Ed Brill

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1. 1  Keith Brooks http://lotustech.blogspot.com | 12/5/2007 12:21:58 PM

   Try calling Comcast to report the outages that have plagued them since the weeke3nd every day for hours on end.

   Or Symantec about R8 being supported on backup or AV.

   Sometimes a simple answer is too difficult to find.

1. 2  Bryan Schmiedeler  | 12/5/2007 12:48:21 PM

   How to uninstall an application on a Mac? Try throwing the application away.

   For the most part, Mac applications don't put files all over your hard disk that you have to hunt down to uninstall them. There is no registry entries that have to be edited. That is why there is no uninstall application.

   Try looking at this explanation:

   { Link }

   Bryan

1. 3  Karen Demerly  | 12/5/2007 12:51:19 PM

   I'm finding your rant oddly refreshing, Ed. (laugh)

   On another note, I can't believe it's been two years since you bought the iMac. Doesn't feel like that long ago that you blogged about it.

1. 4  Greyhawk68 http://www.greyhawk68.com | 12/5/2007 12:54:31 PM

   To help you out, here we can address some of your points:

   1. iTunes. When you buy a song, it has DRM protection to not allow you to do anything with it except play in iTunes and on your iPod. That DRM is the fault of record companies, not Apple. You would have the same issue buying a song on Napster or Yahoo music and trying to edit it in a Windows program.

   2. iLife 08 is the answer, but it just wasn't a feature they thought people would use back then I guess. The camera is pretty low quality and they thought that maybe no one would use it. Dunno, but I agree, it should work.

   3. Agreed, you SHOULD be able to download it, dunno why they don't allow that.

   4. Go to applications, find the app, drag it to trash. It's normally that easy. We're so accustomed to all the stuff we have to do in Windows to uninstall that the easiest solution isn't that obvious.

   5. DMG stands for Disk Image. It's basically mounting software like a drive for you. When you double-click on it, it mounts and then shows you the contents. If developers do it right, the software will have an installer (or the app to drag to the applications folder) and a read me. Most times it actually says "Drag the app to applications to install." If you aren't seeing that type of thing, I would blame the developer of the software more than Apple. I think most people would double-click the DMG file, and doing that should get them to a state to install.

   Trust me, I struggled with a lot of this at first too, but then I realized that they've made certain things so simple that I was looking too hard. Anyway, no flames here, but if that's your whole list, you have a wonderful computing environment :-)

   -Grey

1. 5  Mark Dowling http://cork2toronto.blogspot.com | 12/5/2007 12:56:01 PM

   Better not upgrade to Leopard Ed, not for a while. It might make you lost it completely if this review is on the money:

   { Link }

1. 6  Mark Hughes  | 12/5/2007 12:56:18 PM

   do you have to burn and import a song from itunes that is DRM Free(bougt from itunes plus)?

1. 7  David Vasta http://www.iSeriesAddict.com | 12/5/2007 12:56:40 PM

   * Why is it that if I want to buy a song in iTunes and edit it in Garage Band, I have to go through the ridiculous step of burning the song to a CD and importing it into Garage Band?

   DCMA - You can't get around it.

   * Why is it that I cannot record a live video in iMovie using the built-in iMac camera? It has support for various external cameras attached via firewire...but not for the one that is part of the computer itself. (The iChat AV and Photo Booth apps both support that camera no problem). Working with Bruce, we've determined that this is supported in iLife '08, but that means upgrading.

   -Upgrade to a new version of iLife

   * Why is it that to upgrade to iLife '08, I need to go buy a box of software, instead of downloading?

   -It's on a DVD. I would rather just buy it than download over 4GB

   * Why is it that any time I use the mouse's "nipple" to scroll up and down on a browser page in Firefox, it seems to always also go back a page? That little ball is almost useless, and I'd like to use it.

   -Don't have an answer for that one. You might want to talk to the folks at Firefox

   * Why can't I figure out how to easily uninstall an application?

   -Drag it to the trash

   * Why did I have to read/search to find out that DMG files are the package for delivering apps but are not the way to run apps themselves?

   -Sometime you have to read the manual to operate the car you just purchased, same goes for the Mac. You could have read a book about it, but it's a pretty easy idea. You double click the DMG and it create a drive and then you are curious and look on the drive and get an installer.

   This seems a little petty.

1. 8  Volker Weber http://vowe.net | 12/5/2007 1:02:08 PM

   > Why is it that if I want to buy a song in iTunes

   DRM is bad of the customer. Period.

   > Why is it that to upgrade to iLife '08, I need to go buy a box of software, instead of downloading?

   Does this have to do anything with how the Mac works?

   > * Why is it that any time I use the mouse's "nipple" to scroll up and down on a browser page in Firefox, it seems to always also go back a page?

   Go to the system settings and look what it does when you press the nipple. The mouse has four "buttons": left, right, squeeze, and press

   > Why can't I figure out how to easily uninstall an application?

   You are right on that one. There are basically two types of apps: Mac-style (drag program from DMG to Applications) and Windows-style (run an installer). Getting rid of Mac-style programs means to throw them in the trash. For Windows-style programs you run the installer again. And then hope that the software vendor was smart enough to configure it for uninstall. Notes is a Windows-style program.

