Hasta La Gadget!

This weekend, my Dell laptop caught a virus that made it inoperable less than a week after a complete reformat and reinstall. So I bought a Mac laptop.

Yeah, I’ve used Windows machines for essentially my entire life, but switching turned out to be not that big a deal. Why? Because an OS isn’t that important.

What’s kept me from switching all these years isn’t because I loved Windows or hated Macs. No, it was more a combination of laziness and self-identification. That’s to say I didn’t want to switch because I didn’t want to deal with learning the ins and outs of a new OS, and also I identified myself as a “Windows guy” and didn’t want to become a “Mac guy.” Both reasons are essentially bullshit.

First, laziness. Switching from Windows to Mac or Mac to Windows or Windows to Ubuntu or whatever is easier than ever. There are differences between the operating systems to be sure, but none of them are that huge and none will have a real, fundamental effect on your experience. These days, most of what you do is online, or at least most of what I do is. When I switched, my feeds were synced online, as was my IM buddy list. Both my work and personal email accounts are online, as is my calendar. All of my files saved on my external hard drive work in, if not the exact same program, one that’s very similar on the other OS. So really, it takes about a week of adjustment and then you’re fine.

And as for identification, well, that’s a pretty dumb reason to make any kind of decision. When it comes down to it, nobody is defined by their OS. Yes, Apple ads would love for you to think of yourself as a cool hipster for owning a Mac and to think of PC users as chubby nerds, but that isn’t the case. Operating systems are just tools to get things done, and you can do whatever you want with any OS. It’s like a car: No matter what kind of car you buy, you’re still going to the same places. Driving a Hummer won’t make you a tough guy, and using Windows won’t make you a nerd.

I realized both of these things a couple of weeks ago after I bought a Dell Mini 9 with Ubuntu Linux. I was worried at first that I’d hate not using Windows, but after about an hour I realized that I was having almost the exact same experience I would be having if it had XP on it. It just didn’t matter.

So why switch? Well, having my system taken down twice in a week is not something I can afford to have happen. Macs, as of now, don’t really get viruses. And I have a large community of people who can help me out with it if I run into problems. That’s it.

So how’s switching been? Fine. It’s a nice OS with some features I like and some that I find really annoying. It’s fun to try something new, but it’s not blowing Windows out of the water or making me run to the returns counter. It’s a computer. I’d be equally happy with a new Lenovo with similar specs and Windows 7 Beta on it, I’m sure.

The whole experience of using all three major operating systems over the past couple of weeks has been pretty fun, actually. I enjoy using new software and learning these basics again, and all of it feels pretty familiar. I plan on installing Windows 7 on my new Apple laptop so I can access any Windows software I miss and can stay familiar with how that OS is progressing.

And in the end, I’ll keep doing what I always do with my laptop: Work on the internet, where what OS you’re using matters exactly jack squat.

This article was written on October 28, 2008 by CyberNet.

CodeWeavers are the people behind the free and open source implementation of the Wine project. Most Linux users are familiar with this project because this is how they can run Windows programs in Linux without needing any kind of virtual machine. Well, the same people behind Wine also develop a more professional-grade product called CrossOver Pro that’s available for both Mac and Linux. One of the largely added benefits of CrossOver vs. Wine is a slightly more extensive list of compatible programs & games.

Good news… you still have a few more hours to grab their software for free (regularly $70 for the Professional version). Their site is currently suffering from the enormous amounts of traffic, but all you have to do is enter in your email address and you’ll receive a serial number over the next few days for the product(s) you’re requesting.

Why are they giving the software away for free? Here’s what they said in their press release:

In July, CodeWeavers – whose software lets Mac OS X and Linux users run Windows programs without having to Microsoft for a Windows OS license – launched the Great American Lame Duck Presidential Challenge (lameduck.codeweavers.com) to encourage President Bush to make the most of his remaining days in office by accomplishing a major economic or political goal by January 20, 2009.

