The apple orchard next door

As a techie I get to contend with "other" technologies. Well for the first time I had to deal with Macs. It was a good time to test all the hype surrounding it. Yes the emperor is naked indeed. I had to install some network monitoring software on Macs with OS X 9 and 10.** (Leopard, Jaguar and Tiger) and I got to tell you that some folks are snowed and some deluded to believe the ads. No matter what folks say, Macs are Unix, even Linux like, sorta. It maybe covered by a very attractive wrapper, but you can't deny the truth, if you know. Of course if you were never told this up front it would go right past you. Macs are not more or less intuitive than other operating systems, you still have to learn where things are and how things work, but if you were told how easy this is over and over again, you tend to believe it and repeat it. Thus comes the saying that Linux is too hard and not ready for the desktop. The rub is that when you push past the friendly interface to get at the settings you need to have things explained to set them correctly. The manual comes in handy, how intuitive is that?? So, you are told Macs are easy and that they are the other choice besides MS PC's. If you have to do any power things on your Mac, the Unix comes out. We won't go into how I dislike Mac hardware, the ultimate in vendor lock. As long as it all works, it looks nice and does interesting stuff, this is one case where you do get what you pay for. Then again if it breaks, you pay to get it fixed. There is no thriving open community the likes of Linux to get help when you need it. If you tear that little annoying tab off, the men in white coats will arrest you. My verdict is simple, I can't afford a Mac, period. I don't like the hardware and the support sucks. If it all works for you, you are blessed, in a funny kind of way, sorta. Back in Linuxville I am surrounded by what I know and luv, but it is good to once and a while hop the fence to tinker with the neighbor's toys. I just don't believe his grass is greener because he tells me so.