chaostic
Group: Members
Posts: 328
Joined: Mar. 2005 |
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Posted: Jan. 06 2008,04:32 |
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Quote (jpeters @ Dec. 24 2007,19:04) | I just got to play with a new imac. The pros were that with some effort you can tap the power of unix (I had to install X11 from the OS disks to run scripts, etc). You'd have to know about Vim, TCLTK, etc., because they're not listed in the apps menus. Although I thought MAC had drag and drop, nothing dragged & dropped for me. Also, if you write a script and click on the associated icon, it doesn't know what to do (or opens the cheezy mac editor. I didn't find a way to associate a command with the click (right click gives you a bunch of nice graphic info that only allows you to change the name...not very helpful).
Forget about multiple desktops, etc. I tried to click on Firefox (my friend was told by Mac support to download Firefox when she was getting all kind of pop-ups with Safari......the Mac Support guy didn't know about PithHelmut, I guess)....anyway, MAC only allows one copy of FF to be running. (vs having multiple copies on different desktops in DSL..... I don't believe that's an effort to save on RAM, either). Summary....lousy desktop on top of a potentially useful Unix kermal.
After installing X11, putting a few aliases into 'bashrc' (you'd have to be familiar with it to know it's there, and change permissions to write to it) you can run scripts via the terminal, which is buried away in a utilities folder in the apps folder. I don't think it's used much.....an old UNIX throwback......I couldn't find a way to hotkey anytthing, although there might be some third party software around for that.
On the positive side, it's good for connecting to an *IPOD and lots of colorful stores. You can also look at your own mug on the screeen (which probably won't appeal much to anyone much over 26).
*Edit: ..oops, spoke too soon. My friend just reported that her imac crashed twice while trying to load itunes (...had to be shut down from the back) ..Perhaps that's to be expected with only 1 gig of ram . |
Sounds like your both unfamiliar with OSX (Or just to used to your favorite linux distro) and you been reading one too many macs are teh ghey jokes.
First, for OSX, the Terminal.app program is the main way into the unix underpinnings. You can also do it with Applescript or X11, but X11 is not needed. As far is it goes, any terminal apps are not listed in a "apps" menu because they arn't used in the GUI.
Now drag and drop, it tends to be limited from Finder to X11. Mostly just draggable text. In terminal, dragging an app or an icon just inserts its path to the command-line.
Bash scripts arn't executable in Finder because they are not used in the GUI side. Applescript is the primary scripting language for the Finder, which allow you to call/run terminal scripts. (The reverse can be done from terminal) allowing command line and gui access from either side (How many linux distros are able to move a x11 window around from a command line script?)
Multiple desktops have been around in Mac since system 7, just now being supported by Apple directly.
OSX tends to take a Application centric approach, unlike Windows and Linux which tend to take a Window/WindowManager centric approach. In a GUI, why would you really need two instances of a program? In the GUI, if you need another copy of the program running, you would need to copy the program, or go into $PATH/$ApplicationName/Contents/MacOs/ and click on the $ApplicationShortName Sure, its a bit complicated in the GUI, but in the command line, it is no different then what you would normally do.
Oh, and the terminal is there without needing to install X11. And if you were in the Mac scene, you would see that is used as often as the terminal is in any linux distro, depending on what you need.
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