If Not Lion, Where Should I Go?
From Brian:
Hi Charles,
I take it from what I've read of your articles recently that you
have some mixed emotions of the direction Apple has taken as of late
with their computers. I'm a longtime Mac user - my first Apple was an
Apple IIc that my dad brought home used when
I was around 5 or 6. Our first Mac was a Mac IIsi that was still alive and kicking
the day it was set out in the alley to anyone who would take it away
three years ago.
From the very beginning, I cannot remember a single time where I
wasn't chomping at the bit to get the new Mac OS or the latest and
greatest in Apple hardware, until now. I will be the first to admit
that my impressions of OS X
10.7 Lion and the latest breeds of computers from Apple may just
simply be overreaction, and illogical, but still.
OS X Lion has a look and feel to me of "iPad for your laptop," and
new computers coming with no recovery discs makes me feel unequipped
for the inevitable system breakdown where there are no more options
other than a nuke and pave or buying a new computer. But these days, it
seems that really you're expected to just buy that new computer. Using
Lion at the Apple Store, I felt locked down and a bit claustrophobic,
and the nagging feeling the last few years that Apple computers are
waiting for the chopping block as desktop and laptop machines alike
have languished with a year or significantly longer with no updates
seems inescapable now.
The problem is, where do I go? I suppose I could try Windows again,
but there is still an extremely bitter, sour taste left in my mouth
from the last time I relied on one of those. It definitely feels like
it's a new day for Apple, and that they don't need customers like me
anymore.
Brian
Hi Brian,
Your observations and misgivings about Lion pretty
much approximate mine. I'm casually curious about Lion, but in no rush
at all to upgrade. The crunch will come, of course, when some
applications I want to use start requiring Lion as minimum system
requirement.
Having been an iPad 2
user now for a couple of months, I can think of absolutely nothing iOS
does that suits me better than the way things work in OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and
much that I like a lot less. Consequently, making the Lion UI
more like the iOS, with a lot of dumbing-down and more of the OS making
control decisions for you (e.g.: autosave, autocorrect) does not
appeal. And that's to say nothing of the loss of Rosetta, which is
huge.
After 19 years of using the Mac OS as the main tool of
my trade, I've developed a complex ecosystem of a suite of production
applications and a workflow I've developed around them. I managed to
compensate for losing Classic Mode when I transitioned to OS X 10.5 Leopard, although not
without sustaining a bit of a productivity hit, but Lion at this point
appears to be a burned bridge too far.
The conundrum is, as you pointed out, where to jump if
I decided to jump ship. Going to either Linux or Windows would involve
a steep orientation curve and most likely worse compromises and
inefficiencies than eventually gritting my teeth and learning to live
with Lion. Windows 8, based on early reports, is afflicted with the
same tabletization and touchscreen-style input disease as Lion is,
while desktop Linux is spinning its wheels and losing traction in the
marketplace, sinking farther and farther below a 1% market slice.
I figure that in the near term I'll probably buy one
more Mac, most likely a Certified Refurbished Core "i" 13" MacBook
Pro that can still boot from Snow Leopard. After that, it will
remain to be seen.
Charles
It May Be Possible to Replace Rosetta
From RedZone:
Dear Mr. Moore,
I understand that many are still in uproar at the loss of Rosetta.
Though I don't use PowerPC applications myself, I can completely
understand the outrage at the loss of compatibility with applications
that are still in use by many production houses. However, as Apple is
clearly not going to reverse its decision, the only option we have is
to take things into our own hands.
The answer to Rosetta is a reasonable distance away, but not as far
as we think. The challenge of translation from the PPC instruction set
to the Intel instruction set was solved long ago. PPC to Intel dynamic
recompiling emulators have existed for quite a while now and work quite
well. The challenge that lies ahead is not instruction set translation
but creating some kind of virtual sandbox environment that interfaces
between an existing translator and Mac OS X. The challenge is
finding a way to load OS X's Mach-O executable format and handle the
memory mapping and library linking that OS X would normally be
responsible for. This is no small feat, but I think it's possible. Very
very difficult, but possible.
