Ahead of the curve on Apple
One friend had a flawless Leopard installation. The other lost access to his hard drive. I haven't heard from him to see if he was able to recover. He had two backups and both turned out to be bad.
We use these things called computers, and often they let us down whether they are Windows or OS X based.
Probably the most interesting commentary that was linked from GMSV was a Dave Winer post,
I'm not happy with Leopard, which had this to say.
To Apple, I left Windows because it held my time and work in low regard. I was happy with the Mac because it seemed reliable. Now it seems my friend was right, I'm using Windows again, and I'm not happy about it.
I still use my Macs every day, but I also continue to use my XP and Vista systems each day also. It might seem counter productive to be switching back and forth between operating systems all the time, but I have been doing it three years now. I generally don't have any hitches.
I would be using Linux also it I had time to get it installed or some extra hardware.
The way I look at it, I have operating system independence. I am not held hostage to either Redmond or Cupertino. I can use any operating system and get my work done. The freedom that I get from that is worth a lot to me.
If Linux had a little more application support in the world and didn't require regular descents into terminal and things that I do not want to understand, I would just switch to it.
So what have I learned from my two weeks with Vista and my new HP laptop?
First there is probably more software on Vista than most users will need. There is a new calendar, photo software etc. I briefly tried the included Windows photo software and decided that I did not like it. I switched to Picasa which I also have on my XP machine.
It turns out that I like Picasa on Vista a lot. In fact I think the user interface is better than the new iPhoto. Certainly the integration with Picasa Web Albums and Blogger is cleaner and more flexible than Apple's Web Gallery and .Mac integration with an iWeb Blog. On top of that, it is free, and I can easily link to individuals photos like I can in Flickr.
I can easily go make changes to Picasa Web Albums or Flickr without being on the same computer which I used to upload the pictures. I have photo albums on .Mac from previous versions of iPhoto that I have no idea of how to edit even if I had the original computer.
The importance of me liking Picasa on Vista is significant since iPhoto was one of the key applications that have kept me on the Mac. I find myself more productive on Picasa. The export function changed significantly on iPhoto 08, and it doesn't work like previous versions.
Right now there are four applications keeping me on the Mac. Rapidweaver, Shutterbug, iMovie, and iDVD. The scary thing is that two of these applications are from small developers, and the other two are Apple applications that I use so rarely that I have yet to try the upgraded versions that came with iLife 08.
None of this means that OS X isn't a better operating system than Vista. It just means that the user experience presented by OS X and the applications around it are not as huge an advantage as they were two or three years ago. Microsoft has made progress, and it is quite possible for an Apple addict to do well in the Windows world. There is no doubt in my mind that Vista security is better than XP. Vista might well be good enough for plenty of people. That doesn't mean Apple won't gain users, it just means that it is unlikely Apple will get to double digits in market share easily.
The new Windows address book imports addresses much easier than Apple's address book. I just did an export from one of my webmail accounts, and the MS address book sucked them up very nicely. The new MS calendar supports the iCal standard so I can subscribe to my Google apps calendar without any trouble. Right now I have my Mac calendar which also subscribes to the Google calendar, my Windows calendar which does the same thing, and as a back-up the Google calendar is available on any computer that has a browser and web access.
I mostly use IMAP in my email accounts except my Google apps account so getting my email on the Windows computer was very easy. Thunderbird has proved to be a capable email client. I did not have any trouble bringing over my digital id which allows me to encrypt email. Thunderbird's junk mail function is as good or better than Apple's Mail application. For some strange reason I was never able to get Thunderbird to run on my MacBook, but I did use it on my PowerBook G4 and my Dell XP desktop.
Not all is perfect in the MS Vista world, wireless networking seems to be a work in progress. I can open my MacBook and be connected to a network while the HP laptop is still identifying the network.
My guess is that MS will fix that, but who knows when?
Right now web technologies make it easier than ever to live in whatever operating system world that suits your needs. You can lean on Google and do pretty well. I learned that time and again when I was playing with different versions of Linux.
