Where does one get advice about Apple products?

nospam wrote:

In article , Ken Blake
wrote:

I remember talking to my brother-in-law, and asking him whether he
could read e-books on his iPad. He said, "no, I can read i-books." No
matter how hard I tried, I couldn't convince him that an i-book is a
brand of e-book, just as a Ford is a brand of car.

no.

ibooks is not a brand of ebooks.

ibooks is one app that can read ebooks on an ipad or iphone in a
variety of formats.

there are other ebook apps available, including kindle.

I am using the Bluefire Reader on my iPad (and on my Android LG-phone).
Great reader, in my honest opinion.
--
Regards,
Macker

| Try Netrunner. It just works. The only thing you have to do is install
| the video drivers and get the updates.
|

I'm not sure I want it to "just work". For that
(assuming I've got money to burn) I could buy
a Mac.
For instance, installing softwa I'd apparently
have to go through the automated UI, or visit
Ubuntu, click on what I want, and it gets installed.
I have to enter my password for that to happen,
yet these websites have access to set up
software on my system. I don't want to enter a
password. It's my computer! And I don't want remote
sites having access.
(And that's not even addressing the basic software
problem: Example: GIMP is not a serviceable image
editor and probably never will be. The only way to
make Linux really attractive is to fully support Windows
software.)

The software installing system is the kind of thing
I meant when I said Linux has started adding the
problems of commercial software. I don't want a dumbed-
down system that locks me out. I don't want a sneaky
shift toward a services paradigm. I just want a computer
that lets me do what I want and then gets out of the
way.

In the past, Windows was like a normal car,
Mac was like a high-end car with the hood
welded shut, and Linux was like a car kit. The
Mac had limited usage. Linux was a hobby. The
thrill of Windows was that one could have as
little or as much involvement as one wanted:
normal use, tweaking, scripting, programming....
Microsoft tried to accomodate inexperienced
people while also catering to business and
"power users". And part of the result of that
flexibility was a vast selection of software.

Now we have adware cars, sneaky cars that
only want to drive us to their own shopping mall,
cars designed to track our activity, self-updating
cars, self-driving cars.... I just want a car.

But thanks for the comment. I wasn't aware
of Netrunner.

Sure Chuckcar is still around he's out shoveling 10 feet of snow everyday in
that hellhole of a city Ottawa-nker. Last I saw him on usenet FlatArse kicked
him silly upside the head on alt.free.newsservers. That must have done it but
he'll be back on usenet soon to get kicked upside the head again.

"G. Morgan" wrote:

Tony wrote:

All hail Chuckcar the CZAR!! Or in F-R-O-Gland Chuckcar laFROG laCZAR,
ChuckZar!!

Is Chuckcar still around? I haven't seen a post from that NYM in years.

--

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety,
deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Ben Franklin

--
The Grandmaster of the CyberFROG

Come get your ticket to CyberFROG city

Nay, Art thou decideth playeth ye simpleton games. *Some* of us know proper
manners

Very few. Ya know ahh, ahhh I used to take calls from *rank* noobs but got
fired the first day on the job for potty mouth,

Bur-ring, i'll get this one: WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM JERK!!? We're here to help you
dickweed, ok, ok give the power cord the jiggily piggily wiggily all the while
pushing the power button repeatedly now take everything out of your computer
except the power supply and *one* stick of ram. Subscriber asks will that
****in' work? I guaranDAMtee it. Ok get the next sucker on the phone.

I'm not Sam Hong but we both hate Roxio. Sam Hong pulled Roxio's Dong!

There's the employer and the employee and the FROGGER and the FROGEE, which one
are you?

Hamster isn't a newsreader it's a mistake!

El-Gonzo Jackson FROGS both me and Chuckcar (I just got EL-FROG-OED!!)

All hail Chuckcar the CZAR!! Or in F-R-O-Gland Chuckcar laFROG laCZAR,
ChuckZar!!

I hate them both, With useless bogus bull**** you need at least *three*
fulltime jobs to afford either one of them

I'm a fulltime text *only* man on usenet now. The rest of the world downloads
the binary files not me i can't afford thousands of dollars a month

VBB = Volume based billing. How many bytes can we shove down your throat and
out your arse sir?

The only "fix" for the CellPig modem is a sledgehammer.

