use DRMed/fingerprinted songs downloaded from iTMS, but the file format itself is just better. Or are you one of those people who sticks to using RARs now that 7zip/libxz exists?

joshlane42• 13 years ago

> Why exactly?

I haven't spent the time to stay up on codec development. I by all of my music in a physical format (usually a CD). I like the redundancy and the DRM free-ness of it. The last time I seriously investigated (and ripped the bulk of my library) was in 2005 when I was also active on Oink. The prevailing opinion then was that EAC with LAME and VBR was the best trade off of a secure rip, high audio quality and small file size. To let iTunes rip with it's default AAC codec produced to many errors. Also, at the time I was on a Windows machine and iTunes was so bloated and slow I refused to use it. I had an early iPod with Rockbox which freed me from the need to ever use iTunes.

When I got my MBP, I initially used RubyRipper. Then I found XLD and have been happy with it since (using LAME+VBR settings).

kintamanimatt• 13 years ago

> Android is obviously out of the question since it's just a different flavor of the same garbage

I'm not sure this makes sense. Prior to this she seems to be saying she'll be having issues using her iPhone without OS X. Is she saying she'll also be having issues syncing an Android phone with Linux?

Create• 13 years ago

Android is obviously out of the question since it's just a different flavor of the same garbage

Not quite:

http://f-droid.org/

http://replicant.us/

http://www.cyanogenmod.org/

MatthewPhillips3• 13 years ago

I'm constantly amazed by how many informed people have allowed themselves to be locked into the iTunes ecosystem. Apple has made it pretty clear in recent years that iTunes for Windows was the exception, and that they are never going to build software for other platforms ever again.

I know that there is some convenience to buy iTunes if you are using Apple devices. Of course, most of that convenience is due to restrictions in the platform that make in impossible for others to be profitable and convenient at the same time.

But nevertheless, it amazes me that some people are so content with the Apple world that they can never foresee themselves leaving it. I've never been that content with anything I purchase, so maybe it's just me.

Remember that Apple makes its money selling hardware. So they'll never have a reason to make it easy for you to use iTunes-bought content anywhere else. That's why I buy from Amazon. It's content selection is just as good, but it is available on nearly every platform imaginable. It does this because content is its business. So I can feel confident when I buy a new tablet or set-top box that I can probably watch all of the Amazon content I've purchased over the years.

blub2• 13 years ago

I don't see what you mean. All my music in iTunes is neatly organized inside the Music folder - DRM free and easily copied to any device. The iPhone is a different matter, you have to accept that you will lose (a lot of) freedom for the syncing convenience. There are some apps that allow you to exchange data over wifi through FTP/WebDav when one does not want to use iTunes at all.

MatthewPhillips3• 13 years ago

I guess I'm thinking of TV shows and movies, which are DRMed.

WiseWeasel3• 13 years ago

iTunes Music Store sells standard format AAC files which can be played anywhere, freely converted, etc.; there's no DRM or anything. How is iTunes locking you in?

coldtea4• 13 years ago

As much as I don't like using the word "FUD", this piece pretty much begs for it. Or, rather, the usual semi-informed opinions presented as fact.

For example:

>They're going down a road where I don't want to follow.

What road exactly is that? Anything concrete, or simply you don't like the Mac UI anymore? Because the "lock-up" things are just BS. There's nothing you cannot do in a modern OS X that you could in OS 10.1. The App Store just makes it more convenient, and sandboxing is optional.

>I don't intend to use whatever comes after Mountain Lion -- not that they even talk about OS X any more.

They don't? Last time I checked they had two Keynote presentations about Mountain Lion, which was released half a year ago. And they announced IIRC that they OS X will be released in an annual basis. Plus, they released several new laptops with some state-of-the-art features (hi-dpi displays) in the last 10 months and the redesigned iMacs. And yes, those are meant to run OS X.

>But, I'm stuck. All of my music is in iTunes, having been re-imported from the original CDs over a period of time. I can just re-rip all of it on my Linux box, but that's going to suck. Or, I can try to grovel around in their grungy database and try to make sense of it and "export" things, but I'm sure that will be even worse.

What exactly will be worse? Just copy the files over. You can even arrange iTunes to put it in nice folders based on album/artist for you. The mp3 metadata will still be there, because it's in the file. You might lost some data like "scores" and "recently played" but the same would be true with any player, open source or not. There's not a standard format to interchange such things.

>Another problem is going to be iPhoto. I've cropped, rotated, geotagged, sharpened, level-adjusted, and done countless other things to my thousands of pictures. They all also live in some database which is effectively opaque. While there's probably some way to get it out, it will be far from trivial.

Really? Because I find it quite trivial. Just drag the bloody images out of iPhoto and to the desktop. Or "export". Or use one of ten utilities to help you with the process and offer more control. Or write a ten minute Applescript.

tteam• 13 years ago

Use our tonido software to stream your itunes playlist from anywhere! :)

kybernetyk• 13 years ago

Hmm ... so if I switch to Linux I suddenly become a more productive programmer?

