How to deal with the dumbing down of Operating Systems?

ard555

ard555

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Mar 3, 2014
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So, I'm still running Snow Leopard because updates drive me fucking mad. I've my productivity workflow purring like a cat, and with the exception of needing to change the battery and a bit of slow-pokeyness, the thing works ...

Well, it works fine, but it's probably going to die in the near future in a way that won't be worth repairing or supported if I want to keep on Snow Leopard.

Anyhow, I wanted to get a new machine anyhow to make good on some business spending I need to do and so got a razzmatazz new Macbook pro with a terrabyte on it and this fancy Mavericks OS.

What a turd that is. Not only can you no longer "swipe" back and forth in Finder (swipe is a stupid "ass" word, but the function is great), but Pages has lost all of the good stuff that I need as part of my self-publishing biz.

Like I told the guy at the Macstore when I hauled the fucker over there to get my 3600 Euro back, they've turned a great machine into kindergarten.

His response?

Mac is going "mainstream."

And no, for 3600 Euro they wouldn't partition the drive for me and let me have Snow Leopard on it. The dude didn't even think it would be possible and in order to do so, I would have had to buy an external DVD drive in order to use the disks I have (or think I still have someplace ...)

Looking into the kingdom of Bill Gates, I find the same nonsense of dumbing everything down so that essentially a laptop is reduced to being a tablet.

What are you guys doing in the face of all this? Am I slowly becoming a neo-Luddite?

Frustrated.

Oh, and Apple: :321:
 


I agree, OS's are becoming media consumption platforms rather than a real operating system these days. All the stuff coming from Apple and MS is garbage for people who actually know how to use a computer.

I'd go linux but mainstream apps just aren't there yet. I need photoshop, I need Word. No Gimp and Libre/Open/Sun Office aren't suitable replacements. If everyone else used them then yes they'd work, but since 0.000001% of the world uses Linux as a Desktop I need these apps.

Mavericks IMO is shit. Worst OS Apple has created (took the crown from Lion).

Want 3 finger swipe back in Finder? Use better touch tool. As far as Pages just install the old versions and use them like you normally would.
 
Cool. Thanks for this.

Any suggestions on hardware? I'm in Germany and keep coming across Tuxedo laptops for Linux, but the reviews say that they're pretty flimsy machines.

I don't give a shit about the brand, but keep in mind that I'm used to a uni-body made of metal, so recommendations for something sturdy in the laptop department would be much appreciated.
 
Sorry to hijack, anyone know Finder-like file browser for windows? I don't seem to find anything useful. Finder is just SO much better than windows explorer and the 3rd party explorers look like they haven't been updated in 10 years. And on top of that don't offer the functionality I'm after - multiple columns.
 
cheshire said:
Want 3 finger swipe back in Finder? Use better touch tool. As far as Pages just install the old versions and use them like you normally would.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion.

I tried the tool before taking the Mac back but couldn't figure it out. And I don't want to figure it out. It's tiny little things like that made me so happy ...

I'm looking on Ebay to see if I can find something. You'd think there would be tonnes of people who bought 2010 era Macbook Pros loaded with Snow Leopard betting that guys like me would come around like fans at a Kiss concert looking for scalpers ...

For now I'm thinking I might get this:

http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/not...ks/ultrabooks/fujitsu+ultrabook+lifebook+u772

I had a Fujitsu before and it was pretty good. Lasted for years until I donated it to an inner-city "teach the junkies to repair computers" or whatever project.

Fuck, this problem is annoying ...
 
ard555 said:
Cool. Thanks for this.

Any suggestions on hardware? I'm in Germany and keep coming across Tuxedo laptops for Linux, but the reviews say that they're pretty flimsy machines.

I don't give a shit about the brand, but keep in mind that I'm used to a uni-body made of metal, so recommendations for something sturdy in the laptop department would be much appreciated.
Click to expand...

