Mac OS karma check : “There once was a user that whined his existing OS was so blind he'd do better to pirate an OS that ran great but found his hardware declined. Please don't steal Mac OS! Really, that's way uncool." Nondisputandum karma check: ‘Oomppa-A’ There comes the brass band ‘Leap-A’-head Comes the First Mac Worm (Referring to the first genuine Mac OS virusses/worms - 2006 - Oomppa-A & Leap-A’-head)

A bedtime story:

Buying a Mac?
Never!
And when I say Never,...
I mean Never?

Hey,... I have no problem with Mac’ers as long as they stick to their own environment. I’m not a Macist, I even have some friends who use the Mac! Obvious that they stay discrete,... most probably because their tool is no match compared to raw PC Power,... Yea,... that must be the reason. Mac’ers with their assumed to be incompatible system, their weird jungle-like Safari browser, their vitamin-fruit layout, pulsating LEDs that look as if their machine is actually alive. So, buying a Mac is stupid, right? Did you ever see their average system configuration? Poeha... Until recently, they still counted their clock speed in Megaherzes. They still offer the same bus speed that you find on 150$ second hand Pentiums... etcetera... etcetera...

On the other hand, there must be something about Mac that makes programmers, graphical specialists, educational workers and grandmothers use it. But what?

(See below the page : Bootcamp + Windows running on Apple)

The awakening - August 2004:
(More recent feed-back below...)

One of the guys at work uses a Powerbook. Though he is mostly forced to work on PC based systems, he develops his office-tools on a Mac. Weirdo... but curious as I am, I admit that I asked him if I could take a look at his computer. I recognized some stuff. I saw that the layout of the jukebox was exactly the same as the layout of the Quintessentials Jukebox skin that I just installed few weeks back. ‘It’s called iTunes’, he said. Than I remembered that it was also the same skin that I found on a Registry Cleaner named TweakNow,... So,I’ve been using the skin for some time in several softs without realizing it was Mac-alike.

The OS X: It is so much focussed on simplicity & uniformity,... I guess it can not contain whatever it takes to make it compete with XP. It somehow feels as if it was made for first graders. As if it were a giant gadget,... not a real computer. How can so many intelligent people put their trust in funny software?

Than the guy,.. a perfectly intelligent psychologist/programmer, closed his computer without shutting it down and walked away with the Apple under his arm. I tried to yell not to do that... He turned around and smiled, gave me his portable and when I opened it, the screen immediately came alive. No sign of any instability. Well,... most PC based systems say they can do that, though it is not advised, right? The man told me that he actually never closes down his system during the day. His computer is always up and running within the next second and the battery lasts all day. Yea,... sure,... and if I don’t buy that he’ll tell me another joke. Right?

But he got my attention. Just out of curiosity, I downloaded a simulation of the Apple Dock on my PC. That was fun... rolling icons growing tall & small. Easy navigation becoming my part. Very funny. Besides that,.. More WIndows tools on More free tools..


Interlude:

For my upcoming post-bach studies - 40up but young of heart - I was looking for a very small ultra-portable 12-inch computer with a very long battery life and a solid construction. As I had recently bought a brilliant but expensive Centrino based portable for my mother, I knew what technology I wanted to buy. But,... try to find an affordable Centrino linked to a 12 inch screen,... in a solid mistreat-proof outfit if you please. Found it? Did you see the price tag? Right... Than perhaps a cheap 14 inch running on Pentium power? How about the battery life? JFC!  Already having a desktop, I could never spend a full month’s pay one one single computer for mobile use. So should I buy a pen and paper?

For the record, my 14 y old daughter asks me to replace her desktop with an Apple. How would she know what is better. She has a perfectly good PC to MSN with her friends. Would she be able to do that on Mac? (Answer)


September 1st 2004:

I saw the psy/programmer working on his Mac. So I began to ask more questions. I’m just showing some interest,.. nothing more. Besides that,... the Mac system must be somehow incompatible with Microsoft. And I need Office. What would life mean without Office? I also need to link the portable to my router to get online and to exchange files with my potent (beeped-up 3.0) 3.6 GHz P4 2Ghz Ram system. I’m a power freak, remember! No sissy hardware under my fingertips.

