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Thu, 26 Sep 2002
Mac OS X attracting Linux users
Despite Apple targeting Windows users with their switch campaign, the largest potential audience of switchers is Unix & Linux users.
In this article on SlashDot, Hemos writes "Taco and I are both strongly considering beginning to use OSX as a primary laptops - anyone else looking at doing this?".
As anyone who's attended MacHack knows, CmdrTaco isn't know for being a Mac fan. Until now most Linux users haven't had a very favorable opinion about the Mac. However, that seems to have changed. Even among the hardore Linux users who read SlashDot, the replies to that article are strongly favorable towards Mac OS X.
I used Unix systems before I bought my first Mac in 1984 and I was always anticipating a nice version of Unix for the Mac. Apple's first attempt, A/UX, was a failure. It was slow, buggy, lacked many features and was incompatible with most other varieties of Unix. Even worse, it couldn't run Mac software very well.
With Mac OS X, Apple finally managed to combine the best of both worlds. We have a very compatible Unix system that can also run Mac software. It isn't surprising that Unix users would start taking interest, since below the surface, it's a very serious Unix system.
One of the big drawbacks of Linux is the lack of software. Very few major software publishers develop Linux software, and although free products such as The GIMP and StarOffice fill the gap, they lack many features of commercial products and aren't fully compatible with files producted by MS Office and other applications.
Mac OS X is the first consumer Unix system with a huge library of software available for it. In addition to Mac software, we have all of the necessary tools for porting other Unix software along with a nice X11 windowing system (which runs along with Aqua), and fink for installing ported Unix software.
Server Problems
BounceWeb is currently upgrading their servers, which has resulted in some downtime & reliability problems.
The upgrades should be complete this weekend, after which it will be much faster & more reliable.
I've also set up a backup server, which will share the same database. If the problems get too bad, I now have the option of switching to that server, although the DNS change could cause additional downtime, so I would try to avoid switching.