Any particular reason for the switch? I’m inferring that there was some unpleasantness associated with your trip to the Apple store?
— Cameron Watters 
I commend you on your selection of keyboard. I have an IBM model M at work and several at home. About 5 (okay, maybe 8 ) years ago I found a place back in Ohio that sold them *new* for something like $23, so I bought all three that they had.
Good camera choice too. I have the SD500 and love it.
Cameron: No, just that all of their current hardware offerings are unimpressive. I have slowly been getting less and less impressed with their software as well, and all of my essential software is open source. Linux on the Mac (even the new Intel Macs) is a hack at best. Why hang on any longer?
— Mark
I frequently find myself wondering whether buying an Apple is the right move, for reasons that should be obvious to anyone with a penchant for open source, but seriously, until someone in the open source community bothers to develop a decent sense of aesthetics, I intend to stick to Apple. Especially if it turns out that I can triple boot Windows, Ubuntu, and OS X, once I actually get around to running an Intel Mac.
— Bob Aman
Oh, and for the record, since I don’t have a need for a cross-platform text-editor, TextMate has me thoroughly hooked. And for the occasional need for text-editing over SSH, Emacs suits me fine. So yeah, I’m vendor-locked at this point. I know it, but Apple hasn’t given me a reason to complain that couldn’t be solved by open source on top of OS X. But I don’t discount the possibility that it might eventually occur.
— Bob Aman
I’m currently running Kubuntu Linux, which is Ubuntu’s KDE sister (I like KDE better than Gnome, so sue me…). I’ve only been running it about a week, but I’m impressed…
— nikkiana
You were the one who got me hooked on Debian. Ubuntu is simply Debian with predictable release cycles. No more “unstable” or “testing”.
Dapper is due out Thursday.
— Sam Ruby
(a me too comment) What nikkiana said sums it up.
If I ever say goodbye to Apple, it will be to run Ubuntu full time. I use it at work on my dev box (soon to be my production desktop if I have my way, since I can run the Linux Citrix client to get an Outlook client), and as my alternate boot on my old Powerbook. Just to “me too” the above, it’s everything you love about Debian, and none of what you don’t. Package management that “just works” 99% of the time, a good community to help if it doesn’t, and as Sam said, actual releases. Ubuntu is the Free Software OS I’d put my Mom (Wife, kids) on if I needed to do such a thing. And as stated, Kubuntu if you prefer KDE to Gnome.
Also, once you’re settled in with the ReadyNAS, please post your thoughts. I’ve been intrigued since the Tom’s review, but haven’t yet pulled the trigger.
Well, good luck with the free software. I notice from previous posts that you’re doing a lot of video (and presumably still image) processing. The non-free iLife, Photoshop, Aperture, etc all set a pretty high standard for the free software equivalents. It will be interesting to see how they compare.
Personally, I wouldn’t risk it. I’m bad enough at driving AV apps. I need the relative safety and user friendliness of iLife and friends.
— Alastair
I’m waiting for a dual-core lappy with Linux and Xen / UML. That way, I can have Fedora and Ubuntu and Kubuntu, my three favorite distros. I don’t do a lot of media stuff right now, but I do want to start doing a little AV editing on it. I’ll have mostly family pix and videos to start with.
Haven’t had any experience with Apple. Played with OpenDarwin for a while. Went back to DragonflyBSD. Generally positive feelings toward them, but haven’t opened my wallet.
— W^L+
I’d go with Ubuntu, but as Alastair points out, the video and still image editing support could use some work. I’ve been running Ubuntu on all my machines since October of last year and haven’t had any significant issues.
— James
IMO, you are only locked in if your data is in a proprietory format. The actual OS doesn’t really matter.
If you like Debian, then one of the Ubuntu family makes sense, or just use Windows with Cygwin :)
— Rob...
If you are doing development, use Debian Unstable.
If you can’t be bothered to fiddle around with the occasional broken upgrade, go for Ubuntu dapper.
I use the Ion window manager, like many other Debian developers. KDE/Gnome is bloatware IMO. Firefox in one frame and a screened uxterm in another.
I was thinking of purchasing an Apple. Oh well. Welcome to the Free software desktop, to hairy copy&pasting.
“You need others. But you need others for everything, really. In our part of the world, we have something called ubuntu. Ubuntu. Ubuntu. Ubuntu. The essence of being human. We say a person is a person through other persons. I can’t be human in isolation. I need you to be all you can be so that I can become me and all that I can be.”
From http://www.netsquared.org/blog/bobcarlton/kudos-to-netsquared-for-walking-the-talk-of-ubuntu
Go “Ubuntu” ;-)
— paolo
Interesting.
