[Mike Nomad]

I was using osx for a while at work, and went back to linux. The things I didn't like:

bash, ps, and all their friends are all different than they are on linux nowadays. I didn't enjoy the unix wars when they were happening, and I don't like them now: there really isn't a good reason to keep them all different. I guess I feel that way about the whole mach underpinnings of osx, but that's another discussion.

the multiple desktops feature is poorly done. hyperspaces is close to acceptable, but really this is something that worked well in other unixes 15 years ago, so I don't have a lot of patience for this.

a lot of open source stuff is fiddly to get to compile and run on osx in a way that it isn't on linux.

i actually like apt-get (go figure).

that being said, i vastly prefer it to windows (windows 7 is nice to play on, but i would never want to work on it: been there and hated it, even though i do think c# is a nice language, and devstudio is great).

ubuntu is also going this way with unity, which i find disappointing.

I am with you on the UNIX wars. For a while, I was stuck using HP-UX. Jeez, talk about different...

And it's that sort of thing that has kept me away from Linux. Only the nonsense has been updated: Now it's about default install inclusions, and KDE vs. Gnome (I've always preferred ICE). So, If I was going to be on a side(ing), I decided to run with BSD flavors as needed. When I moved on to OS X, I didn't have as much of a learning curve when I wanted to go deep...

To be Not Nice about OS X for a moment, I'll call it what it is: NeXT ported to x86 architecture. I too will steer clear of the merits of Mach, etc. and simply point out that OS X has had a lot fewer teething pains than any other OS I have used in its 1.0 state. Arguably, it's because it had a decade of development prior to 1.0. This is a case where recycling has paid huge benefits.

However, If Apple decides to Think Stupid, I'm back to BSD in a heartbeat.

I haven't needed to compile many apps (~2 dozen), but, I've never had a problem. We are speaking of UNIX (plural), so, Our Mileages Will Vary.

[Pez]

Machines which shipped with Lion preinstalled won't run any previous OS at all, even in its own partition. The firmware doesn't support it. It kernel panics. This is straight from the Apple technicians at work. Lion or get lost on the current machines. My macbook which shipped with SL could probably be run as a dual boot setup. I have heard that it is impossible to revert a Lion install though so I will be proceeding with extreme caution on this one.

For me this is a nonissue. I have no interest in any previous version of OSX. I only had to buy one new program when I upgraded and that was on snow leopard I needed MS word/excel etc. other than that I don't miss any previous version personally. I've had every OSX version since tiger. Apple has always been quick to do away with the old and unlike Microsoft they do it right  in a manner that barely effects the user.

[JohnR]

Apple has always been quick to do away with the old and unlike Microsoft they do it right  in a manner that barely effects the user.

Hm, I dunno about that, I'm affected wrt software that I bought five years ago... OK, maybe it was 7 years... Still, I'm really not prepared to buy new versions at 1-2k, so it's sort of either stick with a outdated OSX, or source new programs. If you're going to do the latter, then you might as well look at other OSs.

[jqp]

One guy's opinion

http://gizmodo.com/5888597/mountain-lion-review-what-happened-to-apples-innovation

[JohnR]

Hell. It froze.

 

Swings and roundabouts, I guess. I already don't use a lot of the stock stuff (iPhoto and ilk), I'm hoping that I can get one more usable laptop out of Apple and then it will be a brave new world again. Still, it would take a lot to convince me to even try Windows again, except for emergencies.

[Pez]

Gizmodos staff is not trustworthy when it comes to anything apple. They have a pretty obvious vendetta against Apple after they purchased and ill-gotten iPhone 4 prior to the release if the device. Their website has been decidedly anti-apple ever since. Not that they ever had journalistic integrity in the first place but now their biases are very clear.

[Mike Nomad]

I read the Gizmodo link. One thing that wasn't clear to me: Are we going to have to wait until 10.8 to get the MS-DOS format issue resolved, or is that simply a new feature for 10.7?