Comments on: Switching

By: Technovia: Switching | Intel | Software | Processors | IBM | Apple

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:47:14 +0000

[...] Technovia: Switching: “ou might have gathered from some of my more recent posts that I’ve switched platform. My main machine is now a Dell laptop, running Ubuntu 8.10. [...]

By: ianbetteridge

ianbetteridge — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:47:49 +0000

I've been kind-of pondering it. Or rather, pondering how to phrase it.

By: Jared Earle

Jared Earle — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:59:39 +0000

Are we due a MacBook-related follow-up to this?

By: Switch Mac OS X to Ubuntu | openSYD

Switch Mac OS X to Ubuntu | openSYD — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:35:28 +0000

[...] janvier, Ian Betteridge publiait sur Technovia un post sur les raisons de son switching du monde Mac OS X vers Ubuntu [...]

By: Je pense avoir acheté mon dernier Mac | Dico Micro

Je pense avoir acheté mon dernier Mac | Dico Micro — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:01:23 +0000

[...] Switching [...]

By: Windows 7, Mac OS X and Ubuntu: A Tale of Three Operating Systems | Technovia

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:21:24 +0000

[...] all the reasons that I switched from the Mac in the first place (find out more about that decision here). Long term, Ubuntu is the right choice for [...]

By: The Microsoft “Lauren” ads are right | Technovia

The Microsoft “Lauren” ads are right | Technovia — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:49:11 +0000

[...] is exactly the argument that I made in my post on why I switched from Mac to Linux, and it’s one that the more fervant Mac promoters either don’t comprehend or willfully [...]

By: Ian Betteridge

Ian Betteridge — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 09:31:43 +0000

Good points, David. The Pages 09/Word problem you describe is exactly what I’m referring to. You can bet that Microsoft Word will open those files – but does that mean you have to be locked into Word for the rest of time? Microsoft would certainly like it!
The “what happens if I switch again?” question is a good one. One of the benefits of open source software is that it tends to be cross-platform – for example, Amarok has been built on Windows and (in an early form) on the Mac too.
More importantly, the specfication for how the data is stored is open, which means – in theory at least – getting the data out in a form which can be imported into something else is relatively easy. Of course, that depends on the “something else” being able to import metadata… but that’s something that I would hope even closed source software would want to support. After all, if you want people to switch to your platform, you want them to be able to bring their data with them.
It’s important to note, though, that not all open source software correctly documents formats. XCF, the native format for Gimp, is only partially properly documented (for reasons which are too complex to go into) – the developers regard the source code as the full reference to the format, which isn’t overly helpful. They have, however, decided to move to a new, fully-documented format based on ODF in the future.
And of course, you’re right to say that in the future, the tools will *probably* be available to switch. Cunning users tend to find ways to reverse engineer these things, although sometimes it can be horribly hit-or-miss (sometime I’ll write up the tale of trying to merge two iTunes libraries with third party tools…)
But, for me, that just raises the question: Why should I have to jump through hoops and pray that some third party manages to reverse engineer something, when Apple could just do the right thing in the first place and use open formats, or document what they do?
Especially when there are platforms around which don’t follow that path.
As I said, though, it’s up to each individual to weigh up what’s right for them. There’s no single “true path”, and it’s the competition between different software platforms, and different approaches, which keeps everyone honest.

By: David

David — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:10:55 +0000

Ian, you make good points about the “lock-in” of metadata by iPhoto, iTunes, etc. I’m a Mac user with extensive iPhoto and iTunes libraries and I worry about the long-term prospects for all this metadata that I so carefully create.
On the upside, one of the great things about the iPhoto/iTunes architecture is that when Apple revs the software, all my data AND metadata get updated quickly and automatically.
Contrast that to the typical scenario of random Word Docs, Excel spreadsheets, Photoshop files, etc. all scattered about in various sub-folders in your Documents directory. Just because you install the latest version of Word/Excel/Photoshop doesn’t mean those files get updated. Eventually they can age out so badly that you suffer the “ClarisWorks 3.0″ syndrome you alluded to. For example, I’m noticing that Pages ’09 cannot open some of my 10-year old Word docs (though it opens more recent ones just fine).
So, one strategy is to drink the Koolaid, keep all your data and metadata inside Apples “containers”, and rely on them to keep revving everything for you. If, in the future, you want to switch platforms or apps, look for AppleScripts, XML export or other 3rd-party tools to liberate your data and metadata. The likelihood of said tools being available is heightened by the sheer popularity of iTunes.
A benefit of running with the herd is that lots of people and companies accessorize. Look at the iPod/iPhone ecosystem! Ditto for iTunes add-ons.
I do envy how open your Amarok metadata MySQL database is. Still, I wonder this: if you someday switch to Windows 8 or Mac OS 11 or a different flavor of Linux, will you actually be able to get your Amarok metadata converted over to the new system?

By: Ian Betteridge

Ian Betteridge — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:45:03 +0000

Hi Al – the MBP was beginning to show its age, performance-wise. Games, for example (and particularly WoW!) were really sluggish.
I thought about converting the MBP to Linux, but it takes a lot of tweaking to get everything working properly (see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro1-1_1-2/Intrepid).
While that’s the kind of fun project that I’ll probably do when I get a free weekend (or two), I wanted something that gave me better performance and was generally more “Ubuntu-ready”.