   Some background: Mac OS X writes a receipt for every program it installs. They are in /Library/Receipts. However, there is no standard widget to read these receipts and remove the stuff that was installed. There is a nice little program called AppCleaner { Link } which tries to find all things a program has installed and removes them. That includes preference files which are left behind when you just throw a Mac-style program in the trash.

   > Why did I have to read/search to find out

   Reading is sometimes required. :-)

1. 9  Volker Weber http://vowe.net | 12/5/2007 1:02:48 PM

   DRM is bad FOR the customer.

1. 10  Steve http://www.devoll.net | 12/5/2007 1:03:10 PM

   "It just works" is a relative statement; relative to how a Windows box works (or doesn't in most cases). Given the alternative, I'd much rather spend time getting stuff done than messing around with the internals of my OS, like one does on Windows.

   Some quick answers to your queries:

   1. You've got the RIAA to thank for that. It's called DRM. No better on the Wintel side of the fence.

   2. iLife 08. Or quicktime. Or a dozen other shareware and freeware apps on the net. Sorry, but upgrades are just the way it is. Sometimes you have to pay for them. Who's going to pay for the additional engineering to make the next version? Do you get a new car every time the next model year is released, for free? And 8 weeks? you gotta draw the line somewhere. Apple chooses 30 days on free updates like iLife.

   3. Because there's so much media that comes with iLife that it requires a DVD for distribution. Unless you just want to download 4+GB

   4. funny, it doesn't do that on my mac. May have been addressed in a firefox update, but you can check here for another way to fix it: { Link }

   5. drag the app (from the applications folder) to the trash. voila. You've been brainwashed into the microsoft way of getting rid of apps.

   6. Dunno, that one's a little less obvious. But generally you don't have to worry about it; download a dmg, it opens, and the installer runs or the dmg tells you what to drag where. Unless it's a poorly written or packaged install, but you can't help that.

   Hope this helps a little.

1. 11  Rob McDonagh http://www.CaptainOblivious.com | 12/5/2007 1:14:57 PM

   You've already got answers in the comments, but I'd like to suggest (in a non-flaming fashion) that some of the things you want to do on your Mac are things you wouldn't be able to do in any other OS, either. Others are due to Windows-based assumptions (uninstall and DMG questions are "switcher" issues, but native Mac users never think about them).

   My daughter uses her iMac with minimal help from Dad, it's my pretty Windows-savvy (and extremely intelligent) wife who is more likely to have a question. My computer-phobic parents love their Mac Mini, and they tell me all the time that "it just works." Their words, not mine, though they're not making movies (yet). Greyhawk is on target - Windows users, especially knowledgeable ones, over-think the way things work on Macs and wind up confused.

   From my perspective, the legendary Apple ease of use does exist, but that definitely doesn't mean they've done everything perfectly. And your "point of origin" still matters.

1. 12  Tim Rand  | 12/5/2007 1:16:40 PM

   @5 - Mark, I disagree. I upgraded to Leopard and find it a nice improvement. There ARE some things I don't like, but aren't there in anything? I can point to just about anything technological in my life and find something I don't like about it.

   @4 - I agree that a list this short is pretty remarkable.

   Ed - Thanks for sharing this. It shows that we in technology take a lot for granted. What is often very easy for person A, might be inconceivable for person B.

1. 13  Karen Lilla  | 12/5/2007 1:16:43 PM

   Agree with Karen Demerly; it does seem like just yesterday. Was planning on buying an iMac for my daughter's birthday based on the similar age when you made the purchase for your daughter. Now you have me second guessing whether I can handle another frustrating technology experience in our home!

1. 14  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 12/5/2007 1:19:40 PM

   @13 I would do it in a minute, that was the point of my closing statement. MEGAN has no issues using the Mac, and is getting even better through the lessons in school.

1. 15  jaime bisgrove http://jaimebisgrove.blogspot.com | 12/5/2007 1:20:42 PM

   I think this is a great testament to marketing and the power of perception. Apple's marketing team has done so well that, Ed, it must be you because Apple always "just works".

1. 16  Chad B.  | 12/5/2007 1:36:13 PM

   Seeing how you work for IBM and blog, shouldn't your skin be flame retardant by now (I keed, I keed)

   Answers to your questions:

   1. Three letters: starts with "D" and ends with "RM". You can't edit (purchased) iTunes stuff because the songs are locked down with DRM. Burning to CD removes the locks on the file.

   2. iLife '06 also let's you record from web cam into iMovie. Since you might of been due the upgrade because of the timing, I would go to your local apple store and talk to them about it. They might hook you up. I've heard of cooler things happening to mac customers

   3. Just a guess, but iLife '08 includes garageband, which comes with tons of loops and samples, which eat lots of disk space. It might be too large to download

   4. Apple's mice suck. I got a mighty mouse for christmas last year and I haven't used it more than 4 times. Fortunately, most windows mice (logitech) work well with OSX.

   5. Open finder and click on your applications older. Drag the icon of the app you are uninstalling to your trash. application uninstalled!! This to me was THE most compelling feature of OSX. Apps are packaged into one file. No registries, dll's, etc. Awesomeness!

   6. Apple should include a "transitioning from windows to osx" tutorial on all macs sold to "switchers". It should cover file formats, application management, searching, etc.

   I don't like the "it just works" slogan either. It should be "works better than windows, 90% of the time". I'm also shocked that iPhoto was not in your bulleted list. As a former picasa user, I hate . . . no, I loath (what's worse than loathe) iPhoto.