It's hard to beat Apple hardware, I mean it really is fantastic. I have yet to see a PC manufacturer that can even come close. You can always install Linux/Windows on a Macbook.

If I were going to buy a Linux machine I'd buy a System76, or a Thinkpad from Think Penguin. If I was going to buy a Windows machine I'd just buy whatever the cheapest piece of shit on the market is and throw it away every year and get a new one.
 
cheshire said:
Mavericks IMO is shit. Worst OS Apple has created (took the crown from Lion).
Click to expand...

I'm actually surprised how much people hate the newer OSXs. Now in all fairness I started using OSX during 10.8 (Mountain Lion). Honestly I think Mavericks was an upgrade, and Yosemite looks like it'll be great. Out of the box there are some annoyances, but I think there are in any OS. XtraFinder + BetterTouchTool + iTerm2 pretty much solve any issues I had out of the box.
 
1) Install Debian Linux
2) Install Lightweight WM (Openbox/awesome)*
3) Install Virtualbox
4) Setup a Snow Leopard VM
5) ???
6) Profit!?1?

There, you get the ultra-efficient Linux environment, plus all the apps you need and an environment you're already used to in-one.

*or skip two, and install Crunchbang during step 1.
 
Rage9 said:
I'm actually surprised how much people hate the newer OSXs. Now in all fairness I started using OSX during 10.8 (Mountain Lion). Honestly I think Mavericks was an upgrade, and Yosemite looks like it'll be great. Out of the box there are some annoyances, but I think there are in any OS. XtraFinder + BetterTouchTool + iTerm2 pretty much solve any issues I had out of the box.
Click to expand...

My main issues are pretty fickle, I have to admit, but they're cracks enough in the ice berg to sink the ship. If you compare iWorks 9 to what they're giving away free now, the dumbing down is unworkable for a self-publisher like myself. I mean, they took away the simple ability to create bookmarks so you can make a clickable Table of Contents. WTF? And that's just one of 100+ things they took out of Pages.

And you cannot add iWorks 9 to Mavericks. The only way is if you upgraded to Mavericks.

From what I've read, they're only going to dumb iWorks even further down so that's why I bolted.

Not to mention that Mavericks completely crashed twice within one week after opening the box. WTF?

Oh, and before I forget: it's super fancy screen made all of the thumbnails on my favorite porn sites so grainy that it could have been called Porn Decaf.

Fuck Apple. Don't they read William Gibson novels?

:music06: Big thanks to everyone for the suggestions so far!
 
ard555 said:
My main issues are pretty fickle, I have to admit, but they're cracks enough in the ice berg to sink the ship. If you compare iWorks 9 to what they're giving away free now, the dumbing down is unworkable for a self-publisher like myself. I mean, they took away the simple ability to create bookmarks so you can make a clickable Table of Contents. WTF? And that's just one of 100+ things they took out of Pages.
Click to expand...

They will probably sell you "Pages Pro" shortly.

And you cannot add iWorks 9 to Mavericks. The only way is if you upgraded to Mavericks.
Click to expand...

Why not? Just drag the Pages app into the Applications folder and launch it.

From what I've read, they're only going to dumb iWorks even further down so that's why I bolted.
Click to expand...

Wait for Pro. :)

Not to mention that Mavericks completely crashed twice within one week after opening the box. WTF?
Click to expand...

Stability is my gripe with Mavericks. Its just junk. Seems as though every odd number release is crap though.

Oh, and before I forget: it's super fancy screen made all of the thumbnails on my favorite porn sites so grainy that it could have been called Porn Decaf.
Click to expand...

LOL Retina display.

Fuck Apple. Don't they read William Gibson novels?

:music06: Big thanks to everyone for the suggestions so far!
Click to expand...