UBB = User based bullFROGGING

Colonel Debeers refuses to wrestle a black man
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3-o_dPhbGI)

Master Juba was a black man imitating a white man imitating a black man

Always do incremental backups of your data or you'll end up like the A To
Z(Zee)-Holes at DSL Reports. Justin says i made a boo-boo. Yeah boo-who.

Updates are for idiots. As long as the thing works there's no reason to turn
schizophrenic and develop a lifelong complex over such a silly issue.

You don't have to be "stink-bottomed" to post on this newsgroup

Anyone who disagrees with me gets FROG tape over their yapper

Adrian "jackpot" Lewis is a mama's boy!

Jimmy Fricke is good for the game of poker

Using my technical prowess and computer abilities to answer questions beyond
the realm of understandability

Regards Tony... Making usenet better for everyone everyday

This sig file was compiled via my journeys through usenet

This could be Chuckcar.

Subject:
Recommended EMail Application
Date:
Sat, 15 Feb 2014 19:15:24 -0800
From:
OldGuy
Organization:
Aioe.org NNTP Server
Newsgroups:
alt.comp.os.windows-8, alt.windows7.general,
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general





"G. Morgan" wrote:

Tony wrote:

All hail Chuckcar the CZAR!! Or in F-R-O-Gland Chuckcar laFROG laCZAR,
ChuckZar!!

Is Chuckcar still around? I haven't seen a post from that NYM in years.

--

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety,
deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Ben Franklin

--
The Grandmaster of the CyberFROG

Come get your ticket to CyberFROG city

Nay, Art thou decideth playeth ye simpleton games. *Some* of us know proper
manners

Very few. Ya know ahh, ahhh I used to take calls from *rank* noobs but got
fired the first day on the job for potty mouth,

Bur-ring, i'll get this one: WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM JERK!!? We're here to help you
dickweed, ok, ok give the power cord the jiggily piggily wiggily all the while
pushing the power button repeatedly now take everything out of your computer
except the power supply and *one* stick of ram. Subscriber asks will that
****in' work? I guaranDAMtee it. Ok get the next sucker on the phone.

I'm not Sam Hong but we both hate Roxio. Sam Hong pulled Roxio's Dong!

There's the employer and the employee and the FROGGER and the FROGEE, which one
are you?

Hamster isn't a newsreader it's a mistake!

El-Gonzo Jackson FROGS both me and Chuckcar (I just got EL-FROG-OED!!)

All hail Chuckcar the CZAR!! Or in F-R-O-Gland Chuckcar laFROG laCZAR,
ChuckZar!!

I hate them both, With useless bogus bull**** you need at least *three*
fulltime jobs to afford either one of them

I'm a fulltime text *only* man on usenet now. The rest of the world downloads
the binary files not me i can't afford thousands of dollars a month

VBB = Volume based billing. How many bytes can we shove down your throat and
out your arse sir?

The only "fix" for the CellPig modem is a sledgehammer.

UBB = User based bullFROGGING

Colonel Debeers refuses to wrestle a black man
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3-o_dPhbGI)

Master Juba was a black man imitating a white man imitating a black man

Always do incremental backups of your data or you'll end up like the A To
Z(Zee)-Holes at DSL Reports. Justin says i made a boo-boo. Yeah boo-who.

Updates are for idiots. As long as the thing works there's no reason to turn
schizophrenic and develop a lifelong complex over such a silly issue.

You don't have to be "stink-bottomed" to post on this newsgroup

Anyone who disagrees with me gets FROG tape over their yapper

Adrian "jackpot" Lewis is a mama's boy!

Jimmy Fricke is good for the game of poker

Using my technical prowess and computer abilities to answer questions beyond
the realm of understandability

Regards Tony... Making usenet better for everyone everyday

This sig file was compiled via my journeys through usenet

On Sun, 23 Feb 2014 09:52:50 -0500, Mayayana wrote:

like multiple, primitive email programs named after trees,
for instance

You mean pine, elm? Pine, or rather Alpine, is still going strong.

| like multiple, primitive email programs named after trees,
| for instance
|
| You mean pine, elm? Pine, or rather Alpine, is still going strong.

