linux is too expensive

[Eric Dunbar]

On 26/09/06, kansaibear at mac.com <kansaibear at mac.com> wrote:
> OK, gave it a fair shot but....
> yellow dog on mac wallstreet, 500 sonnet upgrade, 384mg ram.
> I told my friend that this was just too expensive an option for us to wring extra life out of our powerbook. He reminded me it was FREE... like my grandma said, 'no free lunches'. Granted, I didnt try a new world mac but I doubt things would be much different. And I suppose that if I was going to set up a low power file or webserver... but then again, apache and SMB comes in mac osx, even 10.2.8 for old world.
> Tried ubuntu as well but, when I figure out the amount of time I spent to get the cd working, the video working (never well), get the japanese input working...well, 4 days for yellow dog, which the final result was not tolerable so I tried ubuntu. Hope I dont hurt any feelings but I think they have a better product just because more hardware worked out of the box but I had 3 days on it and it was not functional.
> I read several times on these boards how the gui on osx was only marginally better...
> I have to ask, is drug use rampant in the linux world?
> There is no comparison. Even 10.2.8 is as far ahead of either ydl 3. and ubuntu 5. as osx 10.2 is ahead of windows 3...
>
> Most any open sourse linux product can be compiled for darwin and X11. Might be a little time consuming but...worse than I have already suffered? Most of what I would need is included anyway.
> At least the base system works perfectly out of the box on the hardware. Language, Settings(come on, set the trackpad by editing configx file and comand ine), cds, video, audio....
> Not to mention how spoiled we have become in our office using ical and isync. ARD works with VNC, and backup keeps everything cool for the occasional burp. It may not be the highest power on the planet but it works, and flawless as we have been using it since 10.2. We have 4 boxes in the center here, a few in different countries and a couple on the road like this powerbook. (pismo by the way, we are a low budget npo so the newest hardware we have are G4s)
> The deal breakers were not having ical compatible syncable calendars... seem there may have been some but not configurable by the average person in a short enough time to make it afordable... especially since it is included in OSX and the work around for .mac is simple. It works, on all the computers, here, there, and on the road. I can listen to my favorite jazz, connect to any TV anywhere with S video output for presentations, Airport extreme works with the 15 dollar motorola cards that work off the standard airport software, multiple monitors, even on the wallstreet...
>
> Bottom line, cost for 'free' linux... 7 days x 150 bucks a day (very conservitive labor cost)
> the resulting product was barely usable and still days away from full integration into our system which happens to be all mac so we dont have the option of integrating into a windows system, woudl it be any easier?
> Cost for OSX. 10.2.8 18 bucks at OWC
> Even the Tiger family pack gives you 5 legal installs for 180 bucks with ical, itunes, isync, ilife... software that just works. Even springing for iwork still leaves a guy a clean thousand bucks ahead of linux and pages seems to be everybit or more compatible with office sans the excell clone.
> As a good ex member of the financial community I should not that I negleted to figure in the lost productivity that would make the actual cost even greater...
> Of course there is the whole idea of not paying the ruling class for software... I was a vegetarian when I was in college, now I eat macdonalds cause the drive thru is convenient.

But, the waist (or is that weight ;-)-line will certainly change, not
to mention life expectancy :-( :-( :-( (of course, you've got a
triple-whammy there since you're driving more, exercising less and
eating worse)

> Guess I am a sellout but will it ever make sense to install linux on a mac?
> Lets see, by the time things catch up with jaguar let alone panther or tiger, jaguar will be a buck, panther 15 bucks, tiger 50 bucks and the the corresponding soft will be give aways....
>
> Ya know, I am a tinkerer by nature and I really wanted to make this work but I just dont have the time and money for now. I suppose if we had an IT man but, not at this stage. When I explaned this to my buddy who works as system engineer, he simply said 'why do you think we only sell windows and linux networks?' He has a mac on his desktop at home and a powerbook in his brief case....
> sayonara for now, linux

I agree that there are times where 'free' is certainly not free,
however, in your case you're trying to do things that are no longer
supported. Try running OS X 10.4.7 Intel (latest version) on that
PowerBook. Ok, not fair. Try running OS X 10.4.7 PPC on that
PowerBook. I have a strange feeling that 10.4 will throw up some
pretty serious road blocks to operation on that machine, some of which
may be insurmountable.

Also, are you trying to do this on a machine used for commercial
purposes? In that case, if you're looking merely at dollars and cents
(but NOT sense!!!), then labour costs must be accounted for. Saving
$1000 on hardware costs isn't worth it (in a dollar-cents analysis) to
save $2000 (or more) in lost productivity from trouble-shooting and
incompatible software. However, if you have an environmental
consciousness (and, all of us must -- to ignore the environmental
consequences of your actions is unethical/immoral), you cannot do such
a simple calculation but it still holds a lot of sway.

If you've got 5 laptops to save and can save $5000 on hardware by
spending $2000 on labour/lost productivity then it's definitely worth
it.

Also, if your labour is not valued in currency (and, it doesn't sound
like it is in your case) then other considerations come into play. My
server has consumed hundreds, if not thousands of hours of my time
since I started it two years ago. If I were to 'value' my spare time
in dollars-and-cents I'd just buy OS X server and be done with it
saving myself tens of thousands of dollars of time. However, that's
not the consideration. Having a 100% legal server. Learning how a
server works. Controlling every aspect of my server. Not spending
money. Reducing landfill (though, I could get a Mac mini and reduce
the on-going environmental impact through reduced emissions). And, the
reward of  'a job well done'/solving a particularly sticky problem
through my own ingenuity.

I'd have agreed whole-heartedly with your assessment had you been
slagging YDL 4.1 (or Ubuntu) for not working on a Mac mini, but, in
your case you're trying to force the latest, greatest software onto
hardware that it hasn't supported for over a year, 'enhanced' by
hardware that has _never_ been supported.

Anyway, it all depends on your situation. If you're trying to do
non-standard things on non-standard (or outdated) hardware you need
the appropriate expertise. Nothing new there.