   Looking at the Big picture though, it's apple over windows any day of the week.

1. 17  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 12/5/2007 1:42:46 PM

   @All re DRM point -- are you saying that if I bought (bought, not just downloaded) an MP3 track from some other service, I wouldn't be able to just drag it into a Garage Band track? Did not realize that.

   @16 I have gotten used to iPhoto. I am going to hold judgement until I get the iLife 08 upgrade. :)

1. 18  Rob McDonagh http://www.CaptainOblivious.com | 12/5/2007 1:55:17 PM

   @17 Ed, you CAN buy a non-DRM track from iTunes. Have you tried one of those? The catalog of choices is limited...

1. 19  John LeJeune http://www.johnlejeune.com/The_Blog/The_Blog.html | 12/5/2007 1:56:45 PM

   Ed,

   Time to install Notes on that Mac and get used to some of the Mac ways of doing things. At minimum access DWA 8.0. Let me know if you need an account set up.

1. 20  Flemming Riis  | 12/5/2007 2:15:12 PM

   -But today I've just lost it. I'm so tired of hearing "it just works" about the Mac

   well it does and it dont like everything else , but watchout for the 100+ thread with fanatics flaming you.

1. 21  Ed Maloney  | 12/5/2007 2:40:22 PM

   I've had 3 problem free years with my Mini. I have never had any version of Windows run for even one year without having to reinstall. I agree that there are some Mac specific annoyances, but these are minor compared to the alternative.

1. 22  Dave  | 12/5/2007 3:31:25 PM

   Bought my first Mac three months ago. A brand new iMac - coolest looking hardware that I ever saw. It locks up and must be powered off at least once a week. The process to copy a CD in OSX is just stupid. If a CD ejects when I ask it to I rejoice. My wife loves to take photo's and still likes her "free" Windows app better than iPhoto. iTunes works better on Windows 2000 than on OSX?!!! We stopped using Safari after several months and switched back to Firefox. We (my wife and I) are both disappointed in our iMac.

   I would however hire Apple's marketing team in a heartbeat. But I now curse Apple commercials every time is see one.

1. 23  Volker Weber http://vowe.net | 12/5/2007 3:33:25 PM

   If you are still on iLife 05, then iLife 08 will be a GREAT upgrade for iPhoto. Your old version has an issue with the embedded EXIF data in Nikon photos which slows it down considerably. Expect to get a MUCH speeedier iPhoto if you have more than say 3000 pictures in your library.

1. 24  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 12/5/2007 3:38:57 PM

   which I do. (have more than 3000 pictures in my library)

1. 25  Dan Holzrichter  | 12/5/2007 3:52:18 PM

   @22. I think there may be a firmware update for your locking problem. I know it has been a widespread problem.

   I just recently switched over myself and am very pleased with the OS X. Apple mice and keyboards on the other hand are not so great. I have a bluetooth mice like Ed describes and it's just not very good. The ball is too small and gets gummed up. The battery cover on the bottom of the mouse comes off at times and it's not very comfortable. I gave it a good try and switched back to my wireless MS mouse (one of the only great things from MS) and my old PS/2 click keyboard (with a USB adapter.)

1. 26  Greyhawk68 http://www.greyhawk68.com | 12/5/2007 4:26:26 PM

   Ed, I recommend Adobe Photoshop Lightroom wholeheartedly for your photos, especially if you shoot in RAW. iPhoto is simply a toy in comparison.

   That said, I exported a bunch of pictures to iPhoto just so I could create and buy a photo book and it was a brain-dead easy experience that gave me an incredibly professional looking book. So, it does have it's uses...

   -Grey

1. 27  Mike Brown  | 12/5/2007 5:58:06 PM

   @ 17

   >> are you saying that if I bought (bought, not just

   >> downloaded) an MP3 track from some other service, I

   >> wouldn't be able to just drag it into a Garage Band track?

   You'd be all right with MP3s, Ed, as they have no DRM on them. It's AAC (Apple) and WMA (Microsoft) files that you need to watch out for.

   Cheers,

   - Mike

1. 28  tony ollivier  | 12/5/2007 6:03:51 PM

   it's refreshing to read Ed's blog and have it NOT about Microsoft :)

1. 29  MarvinK  | 12/5/2007 7:09:26 PM

   @7 I think Apple's new anti-Vista ads are petty--especially given that Leopard has very similar complaints by early adopters.

1. 30  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 12/5/2007 8:26:40 PM

   @28 Awww, Tony, c'mon, you're no fun! Besides, I've only been flaming MS once every two weeks. I hear it causes quite a stir inside your organization when I do :)

   @all -- installing iLife 08 now.

1. 31  Henry Ferlauto http://www.geniusinside.com | 12/5/2007 8:48:40 PM

   Overall I find that many more things on the Mac "just work" than with Windows. And as I have said many times before, Vista is the best "Get a Mac" ad ever invented.

   Ed - Certain things are a matter of getting used to. Remember you've doing things a certain "Windows" way for probably over 20 years now. If the situation were reversed you'd probably be asking, "Where's the DMG file so I can install my application?"

   Try dragging a "SETUP.EXE" file to your "Program Files" folder; not too helpful. But on a Mac it is quite logical to drag an installation package to the Applications folder.