That doesn't surprise me a bit. I got a sense that
most of what was on the default install list for Linux
software was there to stay, as a kind of living memorial
and history of Linux development, like dusty bowling
trophies from the 1950s in a VFW hall. They begin to
seem a bit embarassing after a few decades, but no one
has the heart to throw them out. After all, if we just
callously forget Ernie White, who bowled 4 strikes in a row
against Smalltown in 1954, then what's to stop people
forgetting about *me* someday?

And I can see from current screen shots that Pine/Alpine
is as cutting-edge as ever. It makes the telegraph seem
old fashioned:

https://www.washington.edu/alpine/faq/whatis.html

I can even download the source code and do my own
custom compilation. And they've thoughtfully documented
the compile options I might want to use:

https://www.washington.edu/alpine/te...tallation.html

Imagine my excitement.

In article , Ken Springer
wrote:

Yea, those young whippersnappers at Apple Stores don't know squat, IMO.
Never used the Genius Bar, but don't have high expectations there
either. A tablet is a computer, for Pete's sake, there has to be a
filesystem. None of them seem to give you access to it out of the box.
You have to have 3rd party software.

it's also not needed. dealing with files is a pain. there are much
better ways.

nearly all of the files aren't of any interest to the user, notably the
system itself.

IMO, you can pretty much say this about any OS.

yep, which is why direct access to the file system is eventually going
away. having an app manage documents makes things a lot easier. for
instance, apps such as lightroom are more flexible for managing photos
than file/folders.

the user always has access to the documents an app creates, which is
what matters.

Unless you want to organize all files relating to a single project all
in one places, accessible from one screen.

that can be done within the relevant apps.

Apple seems to be moving in the "Keep Users Ignorant" direction. And
most computer users of all types don't seem to care or have the
curiosity like many here do. My sister is one of those, want's to use
her computer, but never knows where anything is on it. "I couldn't find
it" is the common lament. But will she take the time to learn the file
system (Win 7) like her paper files??? OOoooohhhh, no, takes too much
time. I've pretty much given up.

exactly why going beyond the file system is a good thing.

normal users, i.e., non-geeks, which is the vast majority of users,
don't understand file systems and they find it confusing. they don't
want file managers.

They don't understand because they don't take the time to learn. :-(

they don't need to or want to learn it. they just want to do whatever
it is they want to do and not deal with what goes on behind the scenes.

with a car, you just drive. although some people might like fixing
their own cars, it's not a requirement to use one.

This keep users ignorant, and taking user capabilities away, is part of
the reason this may be the one and only Mac I'll ever own. Started with
10.5 Leopard, but don't think I'll ever upgrade from 10.8 Mountain Lion
to 10.9 Mavericks, as Mavericks offers me nothing that interests me AFAIK.

although i agree on mavericks not offering much over mountain lion,
there is absolutely nothing about os x that keeps users ignorant.

users can go as deep as they want. there is nothing blocking access to
any part of the system. install the developer tools and write a kernel
extension if you want. write bash scripts. do whatever you want.

Users doing this are not the average/normal user. With Windows, you can
do some of these types of things from the UI. Even the users in my Mac
club bitch about having to use the terminal to do some things, when it
could be much easier for the user if the OS allowed it in the UI.

the os isn't disallowing anything.

i don't know what specific tasks you're talking about but some are
definitely possible within the gui. others might require a third party
app.

And if the users won't learn the file system, what are the odds they
will learn programming? That aspect of computing isn't something I'm
interested in. And really, if everyone has to deal with an aspect of
programming to do something, isn't everyone reinventing the wheel?

i'm not saying everyone needs to learn programming.

my point is there are no artificial restrictions. if you want to hack
os x, you can. if you don't, that's ok too. for those that don't, there
are lots of apps and plugins and whatnot that add a lot of features and
functionality.

The we went to the Microsoft store. The Surface tablets,
like the iPads, were wildly overpriced. And of course Microsoft
is in on the same racket: trying to hook people into online
services through a limited device.

Both MS and Apple are wanting to rope you into making monthly payments
for something you should be able to run from your own computer.

they might like that but it's not required. you can continue to run
whatever you want on the computer without any payments to anyone.

Are you sure? What about Office 365 Premium?

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/...ome-Premium/pr
oductID.286395000
Can you run this on your computer and not pay a subscription?

maybe not 365, but there is a standalone office that doesn't require a
subscription. there is also openoffice which is mostly compatible.