They're Apple, they don't need to read.
 
ard555 said:
My main issues are pretty fickle, I have to admit, but they're cracks enough in the ice berg to sink the ship. If you compare iWorks 9 to what they're giving away free now, the dumbing down is unworkable for a self-publisher like myself. I mean, they took away the simple ability to create bookmarks so you can make a clickable Table of Contents. WTF? And that's just one of 100+ things they took out of Pages.

And you cannot add iWorks 9 to Mavericks. The only way is if you upgraded to Mavericks.

From what I've read, they're only going to dumb iWorks even further down so that's why I bolted.

Not to mention that Mavericks completely crashed twice within one week after opening the box. WTF?

Oh, and before I forget: it's super fancy screen made all of the thumbnails on my favorite porn sites so grainy that it could have been called Porn Decaf.

Fuck Apple. Don't they read William Gibson novels?

:music06: Big thanks to everyone for the suggestions so far!
Click to expand...

Just torrent the old versions of all the apps you use since you've already bought the rights to them anyways.
 
cheshire said:
Why not? Just drag the Pages app into the Applications folder and launch it.
Click to expand...

I tried this and it didn't work no matter how I did it. The dude at the Mac store confirmed that this shouldn't be possible on the machine I bought.

Not only that, but when I created documents in Pages and Keynote and took them back to the Snow Leopard, they wouldn't work either. Luckily, the Mavericks version had an option to export these to 09 ...

If they do release a pro that works AND they put swipe back in Finder ...

... maybe I'll forgive them.
 
It's not just that they're dumbing down the traditional OS, they're turning it into a SaaS. It takes us from running the specific programs on a machine that provide the specific functionality we desire to subscribing to a cloud platform from one corporation that demands supreme authority over your hardware and software. It started with the iDevices and now they're just rolling the personal computer into that fold.

You log in to the platform and the platform tells you what you can or can't do that day, because they're going to change shit without warning. But don't worry! You didn't need any of that functionality you've been using for years we just axed anymore because we just redesigned the shit out our icons. By the way, we've just determined that your hardware is incompatible with OSX: The Only Version That You Can Use so please make your way to the nearest Mac Store with your wallet open and pants unzipped. Computer will now shut down forever, thanks for choosing Apple.

And of course Apple is just the thought leader in these verticals, everyone else is right behind them.
 
ard555 said:
I tried this and it didn't work no matter how I did it. The dude at the Mac store confirmed that this shouldn't be possible on the machine I bought.

Not only that, but when I created documents in Pages and Keynote and took them back to the Snow Leopard, they wouldn't work either. Luckily, the Mavericks version had an option to export these to 09 ...

If they do release a pro that works AND they put swipe back in Finder ...

... maybe I'll forgive them.
Click to expand...

It's pretty common for old software to not work on a new version of an OS. Happens on Windows, happens on Linux. It's called progress. It sucks to hear the new version is shit, seems to be happening to a lot of Mac software which is why not many people seem to use it.
 
Mahzkrieg said:
So your issue is with a couple applications? Finder and Pages are swappable.

For example, an alternative to Finder is Path Finder 6 by Cocoatech

For writing, I use Literature and Latte - Scrivener Writing Software | Mac OS X | Windows. Maybe there's a word processor that suits your needs like Word for Mac.

Complaining about the OS seems like the wrong reaction.
Click to expand...

Thanks for mentioning Path Finder.

As for Scrivener, I want to be in love with it, but it just doesn't do simple things that I need it to do.

With all due respect, I didn't merely complain about the OS. I took the thing back, got a refund and am taking action to get what I need.

And as others have suggested, the threat is real and won't end with what may seem like fickle complaints, especially if this is all leading to SaaS.

That said, SaaS might not be a bad thing for the small business person who can customize computers and their software to do what people like myself want them to do. That could be a very profitable business indeed and I'd be one of the first in line.

But for now I'll spend some of that money Apple isn't getting on outsourcing more to get what I need done. I just can't find a machine/OS that I like ... Linux sounds like fun to get into, but ultimately too limiting.

The search continues.
 
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