   It's just a different. I still haven't committed all the Mac OS X hotkeys to memory.

   The best part I have found is that there are very little, for lack of a better term, "stupid" problems with a Mac; where with Vista the list is long and distinguished.

   I also think the ownership experience can be a lot greater now that Apple has such a great retail presence. The "OnetoOne" program has to be best computer education bargains on the planet.

1. 32  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 12/5/2007 11:00:34 PM

   Ed, Windows XP has "just worked" for me since 2003. :-) I have always been amused by the Mac zealots who bash Windows.

1. 33  Mike Dudding  | 12/6/2007 12:35:05 AM

   Ed, Sometimes we can be victims of our own knowledge. For me, I found switching to a Mac to be somewhat frustrating. Well, let's be honest. A few times, I felt like drop kicking my Mac off the highest structure around. My frustration with the Mac came from 15 plus years of experience using a Windows platform. I expected the Mac to behave like a PC. Once I acknowledge that my frustration was self-induced, I began to truly appreciate the simplicity of the experience of using a Mac. I find the UI to be very intuitive, if you give up some of the conventions you acquired using a PC. I think that it is wonderful that Megan is starting to gain more skills using the Mac at school. The next time you get frustrated using your iMac, have her give you a hand. I am sure that she will amaze you!

   I highly recommend the upgrade to iLife '08. iPhoto '08 is worth the upgrade price. I really like the ability to organize my photos be events. One thing that I was disappointed with iLife '08 was that iMovie '08 is only supported on Intel based Macs. While your at it, pick up a copy of iWork '08. Keynote is hands down the best presentation package that I have used. It will make you want to purchase a MBP, and ditch your T60.

1. 34  Ian White http://www.ianwhite.net | 12/6/2007 2:20:09 AM

   Well Ed, I have some sympathy's (not a lot). I have been using a PowerBook (G4) for three years now and from time to time it has locked up. The last two weeks however it has returned to a stable state. Why? Because when I first purchased I added some DDR2 which was unbalanced with the shipped RAM. With the price crash of DD2 I went out and bought two matching DDR2 1Gb SDRAMs and lo and behold, the machine is faster, stable and continues to be one of life's joys. If your machine is unstable question yourself - did you upgrade the memory?

1. 35  Axel  | 12/6/2007 6:38:43 AM

   For real work Windows or Ubuntu are much better. Apple shines for short time impression management.

1. 36  Ben Poole http://benpoole.com | 12/6/2007 7:24:25 AM

   I guess I'm surprised it took this long for the comments to degenerate into the usual Mac / PC flame-fest. So tiresome.

   Alex, for someone who regularly yells about the pettiness of wars between old-skool Domino people and die-hard Java coders (correctly, IMHO), yours is a very short-sighted comment.

1. 37  Kevin Mort  | 12/6/2007 7:38:19 AM

   A friend of ours replaced their ancient HP box (after a horrid attempt at Vista) with an iMac.

   Their whole thing was they wanted to pull the video from their camcorder to the system, something the Windows box was having all kinds of issues with.

   The resident Mac Genius or whomever they were told them "oh sure, that works just plug it in!" Needless to say that didn't quite work either.

   There are lots of times when we enlist the "it just works" mantra. We do it here in Lotusland a good bit, we certainly do it in the System i world, and I've seen it mentioned in the MS space too.

   The real fact is that while there are some things that "just work" there are many that don't. We might WANT computing to be just that easy, but the truth is it really isn't...at least not as often as we'd like.

1. 38  Buzz Hardly  | 12/6/2007 8:25:55 AM

   Oh Ed! Why did you do it? Now your site has been infested. By this time, Google will have indexed the comments and soon the Mac trolls will be arriving in huge numbers. Some may never leave! They will bring in the other OS trolls and flamers, then you're really done for.

   You can take all the usual precautions, set traps, put down powder, but you have invited them to nest, and some will surely do so. The only solution is to burn down the site, and then just to be sure, take off and nuke it from orbit.

1. 39  Patrick Corey http://www.dangsite.com/blog | 12/6/2007 8:36:25 AM

   Ed,

   I am sorry to see you have an entry that seems to be easily misunderstood. At first glance, it seems the rant is a little anti-Apple. After a little thinking, I can appreciate your point of view. If I can share a few factoids.

   Do you remember earlier this year when Vista was going to be released? Microsoft for the first time offered people who got a PC after a specific date (in Oct or Nov) an opportunity to receive a free upgrade to Vista. Granted it was the cheap version of Vista. Until then there was no company offering such a thing.

   So let's play this scenario with you having a Mac with iLife '05 in the Windows world. What if you got MS Office 200x and 5 weeks later MS releases some superior version of the product? Well I can not take it back to the retailer because it is open software. In the event it was not open, I can not take it back to the retailer because it is over the 14-21 period that retail stores offer any refund. If I try to call MSFT, mostly I am not going to be offer any discount. The point I am sharing is that I don't get any special treatment from any other software manufacture.

   To the question about downloading version only. Let's flip this to Microsoft. This company does not offer download version of the software either. Granted other software vendors: Intuit, VMware, Parallels, Blizzard, etc offer either a reduce price for download-only versions (or just a download version). But right now Apple and Microsoft are not there yet. I know Microsoft is paranoid about people making copies of their CDs -- I do not see them warming up to the idea of download preferred software for their "main titles". NOTE: If you are a MSDN subscriber sure you can download, but that is because it is download preferred.

