Low End Mac Archive for May 30

May 30 in Low End Mac History

Mac ownership, Scott Atkinson, My Turn. Mac OS X threatens our sense of ownership.
Why Macs are different, Adam Robert Guha, Apple Archive. "Macs have something PCs don't: style, class, and ease of use."

Small victories, Dan Knight, MacInSchool. Hooray for small victories - Grand Rapids Public Schools still buying Macs, and teachers are choosing Macs for personal use.
Writing and editing with MS Word, Michel Munger, iBasics. Tips for getting the most out of Microsoft Word on the Mac.
Darwin source less than open, Scott Atkinson, My Turn. Linux, Mac OS X, and why the Darwin source code is less than open.
Real world depreciation, Dan Knight, Mac Musings. How computer depreciation should really be calculated.

Why I use a Mac, Jeff Adkins, Mac Lab Report. Ten unabashedly personal reasons for prefering a Macintosh to that other platform.
More about what we hate on the Web, Dan Knight, Mac Musings. More thoughts on the things that annoy us on the Web, including some new ones.
Helpful info on Redux backup software, Charles W Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings. Several Redux users shed additional light on this useful (but discontinued) backup program.
Beyond Linux apps: Mac on Linux, Jason Walsh, PPC Linux. Running Linux but need a Mac app? Mac on Linux lets you run classic Mac software on your PPC Linux machine.

Mac software: Different strokes for different folks, Adam Robert Guha, Apple Archive. Microsoft Word vs. AppleWorks, Internet Explorer vs. Safari, AIM vs. iChat - it's mostly a matter of personal preference.
iBook G3/900 vs. PowerBook G4/867, NTouch keyboard, acrylic scratch remover, 'Book accessories, and more, The 'Book Review. Also slot-loading Combo drive firmware update, new DVD+R/RW drive, cases, and bargain 'Books from $239 to $2,499.

Myth busting: Microsoft PlaysForSure is not 'hardware neutral', Dan Knight, Mac Musings. Tech journalists have an obligation to clear things up for their readers, not act as PR flaks, obfuscate things, and mislead their audience.
DiskWarrior 3: The one disk utility every Mac user should have, Charles W Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings. DiskWarrior does one thing - and does it very well. It finds and repairs directory damage, then create a new optimized replacement directory.
Windows growing, will eventually require a googol of RAM, Jeff Adkins, The Lite Side. Based on pretty consistent trends from Windows 3.1 through Vista, Windows will grow to require gigabytes, terabytes, petabytes, and eventually googols of RAM.

The summer of Macs: Mac mini, MacBook Pro, and iMac overdue for an upgrade, Dan Knight, Mac Musings. Eight to nine months since their last revision, these models are past due for an update. What can we expect at WWDC?
Macs for seniors, death of the Mac mini, and more on running Macs from Compact Flash, Dan Knight, Low End Mac Mailbag. More on teaching retirees to use Macs, thoughts on what may replace the Mac mini, and further feedback on running PowerBooks using flash memory.

Apple lost the PC war, but Microsoft is losing the post-PC war, Frank Fox, Stop the Noiz. Windows won the operating system war, but Microsoft is losing browser share and has fallen behind Apple in media players and smartphones.
Original iPhone still rocks, broadband speed for 3G iPhone?, solar power iPod, and more, iNews Review. Also traveling with an iPhone instead of a laptop, missing link between OS X and mobile phones, an iPhone dummy for display, and more.
Fast drives mean fast Macs, 256 MB SSD, 16:9 ratio notebook screens the new norm, and more, The 'Book Review. Also Centrino 2 delayed, traveling with a MacBook Air, time for notebooks to drop internal optical drives, how to right click with a trackpad, bargain 'Books from $279 to $2,699, and more.
Mac OS X 10.5.3, $30 Leopard or iLife, copyright police threaten iPods, and more, Mac News Review. Also things we miss from OS 9, the new clone wars, aluminum keyboard loses its luster, Apple USB modem problems, SuperDrives from $32, and more.

The Macintosh Clone Era, Dan Knight, Mac Musings. From early 1995 to May 1998, Apple licensed Mac clones - and nearly killed the company.