The most prominent of PPC translators is that included in the
PearPC project, which
emulates an entire PPC system, allowing the installation of any
PPC-based OS, including Mac OS X. Of course, it would be rather
inconvenient to have to run a whole VM just to run old software.
However, I believe that the CPU core of PearPC could be extracted and
used to emulate applications within OS X's own environment. Case in
point: QEMU.
The QEMU project has a set of user-mode emulators. User-mode
emulators allow applications of one CPU architecture to run on another
architecture so long as the operating system is the same. This has so
far allowed Linux applications to run in foreign CPU Linux
environments. It has also allowed Wine to be run on non-Intel platforms.
Among QEMU's user-mode emulators is an OS X user mode emulator,
which has PowerPC translator (itself derived from PearPC). It is
incomplete - does not yet succeed in running PowerPC applications on
x86. However, it has a fully developed Mach-O loader and memory mapper.
These are proven to work in that the OS X user mode emulator
succeeds in running x86 OS X applications on PowerPC-based
OS X machines (though no graphical applications run yet). It also
succeeds in running OS X applications on their native CPU, with
full Cocoa and Carbon support.
That the user-mode emulator can run OS X applications on their
native processor may seem trivial, but it demonstrates that QEMU has
succeed in interpreting and sandboxing OS X executables. Moreover,
it proves that QEMU has succeeded in mediating between OS X's
Cocoa/Carbon environments and its own sandboxed environment. If the
QEMU project were to receive a large amount of developers dedicated to
working on the OS X user mode emulator, something fruitful might
come of it. Maybe I'm naive, but I think it's possible. I think we
should make a call for open-source developers to refine and complete
the QEMU OS X user mode emulator. I would volunteer to head such a
project myself, but the fact is that while I know some programming
languages I am not a great leader nor do I have any real experience in
software development. I also am not a specialist in systems programming
or programming language compilation, the two core components of
emulation. Nor have I previously looked all that deeply into the QEMU
source code. However, I am a quick study and a hard worker - if a
movement to work on the QEMU OS X user mode emulator could be started,
I would happily volunteer to take some part in the project (just not as
the leader!).
Sincerely,
RedZone
Hi RedZone,
You're vastly more erudite as regards programming than
I, so thanks for the encouraging idea and explanation, conceptual
though it may be at this point. I'll happily second your motion
appealing for someone in the Open Source community to step up and take
this project on.
Charles
Best Data USB Modem Works with Lion
From Scott:
Charles,
I emailed you last week about a modem that might work with Lion, but
I was out of town and couldn't check it out.
The
Best Data Smart One 56USB modem does work with Lion. I set
it up and logged onto my dialup account a few minutes ago and went to a
couple of Web pages.
It's a hardware modem that doesn't use much in the way of your CPUs.
It's powered by a USB port, and back when I used this with a G4
PowerBook (the built-in software modem used too much CPU), I could
never get it to work from a USB hub - it has to connected to a USB port
on your computer.
It's $60.
There's also a
general version of the same modem for $5 less. I think the only
difference is that they send you the Mac modem scripts on a CD. I've
enclosed a copy of those scripts with this message.
After you put the relevant script in the root level Library/Modem
Scripts folder, select "Other" as the manufacturer in the network
setup, and the modem script that you put in the folder will appear.
That's all.
Scott
Hi Scott,
Thanks so much for these links and the further
information.
Looks like I can be back in business on the modem
front. Now if I can just find a halfway satisfactory substitute for my
AppleScript customized Tex-Edit Plus, at
least until Tom Bender can get a Cocoa native 64-bit compatible upgrade
out.
Charles
PowerPC Still Alive and Well
From Bruce:
Hello Charles,
Just for the record, I am one of the 12.9% of PPC visitors to LEM,
via my 2005 eMac (1.25
GHz, 2 GB RAM). No, it isn't the primary machine of the house - that
honor goes to the my wife's BTO iMac and her MacBook Pro. Those are
production systems. Yet the PPC still serves its two main purposes
quite well - Web and email - and at this point it's like playing with
someone else's money.