You do not have to be tied to one operating system vendor unless that works for you. I have specific needs in the real estate world so using Windows for a good part of my day makes sense for me. Having the approved legal forms with me on a laptop has been a life saver in the last week. My switch was worth it just for that.
Now I could dual boot a system, but I actually like jumping from one computer to the other so it is not unusual to see me in front of the XP desktop system provided in our real estate office, my Windows Vista laptop, and my Tiger MacBook all on one desk. I get a lot of work done that way, and it is easy to work on projects that extend over a number of days especially if I am using something like Google Docs which doesn't care what computer I use.
The one real ah ha moment in my Windows experience has been the HP hardware. I would rather use it than my MacBook. The screen is bigger, the keyboard better, and the trackpad infinitely better. On top of that it has the SD memory card reader built-in. However, the battery lasts only a couple of hours compared to the three hours or better on the MacBook.
This just confirms in my mind that Apple's real strength is not its hardware. It is their software, specifically OS X. I would love to run OS X on my HP hardware, but I know that is unlikely to happen so I will keep using Vista and watch it get better.
Since I have not used Leopard, I have no idea whether or not it is better or worse than Tiger or Vista. I strongly suspect it is a very good operating system that just did not get a lot of testing before Apple threw it over the wall. That has been Apple's standard operating procedure for several releases.
It does not really matter how many users are having a bad experience if you happen to be one of them. I found that out with Tiger on one system. The experience was bad enough that I left my wife's iMac at 10.3.9.
My worry with Apple comes mostly from the applications that the company does. I am unimpressed with much of what Apple has released lately from iPhoto and iWeb to Pages. They may be good enough for some Mac users but they aren't going to bring a lot of users to the platform. I would think Apple would be better spending their resources supporting good third party developers instead of developing what seems like most of their own software.
One question remains for me. Can Apple bring its skills to bear on the whole universe of products and services that it has chosen to market? I cannot answer that question since I also ignored the iPhone in addition to Leopard.
What I have tried hasn't been very encouraging. I will admit to kicking myself for paying for another year of .Mac. I bought the latest iWork and have hardly used it. NeoOffice seems a better choice for me.
I have been giving the latest Office 2007 a whirl on Vista. There are some user interface changes that I like but I will admit they took a while for me to warm to them. I actually see better user interface innovation there than I do on Apple's products. Still neither one of them is something to rave about.
I like to think that using Windows and OS X on different hardware adds some variety to my work life, and actually ends up saving me some money since no matter what anyone says I can buy a good Windows laptop cheaper than any MacBook.
It is not a bad way to do computing. It might just be ahead of the curve. Now if I just had some hardware that I could dedicate to Linux, I might be able to scratch that itch also.
These mellow operating system thoughts originate from the Southern Outer Banks where we are still enjoying some great weather even if we are on the trailing edge of technology.
Though the temperatures slipped just below 40 degrees Fahrenheit last, we continue to enjoy ripe tomatoes from our small garden. I love this endless summer, but I think it is coming to a quick end with temperatures only being in the upper fifties for the next two or three days.
I think you are now talking about two completely different topics. I don'a gree with the first, I do with the 2nd :)
First is about leopard. Most of the Leopard bugs I read about on the net are temporary bugs. Something little doesn't work here. Clicking here and there crashes system. Well, I expect Apple to repair it very,very soon and I cannot judge system by these little flaws...
The second is different - the software on Windows. Yes, this is an advantage in Windows world and it will never be different, if Mac OS X marketshare is still under 10% (maybe less than windows 2000? I am not sure..). I mean - if 90% of users use Windows and let's say 80% of them use XP and Vista, developers will more likely develop for Windows. Easy as that.
And that' why I think Mac OS X should be open. I don't know why Apple makes it impossible. For example, it would be OK with me, if they allowed it but not warranted. OK. But they think something like "you cannot run nice MAC OS on some ugly PC!!", so 10% of market is what they have.... whatever :)
keep writing, it's fun to read it!
Posted by: running | November 07, 2007 at 01:37 AM
I don't think there is any question that Apple will fix the bugs. There are usually some major updates quickly after Apple does a system release.
They did an excellent job fixing Tiger. The question is should they have done more testing before they released Leopard?