I’m currently about to head for the Apple store, to make the exact decision you skipped.
We may have to rethink it, but the A/V processing is actually a factor, since we’re thinking about getting a digital camcorder (any advice?). Also, my latest Mac experience is 15 years back, and I think we’ll both like to get back into the pretty UI…
Good choice on the Canon, have the previous model, still happy (except for battery life, always bring an extra).
I tried to be really geeky gentoo user. I now swear by ubuntu.
— Darryl
You’re going from “It just works” to “Hope it works”. I have repeatedly tried to use some form of Linux for home (I use it at work). I’ve found that this is what I want:
1. I want the OS to stay out of my way. No f’ing popups and no applications that look completely different from one another with nonstandard behaviors–there should be a standard way to copy and paste something from one window to another and it should work reliably.
2. I want things to work (media, common proprietary applications, the latest new geeky thing that will supposedly change the world). The LAST thing I want to do is a half-day long Google dance to figure out why something isn’t working.
3. I want it to work correctly on a laptop. This means sleeping and waking without crashing.
4. I want to be able to write software with it. This excludes Windows.
Linux fails most of these. It is getting incrementally better, but people argue with spirit rather than user experience when they promote it. Every time I install it, I go in with a good attitude, but inevitably I start missing the Mac experience. The Mac shows why the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
— Anonymous
Thanks for that keyboard link. My old IBM M died years ago, sadly. I have been wanting a replacement that was updated with modern niceties such as USB and a Windows key. After a brief search, I gave up and have since assumed that such a beast did not exist.
I have been thinking of a new PC lately. Those 750GB drives are quite tempting. This keyboard may just be the last bit of inspiration that tips me over back into a hardware buying spree.
It’s good to hear that some people are switching from Apple to Free Software instead of the other way. You and JWZ should go on a podcast and fling shakespearian insults at eachother :).
I could do that. I actually own a Shakespearean insults t-shirt.
— Mark
For what it’s worth, Ubuntu installs and runs wonderfully well on my wife’s new MacBook using Parallels VM. Can’t imagine what’s not to love about that.
— stephen
What applications are you using on a regular basis? Some of the comments in this thread suggest you’re doing photo and video editing. If that’s the case, then it doesn’t sound like the decision you made was very well considered. Good luck with your freeware alternatives. If you think the Gimp is a replacement for Photoshop, then I suppose your needs are light enough that it doesn’t really matter.
— Steve
After a few months trying to use Linux on a daily basis for actual work rather than as a hobby, I think you’re going to seriously regret this decision.
— Dongo Huber
Interesting to hear about your switch away from OS X. I have Ubuntu installed on my father’s PC, and although it is quite nice, it certainly lacks the polish of OS X. This is true of most Linux systems I’ve used in the past. Things never seem to work quite right.
And for those who think Mark is doomed to a life of crappy A/V software, I am assuming he didn’t toss his old mac to the curb. Worse case he can still do everything he has been doing on his old machine. Presumably it has worked well enough up till now.
That keyboard sounds cool.
— ramanan
Ah, I see the Mac fanboys have arrived via Daring Fireball. Shutting down comments until the wave passes…
— Mark
lol
interesting.
In these days, I would stick with ubuntu linux or os X.
— michel
Been using various flavors of Linux as the primary OS for about six years now (well… work issued me a MacBook Pro, and so I’ve been spending more time in OS X the last month or two, but there are still times when I just want things to work the way I’m used to), and the last two have been very happily on Ubuntu; so far it’s Just Worked on all the hardware I’ve thrown at it, wireless cards, peripherals and all. Even syncs my iPod for me.
mark, why don’t you try windows XP as your primary operating system? sure, there are a few problems, but a techie like you should be able to lockdown XP with firewall and anti-spy/anti-rootkit. A big chunk of the opensource softwares run on it, there are some great WAMP stacks out there (like XAMPP), cygwin is a usable unix environment (not through cmd :O but puttycyg), and you get a platform that supports 99.99% of all the great software ot there. activestate provides perl/python, apache groups stuff like ant, maven, Ruby-mswin32 for rails if you are into that sort of things :P etc.
— Sys0p
All I can say is “Yeah, good luck with that.” Using Linux fulltime, especially for audio/video photography work is going to be challenging at best. Ironically your reasons for switching are due to “unimpressive” software and hardware from Apple at a time in their history they are offering the MOST impressive of the two. I wish the best of luck… you are most defiantly gonna need it. The good thing about going open source is the community… I bet you’ll spend a lot of time with them and get to know it well.