I did, in fact, install TenFourFox when I saw the
reference to it on Low End Mac, and I must say, my often-crawling web
access began at least to walk fairly steadily. TFF isn't the least
buggy software I've ever seen, but so far it's definitely pulling its
weight. Sure, I'd like to replace the 99-year-old (in human years,
approximately) eMac with a newer, Intel Mac, but now we're talking
about playing - seriously - with my own real money. Oh, I'll get there
in a year or two, I hope, but the PPC is for now, at least adequate for
its assigned tasks.
Thanks for an always-informative site!
Bruce
Hi Bruce,
If your eMac is the equivalent of a 99-year-old, what
would that make my 11-year-old Pismo PowerBooks?!
TenFourFox has been a real life-extender for my
ancient machines, I had been getting very frustrated with browser
performance in OS X 10.4
Tiger before TFF was available. It's definitely given the old
PowerBooks a new lease on life, and I've not encountered the bugginess
of which you speak. It will eventually run out the string, but for now
it's been a great performance (and morale) booster.
Charles
PowerPC 'Still Completely Competent'
From Nathan:
Hi Charles,
Not to exacerbate the issue about PowerPC relevance that was brought
up in your most recent Mailbag, but here is my own opinion.
The PowerPC has reached its middle age: not as strong or powerful as
the fancy new Intel jocks, but still completely competent and able to
do things such as run aging software, such as Quicken 2007, which I
know my family relies on for some critical financial documents.
I believe that the PowerPC is still relevant until Apple begins to
cut off support for Mac OS X Leopard. I am writing this on my
end-of-the-line 12" iBook
G4, which I used throughout my freshman year.
The benefit of using this aging machine far outweighs the negatives,
at least for me. I don't have to worry about failing components: My
family owns three other computers identical to this one excepting hard
drive capacity (I slipped in a 5400 RPM 160 GB drive late last year).
They are cheap, as I can look at craigslist.org and find similar computers
in the $200-300 range. The computer is still overwhelmingly relevant to
a student like myself, because it will run iWork '09 (the latest
version), Office 2004 (the most applicable version for schools), and
has fast 802.11g WiFi. My main computer remains a 20" iMac G5 (ALS), which has a
massive 2 TB of total system storage for my entire family's music,
videos, and podcasts. It shares its iTunes library throughout the house
via an attached AirPort Extreme base station. And I just updated iTunes
to 10.4, Safari to 5.0.6, and QuickTime to 7.7. Apple also pushed
security updates to us recently.
Admittedly, the prime era of PowerPC machines is past. But as the
old saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Just like the prime
era of my family's minivan is past - but the vehicle gets decent gas
mileage, holds seven, and still provides reliable transportation for
all of us.
That is exactly my professor's opinion on the issue too: he teaches
a video editing course at a nearby college and uses iMac G5s, PowerMac
G4s and G5s, and iMac G3s (for their absence of fans) in his studio
still.
So tell me again why the PowerPC is irrelevant?
From someone who has drunk the Apple Kool-Aid,
Nathan
Hi Nathan,
You won't hear me say PowerPC is irrelevant, being as
I spend about four hours a day on my 550 MHz G4 Pismo PowerBooks
running OS X 10.4 Tiger. They're still powerful and productive tools
for what I do with them, rock stable, 11-year (so far) reliable, and
they have great keyboards and general tactile feel.
Always glad to hear from folks who are getting useful
(and inexpensive) service from PowerPC Macs.
Charles
End of Support for Office 2004 Coming Soon
From Yuhong Bao:
Dear Moore:
"Just emailing you on an interesting point: Microsoft
still continues support for PPC apps, which work as far back as
OS X 10.2 Jaguar. Office
2004 has just had an update to version 11.6.3"
FYI, the end of support of Office 2004 for Mac is at the second
Tuesday of January 2012, when the last security patches for it (if any)
are released. Normally, Microsoft supports their Mac products for 5
years, but it got extended because Office 2008 did not support VBA
(Virtual Basic for Application).
