BYTE.com > Serving With Linux > 2003
Developing with Mac OS X
By Moshe Bar
June 9, 2003
(Developing with Mac OS X
: Page 1 of 1 )
You have to live under a rock in a desolate desert someplace to avoid
hearing about cool new Apple products. Hardly a week goes by without new
gadgets trying to outdo one another at increasingly affordable prices.
Apple arguably owns the monopoly on great design, cool ideas, and
unbeatable ease of use. Until very recently, it seemed Linux—and by
extension UNIX—might never catch on for the desktop, simply because of
difficulty of use and geeky looks and behavior. With the release of OS X
10.2 (aka Jaguar) a year ago, Apple quickly ended the dispute by giving
users a stable, fast OS based on UNIX, clothed in a beautiful,
attractive GUI with outstanding multimedia capabilities and
connectivity.
As a Linux geek (see http://openmosix.sourceforge.net), I have been
using Linux on my servers, laptops, and desktop systems for years, and
have managed to be productive and make it all work. Missus Bar, on the
other hand, has never quite liked Linux and has continued to run some
Windows flavor for her artistic work (she's a graphic designer) and
office chores. However, from the moment I tried OS X on an iBook last
year, I completely switched my desktop and laptops to Apple's
operating system. There is now a variety of Apple iron in my house and
office. We have the 15-inch and the 12-inch PowerBooks, as well as
desk-side G4 unit. Missus Bar has switched from Windows to Mac OS X and
never looked back. I could never convince her to take her Windows laptop
on trips, but now her PowerBook 15-inch never leaves her side.
There has been an iMac 17-inch system on my desktop for a while now.
It's one of those extremely cool half-spheres of unmistakably Apple
design with a dazzling 17-inch widescreen flat-panel display. The
display adjusts its height or angle with just a touch and renders
crisp, lively colors.
Inside that white half-sphere, you get the 1 GHz PowerPC processor,
GeForce4 MX graphics with 64 MB of DDR graphics memory, and an
Ultra-ATA/100 80 GB hard disk.
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