I maintain statesmanlike silence; the readers speak!

... about Mac, Vista, hibernation, and so on. Ongoing commentary on previous discussion after the jump.

1) The Third Way: Ubuntu

"You may want to try Ubuntu Linux: http://www.ubuntu.com. I loaded it recently on my Lenovo Thinkpad laptop. Easiest Linux install i ever went through. In fact, it was even easier to install than Windows ( I previously used XP). Also comes w/ all the applications that i think a journalist would ever need. And no, i don't work for Ubuntu or Lenovo, and certainly not for Microsoft."


2) Mac, Windows, and Ubuntu too, from Richard Farabaugh

"First, my background is in software engineering. I was one of the original software developers at Xilinx which is a small chip company. In 1984 when we started the company we decided to adopt the IBM PC as out primary software platform. From that point until my retirement (at the age of 50) in 1997, I developed software to run on top of the Microsoft OS. In short, I know my way around that world. My nickname in the early days was Dr. Dos.

"For a long time following my retirement I resisted making the switch. I knew then that the Apple hardware was overpriced and that a lot of the attitude of the Mac enthusiastic community was bunk. The worst of that was the crap about RISC processors being inherently better than CISC. However a couple of years ago my own son went to work at Apple and I decided to give it a chance. What I have found has been a surprise to me.

"The dirty secret is that the key characteristic which makes the Mac experience better is the OS itself. It is really nothing more than the BSD Unix which has existed for more than 20 years. Bolted on top of that is a fairly conventional GUI not that much different than the one you see with Vista. However the cumulative effect of the 2 is a much more robust environment. The downside is a serious lack of software applications that a PC user has come to expect. For example at this time there is still not a decent personal finance program for the MAC.

"The biggest thing that leads to that robustness is the lack of the need for (or the threat from) anti virus software. In my retirement I do a lot of ad hoc consulting with friends and family helping them manage their Windoze machines. It's absolutely amazing to me how much cumulative time is consumed with that task when you think of the millions (billions?) of Windoze users. Almost none of that is needed by the Mac community.

"One more thing. With the advent of open source operating systems like Linux you can directly see how bloated Windoze has become. I have an ancient Sony laptop which has a very stripped down version of XP running as well as a version of Ubuntu. It has only 256MB of ram, but purrs along smoothly when running Ubuntu and struggles madly when running XP even with no anti virus software at all....

"Another anecdote. My son Jeremy (also a software engineer) works on the Windoze version of Quicktime at Apple. When I made the switch he was generous enough to help me buy a machine with his employee discount. That entailed getting on the phone with him to supply credit card and shipping information as he was entering the order into the Apple ordering system. Once he had everything properly entered and had sent the order in he said to me. "Welcome to the cult!"


3) The folly of "hoarding power" through hibernation, from Derek Scruggs.

[Quoting my post] "But it draws a little bit of current, and when you're really
hoarding power or shutting down for a long time, "hibernation," which draws no current, would seem the better choice."

"I'll bet 50 dollars that the process of reading all that memory back in from the disk uses at least as much power as sleeping for several hours. Moving parts are a bitch."


4) Apple as dongle, from Ran Barton

"I've been a Mac nut since my first Mac 512Ke in 1985, but please don't hold that against me. I've been a corporate user of Windows for years and can see the utility of both approaches, even though I am Mac-only at home.

"Vis a vis the reader email you passed along recently about Apple's unwillingness to license its hardware, I thought this recent alternative take on that same issue, from ' Bob Cringely', was relevant:

Some readers may know what a dongle is. For those who don't, a dongle is a sort of electronic key that plugs into a PC to enable the use of some expensive software application like AutoCAD. Each copy of the app comes with a single dongle so you can put the software on as many computers as you like but only one -- the one with the dongle installed -- can function at a time. Dongles, which are rarely used today, were an early and quite effective form of copy protection. Apple uses a variation of the dongle technique for its professional applications, but in Apple's case the dongle IS the computer. Yes, the software is a good value but you have to buy a computer from Apple -- a dongle -- to run it on. So Apple runs its professional application business effectively at breakeven, making its profit on the associated hardware.

5) A former Vista user, from Phil Baker

"About a year ago I woke up in the morning and wanted to check my email. It took 20 minutes for me to gain control of the Windows Vista machine. That was the day I went out and purchased a MacBook and never looked back...I think you'll enjoy it when you eventually move over!"


6) The truth about Neal Stephenson

"One of your e-mail correspondents quotes Neal Stephenson on Apple marketing vs. Microsoft marketing. What doesn't get mentioned is that Neal Stephenson is now a Mac user:

"This sounds like a minor point, I know, but Neal Stephenson is something of a geek god (if you have the time, read "In the Beginning was the Command Line" and "Mother Earth Mother Board)."


And, finally...


7) From Kenneth Rhee, who got this whole thing going, now with his comments upon past comments.

"Here are some of my comments on the comments you received.

"1. Why not put the laptop on sleep instead of hibernate. In fact, that's what I used to do when I'm at home, but I will never do this when I have to carry my laptop anywhere. When I first got my Thinkpad with Vista, I tried this, and when I took my laptop out of its protective bag, it was so hot, I couldn't touch it. Apparently, something made Vista woke up during transit, and it was extremely hot (fire hazard). I think MS knew about how long Vista takes to boot up or wake up from hibernate, and it's been recommending the sleep mode, but it's not SAFE as far as I'm concerned.

"2. As far as the Thinkpad coming in with bloatwares, I agree except that I don't run most of them in my Thinkpad. I disabled most of the start-up programs and services in my Vista; so, the argument doesn't fly with me. I do have a few third-party start-up programs loaded on my Thinkpad, but recently I even trimmed those down since I wasn't using the Thinkpad that often. On the other hand, my Mac has a lot more third-party start-up programs and widgets installed, and even with those (including Anti-virus software--I know it's rare to see this in a Mac, but I'm always super cautious given my work), it starts up cold within a minute. So, I don't ever need to put my Mac into sleep when it is in transit. When I get to my office or anywhere, I can start up my Mac and take care of few odds/ends and then I'm ready to go. I can't say the same thing about my Thinkpad with Vista.

"Oh, just one clarification about running my Macbook Pro with Windows XP with 1G of Memory. I have 4G in my Mac, but I allocate 1G to the Virtual XP via Fusion."