Though I must say that I found the Apple iBook and Powerbook... eurgh... charming.
It has the looks.


September 4th,
The last day of the Apple expo in Paris, France:

I met with a bunch of Apple adepts near a Mac Do south of Brussels, Belgium. They were mostly working in the educational sector, graphics and stuff,... but two of them were nice old ladies. Were we going to a computer exposition? I was a bit confused about this sexist thought... but showed no sign of alteration. They welcomed me and gave no sign of wonder about what a PC freak was doing there. As if others have been there and done than before... Hmm... Next they will try to sell me Steve Job’s Bible.

I asked myself if I still knew what I was doing. Not that I had the answer... What could I possibly learn at an Apple expo? I was curious, but not intending to buy anything. I felt a bit like Indiana Jones entering the Temple of Doom. What I found what not what I expected. I saw a mixture of young brats & older folks. Even though it was slightly overcrowded, it was a nice ambiance. No folks pushing, all polite. Weird,... no rush towards the stands. I had to keep a stiff upper lip to hold that cool appearance.

Hundreds of freelance Apple collaborators explaining questions and demonstrating the full potential of Mac. Than I realized that one of our group was dressed like those many other Apple staff members. I found out that he was part of their international network of educational freelancers. They really have people everywhere ;-)

Each of the Mac adepts went his/her own way. So I was walking around without knowing where to start,... like Alice in Wonderland. I rapidly got used to that friendly Macintosh ambiance. C’était sympa. It only took a few more minutes and it was IMHO no longer possible to seperate me from the average visitor. When we came back together I knew a lot more about the 12 inch iBook. I have to admit that the day earlier, I had spent 4 hours at the Mac Shop in Brussels behind a beautiful 14 inch iBook that was almost as good looking as the lady behind the desk. Mea Maxima Culpa, it was stronger than myself.

In the middle of the expo was a huge Mac Office stand showing the 2004 version. Bang... I saw stuff that Microsoft not even considers offering in their equivalent suite. Saw it on Mac,... transferred to PC and proved to be 100% compatible as long as you stay within the limits of Office for Windows. Was it not supposed to be at least the other way around?

Yes, I did notice that PC’s are ugly machines compared to Mac.

Than I found a 12 inch Powerbook at a very fair price,... The rest is history.

PRO:

• Solid, very solid. No sharp or fragile components.
• Great clavier,... the best I’ve ever seen on a portable system.
• Smoothly working & stable +++ (Don’t be fooled by proc & bus MHz’s & raw Ram.)
• As fast as a Centrino running XP, what is amazing considering the raw hardware configuration.
• The Mac Powerbook (but also the iBook) is a good desktop replacement for 95% of the users.
• Fully compatible with Microsoft Office.
• Less virus sensible, little malwares existing as it seems.
• Huge battery life,.. I mean huge compared to ANY portable PC.
• Nice quality screen.
• Thouchpad is very responsive. No need for a mouse!
• Price/Quality: Not as expensive as you might think,... a comparable Windows based system is MORE expensive.
• Elle a une belle geulle.
• Bought an Airport Extreme Card at the Apple store. Just arrived at my home with TNT... took exactly 2,5 working days.
• The Ram compartment and Airport compartment are accessible. You can replace components yourself. Easy as De||  oops... Mac.

CON:

• The amount of RAM (256 Mb) was a joke back in 2004. The Mac needed about 215 Mb (about 75 MB Wired & 140 MB Active) just to open the OS X, so it will need some additional ram to boost it to it’s highest performance. Do that and you’ll be a happy user for years to come. I installed a supplementary 1/2 Gig. Now I have 540 Mb in use of whom 325 Mb inactive and about 225 Mb available. Good enough for a start.

