2014-11-07

Turning to the shiny side...

I now have a iMac desktop. There, I said it! I feel like I am at an A[&]A meeting...

It is still something I am getting used to, and has been a complicated decision to make.

Perhaps I need to elaborate on some history of what I mean by my "desktop" and what I have used as a desktop in the past.

For many years my "desktop" or "main machine" was pretty much my only machine. I started with a TRS-80 at home and used an RML 380Z at school.  I do recall, in sixth form, taking a black and white TV set and TRS-80 on the back of my bicycle, to school, more than once.

I progressed to BBC micro, and even did some commercial work on a ZX Spectrum, but never used that as my "desktop", more of a doorstop (literally). I went through every feature of BBC micros, even 2nd processors. I then moved on the Acorn Archimedes. I still have BBC micros and Archimedes in the loft!

But ever since then, and that is around two decades ago, I have used linux in one form or other. I have used linux since the days that the install was a small number of floppy disks, and "X" was somewhat newfangled.

That is a very long time to use the same basic desktop. Times have changed massively. Machines have changed, monitors have changed, desktops have changed, even vim has changed, and oh! how hard disks have changed. These days, well, until this month, I use a Debian distro and a nice 30" Apple monitor. But the theft in the office caused some changes (nicked my monitor!). I tried a 4k TV at work, keeping the 30" at home. That is not as good as I would like - size and resolution are OK, but quality of pixels on some colours, no.

For many years I have used laptops. I have used some windows laptops, briefly. I have even used linux laptops, but they did not work well. I think they are somewhat better now. However, Apple make some damn good laptops. So I am used to those.

For some time I have used a nice Apple MacBook Pro on my desk in the front room, and when away from home/office, but my main machine in my study is still a linux desktop. I am only properly working when in the study, and use the laptop to ssh to that machine for much of my work. The laptop is the "front end", doing browser, email, and terminals to ssh.

But I have now taken the plunge, and switched over to the shiny side. My "main machine", my "desktop" in the study is now a 5k iMac. It is nice! I am keeping the linux machine too, to which I ssh and use vim and the dev tools for "real" work, but my day to day usage of email, web, and all sorts of graphical tools is now on the iMac. I have one on order for the office in order to complete the illusion.

I was impressed to find SyncThing to allow me to have shared (well, synced) files on all machines. That is important, and used to be done using an NFS mounted home directory under linux. My tech staff hated my use of nfs as it caused them issues, but I think it worked well for my needs.

I am using safari as the browser. I did trial MacMail and ended up going back to Thunderbird as it allows multiple identities on a login and also, importantly, GPG encryption.

It seems that more and more open source stuff is built for Mac now. You used to have to do an X server thing but more and more is native OS X.

So far it is working really well, and I have to say the 27" 5k screen is damn impressive.

But there is one other usage, a gaming machine. The idea is that, occasionally, I may relax and head off to Azeroth or some such as a game. Really I have little time. I have a windows machine with 3D monitor, but really, shutter 3D glasses are a pain. More on that when garage finally sorted with new 3D TV. But for now - can the new "desktop" machine manage World or Warcraft?

Well, the answer is yes, but with a caveat. You end up setting low end graphics settings. I found setting hi-res textures was OK but more settings and it slowed massively. So the second iMac is going to have the higher grade graphics card. I'll report on how that goes.

That said, playing on a 5k screen is, well, wow! You can set anti-aliasing, but on a retina display you just don't need to!

So, in conclusion, I have changed my "desktop". The graphics aspect of all of my day to day work is now Apple. I still use "real" machines (linux) for actual dev work, but the graphics is all iMac now. Given that iMac is unix, it may be that we move some of the real work over in time. At the end of the day, linux is a good desktop but Apple have always been that bit more polished - it is almost its trademark.

I'll report back on difference for extra CPU, memory and graphics card when the second one arrives, and I'll, no doubt, blog when something is not working as I need. Interesting times!

11 comments:

  1. I'm surprised mainstream screens have stayed so low-res for so long. People often say they cannot see the point in so many pixels, but cameras have steadily increased pixel counts but screen technology seems to have lagged behind.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 20 years ago I realised the power of Linux, the opportunities, in fact the ONLY true hope for freedom. For 10 years I just awaited the certainty that I knew would happen but it didn't and for the last 10 years I have been in denial as the vision faded in and out of grasp.

    Now I know it's over. The Linux Desktop can never happen. Whilst the Rev still ran Linux I thought we had a chance but this is final, damning proof that there is no free future.

    I bid you farewell friends as I publish from my Mint desktop, for I too will succumb to the Apple, NOT for the shineyness but for the fact that I can get on with my work.

    Linux has become an end in it's own right, like Amateur Radio who's goal is Training in Amateur Radio, it exists only to perpetuate it's own needs.

    I will shuffle off to the corner still wondering why eth0 is now em1 and try to forgive the knobends who keep changing the bits that aren't broken and ignoring the BIG bits that are.

    Go in peace.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actuallt the place Linux appears to have won is embedded devices, from Blu Ray players and TVs to smart meters and phones. None of these have a normal desktop.

      Delete
  3. Oh no! It's truly the beginning of the end!!! You'll only be supporting i* devices in five years time, you mark my words. The temptation of Apple is a one-way pit: there is no returning.

    -- doom gloom doom --

    :P

    ReplyDelete
  4. I tried adding comments before but apparently logging into Google blanks them. Hmm. I'm not typing it again but just to say use what you want. The desktop that suits you the best is the one you should use. It doesn't effect your choice of server or tablet or phone probably...

    ReplyDelete
  5. One of the things that ruins Linux in my view is all the distros. They all do things differently, so supporting multiple distros for a software package is a lot of work.

    I have a lot more time for FreeBSD. It was around quite a while before Linux and does the same job essentially, but is a single thing not multiple distros. What I don't understand is why Linux became popular and FreeBSD never did.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BSD's legal wrangles with AT&T[1] played a large part in it.

      I''ve being using Linux for nearly 20 years (desktop, server, laptop, phone, tablet etc...) and have zero intentions of changing.

      Face it, Linux has won everywhere, except the desktop and I don't believe for one minute that is due to technical reasons.

      [1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USL_v._BSDi

      Delete
    2. Linux might have "won", but that doesn't stop it being a pain. I have a Pi at home running Raspbian. We have Linux build servers at work. But none of the commands for installing packages are the same. They might as well be different operating systems for all the management commonality they have, only very basic shell commands like "ls" behave the same. It's a complete pain in the arse!

      Delete
  6. > going back to Thunderbird as it allows multiple identities on a login and also, importantly, GPG encryption

    The beta of GPGMail for Yosemite seems pretty stable, even though it is the first release (as far as I know) — GPGMail has been serving my encryption needs on Mac for some years now.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Go check on the Archimedes .. The battery could well be corroding and if so stands a good chance of taking the mainboard with it :(

    ReplyDelete

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