Sorry, but that sounds like what I often read in photography forums: "If I had a better/more expensive camera I'd be making better pictures."

nirvana5• 13 years ago

The idea that Apple has her data all locked up is completely asinine. Frankly, saying so is dishonest. Apple has been careful to not do what she describes. It's hypocrtical to say that Linux which stores stuff in a directory structure is good while, Macs, which do the exact same thing with the data she's complaining about are "opaque"

Mountain Lion was the first of a once-a-year update cycle, and contrary to "not even talking about it anymore" they are updating it more frequently than ever. (we're due for the announcement of the next version in a few weeks.)

iTunes - Stores music you ripped in standards based format, AAC or MP3. It's easy to get at as it all lives in folders on your machine that aren't exactly opaque (it even organizes your music by artist, etc.) The database file is just an index of the music that keeps track of play counts, etc. You don't need that.

iPhoto - Again, stores all your images in standard formats. You can export the photos with all your changes if you want. They, again, live on your hard drive in a reasonable standard directory structure, and if you want you can export within iPhoto. Not only is there no opaque database it is QUITE trivial to get your data out.

iPhone Syncing- you don't need a machine to do that anymore you can do it online, including backing up to the cloud if you wish. Maybe because she deliberately hasn't updated its software it doesn't have that feature, but that's her choice, not a problem with the product.

iCloud- the idea that you'd have to be "crazy" to do that is BS.

Her saying the mac isn't good for development makes me question her tech skills. Either that or she just cant' be bothered to discover homebrew or to notice that all the open source projects support the mac for development these days.

Sigh, just another mindless, dishonest, ant-Apple rant.

The thing is, if Apple was so bad, you could bring up legitimate criticisms, rather than use "I can't be bothered to spend 2 minutes goggling therefore it cant' be done" type claims.

rachelbythebay7• 13 years ago

My tech skills are sub-par. 10 year old children code circles around me. I sob when I see a command line. Circular data structures make me dizzy.

I am a fraud.

nirvana5• 13 years ago

Well, you did call a directory structure that is easy to navigate "opaque", and all of your criticisms are like those from someone who hasn't bothered to even try and figure out how to accomplish what you claim to want to do.

It would be better if your tech skills really were sub-par, because that would mean your integrity isn't called into question by the dishonesty in your post.

javajosh2• 13 years ago

Hi Rachel. What timing. Just yesterday I realized what I call the "primordial criticism":

    Good products get used.
    Usage creates dependency.
    Dependency is bad.
    Therefore, good products are bad.

Since bad products are bad, and good products are bad, all products are bad! You have just plugged in OSX into the syllogism.

But the syllogism results in a contradiction. So one of our assertions is wrong. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to decide which it is.

P.S. use Picasa on OSX, not iPhoto. And iTunes does indeed suck and I don't understand why someone hasn't written a replacement for it that fits the Sparrow:Mail==X:iPhoto equation. Perhaps I'll take a crack at it.

rachelbythebay7• 13 years ago

They were fine. They changed.

You can't not upgrade, either, since then you're subject to security holes and other anomalies as the upstream provider decides to leave you behind. My original iPad had this happen to it last year. My Mac will follow soon, I'm sure.

javajosh2• 13 years ago

I hear ya. I needed to compile PhoneGap (now Apache Cordova) last week and found that my 'old' version of XCode wouldn't work. I was running Snow Leopard/XCode 3. The new version of XCode requires Mountain Lion. So I had to upgrade the OS, even though I didn't want to. (And it refused to install to a hard drive without a reformat, which was, of course, deeply unpleasant.)

Personally, I really like the idea of Chrome OS but with most of "the cloud" hosted locally, backed by (mostly) straight up files. This cloud only listens on localhost, and so security is less of an issue. Moving to a new machine should be an rsync command.

One can dream.

dasil003• 13 years ago

Apple was always about relentless forward progress and leaving the previous generation out in the cold. I think you have a point that they passed through a certain sweet spot that would be comfortable for data portability geeks, but to assume that they would maintain some status quo would always have been a laughable thought for anybody with a passing familiarity with tech. Your Linux system may be the best bet for long-term maintenance, but it's still tech and you will still face a whole slew of tradeoffs, dead-ends and difficult migrations.

I think where your article puts up a strawman is this idea that you can't use an iPhone or even an Android because of lock-in. That's just silly since these phones are 100 times more useful than a dumb-phone even if you don't put any data in the cloud at all. Put another way, it's easier to set up a system that extracts your photos from an iPhone into your Linux system and just do that regularly than to carry a Nokia and a Canon at all times.

The future of consumer tech may not be what the geeks dreamed of, but as long as there is free software and open hardware we can bend it to our will as we always have.

webwielder2• 13 years ago

>And iTunes does indeed suck and I don't understand why someone hasn't written a replacement for it that fits the Sparrow:Mail==X:iPhoto equation. Perhaps I'll take a crack at it.

I don't think iTunes sucks, but someone has solved the equation you mentioned. It's called Enqueue: http://www.enqueueapp.com

stevewilhelm• 13 years ago

While you all are debating developing software using a Linux or Mac OS desktop, I am writing some killer software using Heroku, S3, Redshift, MongoHQ, RedisToGo, New Relic, Github, SendGrid, DocRaptor, Trello, Google Docs, ...

__david__3• 13 years ago

Ouch, the smug, it hurts! Are you writing embedded code in your cloud utopia? There is more to life than just web apps, even today. Some of us still need computers with physical ports.

gertjanzwartjes• 13 years ago

In my opinion this is just a matter of taste, especially whether Linux or Mac is better for development. I personally use Linux on a daily basis at work and when I'm done with my day job I use my MacBook Air for my hobby projects. Both environments have pros and cons. But to my personal taste, I really love working on my Mac, it feels more stable, hardware and software is much better integrated, it just works all the time.

The same arguments you can use to move away from Mac OS X for development, you can also use to move away from certain Linux distros. Ubuntu's Unity is not something you could call stable for the first few releases. Looking at all the changes between GNOME 2 and GNOME 3, that also scared away many users, or at least left many at GNOME 2, who still don't look forward to upgrading...

I mortgaged my future with a Mac

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