I think so, but that was my opinion when I worked in Apple also. Apple doesn't even trust its own employees to do pre-release testing which would be a first baby step in releasing a better product.
My friend is still having problems.
He sent me this comment. He was a well respected high level IT person at one of the larger research institutions.
"Releasing a bug as major as the one I ran into is unconscionable of any vendor. Period. It should have checked for and refused to upgrade until I changed my password."
Most of us don't think a bug is major until it hits us.
I think Apple upgrades seduce you into thinking everything is okay and then once in a while you get caught. Having been caught, I know it is painful.
My world of Apple is still working great, including my wife's 10.3.9 iMac which leads me to believe that sometimes leaving well enough alone is a good strategy.
Posted by: ocracokewaves | November 07, 2007 at 07:06 AM
Keep using your vista laptop and then write another article. I bought one as well to go with my old XP desktop. What I have found is Vista doesn't age well. At first most of my software didn't work. So after buying updates and getting things working (somewhat), I thought OK this isn't to bad. But little by little, more and more problems would develop. My opinion is Vista needs much more work.
Posted by: Ronald | November 07, 2007 at 10:55 AM
"We use these things called computers, and often they let us down whether they are Windows or OS X based."
Yes, isn't that just the truth? *sigh*
Computerworld says: "The verdict: Leopard spanks Vista". And I think that's about right. Nevertheless, Leopard has been marred by some bad problems. It's almost as if Apple *wanted* to earn itself some bad press just when it had a chance to grab market share.
I think the major ones to hit the news recently are the misbehaviour of the kooky new firewall and the file-move data-loss bug.
The firewall has earned itself Heise Security's contempt. First, it's deceptive and "lies" to the user. If you select "block all incoming connections", it *doesn't*. Apple still allows what it thinks it will. Secondly, in one configuration it's been breaking applications, notably Skype and WoW:
http://www.heise-security.co.uk/news/98492
This is particularly annoying as Tiger had a good firewall -- the tried, trusted, and open-source ipfw from BSD. that was working, but Apple had to go and put some cockamamie thing of their own in there and break people's applications.
The second horrendous news is the surfacing of a massive data-loss bug:
http://tomkarpik.com/articles/massive-data-loss-bug-in-leopard/
This is particularly bad news on top of the hardware data-loss problem with some Apple laptop drives:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9045520
It's also only one among a number of similar problems that have bitten people from time-to-time.
Rixstep, a site which had a disagreement with this one over Leopard's readiness for the enterprise has a good analysis of the problem. They point out that this particular problem is only "the tip of the iceberg". Even now the Mac fanzines are busy pretending there is no problem -- one wonders what it would take to wake these people up! -- whereas it's clear from Rixstep's analysis that those APIs are a bit cracked.
Rixstep drily comment:
"If Apple want to be taken seriously in the enterprise they're going to have to learn to think in terms of enterprise computing. Otherwise all Leopard will be is a 64-bit beige box."
http://rixstep.com/1/1/20071106,00.shtml
It's all a bit disappointing. I'm enjoying Leopard and -- touch wood -- I've had few problems. But, however good it is and however much better than Vista, there are some problems and some of them appear to be both deep-seated and of long standing.
Posted by: Nick | November 07, 2007 at 11:28 AM
It comes down to file formats and communication protocols. Operating Systems and Applications can be as proprietary as they like, as long as the file formats and communication protocols they use are open. After all it IS your program. You wrote it. But the data belongs to ME, and I won't allow you to lock it up.
Posted by: Neurotic Nomad | November 07, 2007 at 11:28 AM
iPhoto 6 (that was included in my MacBookPro last year with Tiger) seems to offer some great photo enhancement features that I have not been able to duplicate elsewhere.
I too often have a number of systems open on my desktop of various OS flavors, so it was fun to see a description of a similar situation. I will be trying Picasa; partly because of your suggestion and partly because Sony's ImageStation is closing.
However, back to iPhoto.
You have some nice photos. I can even say that I envy your "Outerbanks" out of the way location. It is a beautiful locale.