   Also take to the fact that back in '05 no one was really doing a lot with editing music files -- software at that point did not have many power users commanding those features. Software evolves to fit the needs of their users. It is just a shame you missed out on iLife '06 by a few weeks, but you had up to two years to upgrade too.

   Now that Leopard (OS X 10.5) is out and the market of users who are doing things digital have more offerings (like better video cameras, etc), I would move to iLife '08 and Leopard. The cost ($129 US) is very small if you think of what you are getting. Plus there is only one version of Leopard unlike some other OS. [NOTE: Go to Amazon and you will notice that the software is even cheaper than thru a normal retailer or Apple's retail store.] Leopard does not come any iLife, but their TextEdit application allows you to edit Word 2007 documents. You are going to have Time Machine which should come in handy for your user base. (I bet your family members may accidentally delete a file and need to recover it days or weeks later). Adding iLife '08 (for $79.99 US) is going to give you all the features you now desire. iMovie is the only software what works with the advance HD camera too (as most of other vendors requires Windows-only software). Lastly I recommend iWork '08 (for $79.99 US) due to its simple features as well as being able to support other Windows Office document format -- though this software does not support Word 2007 or Open Document format.

   Technically Apple is pretty fair when it comes to their software offerings. I don't know many vendors who supply a good quality computer and a power suite of software for until a total price ($400). Apple software is really meant to be low due to their profit from the hard ware. Most other vendors have their business model to only sell software.

   Other than that your readers most of the other questions.

   Cheers,

   Patrick

1. 40  Patrick Corey http://www.dangsite.com/blog | 12/6/2007 8:40:19 AM

   PS

   Ed -- do you think it is wise to have user commenting on your blog to expose the email address via your blog?

   I don't mind it required, but I don't like that it is auto-published to the internet thus your blog is crawled by Google. I just see a lot of spam as a consequence to having email addresses.

   I know you can not stop spam, but I use my own blog for a way of people to contact me rather than email itself. I like to give my email personal due to the nature of our internet and spam.

1. 41  Asad Quraishi http://quad4b.blogspot.com | 12/6/2007 8:42:26 AM

   I bought a MacBook Pro in February (as a trial for the office) and really struggled to use it for three months. I figured there was either something really wrong with the OS (and keyboard btw) design or something really wrong with me. I just wasn't getting it. You should know that I was using my XP Thinkpad 90% of the time.

   I finally decided that to give it a fair shake I had to stop using XP entirely. I installed AdmitMac (active directory integration) and have now been using the Mac exclusively for about 5 months. Here's what I discovered. You have to significantly change the way you think. I have learned on MS (and Linux) and the Mac is neither. I would not recommend a switch to a Mac for power users unless they are really committed to making the switch - and are willing to do some reading and put up with the initial aches and pains you get when you are exercising a new set of muscles. It might actually be less painful for 'casual' office users: i.e. most executives.

   That being said I am happier with my Mac then I ever have been with Windows (or Linux) - and hey, I was the one that converted my engineering department from DOS to Windows 3.1! It has changed the way I think in a positive way. I am, however, more than a little frustrated with the lack of vendor support/software for the Mac, especially from IBM. I run Notes, Rational Method Composer (eclipse), Rational RequisitePro, and Rational Software Modeler on my Mac. All but Notes run in an XP VM. And I can't run Notes 8 yet. That just shouldn't be. Everything except ReqPro runs in eclipse - and are all available for Linux. Why not Mac? I just don't understand IBM's marketing philosophy. There are more people running Macs then Linux desktops/laptops. Macs are easier to use and give you access to a wider (i.e. not just developers) audience.

   I would love to see IBM release the Mac version of their applications at the same time as the Linux versions. This would just work.

1. 42  Andy Dennis http://www.lan2lan.com | 12/6/2007 8:51:39 AM

   Ed

   I'd recommend trying a Microsoft Intellimouse if you can't get on with the mighty mouse.

   As to RAW processing try looking at Bibble Labs, software, its very powerful and includes a cutdown version of noise ninja, for reducing the noise in your digital photos. It has some great b/w filters on it to.

   I've just gone from an iBook to a Vista Laptop, as the Schools here in the UK, mainly run Office 2007 and XP/Vista. Stick with the Mac, if its used by daughters education authority.. Vista just doesnt seem to cut it compared to OS X for ease of use, and thats coming from my techno-phobe wife!

1. 43  Asad Quraishi http://quad4b.blogspot.com | 12/6/2007 8:53:57 AM

   @39 I'm using both MS Office 2004 and iWork '08 (and NeoOffice). Office is clunky. iWork is slick. Limited but slick. And Keynote is just awesome! I gave a presentation at a Pharmaceutical conference two months ago just before lunch and had people drooling (not just because they were hungry ;-). Part of my demo involved showing how to use ReqPro to build/manage an RFP, running in an XP VM. Honestly, XP ran better then if I was running it direct on a PC.

   Now that's what I call a 'halo' effect! My Mac makes me feel better about Windows!