Yuhong Bao
Hi Yuhong Bao,
Thanks for this interesting and useful information on
a matter I hadn't been previously aware of.
Charles
People Who Love Big Old American Cars and the Low
End Mac Philosophy
From Lloyd:
Charles:
At the risk of sounding like an amen chorus, I must agree about
Panther (the car platform, not the OS). Sometimes, it's just best to
leave well enough alone. EPA fleet fuel economy mandates may influence
retaining or cutting a marginal model, but Ford's dominance of the taxi
and police-car markets ought to have convinced someone to leave the
reliable, old-school, profitable (in no small part because of the
minimal R&D invested in the platform) Crown Vic.
In addition to the loss of dominance in the fleet markets, the
Panther cars were the last of the old-school Detroit sedans. With Buick
getting edgy and upscale, Olds a memory, and Chrysler offering nothing
in over a decade, the Grand Marquis/Crown Victoria was the last
full-size car for older drivers who want comfort and aren't trying to
look hip, rich, or trendy. I've thought often enough that this car
could've sold many units more, especially if it was marketed in the
Midwest to former LeSabre/Park Avenue/Olds 98 owners who now have
nowhere to go. It's an LEM strategy for car sales - how much car do you
need? (Of course, in reality a LEM car strategy would involve buying
used cars, as you and I do, but for those buying new, the Panthers
would be the closest analogy.)
Like Apple driving their customers to new platforms, the car
companies won't leave those of us who just want a big, comfy car alone.
It's a shame, really, but what other choices will be left to us?
Regards,
-Lloyd
Hi Lloyd,
Your analogy of Ford trying to dragoon its erstwhile
Panther platform customers into current but far less satisfactory
substitutes like their front/all wheel drive Taurus Police Interceptor
for law enforcement agencies and the Lincoln MKT CUV for the livery
service sector that has relied almost exclusively on the Lincoln Town
Car variant of the Panther, is spookily similar to Apple coaxing us
into Lion, the iOS, and iCloud.
The
Taurus Police
Interceptor will doubtless be the best Taurus, just as the Crown
Vic Police Interceptor was the best iteration of the Panther platform,
but it's still a unit body, front wheel drive design based on the Volvo
P2 platform used in the Volvo S60 and S80 sedans, V70 wagon, and XC70
and XC90 SUVs, and available only with V6 engines.
Ford has already lost the New York City taxi contract
to the van-based Nissan NV200, which
will become the city's exclusive taxi beginning in 2013, Nissan having
been awarded a 10-year contract as the official supplier of taxis for
the city, which currently employs more than 13,000 yellow cabs. The
NV200 is plug ugly, so it's not going to improve the looks of the Big
Apple's cityscape.
I predict that Ford's dominance of the police car
market will also be history once the Crown Vic is finally discontinued
next month, and that Dodge's Charger and GM's Holden Commodore (GM
Australia) based Chevrolet Caprice police specials - both rear wheel
drive - will handily outsell the Taurus PI. Unhappily, none of these
are body on frame designs, which was a key element of the Panther's
goodness and ruggedness.
My daughter, who has owned two Crown Vic Police
Interceptors, says the cops she talks to like the Panthers much better
than the Mercedes-Benz engineered unit body Dodges.
I figure that my 2000 Grand Marquis, purchased for
amazingly little a year ago this week, really does represent the Low
End Mac philosophy applied to an automotive context, with the fact that
it gets not a whole lot worse gas mileage than our four-cylinder,
five-speed manual Toyota Camry, while delivering vastly more room,
comfort, plus the gratifying punch and mellifluous sound track of V-8
power, is icing on the proverbial cake.
Other choices? I suppose the Chrysler 300 and Dodge
Charger, and the rear wheel drive Cadillacs, if one can afford, offer
the nearest substitute by default, being the last full-sized
rear-wheel-drive iron offered to consumers. Maybe the Ford F 150
pickup.
Charles
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