I have occasionally seen some underexposed photos of your homes. I understand how hard it is sometimes to be able to light a scene properly, especially if you're tryig to get photos of the entire house.
iPhoto 6 has some great photo enhancement features. Your home shots would greatly benefit from these iPhoto 6 touch-ups.
As you know photos are radically different on sunny days vs cloudy days.
The Exposure setting allows one to adjust the exposure after the fact, for those dark shots. You know what I'm talking about 'cause I've seen them in your marketing photos of some of your homes.
The Temperature setting allows one to add some of that sunny-ness back into photos that just had to be taken on cloudy days for deadline reasons. It is certainly easier to take the photos on a sunny day in the first place. Your photos show that is not always possible.
Also turn on every light possible before taking your photos; turn them off only after taking all of your pictures. Sometimes there aren't enough lights, or they don't provide enough light. Other times, the electric service is off. Well you can imagine many of the circumstances, where you need to enhance the lighting, so that the lighting is not a distraction and your listing's true beauty can shine through.
I do all the heavy lifting of photo manipulation in Photoshop Elements. I replace gray-white skies with a nice blue sky with Elements. But then I find it is easier to adjust the light levels -- to "sunny" the picture in iPhoto6 than any other program.
Your listings would benefit from a little bit of an iPhoto 6 touch.
Try it. Let me know how it goes for you with iPhoto6.
I'm going to geive Picasa a whirl. I may benefit from being to make my photos available in Picasa. You seem to indicate that Ill have better control of how I can make individual photos available.
I use Mac OS 10.4.10 and XP Pro. I won't be going to Vista in the foreseeable future, but I will likely upgrade some of my Macs to Leopard over the next several months. I use them in production, so I can't afford to do trouble shooting for either Apple or Microsoft. From all the media accounts, Leopard is much more polished and ready for use on day 1 then Vista is nearly a year later. Even so, I can't afford to be one of the few who experiences a devasting meltdown. It is that promise of easy back-ups that attracts me to Leopard in the first place. I won't rush into it with my production machines and lose data in the process. I just hope that I don't have a major loss or breakdown, before I eventually get over to Leopard.
Thanks for you suggestions.
Posted by: Realtosh | November 07, 2007 at 11:57 AM
"He had two backups and both turned out to be bad."
The odds of this happening are so astronomically low, that one is forced to conclude that incompetence must have been involved, such as: putting the backups on the same drive as the original, or putting two backups on the same drive (making them essentially one backup), Finder-dragging System and Library folders and expecting them to boot (don't go making conclusions about the guts of your System if you don't have any knowledge of it), making the backups at the wrong time, such as *after* you have altered the original in a risky manner (like say, backing up immediately *after* you install a point-zero OS release).
No matter how you slice it, you can conclude with a 99.99999% certainty that this dude did something wrong, and this just wasn't a case of two separate drives, each with a pre-Leopard installation, both of which happened to fail at the same time as his original.
Posted by: DBL | November 07, 2007 at 12:13 PM
Actually you are probably just looking at the listings which show up on my pages.
While they have a picture of me on the pages, I am not the listing agent. I am the buyers agent.
They aren't photos that I did.
I actually only have a couple of home listings since I mostly focus on buyers.
I adjust the lighting where needed on the interior photos where I do the photography.
I have even done a few inside photography jobs for others.
This is a link to one where I actually did the inside pictures.
http://coastalnc.org/290rollingwood/
The listing has expired.
I also occasionally go over to Photoshop for some pictures.
I am curious if you have used the latest iPhoto which is part of iLife 08.
I really liked the previous version and there are a couple of things I like in the new version, but overall I don't like the new version as much as the previous one.
I have removed a box or two with Photoshop, but as real estate agents we have to be careful with our use of Photoshop.
Posted by: ocracokewaves | November 07, 2007 at 12:16 PM
I love it when someone assumes incompetence on the user's part in trying to excuse an Apple problem.
The particular user who had the problem knows more about computers than 99.9% of users.
Backups fail sometimes. It is not unheard of.