And from what I've read, and tried once, there are now apps that are not
installed on your computer, you access it from a server somewhere. Exit
the app, it's not on your computer.

for some tasks that's fine. that's what a website basically is.

a chromebook is entirely web apps.

If you
think about it, the industry seems to moving back to the same situation
that spawned personal computers, except the IT know it all, control it
all people are in Cupertino and Redmond, not in the office basement.

it is, but it's not a conspiracy of apple and microsoft.

I don't believe in this type of conspiracy, but both have realized that
it's the only way to be profitable in the software arena in the future.

and they're right. that's where the industry is going.

It's like the Office 365 subscription at $100/yr. For the features the
vast majority of users take advantage of, in less than a year you would
have owned the licensed for Home and Student. Note also, that two
"features" of Office 365 are currently free.

it depends on what someone does with it. for some people it will be a
good deal and for others it won't.

mobile is the future, which means the cloud will be a huge part of it.
the way to monetize the cloud is making it a service.

adobe made the bold move to turn creative suite into a subscription
based option and their subscriptions are happening faster than they
expected it to be.

that's what people want. not everyone of course, but that's just how it
goes.

I have to believe a certain percentage of this isn't necessarily what
people want, it's what they buy do to ignorance and good sales pitches.

maybe some do but that's not a sustainable business model.

in adobe's case, they launched creative cloud a couple of years ago,
alongside cs6. users could choose either one.

what happened was more users than they expected chose creative cloud.
consumers sent them a message, 'we like the cloud.'

In article , mechanic
wrote:

more windows users buy ipads than those who have macs.

Simply because there are more Windows users than Mac users (or Linux
users come to that).

which means that ipads are appealing to non-apple users.

in other words, it's not only apple fans with their religious devotion
to whatever apple does (which is ludicrous).

people buy products to do things. sometimes it's apple and sometimes it
isn't.

On 2/22/2014, nospam posted:
... I could think of a thousand better
things to spend $1,000 on than two tablets.

except it was a gift. she didn't spend anything.

Well, she did spend two or three minutes following this thread :-)

BTW: in her boots, I would have not looked those gift tablets in the
mouth.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On 2/23/14 2:33 PM, nospam wrote:
In article , Ken Springer
wrote:

snip

IMO, you can pretty much say this about any OS.

yep, which is why direct access to the file system is eventually going
away. having an app manage documents makes things a lot easier. for
instance, apps such as lightroom are more flexible for managing photos
than file/folders.

Easier depends on the user and whether or not you have multiple types of
docs and the need to move between computers. Not to mention whether you
want some type of organization in your hard drive other than what's
provided by the system itself.

Have never, ever thought much positive about the My Documents, My
Photos, My Septic Tank, etc. of Windows.

the user always has access to the documents an app creates, which is
what matters.

Unless you want to organize all files relating to a single project all
in one places, accessible from one screen.

that can be done within the relevant apps.

And if you want to see all of those docs without opening an app?

snip

normal users, i.e., non-geeks, which is the vast majority of users,
don't understand file systems and they find it confusing. they don't
want file managers.

They don't understand because they don't take the time to learn. :-(

they don't need to or want to learn it. they just want to do whatever
it is they want to do and not deal with what goes on behind the scenes.

with a car, you just drive. although some people might like fixing
their own cars, it's not a requirement to use one.

You do more than drive, these days. Sound system, GPS, lighting, etc.

snip

the os isn't disallowing anything.

It does when capabilities are removed from the OS, rather than more
capabilities being added.

snip

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/...ome-Premium/pr
oductID.286395000
Can you run this on your computer and not pay a subscription?

maybe not 365, but there is a standalone office that doesn't require a
subscription. there is also openoffice which is mostly compatible.

Open Office apparently rather buggy, as is Libre Office. I've given up
on LO.

snip

a chromebook is entirely web apps.

This I did not know. I don't care for laptops, but if the Google system
ever gets to a desktop, it's a sure fire guarantee I won't be buying it.

snip

It's like the Office 365 subscription at $100/yr. For the features the
vast majority of users take advantage of, in less than a year you would
have owned the licensed for Home and Student. Note also, that two
"features" of Office 365 are currently free.

it depends on what someone does with it. for some people it will be a
good deal and for others it won't.

