I appologize if I sounded like i was bashing Macs and their religion. I was merely commenting on how incompatible their whole world is with mine. I also never said a thing about OSX. The comments I made about OS9 I feel were very justified.

I'm not the type of user who needs to switch to a Mac. That's just the way it is. Live with it.

Have fun.

> but you often have to specifically install it.

My point was more that he was not seeing that modular and easily configurable network support is a major feature of Windows, in the same way that others were not seeing the capabilities of Mac OS.

Fair enough.

(yeah, I know, I'm behind on the threads...)

> I'm one of those multiple mouse button people.

Multi-button mice are fully supported by the OS, they just aren't supplied as standard.

To expand on this, Mac OS X is very similar to Windows in how the mouse buttons work. Right clicking results in a context menu similar to Windows, and 10.2 even adds the Open With option. Moving from the PC to Mac at home to me is seamless for most of the interface. The Dock/Taskbar differences still get me from time to time, as well as the occasional Mac OS 9 behavior in X.

Okay, that's probably true. But then setting it up was difficult because the printer setup was buried in an unintuitive location, set apart from the rest of the settings.

This is where I think Apple still has some work to do. I foten find myself bouncing around between System Preferences and the Utilities folder to accomplish a configuration task. With Windows XP, everything is at least linked from the Control Panal somewhere.

they make their things TOO easy and take away all the cool options computer dorks like me want to take advantage of.

I have more power to tweak things under OS X compaired to Windows XP. And generally Apple dosen't skimp on options. Mail for example is a very simple client, but has some amazing options rarley seen elsewhere. iTunes is another example. It's simple enough to let someone rip a CD and not have a clue about compression and such, and advanced users can tweak the MP3 encoder, or even replace it with LAME.

this is why I say this: There is no such thing as a user friendly computer interface, no matter how intuative it is, now matter how hand-holding it is.. you MUST have some knowlage of how the computer functions. it's not userfriendly, it's user familiar. to me, the CLI is friendly, it allows me to type any command I want, any way I want. it doesn't bother me with interuptions, or excessive "are you sure?" boxes. the problem is, for most users that I support.. CLI is scary because they arn't being told what to do by the interface. this bothers them, the don't know why they use computers unless someone tells them why. some of my older users who came from the DOS days like CLI better, because they know exactly what they want out of a computer.. for it to get their work done easier, and keep track of their files. they are familiar with the CLI.

I have other users that have no concept of virtual space, they don't understand how files can be sorted in a directory structure, they think I deleted their email if i minimize their email client to check their network connectivity. computers were spawned from mathematics, and for some people, abstract mathematics are beond what they are willing to comprehend.

from a technical standpoint, MacOS X is young, it's fairly good, but I still consider it very beta, and it's updates are no better than microsofts. (atleast the recent microsoft updates within the past year) the hardware is sub-optimal, and slightly over priced.. even with my university department discount, some of their hardware is more expensive than the stuff we get from sun. and atleast sun has a track record of doing stuff decent. I would be verry warry of using a mac for any kind of server task.. even tho I know an ISP that has probably a dozen iMacs and G4 towers that they do mail/web from.

they think I deleted their email if i minimize their email client

Ah, yes. The 12:00 flashers. I know a few of those.

'The only intuitive interface is the nipple, everything must be learned how to use.'

I wish I could remember who said that quote - I end up using it all the time when one of the pilot types complains about one of the engineering tools we use and he has to relearn the interface all over (when he hasn't used it for a few months).

well i got my iBook, and i have to say i love it. the airport is awesome. Im still loyal to my Pc thou. and my Empeg of course

iToo got an iBook (last week) and love it.

I still use my iBM Thinkpad running Win2K, but must say that I enjoy using the iBook much more. Now I'm searching for a good wireless, multi-button mouse for it, since I have never liked the touch pad controls (nor the single button in the case of the iBook). I'm hoping an airport card which supports bluetooth and 801.11b will be introduced, followed by an optical, four button w/ scroll, bluetooth mouse. Any hardware developer's listening?

Two questions for the mac experts out there --

(1) What is the best way to backup my 30G iBook hard drive? Could I use a 20G iPod to do a selective backup, and then use the remaining space on the iPod to store its music files? How about an external firewire DVD burner? Any recommendations?

(2) What is the best GPS hardware and software to run on my iBook? After the Cincinnati meet I have got the GPS bug, and am looking for something which I can use to guide me to the next meet.

Thanks in advance for the help!

(1) What is the best way to backup my 30G iBook hard drive? Could I use a 20G iPod to do a selective backup, and then use the remaining space on the iPod to store its music files? How about an external firewire DVD burner? Any recommendations?

Play with Disk Copy, and its ability to create image files. Last time I backed up my Cube, I created one on my Linux box, dragged all my files into it, then reloaded the machine with Jaguar. Putting all the files inside a disk image like that preserved all the Mac specific file conventions.

GPS, not sure. I haven't really looked, because I figure my Garmin V is pretty PC independant. For the rare occasion of map loading, Virtual PC and a USB->Serial converter should work.

...drug all my files into it...

``dragged''

Oops... you missed this one Bitt?

...and it's ability to create image files.

The only GPS software for MacOS X that I'm aware of is MacGPS Pro.
http://www.macgpspro.com/

Don't let them pick you apart like that Drakino ... fight back. Thanks for your advice on backing up. I'll take your advice and disk image a full backup to the large drive in my desktop PC. I may still "have" to get the iPod for those critical data backups while traveling ... or atleast that is the way I'll present it to my wife.

So MacGPS Pro and a Garmin receiver ... now which receiver to buy. I'd like the voice guidance of the Street Pilot III, but without the size and cost. The "V" may be the right way to go.

Thanks for your input!