Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 15:17:50 +0100 From: Johannes H Andersen <johsnopsamsizefitterzzzz.com> Subject: Re: A Macintosh Computers and A Saab?
Rob Levandowski wrote: > > In article <3E9886DC.4B668B52nopsamsizefitterzzzz.com>, > Johannes H Andersen <johsnopsamsizefitterzzzz.com> wrote: > > > Since I'm a cheapskate, I have only little experience in Apple. > > Unix-based O/S - system 8? sounds good, but is it compatible with > > earlier Apple O/S? PC's are cheap and can be upgraded from time to time, > > and then there's always Linux. Apple is not an open architecture, this > > is the real difference. This inevitably makes for more consistency, but > > you have to pay for that privilege. In terms of style over substance, > > Apple is like the Smart car. > > Mac OS X (pronounced "ten," Roman numeral) is compatible with most > earlier Mac programs, all the way back to the original Macintosh from > 1984. Old programs that won't work are those that talk directly to the > hardware (such as "Norton Utilities" type programs) or which use > unpublished interfaces that Apple warned might go away (that is, > programs written by cocky programmers who screwed themselves). In most > cases, there's an OS X "native" replacement. > > Mac OS X is based on BSD UNIX, and is increasingly compatible with > FreeBSD. The UNIX core of OS X is indeed open source: it's called > Darwin. However, the advanced graphics manager and user interfaces are > proprietary. Still, OS X does ship with a full set of developer tools > based on the GNU compilers, including a fully object-oriented graphic > development environment. > > Macs take the same RAM as PCs, use the same PCI bus (and often the same > cards), and share the same USB and FireWire/IEEE-1394/iLink peripherals. > > As for style over substance: I can use my Mac to run Word and Excel, > surf the web, do my banking, play games, as well as run UNIX software > like the Apache webserver, an LDAP server, a library card-catalog system > based on MySQL... and do it all simultaneously. > > Kinda like how my Saab could be a sporty car that still held five people > in comfort and navigated upstate New York winters with aplomb. :) > It sounds very good, I like the connection to BSD UNIX. But to what extent can you upgrade an Apple computer from common non-Apple parts? Can you e.g. replace the hard disk? Is Apple using inexpensive IDE disks or the more expensive SCSI disks? Can you put the Mac O/S on a fresh hard disk from scratch? Can you fit a (non-Apple) CD-RW? DVD-RW? Johannes > Rob Levandowski > roblnopsamhiz.com > > (Opinions expressed are solely my own and not a statement from my employer)
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