Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/03/13

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Absolutely, totally off-topic
From: Brian Reid <reid@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 13:33:24 -0800
References: <20020313020032.13050.qmail@web12804.mail.yahoo.com> <5.1.0.14.2.20020313100908.00a28a30@mail.msy.bellsouth.net>

>> > How many stock
>> > exchanges are run on Mac OS??? How many enterprise
>> > databases run on Mac OS??? How many enterprise
>> > anything runs on Mac OS???

I am fairly certain that I have designed and built more stock exchange computer systems than all of the rest of you combined (I've designed and built two; I can't tell you which ones, because secrecy was part of the contract, but you've probably used them). And I've engineered more than a billion dollars worth of enterprise computing facilities, including what were, at the time they were installed, the two largest privately-owned computer centers in the world.

I claim expertise in this area.

I'm typing this message on a Macintosh G4.

Engineering is all about the right tool for the right job. I would never put a client operating system in a server room, or vice versa. I have 9 servers here at my house, and one of them does indeed run MacOS, because of NetObjects, which doesn't work anywhere else. The other 8 run FreeBSD, a form of Unix.

I gave up my PCs for Macs as soon as my day job allowed. I did this not because Macs were necessarily "bettere", but because I wanted to live my daily life without any contact with Microsoft products, and I found Linux too amateurish. I have a Linux system aboutg 5 feet behind me, but it's turned off.

What I discovered is that Mac OS X is the sweetest, most reliable, cleanest, nicest client operating system imaginable. I didn' expect that. I expected it to be every bit as buggy as Windows but not have the stench of Microsoft. What I found instead was something vastly more reliable, and that integrates more nicely into my computing and network environment.

Photoshop 6 runs a whole heck of a lot faster on my Mac than it ever did on my PC. with some functions, such as "save for web", it's a matter of 5 seconds instead of 3 minutes; with most others, it's just 2 or 3 times as fast.

I managed to get all of my work done on Windows systems. I now get all of my work done on Mac systems. They are both capable of doing the job. I just like the Macs better.

(BTW: Linux wasn't first at anything. FreeBSD and NetBSD were both zero-cost and working on PC's before Linux existed. Minix was a toy. What differentiates Linux is that it has people who really know how to do PR and marketing. Linux is better for desktop use; FreeBSD is better for back-end server use.)




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Replies: Reply from "David C. Mason" <dcm@pobox.com> (Re: [Leica] Absolutely, totally off-topic)
In reply to: Message from Victor Tavernini <victor6@yahoo.com> (Re: [Leica] Absolutely, totally off-topic)
Message from Jeffery Smith <jsmith45@bellsouth.net> (Re: [Leica] Absolutely, totally off-topic)