iPad

[Jarod Wilson]

On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 9:54 PM, Ryan Pugatch <rpug-vYTEC60ixJUAvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Ian Stokes-Rees wrote:
>
>>
>> * I should note that the hardware has not lived up to 60+ hours of use a
>> week, which perhaps isn't surprising given that they aren't billed as
>> "enterprise" grade, but is surprising given how much design effort (and
>> consequent cost) goes into Apple hardware.  I've had the optical drive
>> die on me, the screen has lost a vertical column, and tomorrow I get my
>> third logic board, plus new power supply, plus apparently both my
>> batteries are mal functionioning ...
>
> I'd say that at $WORK we've experienced more failures with MacBook Pros
> than our Latitude D and E series laptops.

My own 17" MacBook Pro is only 6 or 7 months old, but it easily logs
70+ hours a week, haven't had to replace a thing. I've got a 5+ year
old PowerBook G4 that is still rock-solid, haven't ever had to replace
anything in it due to failure or malfunction (I did replace the
original 80GB hard drive with a 320GB one a year or two ago). I've got
a PowerMac G4 tower that is over 8 years old, still going strong, only
thing I've ever had to do with it was put down a new layer of thermal
grease under the heatsink about 2 years ago (and it runs 24x7,
providing assorted services on my home network).

Not than any of my non-Mac stuff is at all fragile though (but
unfortunately, one of my only 32-bit systems I actually still liked, a
dual PIII/800 on an Asus P2B-DS seems to have up and died for some
reason I've not cared enough to diagnose yet). Sure, my ThinkPad T61
is perhaps a bit more "rugged" feeling than my MacBook Pro, given that
its got a bulkier plastic case, a hideous off-center bezel around the
screen, etc., but I like using the MBP much much better. I'm sure
there's a good analogy between a luxury sedan and an economy sedan
that fits here, use your imagination... :)

I spend all day trying to fix a myriad of things that are broken in
Linux (specifically, the kernel). So like Rich, when I get home at
night, I want my computers to Just Work. Just because that role is
most often filled by Apple hardware and Mac OS X doesn't mean I can't
have my cake and eat it too. It *is* still unix, so a good chunk of
the stuff that runs on Linux runs on Mac OS X too. And I've still got
plenty of boxes running Linux, and can have more things to hack on
than I've got time to hack, so I definitely don't feel like Apple is
taking away any liberties from me, I feel like they're giving me
something that I can use and rely on to always be functional.
Definitely can't say that about a machine running Linux if you come
even close to tracking the upstream kernel and several other upstream
userspace projects (particularly a laptop, where I kind of like it
when suspend and resume actually works 100% of the time).

Of course, this thread was about the iPad, not Mac OS X, and the iPad
is a very different beast. But I don't have time to care about hacking
on a tablet device. If I'm going to get one, I just wanna use the
damned thing and have it work reliably. "But if its open, you can fix
problems yourself!" See prior statement: I spend enough time during
the day fixing broken crap, I shouldn't have to need to fix what I
view as a computing appliance when I come home at night.

Anyone else seen the reviews done on the JooJoo tablet? The thing is a
joke. I'm rather doubtful anyone else is going to suddenly churn out
something that isn't a steaming pile any time soon too. I forget which
of the big manufacturers it was (Asus, iirc), but one said more or
less "we plan to release several tablets in the coming months,
probably based on either Android or Chrome OS, and probably a Windows
7 version". That's inspiring. I'm sure it'll be fantastic if you don't
even know what software is going to be running on it. The software
running on it *is the most important part*. The aforementioned JooJoo
reviews mention that the hardware is actually quite good. Its the
horrid software that makes the thing a dud. I remain underwhelmed by
anything I've seen running on an Android phone. Chrome OS isn't
released yet. Windows 7 is, well, a Microsoft product, so if you have
problems with Apple, hard to see how Windows would be a better
alternative for a tablet, performance and usability issues aside.

/me done stoking for now...

-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod-ajLrJawYSntWk0Htik3J/w at public.gmane.org