— Cpawl
Nice keyboard! Linux users might also be interested in their Linux Keyboard though, which switches the Caps Lock and Ctrl keys. Apparently it makes for a much more pleasant keyboarding experience, though I don’t know if that only relates to command line applications.
— Oliver
“Ubuntu is the ancient African word for ‘I’m sick of compiling Gentoo.’”
I think you’re being a bit purposely contrarian with your switch (and a 2 ghz core duo is a better chip than a 3 ghz dual pentium d, if only for nerdish reasons)– but Linux has quietly gotten pretty usable is the past few years.
— jun
I tried Ubuntu for a couple months last year. It was, by far, my best GNU/Linux desktop experience. “Cuddly Debian” sums it up well. I had fun, I learned a lot about GNU/Linux, and I’m glad for the experience… but in the end, I just wasn’t as productive as I needed to be. I couldn’t find a text editor anywhere on par with UltraEdit32 for Windows. Gnome was eye-bleedingly frustrating on a routine basis, and believe it or not, it didn’t run any faster than Windows. It never felt like home… like I was perpetually stuck at the library using a public Internet terminal with someone else’s shortcuts on my desktop. I switched to OS X, and instantly felt at home. I found applications that filled my needs, and my productivity skyrocketed. My need to tinker is more than satisfied with Fink and all the apt-get goodness that it brings.
Long term, I like to imagine that I’ll be on a Free OS. But it’s going to take at least 15 years, strong financial backing, and a team with a vision, to make a mainstream desktop Linux-based OS.
I agree with Mark Jaquith, I’m a Windows switcher (2003), Linux dabbler, and now Mac user who leaves his bible at home!
One of Apple’s and therefore OS X’s principal weaknesses is the PowerMac. Their only tower isn’t nearly upgradeable enough. Your shopping list at the top there says it all: loads of hardware choice and not even the need to homebuild as there’s a market already for well configured machines all across the spectrum. If only Apple were to make the Mac Pro a mean mutha of real tower with space and mounts and outlets enough inside it to really compete with the generic workstation manufacturers.
The other dream is of course a generic x86/64 OS X. That’s even less likely though.
Linux is the ultimate freedom and I do honestly wish you well with it. It will probably work out because Ubuntu especially really has a great community and where there’s a will there’s a way. But as for me I’m a long way off taking the dive out of OS X.
— John Muir
When can we all stop using the word “fanboys” in place of “anyone who doesn’t agree with me?” It’s old.
— Dubs
Um, who cares what computer he uses?
— Stu
Why would anyone willingly choose to buy a system that contains an Intel Pentium 4 chip? The entire Pentium 4 series underperforms while burning through lots of watts– which means it costs more to run and generates more heat and, thus, noise.
Until Intel transitions their entire product line to variants of the Pentium-M (Core Duo, Core Duo 2, etc), the AMD Athlon X2 is a far, far better dual core CPU.
Nobody should be buying Pentium 4s any more, unless they have no choice.
If you don’t want comments, don’t post. It’s the internet, remember? How can you expect to make a blog entry titled “Bye, Apple” and not get comments?
— Mr. Smith
I went searching for one of those R F Keyboards, because I used to own and love the old Northgates. Built like a tank and just as loud. It was having two sets of function keys that I always loved, since having one set on the left made it easy to do ALT or CTRL plus F key. I found the company that bought the rights to the Northgate keyboard, and spent the bucks to buy one. Just like old times! I’m using it now. The name plate says Avant Stellar by Creative Vision Technologies. I’m sure it can be googled.
— BBoyd
I’m on Suse 10.1 right now — if you have any interest in eye candy, XGL and Compiz put everything else to shame (if it works on your hardware — the usual linux caveat). Setting it up in Suse 10.1 was a complete snap and even on my dated and puny hardware (athlon 2200+ w/ cheap nvidia chipset 128mb card), it runs fast and smooth. The effects are truly mindblowing and a few of them are quite useful (smooth expose like feature), flatten out the “cube” of multiple desktops to see them in miniature all at once side by side, translucency that can be adjusted instantly with a modifier key and scroll wheel (useful if you want to briefly read what is behind the foreground app). Some are just neat but hard to imagine using, like having a video playing in a window you’ve made a bit translucent while it is wrapped around the edge of the desktop cube, then rotating the cube so the corner is facing you and seeing how smooth the video is despite all that. It makes a great demo though.