1. 44  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 12/6/2007 9:33:24 AM

   @39 are you kidding me? I know a vendor where you buy something, and if a new version comes along in a few weeks, you are entitled to it -- IBM software. This is one of the reasons that the first year of software maintenance is bundled into the initial acquisition price for IBM software (including Notes). This is just one of those cases where Apple's famous "no preannounce" hurts their existing customers -- it's bad enough they announced the Intel-based Macs a few weeks after I bought my PowerPC-based one (rah rah IBM chips!), but for the software to be outdated - and not even support the built-in camera!!!! - that just seems a bit too inflexible. I don't know what you mean by "but you had up to two years to upgrade too."

   On the download bit, I would have been very happy not to have to run out and buy iLife last night, and download only the updates to the core applications. Did I need all those garage band loops and samples? Not really. Oh well, to each their own.

   On the e-mail address published bit, there's a bit of javascript in there that should fool most spam harvesters. If someone can show me examples of where an e-mail address used uniquely on edbrill.com has received spam as a result, I'd reconsider. But I think it makes everyone a bit more open and transparent in their postings to require it to be displayed.

1. 45  Bill Brown  | 12/6/2007 9:54:41 AM

   Try running a bleeding edge Linux distro on a recently released model laptop and watch things not work. Want to see where Ed is on Plazes? Not using a 64bit Linux. No plug-in for Shockwave. No YouTube either. Got a new model video card/chipset? Pray they vendor is behind the OSS movement and has a driver, or that the chipset supports older drivers at least for basic functions. New WiFi card? Same deal.

1. 46  Ken Barker  | 12/6/2007 10:04:46 AM

   iWork is mostly useless - particularly if you have to share files via any sort of collaboration tool, like Notes/Quickr/Basecamp, etc. I've tried it with a customer of mine that is all mac based and it was a big problem.

   It's actually a huge opportunity for IBM, with the productivity tools in Notes R8.01 on the mac - there really is no reason to buy iWorks or Office for the mac at all.

   I run R8 on WinXP via parallels on my MacBook pro - and using the coherence feature the experience is pretty seamless. I have full access to the Mac file system, and have the ablity to launch applications from either system, etc.

   What is BEST, is that I was able to get rid of both iWorks and MsOffice, and save some serious $$$.

1. 47  Patrick Corey http://www.dangsite.com/blog | 12/6/2007 10:08:59 AM

   @44

   I thought honestly would be best. But honestly when does Microsoft have a philosophy that is similar to Lotus/IBM? Can you name any instance? I appreciate your desire, but I am just telling like it is in the market today.

   My two years to upgrade -- is more why is the rant about what happened 5 weeks after your purchase on iMac now (2 years later)? In any case ranting is just a relief of an immediate frustration you have. You will not get anything from Apple and you still need to do a purchase?

   In my opinion I think having an Intel Mac are better as it gives greater flexibility to the end user. Now VMware and Parallels (and even BootCamp) bring the compatilbity to the consumer. Also it gives what INTEL wanted -- another computer vendor where they are not control solely by MSFT.

   To the email comment - Your openness is at the risk of people getting spam and to be honest you still have an end user nerf any email address.

1. 48  removed  | 12/6/2007 10:15:56 AM

   removed.

1. 49  Henry Ferlauto http://www.geniusinside.com | 12/6/2007 10:20:13 AM

   @44 right on.

   @39 - Software is still a very big business for Apple. They sold over 2,000,000 copies of Leopard in less than one month. The retail price is $129. That means the profit is over $100 a piece. Software is big business for Apple.

   It is absolutely pitiful on Apple's part that they do not have some sort of protection plan beyond the token 2-4 weeks after they announce a new product.

   Anyone who purchased iLife, iWork or Mac OS X within 90 days of the release of their respective updates should be entitled to nominal fee upgrades.

   On a semi-related note, I still do not understand Apple's trade show schedule. Their more consumer oriented show is January, just after the big holiday rush. And their business show (WWDC) is in the summer, when people are on vacation.

   So if the product you've got your eye has not been very recently updated, why bother to put it on your wish list when you know in just a few weeks it probably will be updated?

1. 50  Patrick Corey http://www.dangsite.com/blog | 12/6/2007 10:21:37 AM

   @46

   Basecamp sucks. To be honest Quickr does not meet my needs, but my employer is not a pure Lotus shop.

   But I have to share that I have bought into the ability to have spotlight index my content on my Mac. Right now there is nothing better and the MSFT content can not be index as easily. I don't want to use Mac Office 2004 as it is not efficient for an Intel Mac -- plus I can just have a Virtual Windows Guest (via Parallels or VMWare). For my home life, I am not going to need Microsoft Office. Plus there is Open Office which can do everything as well. Between Open Office and iWork, I don't see any problems. I use a Mac because I don't want to budget $$ for all the Windows software upgrades. I found equivalents for the Mac and it is either free or cost-effective via Mac.

   To be honest Parallels does not offer a better experience as it still requests the Start Menu (either on the Dock Tray or via the tool bar). I like the cleaner interface of VMWare Fusion. It is more efficient is the memory usage to Parallels as my employer got me a license for both to compare -- (My employer is Mac and Windows friendly). The only feature I am missing from VMWare's Fusion would be a snapshot manager. But I am willing to wait as I do most of my Windows guest work on a Windows and Linux workstation (for my day job).

   Lastly iWork is not expensive in my opinion and it still does allow much spotlight indexing.

   Cheers

1. 51  David Gursky  | 12/6/2007 10:38:49 AM

   I'm still waiting for Notes R1 for my NeXTDimension....