It doesn't matter what you do with it. Pay the subscription for 2 years
and you've more than paid for Home and Student.

snip


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 24.0
Thunderbird 24.0

On 2/23/14 7:54 PM, Todd wrote:
On 02/23/2014 05:33 PM, Ken Springer wrote:
Open Office apparently rather buggy, as is Libre Office. I've given
up on LO.

Report the bugs you find to Libre Office. They will fix them.
They have fixed a ton of them for me and my customers.

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/

I did file bugs, not one got fixed. That's why I gave up.


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 24.0
Thunderbird 24.0

In article , Ken Springer
wrote:

IMO, you can pretty much say this about any OS.

yep, which is why direct access to the file system is eventually going
away. having an app manage documents makes things a lot easier. for
instance, apps such as lightroom are more flexible for managing photos
than file/folders.

Easier depends on the user and whether or not you have multiple types of
docs and the need to move between computers. Not to mention whether you
want some type of organization in your hard drive other than what's
provided by the system itself.

it does, and most users are non-geeks that don't want to deal with
micromanaging things.

the user always has access to the documents an app creates, which is
what matters.

Unless you want to organize all files relating to a single project all
in one places, accessible from one screen.

that can be done within the relevant apps.

And if you want to see all of those docs without opening an app?

you need some sort of app to see it.

explorer or finder is an app.

normal users, i.e., non-geeks, which is the vast majority of users,
don't understand file systems and they find it confusing. they don't
want file managers.

They don't understand because they don't take the time to learn. :-(

they don't need to or want to learn it. they just want to do whatever
it is they want to do and not deal with what goes on behind the scenes.

with a car, you just drive. although some people might like fixing
their own cars, it's not a requirement to use one.

You do more than drive, these days. Sound system, GPS, lighting, etc.

but you don't need to understand digital encoding or the doppler effect
to use them.

the os isn't disallowing anything.

It does when capabilities are removed from the OS, rather than more
capabilities being added.

nothing was removed.

esoteric features might not have a gui method to configure but since
they're esoteric, it doesn't affect very many people. design for the
common cases, not edge cases.

however, anyone who wants a gui for those esoteric features can write
an app to do exactly that, usually little more than wrapping the
command line. it's a few lines of code. there are a *lot* of such apps,
nearly all of them free.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/...5-Home-Premium
/pr
oductID.286395000
Can you run this on your computer and not pay a subscription?

maybe not 365, but there is a standalone office that doesn't require a
subscription. there is also openoffice which is mostly compatible.

Open Office apparently rather buggy, as is Libre Office. I've given up
on LO.

can't blame you there. that's why i said mostly compatible. however,
it's an option and does work for some.

a chromebook is entirely web apps.

This I did not know. I don't care for laptops, but if the Google system
ever gets to a desktop, it's a sure fire guarantee I won't be buying it.

it already has.

http://promos.asus.com/us/chrome-os/chromebox/

It's like the Office 365 subscription at $100/yr. For the features the
vast majority of users take advantage of, in less than a year you would
have owned the licensed for Home and Student. Note also, that two
"features" of Office 365 are currently free.

it depends on what someone does with it. for some people it will be a
good deal and for others it won't.

It doesn't matter what you do with it. Pay the subscription for 2 years
and you've more than paid for Home and Student.

in adobe's case, it would be $600 for photoshop and then more money for
an upgrade every 18 months.

it's $10/month right now, or $120/year, and upgrades happen continually
whenever they're ready for release, rather than on an 18 month product
cycle.

$10/mo is also a lot easier to budget than $600 upfront.

it's not for everyone, but it's the way the industry is going. i'm not
crazy about it, but there are a lot more people who do than who don't.

On 2/24/14 1:03 AM, nospam wrote:
In article , Ken Springer
wrote:

snip

that can be done within the relevant apps.

And if you want to see all of those docs without opening an app?

you need some sort of app to see it.

explorer or finder is an app.

Don't go stupid, here, nospam. Everyone that's likely still reading
this thread knows this!

You completely missed the point. Can you figure it out?

snip

the os isn't disallowing anything.

It does when capabilities are removed from the OS, rather than more
capabilities being added.

nothing was removed.

In the case I'm thinking of, it was. The programmers for a particular
file management program I have can no longer access external drives on
networked computers because Apple removed that ability from the OS.

snip

however, anyone who wants a gui for those esoteric features can write
an app to do exactly that, usually little more than wrapping the
command line. it's a few lines of code. there are a *lot* of such apps,
nearly all of them free.

