Posts tagged OSX

My month on OS/X is finished

1 year ago
by reggie in ,

Well, I’ve finished my month on OS/X.  It wasn’t really a month but rather a couple of weeks here and there.  To be honest I didn’t really hit too many situations where I felt like I needed Windows.  I didn’t have good luck with Chicken-of-the-VNC and the Mac version of remote desktop is not nearly as good as on Windows.  That being said I love the fact that iCal and Contacts sync with Google.

I’m writing this under Windows 7 but I’m typing it into the web UI.  I’ll likely hang out in OS/X a bit more as I have some video editing I need to do and iMovie just blows away any free products on Windows.

My 30 days on OS/X – day 6

1 year ago
by reggie in ,

Well, I’ve only had to run back to Windows once.  I have VNC installed on my Windows 7 Media Center computer but somehow I just couldn’t get Chicken of the VNC to work right and  we were having a volume issue.

So far what’s the verdict?  Well, there are some things I really like and some things I don’t.  Here’s a breakdown of the software I was using on Windows, what I’m using on Mac, and if it’s better or worse.

  • HydraIRC is  a great Windows IRC client.  On the Mac I’m using Colloquy and I must say I prefer Colloquy.  It’s faster to connect and has a better default profile for notifying you when things happen.  With HydraIRC you could easily miss a PM. Not going to happen with Colloquy.
  • Skype is skype
  • I use Digsby for IM, Facebook, and Twitter on Window.  On the Mac, I’m using Adium for IM and Facebook and Twhirl for twitter.  This is a push.  I prefer how Adium handles conversations but prefer Digsby for twitters.
  • Use Chrome for browsing on both but I have to say that I prefer Chrome on Windows.
  • I love how Apple Mail handles mail.  The keyboard interface is great and the find is awesome.  Much better than Thunderbird. I also love the LDAP integration with Address Book (seeing my co-workers pictures in mail is great)
  • iMovie is GarageBand is better than anything at the same price on Windows
  • iPhoto is ok

I still plan on finishing my 30 day experiment.  Will I stay on OS/X after the experiment is over?  I doubt it.  There’s simply not enough ‘can’t live without’ features on OS/X to justify the pain.  Ok, back to work.

It’s time for something fun

1 year ago
by reggie in , ,

So, a few years ago I had this rule that about every 6 months I would use a version of Linux for a few weeks just to see how it had progressed and compare that to Windows.  I can’t really recall when I stopped but I do remember that I really enjoyed having a better understanding of other systems.  I think it’s time to do it again.  However, this time I won’t be using Linux.

I have access to both Windows 7 and Macs.  I’ve been a Windows developer for a long time but with the improvements made in virtual machine solutions I’ve started doing most of my development work in vms.  I find it refreshing to keep all my development work sandboxed in a system that I can easily take and rollback snapshots as needed.  I recently ran some winsat checks on my native box (a Core i7 rig with 8gigs DDR3 memory) and a virtual machine configured to use all 8 cpus.  The results were nearly identical with the virtual machine turning in 95% performance on cpu tests and beating the host system in disk tests (the vm was using a 80gig file as a disk).

So, since the VM is giving me enough performance to do my work I am really free to use whatever I like as a host system.  So, here I am preparing to embark on a fun adventure.

I”m going to use Snow Leopard (in 64 bit mode) for 30 days while doing my Windows work in a VM.  I don’t intend to run back to Windows for anything during that time as I really want to force myself to use OS/X.  During this time I’ll blog frequently about issues I’m facing, things I like, things I don’t like, and work arounds I’ve found.

So, to get started here’s what my day normally looks like on the computer.

  • Lots of development work on Windows (Visual Studio 2008 and 2010)
  • IRC/Skype chatting with friends and co-workers
  • Email with co-workers
  • Using Google calendar to manage my day to day activities
  • Editing Word/Excel/Powerpoint documents (these are more rare these days but they do happen)
  • Watching recorded tv shows from my Media Center HTPC
  • Watching shows from NetFlix and Hulu
  • Listening to music from Pandora, Slacker, Sky.FM, and personal music collection
  • Blog reading/writing
  • Facebook and twitter’ing

Well, wish me luck.

One of the things OS/X does right

1 year ago
by reggie in

I’m writing this on a 2008 Macbook Pro that I dual boot between Snow Leopard and Windows 7.  I spend most of my time in Windows but occasionally I pop into SL to test something out or use iMovie to edit some video.  From time to time, when OS/X boots, you get this nice System Update dialog that explains that some installed software on your system needs to be updated.  Here’s a shot of the one I just got.

What’s interesting to notice is that it is listing non-Apple products as having upgrade available.  My Epson printer drivers and Microsoft provided remote desktop client software are both listed.

Why can’t Microsoft do this?  Why do I have to manually check for upgrades for products like this?

Keeping a system fully updated is the easiest way to keep things running smoothly.  Microsoft does a nice job of this with system level patches and hardware components, but it does nothing to help keep my products updated.   Windows 7 gets a lot of things right but this one goes to OS/X.

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