[CS-FSLUG] Mac OS

[Nathan T.]

On 9/7/06, Timothy Butler <tbutler at ofb.biz> wrote:
> Hi Nathan,
[snip]
>         Precisely what all do you want to see? I could post a few photos.
> Posting photos of the whole OS would take forever, though. I was
> hired to do that once for KDE -- yikes! -- I never thought I'd get done.

I would actually like to see what some of the dialogs looks like, for
example confirmation dialogs, and at least one screenshot of what
would be a "Yes, No, Cancel" dialog from KDE.

[snip]
>         Unless it is reduced in price, don't buy a Core Solo system. As of
> this week, all Mac minis, including the $599 model, come with Core
> Duo processors. (Incidentally, the $999 17" iMac comes with a Core 2
> Duo processor now.)

I appreciate the heads up, the stores up here don't seem to update
their prices. They pay the suppliers, add their profit margin, and
leave the prices as they are from what I've seen.

[snip]
> > I am curious as well, the Mac keyboards have F-keys going up past 12.
> > I doubt I could readily get a Mac keyboard up here, I haven't seen any
> > in stores, in which case would I be stuck without the functionality
> > provided by the extra F-keys?
>
>         For the most part, they don't do that much. F14 and F15 adjust the
> LCD brightness of supported screens (such as the Cinema Display),
> generally. The big issue is that you loose the handy audio volume
> controls and eject button. F12 becomes eject, which means the key
> does double duty between Dashboard and Eject, depending on how long
> you hold down the key.
>
>         Not a big deal, but go with a Mac keyboard if possible. It makes it
> easier, since the Option (Alt) and Apple (Command) keys are labeled
> correctly and in the right places. On a Windows keyboard, the Windows
> (Apple) and Alt (Option) keys reverse and it just seems messier.

The more this seems like a significant adjustment, the more I feel
like simply getting a moderately priced PC and moving AL onto that. On
the other hand though I've lost a lot of confidence in Linux over the
last year or two, I have a handfull of devices and applications that
just won't work with it and at this point I've come to believe it'll
be decades before it has the kind of support OS X and Windows have. I
have to keep reminding myself that getting a Mac would be a way to
escape the many things I hate about Windows while also not having to
worry about my hardware not being supported.

[snip]
>         Macs never had PS/2 ports. :-) You can use a PS/2 to USB adapter if
> you wish. I've never tried a mini, but most Macs seem to work fine
> under a KVM. The big problem is that the KVM typically will not allow
> you to access OpenFirmware commands. You can't tell the system to
> boot from the CD-ROM drive, for instance, while using a KVM. I've
> never been able to confirm why, but it seems switch doesn't
> initialize fast enough. You can always plug in the keyboard directly
> when you need such functionality.

I remember hearing about Macs having proprietary ports for things like
keyboard and mice, so can I assume that is what they were using before
USB?

[snip]
>         It's a regular PC if you want it to be. Assuming you like the specs,
> it is a pretty low risk trial.

Regular as in I could run an x86 distribution that was designed for a
normal non-apple computer on a Mac Mini?