The goals focused on President Bush making specific positive accomplishments in areas such as the economy, home values, the stock market, the war on terror and other key issues. Specifically, one goal called for President Bush to help down bring average gasoline prices in the Twin Cities to $2.79 a gallon.

On Monday, Oct. 14, gas prices in Minneapolis and St. Paul did just that.

“That morning, I was filling my tank at Big Steve’s Gas Palace in St. Paul,” said Jeremy White, president and CEO of CodeWeavers. “I had just finished my morning corn dog and 64-ounce Dr. Pepper when I looked at the pump and noticed gas was at $2.79. I screamed ‘Woohoo,’ then I yelled ‘Oh, crap!’ as I realized every American can now have my software for free.

What other goals are on the list? If any of these goals are met by January 20, 2009 they will once again offer their software for free:

• Return the stock market to it’s 2008 high
• Reduce the average price of a gallon of milk to $3.50
• Create at least one net job in the U.S. this calendar year
• Return the median home price to its Jan. 1, 2008 level
• Bring Osama Bin-Laden to justice

Thanks CodeWeavers for living up to your word!
Get CrossOver Pro for Mac or Linux

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Related Posts:

• CodeWeavers CrossOver Mac To Be Released In July/August
• Linux Users Might See World Of Warcraft
• Will Microsoft Really Release Office For Linux?
• CrossOver Mac Beta Released To The Public
• Windows Users Can Easily Switch To Linux Xandros

Here we go: Apple’s just announced that its Worldwide Developers Conference will take place June 8-12 in San Francisco. If you’ll recall, last year’s WWDC was where a little gadget called the iPhone 3G made its appearance, and we’d say chances are good we’ll see new hardware this year as well — especially since there’d be no bigger way for Steve Jobs to make his planned June return to the company. Also on the list of expected attendees? Snow Leopard, possibly with a revised interface. It should be a big one — you know we’ll be digging for all the info we can get in the leadup, so keep it locked.

Update: Jobs said he’d be out until the “end of June,” of course. Still, we’ve got a feeling he’d want to be involved in any iPhone hardware announcements. We’ll see!

Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Laptops

Apple announces WWDC 2009 dates; iPhone, Snow Leopard countdowns begin originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A new firmware update from Apple is designed to fix the “possibility" of vertical lines and distorted graphics on the new, 17" unibody MacBook Pro. This will come as good news to the hundreds or thousands of owners who thought that Apple had simply shipped machines with defective graphics cards.

The problem can be seen in the photograph above, taken from an Apple Support Forum posting by Forcefedmedia. The lines appear when switching to the more powerful GeForce 9600 graphics card — sticking with the integrated graphics fixes the issue.

Hopefully, given that Apple has now released this firmware update, things will be fixed. The prevailing thought said that this was actually caused by fried graphics processors, and it’s easy to see why, especially if you lived through the iBook G4 (and some G3) issue of some years back, which actually was a hardware problem.

Still, the unibody MacBooks have generally been the best Mac launch in years, with much fewer teething troubles than usual. Any giant, 17" MacBook toting readers should let us know how things go.

About the MacBook Pro Graphics Firmware Update 1.0
[Apple]

Screenshot: Forcefedmedia

The internet is quivering with excitement today at the introduction of a new 17" iMac, aimed exclusively at the education market.

The problem? It seems that a lot of people were out partying over the weekend and haven’t yet recovered. There is no new iMac. Instead, it is the old white plastic iMac which has been knocking around for some time, much like the still-available white MacBook, which Apple has also failed to stop selling.

The “news" was sparked by an Apple newsletter, and understandably so — the misleading copy reads thus:

 

The new iMac line also includes a 17-inch model starting at $899.

As ever with Apple, things on the site have mysteriously disappeared. The newsletter is still there, but the little drop down on the iMac product page doesn’t even show up on the education store. The screengrab below comes courtesy of TechTree:

Still, it’s good to know that Apple’s policy of axing a whole product line when its replacement comes out isn’t ending in landfill. Much better to offer cheap hardware to those that need it.

Apple’s 17-inch iMac for Students [Techtree]

eNews for Education March 2009 [Apple]