— odin
i would also recommend the Ubuntu twins (you can have them both installed…) or the regular Debian. Personally, i’m running the Debian “testing” series (“Etch”), but i’ve thought of erasing everything but the core and going from there, compiling everything from source as i go, but i’ve also thought of blocking all incoming/outgoing traffic and tunneling just what i want transmitted…
I’ve been using Unicomp Keyboards for years now. I just wish that they made their Mighty Mouse layout using the buckling spring technology (ie. the customizer layout without the numeric keypad) so I could regain about 12 sq. inches on my desk and have the mouse closer.
You know, I can’t believe that I have read so many emotional responses. (Not to be confused with passionate) . It is like listening to a bunch of spoiled kids. People on many blogs and sites out there do nothing but complain. You are given Gold, and you complain it is not enough. It is not compatible with your tin and pot metal collection of rubbish that you bought years ago, and you actually have to pay someone for it. You complain that even though physics and technology don’t allow it to be, Apple should have given it to you regardless. You complain that even with a low cost model, intended to be LOW COST, that it doesn’t contain every feature possible in today’s world for a retail price of $150 for the desktop model, and $300 for the laptop. You complain that OSX is not exactly like window$. You complain when Apple is not popular or “Big” enough, then complain that they are too big, and have a monopoly in the digital music arena. “Who will unseat Apple’ Dominance?”
I think Apple has done an exceptional job over the years, considering they ultimately have to deal with people like the one’s I am talking about. (And you know who you are).
Complaining is defiantly catchy. Here I am complaining about everyone’s complaining.
I think that ALL of the other OSes are a GOOD THING. Without competition and new ideas, we would not have the things that you so love, working so well. (Or as well as they can anyway.) I happen to like and use OSX and other Apple products and software because I run several companies, and they are dependent on computers and technology to work. Apple seems to have always catered to that need. Simply give me technology that works, and is easy to use, and doesn’t have me spending all of my time troubleshooting, or paying people to troubleshoot things all day. I care more about this than what brand it is. Or that “Everyone else in the world uses it.” Imaging the argument that the bull had as he followed his colleagues off the cliff-”Don’t be left out, everyone else is doing it. it must be the best thing to do!”
Taking a quote from a conversation I had with Bill Gates himself in 1989, I asked him why he made even the simplest tasks (i.e. C drive :// etc…) so difficult, he replied “If it was up to me, I would take the available technology out today, and trickle it out over the next Ten Years or more, only when I HAD TO.”
Thank God for Apple, and Linux and other innovators.
And thank God for people like Steve Jobs, as arrogant, whiney and controlling as he is made out to be, he gets the job done. Ultimate leadership has to be from one voice. It might be decided by the voices of many, but implemented and directed by one voice, or it simply fails.
— Anonymous
ubuntu dapper. i used breezy before, and i though /that/ was a polished distro…
looking past the hype, i doubt you’ll see the same level of user-friendliness as you did with mac os, but dapper definitely goes to show that all of the effort being put into preparing linux for the desktop is paying off.
— vlad
Whatever. Best of luck.
— Andrew Richardson
I tried living in ubuntu 5.04 for some months on a lower spec laptop, and it was getting to be a drag. I bought an iBook and it works for me. I’m an end user type of person and I still take photos with one of these – no trouble with databases. I have noticed that I use free software a lot (TeX, GIMP, Audacity, oOo) so when the applecare runs out it will be time to think again…
Ditto.
I just switched to SuSE 10.1 after 12 years on a Mac.
Activated Xgl and loving every minute if it.
Get a good nights sleep now too: open source, open formats, ’nuff said.
— Fergus
who said linux cant have pretty UI …i just hacked my kubuntu (ubuntu kde version) got an desktop looking -> http://pagux.com/pics/linux.png …and http://pagux.com/pics/linuxosx.png..cool stuff like translucency and 3d desktop changer and zillions of other customization is possible …my kubuntu Adept (pack manager gives access to 17,000 apps with just single click )…I am also waiting for XGL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xgl)to do some cool stuff (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Xgl.png).Most of friends are apple fanatics …I too was considering to buy iMac /Powerbook but until I bought iPod ..I relized they are most closed systems in world ..buying anything apple is like living in air tight room …I mean what happens if solid state hdd of my ipod crashed or battery went down after a year ….buy new says apple support ..you cant do anything !! ..there absolutely no upgradibility or freedom with apple products ….apple is just a stylish GUI sitting on top of freebsd core …..and I can make my linux desktop better looking and faster (http://sekhon.berkeley.edu/macosx/ ) than apple with linux …i just luv the look on my apple friends :-)…so bye closed formats zero upgradibility …..btw any one wants to buy my ipod ;-)
— pagux
I’ve been using Linux exclusively at home since Ubuntu’s first release. I have to say that the install of Dapper on my amd64 box was the fastest and least painful OS install I’ve had in over 20 years. I usually configure everything manually but I ran Automatix (you can find it on Ubuntu forums) this time and the multimedia support is outstanding. I installed a new DVD/CD burner, completed a fresh install, restored my backed up data, downloaded and installed software, and had everything configured the way I liked it in less than three hours.