Posted by: ocracokewaves | November 07, 2007 at 12:22 PM
I upgraded to Leopard on a MacBook. I had zero problems and I really like it, especially Time Machine. Every evening I connect my laptop to my backup drive and let it run. It only takes a couple of minutes. Guess what, you can switch to a different workspace in Spaces and not be affected by spinning beach balls. Leopard is noticeably faster. I also have Vista Ultimate install on the MacBook in Bootcamp which I use at work. My company bought new Dells a month ago but my 2 year old MacBook beats the Dells for performance in Vista. But I have to say, compated to Leopard, Vista feels glitchy. I guess it's all the funny flashes and so for at start up and during having use. It makes the whole experience feel unpolished compared to Leopard. At least that's been my experience.
Posted by: rbiggs | November 07, 2007 at 02:22 PM
I upgraded to Leopard and have a single application that is not working 100%. I was made aware of this by the company and am awaiting an upgrade for it. But it has not stopped me from using Leopard and being very satisfied.
Posted by: BK | November 08, 2007 at 07:58 AM
I just looked for the other newer home that you had listed. All the pictures of that home looked like the lights were out. I kept wondering if the electrical service was off or had not yet been turned on. Do you know which home I'm referring to? It was newer construction, mostly empty, and the photos were all a bit dark.
/rant/
Over the many years, I still haven't figured one good reason for the electric service to be turned off, and so many for keeping the electric service on always. Yet, we regularly encounter owners who turn off their service or let it lapse when a tenant or family moves out. Taking good photos is only one of many reasons. Actually being able to show the property in winter (short days) is another; it is helpful to be able to turn on a few lights. In cold climates, the possibility of the temp dropping below 32° is a huge issue. Most furnaces nowadays won't run without electric service, even if the oil tank is full or the gas line is connected and working properly -- with either tank propane or natural gas line service. And obviously electric heat also requires an operational electric service. Inspections also go more smoothly with the utilities working properly. How else can anyone verify that the appliances, mechanicals, and electric service work properly?
/end rant/
For the Rollingwood property above, some pictures have been light and/or color adjusted, but not always consistently.
Further, I don't think that I would sell a property to someone sight unseen. On the occasion of someone purchasing from afar based only on enhanced photos, I would consider making the raw photos available to the buyer, as well as any "cleaned" up photos. The photos serve a marketing function. They have to be good enough that someone would be encouraged to want to actually see the property. Photos should not be altered in ways that misrepresent the property. If the photo is too good and the property can't live up to it, then a potential buyer may not be interested in actually acquiring the property.
I find enhancing photos necessary. Photos show distractions that in real life people see, but don't dwell on. The mind is very good at seeing everything and then filtering out peripheral things like garbage cans, and utility lines. Unfortunately, photos are no where nearly as forgiving as the human mind. Photos record everything, even the stuff the mind filters out. Each and every distraction inside and out just stays there staring at you in each marketing photo that you take. I've personally moved many a garbage can, and quite a lot of clutter, so that otherwise good photos wouldn't look messy and disorganized. You can work up a good sweat moving clutter, but it is so much less time-consuming and easier than trying to remove it from actual photos later, after the fact.
It is a good idea to 1) have electric service on 2) make sure the place is picked up prior to photo shoot - either by owner or maid service 3) when possible take photos on sunny days 4) turn on all the lights and 5) remove distracting elements in person and/ or 6) enhance the lighting digitally when necessary.
I find it easier to remove stuff in person than photoshopping. It is also easier to turn light on and open window coverings, etc. Lighting varies by day and time. If your lighting is not ideal at the moment you shoot your pics, then it is understandable that you may want to improve your lighting digitally. Also often, one may want to remove distractions in photos that draw attention away from the property.
For example, utility lines are removed routinely in our photos. Everyone ( agents, owners, buyers, sellers, tenants, etc) say that they don't see the utility lines in person -- even though 1) the utility lines are there 2) the viewer knows that are there 3) the viewer knows they saw them. But they don't see the utility lines in their mind. Their brain filters out the utility lines. But the photos of the properties and the views from the properties show very clearly what everyone's mind filters out. So for marketing purposes, we take those out because no one ever "sees" them in real life, so they don't expect them in the photos. Most people are actually surprised to see the utility lines in photos after they have seen the property or its' views in person. They never miss the lack of utility lines in the same situation when have previously seen the property when the utility lines are photoshopped out. However, it is quite common for the same person to be shocked by the presence of utility lines when the same utilities are not removed from the photo. This is especially so when the viewer has already seen the property and or its' views in person that have been captured in the photos. They know they saw them, but the mind is so good at filtering out these distractions that people are surprised to see them in photos.