   Fortunately, I have an Ubuntu box that I am trying to set up as a Home Server to distract me while I wait.

   Pet Leopard complaint: I have two Mac Minis, a year old 1.6 GHz model running Tiger, and a new 2.0 GHz model running Leopard.

   The Tiger box finds the Wifi at home and connnects to it reliable. The Leopard box, does not. The Wifi WORKS on the Leopard box. It just can't find it. Grrrrrrrr.

1. 52  Ben Poole http://benpoole.com | 12/6/2007 11:12:39 AM

   So Apple suck, "Basecamp sucks", "iWork is mostly useless"

   This is turning into a /. thread :-D

1. 53  David Leedy  | 12/6/2007 12:22:53 PM

   Most of your questions were answered and I see that you bought iPhoto 08. I do like iPhoto and the Events / Skimming thing. But if you do a lot of pictures, and shoot RAW then you should really think about LightRoom or Aperture. It's more advanced and while I have Aperture I haven't quite mastered it... but both those programs give you true Non-destructive editing... so you can crop/alter etc, and revert back at any time. It saves your changes in XML (I think) so it doesn't take tons of extra disk space. iPhoto can do some reverting, but I think it copies the original which increases your diskspace.. Plus I think I photo converts RAW's to jpgs once you start working on it.

   Just a thought..

1. 54  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 12/6/2007 12:41:55 PM

   I haven't been shooting RAW, but maybe with some additional tools, it would be worth converting over.

1. 55  Tyrone Williamson http://www.internetrecords.tv | 12/6/2007 12:48:30 PM

   No disrespect, but anyone that can't figure out a mac, shouldn't be Working in IT. I have several mac's, and theyr'e so intuitive. Even someone that is retarded can figure out in a few hours.

   I don't mean to sound harsh, just that I can't imagine someone having IT skills and not understanding a mac.

1. 56  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 12/6/2007 12:57:16 PM

   @55 Hey, everyone, look, John Burt is back, this time as Tyrone Williamson!

1. 57  Kevin Mort  | 12/6/2007 1:25:13 PM

   @53/54 - I would tend to agree if you're going to shoot in RAW then you need tools with good integrated/native RAW support. Lightroom is quite nice and integrates with PS for "real" edits which is a cool thing. I think it does a good job of helping organize your image workflow.

   Now, personally I have worked with RAW and I think there's something I just don't get about using it, because frankly I haven't seen any amazing benefits. It is true there is a lot more flexibility in adjustments but for me it has been more hassle than progress.

   I know I am kinda outside the norm on that for those who simply love RAW.

   Sorry a small photographic aside here... : )

1. 58  Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 12/6/2007 1:45:28 PM

   @47 - I have purchased numerous PC's for work shortly before newer versions of Windows or MS Office came out and they included vouchers for the newer software when it was released. If I recall correctly they were offered about 30 days prior to the new version being released and were valid for 90 days after it was released. I saw this with Office 2000 and Office 2003, as well as Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

   I've been commenting on Ed's blog for a few years and never received any spam from it. The e-mail obfuscation on this blog works.

1. 59  Bob Frank  | 12/6/2007 3:30:02 PM

   Ed. I just got a Canon Rebel XTi. iPhoto in iLife '08 natively supports RAW for both Canon & Nikon (forget which you're shooting). But if you want to go to the next level, you should check out (@26,@53) Adobe's LightRoom and/or Apple's Aperture (but you might want to wait until after MacWorld in January :-).

   @57 I agree that they're aren't a ton of benefits, but basically instead of being 12 bits per pixel as JPEG's are, most RAW formats are 14 bits or higher-- and if you need to do a lot of details color adjustment or your highlights are blown out you have a substantially better chance of being able to make decent adjustments.

1. 60  David Leedy  | 12/6/2007 7:34:14 PM

   @54 - Bob (59) is right about the advantages.. The biggest thing to me regarding the raw stuff is that you have a better chance at fixing any mistakes. Basically a RAW picture is the image before the camera does any processing on it. So if can change the exposure and color balance after the fact as if you got it right when you took the picture. In jpg you can adjust the brightness and contrast but that pales in comparsion to actually adjusting the exposure later. And since I'm not that great a photographer is nice to know if my settings aren't perfect I can still get a good picture...

1. 61  David Bell  | 12/7/2007 12:42:30 AM

   Did anyone else find humour in the fact that a post on Ed's blog about advertising / marketing (which always always causes much debate) has been completely dwarfed by this post on Mac usability ?

1. 62  Volker Weber http://vowe.net | 12/7/2007 2:41:04 AM

   Let's ask a photographer: { Link }

   You can spend a lot of time discussing the merits of raw vs jpeg, or you can start shooting photos. Same goes for lossless vs 192 kbps MP3. :-)

1. 63  Keith Smillie http://www.domiclipse.com | 12/7/2007 4:09:02 AM

   iPods "just don't work" too.

   My 5th generation 80Gb iPod Video has just turned itself into an iBrick.

   Anecdotal evidence from other people in the office is that 5 out of 6 iPod users have had failures. Most failures seem to happen just outside the warranty period. Hmmm...

1. 64  Tony S Lee  | 12/7/2007 6:59:48 AM

   @3 - I'd agree with the Ipod comment, gone thru 2 of them in the last few years. Apple.ca runs a THRIVING business on refurbished Ipods.

