Nyx, my old laptop and primary system, has begun to show age. The last few weeks have been plagued with technical difficulties, all of which conspired towards the call for a new system. Ever since Apple switched to the Intel architecture, I’ve felt that their Macbooks are the best pieces of portable hardware out there. And so, I present to you Erebus, an ultra-portable device for nomadic electrode stimulation and cyber-injection.
(Apple cult members, I’m sure, will be shocked to see that I’ve sanitized the Macbook with a sticker.)
I’ve had it for a week now and my feelings, it seems, were well founded. The Macbook really is a beautiful piece of hardware: the perfect size, an acceptable weight, and with a huge amount of power under the hood. Nyx sported a 15.4″ screen, which I felt was too big to be portable. It could be carried if need be, but was awkward and much better suited to the desk. So I decided the next time I would go for a 13″ screen, which I imagined would be the perfect size for portability, but perhaps too small for enjoying video. This I planned to alleviate by purchasing a larger LCD — something in the 19″-21″ range — to jack the machine into when at home. But the Macbook, with it’s 13.3″ screen is actually quite acceptable. Someday I’m sure I’ll purchase an external LCD, but it’s no priority.
The original plan was to dual boot OS X and Ubuntu — which I did for a short while — but HFS+ support in Linux is a bit shaky and Ext3 support in OS X shakier (with ReiserFS support non-existent), so I couldn’t come up with a partitioning scheme that I felt comfortable with. Then I learned about Parallels, a virtual machine solution for OS X. They have a 15-day free trial, which I’m currently using to run Ubuntu and, though there are a few small bugs here and there, am pleased with. After the 15-day trial is up, I plan to take up VMWare on their 30-day free trial of Fusion and, after that, decide which to purchase. (I’m actually surprised I’m saying that. I’ve been a Linux user for 6 years now, and it’s been close to that since I last paid for a piece of software. A novel concept, it is.) As it stands, I don’t see a need to dual boot.
All annoyances I’ve had with the machine stem from OS X. Previously, I used OS X for a year or so at work, but my work requires only a terminal SSHed into a Linux or BSD machine and Firefox, so I never took the time to learn the operating system. This past week, I have attempted to become familiar with the OS X desktop environment, with much help from Nick, and while it’s certainly acceptable (and pretty), I do find it inferior to Gnome. Much of the flashy effects get in the way, and overall the environment seems juvenile.
I should note that my annoyances are just that. Moreover, all my annoyances stem from being a new user, unfamiliar with the OS X way of doing things. Where noticeable differences exist, I tend to find the Linux way (more specifically the Gnome way) of doing things superior, but, hey, expectations from closed-source software can’t be that high. I’m sure I’ll learn how to modify the OS X behavior to be more Linux-like.
The key-strokes in certain applications are not consistently changed. For instance, most key-strokes that involve the control key in Linux are switched to the command key. So, one would expect the keystroke to open your bookmarks in Firefox to be command+b. Indeed, it is. And after that success, one would expect the keystroke to open your history in Firefox to be command+h, but no: that’s already used to hide the application windows. Instead, a shift+command+h is what you’re looking for. It would be far more logical, in my mind, to make the bookmark keystroke be shift+command+b and have some consistency in the system.
Another annoyance: OS X treats applications separate from their windows. If I close my Thunderbird window, I logically expect Thunderbird to close. Instead, the window closes, but the application is still running. More annoying is that command+tab (the alt+tab equivalent) only switches between applications. So if I have two Firefox windows open, one over the other, I can’t use command+tab to switch between them. Instead, I have to use Exposé to show both the windows, and then select the one I want to be in front. Another click.
By default, OS X does not come with a compiler installed. To get one, the 1GB Apple Developer Tools package must be installed from the Leopard disk. (To be fair, a compiler is not installed by default on Ubuntu systems, either. I think this is a major fault of both.) This is a horrible mistake. It discourages open source software, the hacker mind-set of tinkering, and is generally bad for humanity. I don’t understand the reasoning behind it. Users who don’t need it, won’t use it. It won’t get in their way. It’s not overly large. Alas.
On the subject of software not installed by default: w-get is not included. This is nothing short of blasphemy. Windows users, perhaps, have never experienced the true way of downloading, but what user of Unix or a Unix-derivate system can go one day without a wget fix? None, of course. OS X does have curl installed, which is a great program in it’s own right, but no replacement for wget. Luckily, w-get can be downloaded from GNU and compiled with no problem (after the Apple Developer Tools are installed for the the C compiler).
The keyboard lacks a plethora of keys, such as page up, page down, home, end, or backspace keys. In their stead, the user is forced to memorize key combinations to simulate the missing behavior. These strokes tend to differ in each application. Speaking of which: tabs! To change tabs in Firefox, I use command+alt+arrow. Fair enough. To change tabs in the terminal, I use shift+command+arrow. To change desktops (which, to me, is the same as changing tabs), I use control+arrow. Why can’t this be uniform? The Firefox keystroke, I prefer, since it can be accomplished with one hand, but to change desktops requires two — I cannot reach control and the right arrow with one hand.
I mentioned the keyboard has no backspace. It does have a delete key, which Apple, for some strange esoteric reason, decided to treat as a backspace. What thinking goes into that? For the short time I was dual booting, Ubuntu rightly treated delete as delete, so I had to use function+delete to achieve a backspace — another awkward command that cannot be accomplished with one hand, and which is required if I want to backspace in OS X (or Ubuntu under Parallels).
I spend more time in OS X than I do in the Ubuntu virtual machine and none of my complaints against OS X are enough to dissuade me from making it my primary OS, but I hope to see it improved. I’m curious to see if I keep up with the new versions in the future. If not, I expect I’ll install Ubuntu on the whole drive.
Switching from the subject of annoyances to that which pleases me: the most appreciated goody the Macbook offers is the infrared remote, which allows one to control aspects of the desktop from afar. The remote also allows you to enter Front Row, which activates a MythTV sort-of interface. It’s great fun.
And so despite all my criticisms, I would recommend the Macbook to anyone in the market for a new computer. Windows users will probably be over-joyed at the user experience in OS X; Linux users will most likely have some disappointments, but I imagine will get used to it. And, if not, the Macbook is still a beautiful piece of hardware, so format with your distro of choice and enjoy!