You are contradicting yourself. In a section I snipped you stated users
didn't need to understand things to use them, now you are say you should
be programming to get what you want. You can't have it both ways.

snip

in adobe's case, it would be $600 for photoshop and then more money for
an upgrade every 18 months.

it's $10/month right now, or $120/year, and upgrades happen continually
whenever they're ready for release, rather than on an 18 month product
cycle.

I would submit that a nonprofessional user paying $600 for any program
in many if not most cases is likely "being taken to the cleaners".

snip

--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 24.0
Thunderbird 24.0

On 2/24/14 11:27 AM, Todd wrote:
On 02/23/2014 07:17 PM, Ken Springer wrote:
On 2/23/14 7:54 PM, Todd wrote:
On 02/23/2014 05:33 PM, Ken Springer wrote:
Open Office apparently rather buggy, as is Libre Office. I've given
up on LO.

Report the bugs you find to Libre Office. They will fix them.
They have fixed a ton of them for me and my customers.

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/

I did file bugs, not one got fixed. That's why I gave up.

Was it with envelopes by chance. That is the only item(s)
they won't fix for me. The rest the fix almost instantly.
LO can't print an envelope for its life!

Nope. Confusing/opposite menu entry definitions, and hyperlinks that
don't stay in place.

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=44871
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=46986

The most common reason for not fixing them is they are of low
importance. Well, sorry Charlie, they aren't of low importance to me.
Being free is not a good enough reason to use a product that doesn't do
what I need. So, I'm trying out commercial software, hopefully will
find something other than Office.


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 24.0
Thunderbird 24.0

| Loved your exposition. Are you a professional writer
| by chance?
|

Thanks. No. I'm mainly a contractor. (Carpentry, cabinetwork,
remodeling, etc.) I've made some money doing smallscale web
design and writing Windows shareware, but there's not much to
be made that way these days.
Nevertheless, I do enjoy writing. It's such an interesting
way to think through and clarify ideas. The tricky part in
practicing the "art" of writing seems to be having worthwhile
things to say: To hone the skill without digressing into habitual
wiseacreing. I just don't regularly think of something that
seems worth writing about.


| You are right about your assessment of strange little programs
| for Linux that mostly don't work. But, that was mainly about
| 10 years ago. Now, there are a lot of nice mature programs:
| Libre Office (although it can't print an envelope for its life),
| Firefox, Thunderbird (I am using it now), Inkscape, Digikam,
| GnuCash (no payroll or inventory), etc..
|

I was thinking about that when I went to look at Netrunner,
which "Blue" had suggested. Their site lists a very practical,
functional list of pre-installed software. The trick is, though,
that many of those are also some of the best Windows
software. I already use Mozilla products, Libre Office and
VLC Media Player.

| If you look at Linux again, look at Fedora Core. It is
| the most security hardened OS out there and it is supported
| by heavy weight Red Hat. It is damned serious Linux.
|

I may get around to that at some point. At this point I
use XP, and Win7-64 for a few specific things like testing
software or working with very memory-intense things.
(Recently I was using it with Audacity -- another
Windows/Linux program -- to salvage lectures on cassette
and write them to CD.)

I certainly don't want to be stuck with anything like Win8.
But as I noted earlier, I'm also concerned with the way that
Linux on the Desktop seems to be going from something that
only a sysadmin could love to a services UI, without any stops
in between.
Apropos of that, there's a discussion today on Slashdot
about how Nokia phones have been found to be proxying
nearly all activity through US Microsoft servers -- even
when used in Finland. Someone pointed out that Google,
Apple and MS all require joining up with their web services
to do much of anything on their respective phones. And to
join is to share. ("What, you didn't know? Hey, you clicked
agreement to our EULA.") The poster referred to the issue
as "a mountain out of a molehill". I find it astonishing that
the general public, in such a short time, has come to blandly
accept such corporate intrusion.

Linux "features" like auto-installing from the Web and
auto-updating software are a similar scenario. That kind of
arrangement might appeal to many people, but it also implies
lack of control over what goes on behind the scenes -- the
services model.
That general problem -- who owns the PC and what rights
do corporations have -- is a bigger issue to me, in the long run,
than OS comparisons.