Mac OS Back-Compatibility [Was Re: [LINK] Microsoft]

[grove at zeta.org.au]

I'm not having any problems at all.   Then again, I only run "Classic"
mode for 1 application, that I don't use much anymore (Opcode Galaxy).

I use my Mac for systems administration and also for my music composition
and it's been rock solid.

I use a handful of keyboard accelerators and leave most of the "user friendly"
options turned off or minimised.

My Mac is rarely turned off or rebooted.   The only problems I have had were
when CoreMIDI services died once and another time I seemed to have lost
the printing configuration.   I do admit I reboot it possibly on an
order of once every three weeks on average, if I think about it...

I'm using Open Office when I need it and haven't found any portability
problems, but I don't use it very heavily, as 90% of my word processing
is done using "vi".   As Eleanor said, dump the MS.   I scoured my
Mac looking for MS drivers and products and trashed the lot.  No need
for it with OpenOffice!    If I believed in conspiracy theories,
I would say the prescense of MS product on a Mac will cause it
hang, go south or otherwise malfunction in unrepeatabled manners,
because they always seem to work great when you get rid of IE and
friends.

I have had my Mac for over 4 years now and it was second hand.
I am planning on getting a new Intel desktop model and skipping G5
completely and am looking forward to "Leopard" when it arrives,
even though I don't use a lot of the features that most people use.

I have done a lot of C software compiles on OSX and it behaves well,
in comparison to other platforms.  I haven't found any OSS software that
breaks so bad it can't be made to run.   It's got a reasonable UNIX
under the hood.  I just use the basic find utilities and never enable
expose or spotlight or whatever.    GNU "locate" works better for me!

I have not experienced much instability with my Mac.   It's never
corrupted a file for me and the most maintenance I have had to do
after heavy usage sessions was to run Tiger Cache Cleaner.

I also installed DiskWarrior X to assist if I can't get a Volume mounted
(and I never have).

I am a bit bipolar with my Mac - I spend most of my time at a UNIX
prompt, but surf the net and do my music using a GUI.  I read email
through PINE (I hate GUI mail apps) but USENET through "Newswatcher".
I have never used Safari but just stick to Mozilla/Firefox.

In contrast to Roger, I am very happy with my Mac and haven't had a problem.
I was skeptical about going Intel, but other people's experience is
that OSX works great (and so do the core programs I want like Logic Audio)
so I am just waiting for the desktops to arrive.   No, I wouldn't buy a
Dell or whatever to run OSX on - I like the Apple design philosophy.....


rachel

-- 
Rachel Polanskis                 Kingswood, Greater Western Sydney, Australia
grove at zeta.org.au                http://www.zeta.org.au/~grove/grove.html
	"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security,
	deserve neither liberty or security" - Benjamin Franklin, 1759