I find that the photos look so much better when people actually see in the photos what their mind expects them to see. These items that peoples' minds filter out are the most distracting. Viewers erase them in their minds, so we try to erase them in photos.
I find it so much easier to erase mentally. Digitally erasing is easier said then done. Even with Photoshop Elements, which can be easier than its' full-strength sibling, still takes quite a bit of work.
The moral of the story: a bit of preparation before and during the shoots can greatly improve the resulting photos. Even then, sometimes digital manipulation can be helpful. I have found iPhoto6 really good at getting the lighting just right; while I've used Photoshop Elements for digital manipulation when necessary.
Posted by: Realtosh | November 12, 2007 at 03:11 AM
And no I've not tried the newer IPhoto '08. Leopard is the first time since MacOS X that I'm actually considering upgrading without a hardware purchase. Leopard seems compelling enough, and I don't have a necessary hardware purchase waiting at the moment.
In the future I may be looking at getting a server. I was hoping that Leopard Server would be better than Windows Server. I've always taken care of my own tech support on both Mac and Windows systems. In the last few years, having to have Windows-based systems in the office; I've found myself both having to spend a lot more time on the phones with tech support (both waiting and fixing) and I've had to shell out hundreds of dollars per visit for tech support to do things like set up printing that I had been able to do myself over the years with more ease on Macs. Even with classic Macs, setting up networks and printing with Appletalk was easier and worked with much less hassle. I will never be one of the ones to say that there are not issues with Macs. Every system has them. Windows issues just take more of my time and cost more of my money.
My big issue is with Microsoft taking control of potentially competing platforms like Java or the Internet. I get more problems from our MLS vendor using Microsoft Java rather than Sun standard Java. So it means that I can't use any software that using regular Java, nor can I ever automatically upgrade Sun Java, because it means that I'm on the phone with Fidelity trying to fix my MLS again.
The irony -- now that all of this software is on the net you should be able to get your work done on the computer of your choice. NO WAY Microsoft put Active X n their own implementation of the Internet. So, if anyone like an MLS uses Active X, then I'm forced to use Windows and Internet Explorer. Consumers should be free to use Windows machines, or Macs, or Linux or whatever box that runs a browser that handles standards-compliant webpages. One should not be required t use Windows because Microsoft encourages ActiveX and Microsoft's JVM instead of regular Java and or plain old Javascript. Knowing Microsoft, they'd try to modify that one too.
Windows and Internet Explorer have more holes than Swiss cheese. Active X and all those open ports are a big part of why we have all that spyware, spamware, viruses and trojans in Windows. They have created proof of concept worms and trojans for Macs. These just don't seems to spread in the wild, so far. I would think that I wouldn't click ok when a trojan asked to be installed.
So moral of the story - if someone wants to use an $849 HP laptop with Vista, thats ok. However, one shouldn't be forced to use a Windows client just to get work done using Internet software. The Internet was supposed to set us free. I would not be surprised if Google software such as Picasa finally would not make the OS less of an issue. Google won't lay down like Netscape when confronted by Microsoft. If only we could get all those Enterprise software developers to use open standards. Then we'd start to actually get some choices. Hardware choice is nice, but I'd also like to be able to chose OS, browser, and apps.
Posted by: Realtosh | November 12, 2007 at 03:25 AM
$849 just to run Vista? You could have saved over $500 if you simply bought Vista and installed it into a Boot Camped Intel Mac. Best of both worlds mate. I did that, but I only boot into Windows maybe once a month. I really have little need to do so, but then, I'm not into Real Estate.
Posted by: veggiedude | November 17, 2007 at 12:44 AM
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Ann
http://externallaptop.net
Posted by: Ann | April 01, 2009 at 12:36 PM