1. 65  jimmy bracco http://www.lotus911.com | 12/7/2007 1:35:12 PM

   @Ed - Funny, you post 6 questions relating to your MAC and you get 64 responses trying to solve your problems...

   I wonder why we cant get that many responses when posting Domino questions on notes.net anymore :( (or anyplace else for that matter)

1. 66  mdmadph http://mdm-adph.blogspot.com | 12/7/2007 3:11:18 PM

   @45 Just a quick point -- I use 64-bit Linux (Ubuntu) and watch Shockwave and Flash just fine. What distro are you using?

   As for video, the newer kernels don't have the same video card problems as older ones -- I'd suggest giving Linux another try with a more recent edition. I've personally installed recent versions of Ubuntu on everything from ancient 8MB ATI Rage chipsets to brand new 8600 GTS cards, with no issues whatsoever.

1. 67  Samuel deHuszar Allen http://www.essentialforms.com | 12/7/2007 3:27:13 PM

   Having experience with all the big three OSes (WinXP/OSX/Ubuntu), I'd say that, while OSX is far superior to Windows in several key areas, it is still just another closed box.

   DRM stuff is avoidable, but iTunes, WMP, and many similar apps tend to lean you towards DRM-infested content.

   Windows excels almost solely in it's app/hardware compatibility, but that has been mooted by Vista.

   OSX is far better at delivering a simple streamlined and 'mostly' stable environment that is easy to pick up, but could be a little better documented as has been discussed above.

   Ubuntu (and by extension some of the less popular distros like the ones that IBM 'officially' support <nudge><nudge>) borrows from the best of both OSes and is quite adaptable and customizable, has a better app installer/management system BY FAR than either competitor, but due to it's modular nature, documentation is sometimes non-existent because of the available resources one bit of code has to put towards such things. It also allows more freedom than the average user is able to handle, allowing people to run the OS 'off the rails' where serious tech support/forum digging is often required to get things right again.

   Nothing "Just works." Things just fail or excel in their own ways, and depending on what you do, you will be more likely to feel comfortable in one environment or another. That said, Microsoft has been holding up the game and needs to either get their act together or get out of the way.

   On a slightly off-topic side note, as the result of a PMR I filed with support, an SPR has been put together for Ubuntu compatibility issues with the Linux Notes client, and the dev team have 'un-officially commited' (whatever that means) to building an Ubuntu release. Or so says my ticket manager. If you are interested Ed, I would be happy to privately send you the PMR so you can follow it. I don't have access to the SPR record that was built, so I don't know exactly what it says, but it apparently generated a bunch of internal activity/interest.

1. 68  Wild Bill http://www.billbuchan.com | 12/9/2007 8:37:15 AM

   @63 - Keith- in fairness, you are in Aberdeen in Scotland. Technology has a shorter half-life there.. ;-)

   Disclaimer: I was born and bred there..

   @55. Honestly. If you dont have the technical knowledge to Troll anonymously, then dont bother trying. Call yourself a technologist, you odious little man ? My 74 year old father has more hacker skills than you. I blow my nose in your general direction!

   Macs. Bought three in the space of two days. Been running on them for three months. Impressions ?

   MacBook Pro keyboard is a little hard to type on. Getting better as I'm pounding life into the keys. The Pro screen on the other hand is fantastic - really really good color reproduction, making photos and web page editing fantastic. And dont forget - this machine is the fastest Vista laptop around. Mind you, you'd have to be insane to uninstall 64-bit Leopard and put in some Malware from Redmond.

   Why Mac, after 23 years in the industry ? I used Vista for two months. And a bigger bag of untested sh*te I've never seen before. Oh. Perhaps Windows Me...

   Wife + Sprog on the Macs. Loving it. Leopard ? Easy upgrade. And now Leopard attaches to AD shares without pain. And $125 for a family pack of five licenses ? No worries. Upgraded them all within 24 hours of Leopard coming out and havent considered downgrading.

   Parallels vs VMWare fusion. I run both, and I think Parallels offers a higher degree of co-existence (slightly) than VMWare, at the price of stability. If I choose again, Vmware all the way.

   DMG files, installation, uninstallation etc ? I think Paul Mooney summed it up when he said you have to start trusting the machine again. Stop worrying about *how* it does stuff, and sit back and enjoy the occasional pleasant surprise when it does something cool.

   It'll be a cold day in hell before I switch to running windows on actual hardware again. Virtualisation means that the malware from Redmond cant disrupt your life again. Just take a few external drives around with you.

   Mac vs Ubuntu? I'm running both (not on the same machine) and like both. I'd recommend either/both.

   ---* Bill

1. 69  Samuel deHuszar Allen http://www.essentialforms.com | 12/9/2007 12:01:05 PM

   @68 As am I. I'm pretty much recommending that all my clients switch to either a Mac or use Ubuntu on their PCs when they consider their next upgrade, as they are offering the only grade that is 'up.'

1. 70  Steffen Pelz  | 12/12/2007 3:24:30 AM

   Try to forget for a moment your whole knowledge about using Windows - if you start from the scratch with a PC it might be even easier to adapt the Mac way.

   It's just logical to throw away an app you don't want anymore. No needs to know about uninstallers, removal tools, etc.

   I've been using MS-based PCs for years, and it's pure fun to me to get rid of user-unfriendly routines.