The pull of the Mac
I mentioned in the previous entry that iPods are cool, but that I was feeling “the Evil Pull Of MacOSX tempting me away from the ideologically pure land of Free Software”. Mark helpfully showered me with links to iPod-supporting Free Software. If I buy an iPod, I would certainly be looking at that, but it’s not strictly the iPod that I meant — if I wanted a mobile mp3 player then I’d buy an SDMedia card for my Zaurus and use that. What I was talking about (and I didn’t explain this very well, or, indeed, at all) was the Mac itself.
What I want is for Linux to be as pretty and usable as MacOS is, which is why I try and help with projects like RoxOS, but it’s just not there yet. And I keep thinking to myself “wouldn’t it be good to buy a Mac?” The G5 looks really pretty. Really, there are two things stopping me. The first is expense; the last two people I know who bought PowerBooks spent well over a thousand pounds each on them, and I don’t have a thousand spare. This is an invariant, regardless of my political viewpoint. :) The other part is that, well, I spend a lot of my time lobbying for Free Software and against proprietary solutions, and then to turn around and recommend a Mac seems to me the height of hypocrisy.
Perhaps even I’m worried that I’m using the banner of free software to disguise a not-so-admirable hatred directed purely at Microsoft. I’m sure I wouldn’t be alone in this if I were, but I don’t think I am; I don’t quite follow why I have such a high opinion of Apple despite them being exactly the same as any other proprietary software company.
Neal Stephenson mentions this in In The Beginning Was The Command Line:
When Apple engages in this sort of corporate behavior, one wants to believe that they are really trying their best. We all want to give Apple the benefit of the doubt, because mean old Bill Gates kicked the crap out of them, and because they have good PR.
Perhaps this is the truth. All I know is, I want a Mac, but I really don’t want to want a Mac. Perhaps this makes me stupid, or a zealot, or something. Mac people would quite possibly sneer at me for zealotry, for example. The most technically competent guy I know, a pretty big noise in the Debian project (not known for its pro-proprietary-software stance) has just bought a PowerBook (although he’s going to at least dual-boot it). Jono, the guy who set up our LUG and a writer for Linux Format, has a PowerBook and uses it all the time. What hope for me?
But Macs are so nice…
None
Personally, I regard my PowerBook as a powerpc box to run Debian on, not a Mac, if you see what I mean. At the moment I’m only keeping MacOS X on it because (a) there are some things that I’m not sure I can do in Debian yet, such as DVD playing to TV out; (b) I haven’t written a rescue boot CD yet and it’s a useful safety net; (c) erasing it is effort. :)
All that aside, I don’t see why buying the hardware itself is evil. It’s true that I paid the MacOS tax, much like people who buy PCs usually pay the Windows tax, but that doesn’t mean PCs are inherently connected with proprietary software. Likewise, most other types of hardware are sold by vendors who try to sell you their operating system too (hppa/ia64 and HP-UX; mips and Irix; alpha and Tru64 or even Windows NT). Is that a big deal if you run a free operating system in spite of them?
The one problem with things like PowerBooks is that not all of their hardware is supported under free systems, and some of it can’t be without substantial reverse-engineering efforts (e.g. the built-in Airport Extreme wireless). At least the former will only change if people buy the hardware and do the necessary kernel hacking, though, and that improves the situation for everyone else.
By the way, why are these “Textile rules” so screamingly brain-dead about their handling of hyphens as strikeout? See the formatting of the previous paragraph for an example.
-19561 seconds later
There’s nothing evil about using a Mac. It doesn’t mean no to free software, there’s plenty of it here. With 10.3, you’ve got built in X11, full FreeBSD down below, and so much more you can download from the net! Safari is based on KHTML. Apple has a major commitment to open source. And using a Mac doesn’t stop you from using other things, too!
-19561 seconds later
Oh, you definitely want a Mac. I just upgraded my old 400MHz iMac to 640MB of RAM and installed OS X 10.3. It is sweet, runs like a champ on my 4 year old hardware, and looks even more gorgeous than the previous version. I hope to post some screenshots by the end of the week.
Must… give… in…
-19561 seconds later
In the Beginning…Was the Command Line is a fantastic book. The problem is that it was published in 1999 and a lot of things have changed since then. Stephenson admits on his website that while in the book he promotes Linux, he now uses Macs and OS X almost exclusively.
I don’t think this is hypocracy. OS X is an implementation of Free BSD, with lots and lots of eye candy on top. It’s now got a nice X11 interface if you want to use it, and of course you can always crack open the Terminal and be the command line junkie you always wanted to be.
With a Mac you’re getting the best of both worlds—you can use much of the open source software out there, but you also get ease of use and excellent integration when you don’t feel like writing shell scripts.
-19561 seconds later
Yet Neal Stephenson is also now 100% OSX…
Give in To The Light Grey With Cool Blue Bits Side
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