I’m more concerned with ease of use and productivity than I am with tinkering these days. I was actually considering a switch to Apple before I installed Dapper. However, Dapper is so polished, and I’m so productive with it, that I can’t see switching anytime soon. It’s really amazing to see how much progress the Ubuntu team is making with each release.
The bottom line though is use what works for you.
I too installed Ubuntu about 6 months ago. At first I dual booted it with Windows, but now I run entirely on Ubuntu, with 1 small windows partition tucked away somewhere.
Its a great distro for me, quite a gentle introduction to Linux, but I’m a total addict to the command line now.
I have had a couple of days troubleshooting a few issues, like a scanner that didnt want to play ball, but I think I just got unlucky there, as it was a known compatibility issue.
The bottom line though is use what works for you is a good maxim, but sometimes I think people just stick with what theyve got, for fear of the unknown.
— Martin Wellbourne
Yeah, I wouldn’t buy a MBP right now either. You know, rev 1 Apple product meme and all that.
Still, it seems like a weird time to be saying you are less and less impressed with Apple’s offerings… I made that decision in the 90s, but switched back for OS X. Since then Apple software hasn’t failed to disappoint me. I’ve actually gotten excited over it again, kind of like when I first got my hands on Hypercart back in 87. I’m trying to figure out what’s turned you off. Was it the Aperture fiasco? Overheating whiny MBPs?
The Core Duo performance is the most significant Apple upgrade in a long long time. I guess if free software does what you need then it’s stupid to pay the Apple tax, but realistically I can’t see a switch to Linux as anything but a productivity damper. I’m sure we’ll all be using some free OS in 10 or 20 or 30 years, but seems a little premature to me.
— Gabe
On the long-term storage discussion thread I noticed that nobody suggested GDrive (to be lauched soon(TM)). I think that it will be a game changer.
— SN
Mark,
Welcome to a Brave GNU World. Since you value your freedom, you won’t regret it.
As a GNU/Linux user myself since 1999, starting with Red Hat Linux 5.2 and Caldera Linux 1.3 (back when Caldera was good), I can attest to the marked, and rapid, improvement of the desktop experience on Free Software platforms. I’m primarily a KDE user, so I’ll use that as my example here. Is KDE as “slick” today as OS X’s desktop? No, I don’t believe it’s quite as slick (yet), but it’s pretty darned good. Is it as functional? I’ve found it to be. I have certainly found it more functional than any MS Windows desktop.
I run the following distros:
- Ubuntu (Power Mac G4 and Pentium 4)
- Slackware (AMD Athlon), my personal favorite
- CentOS 4 (dual Athlon)
- Debian (Pentium 4)
- Yellow Dog Linux (Power Mac G3 B&W with 1GHz CPU upgrade)
All are good in their own ways, all do certain things well, and all of them respect my freedom.
I’ve never used iTunes, and I won’t. I also won’t buy an iPod for the same reason. Sure, they’re cute, but they restrict my freedom if I use them. Since I consider that unacceptable (as do you, apparently), I vote with my dollar$ and refuse to buy an iPod or subscribe to iTunes or anything else like it.
As for multimedia playing, you would do well to look at MPlayer. It is (if your country’s laws permit it, of course) capable of playing just about anything, including the proprietary stuff such as encrypted DVD’s, Windows Media, QuickTime, RealMedia, etc. Heck, I even use it to play MP3’s. The MPlayer GUI is skinnable and, thus, as cool and slick as you want it to be. I like the Terminator3 skin best. :-)
But what about functionality, the proprietary-software users will ask? Valid question. My answer: I have yet to find anything that I’ve needed to do with a computer that I haven’t been able to do with Free Software. That includes office productivity (OpenOffice.org), typesetting, scanning, faxing, viewing multimedia (obviously), working with digital cameras, thumb drives, enterprise single-sign-on, DVD/CD burning, whatever. Just vote with your dollars and insist on buying only that gear or software that follows published, freely-available, freely useable (e. g. non-patented) standards. It’s not hard at all; I’ve been doing it for years.
Again, welcome.
— Sum Yung Gai