Conclusion:
So if you won’t take advice from a Mac adept,... take it from a PC adept:
Macintosh has great hardware and the Mac OS system is the most stable i’ve even seen. Yes, it is more stable than Windows XP. Not that Windows XP is a bad system,... but it’s not as stable and much more difficult to handle. Period.
Powerbook hardware: http://www.apple.com/powerbook/specs.html
Powerbook software: http://www.apple.com/software/


Epilogue:

It took me about an hour to learn the basics of the OS. Another few hours to find out how it really works. Now that I bought my Powerbook, I’m reading the manual (on screen) and learning the few secrets of Mac OS X. Really,... don’t let your anxiety or resistance stop you from buying a Mac. It is easy to learn and exchangable/compatible with modern PC software/hardware. Even more if you are not a (self declared) computer expert. You have a choice these days. PC or Apple. They both have their advantages.


About the ‘première’ of the new G5 iMac:


It looks like a tablet pc on steroids. Elle n’a pas vraiment une belle geulle. But mark my words: It will soon be an icone like the Commodore 64 is nowadays. A trendsetter. I DO believe that it will rapidly by passed by more aerodynamic models. One thing speaks for Apple: They try to make things simple. And they achieve that goal better than any PC builder.

The first PC based copy of the iMac was spotted only 5 days after the Mc Expo: http://news.com.com/*.*.html

Oh yea,... While Intell (09/2004) thinks about using dual processor technology, Apple’s Power Mac has reached it’s top speed with dual technology. For those about to rock,... Apple salutes you with a raving mad dual 64-bit processor. If you thougth that raw power was a PC thing? Think again! And prices are more than comparable... Check it out! Liquid cooling available...

Reassurance:

Beside my ultra portable Apple, I keep using my desktop PC at home while my Mac is for the road. I’m not into dumping perfectly good hardware just to respond to my enthusiasm. So for the years to come I will update this website on a weekly schedule.

Keep www.nondisputandum.com as a reference.
[Make this your start page] I’ll try to keep my pc as stable & malware free as my Mac and share my knowledge with you. Just for the fun of it. Mission impossible?
Cross your fingers & wish me luck ;-)

Nondisputandum.

PS: Meanwhile, I visited Mac Expo Paris in september 2005. Wouldn’t miss it.

Friday 13th, january 2006:

Boy oh boy, Intel and Apple have their first baby. It looks like Mac, but does not run like a PC. It runs as if it has a double heart, with quadruple turbo compressors, a tripple re-enforced bybass, fuel injection on high octane steroids and the muscles of J.C. Van Damme (Muscles from Brussels), Schwarzenegger (post-governor Heidi from the Austrian mountains) and Sly Stallone (Rocky 1, 2 & 3 combined). Not that I’m amazed. The slik encodings of ‘Mac OS X what’s in a number’-’ with the raw power of Intel must bring fire in the basement,... and show that the PC never, ever was the equal of Mac. Am I jumping conclusions? Well, The PC & Mac will finally be comparable in speed test. What Mac will win,... Perhaps it would be better to stop that discussion and organize a stablilty test. That would be something,... don’t you think so? Wondering if the Mac is as easily overclockable as the PC running on Intel... guess so! At the time it’s to early to compare as Apple needs to update it’s desktop software to the Intel environment, not using a slowing emulator. But that’s just a matter of time... I wonder what Microsoft has in mind,...

Friday 7th, march 2006:
Apple releases Boot Camp. The first software to run Windows XP on a Mac computer.

Mac Expo 2006:
> Pics taken with my QTec hooked on Windows.





TODAY :

I still use the (now old) Powerbook, bought in 2004, professionally as well as privately on a daily basis. I never close it down. I’s my gazette, mail reader, browser, notebook,... I use it to go online while my PC is starting up. It’s a great platform to put a cuppa coffee on while you work on the PC. It’s a sketchbook, a game machine, a portable friend.

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