New Lightest Vaio Notebooks

[ultragaijin]

Sony unveils two new compact Vaio notebooks: PCG-U1 and PCG-C1MSX. (http://www.nikkeibp.asiabiztech.com/wcs/leaf?CID=onair/asabt/news/182253)

[cstaylor]

I've got the

[ultragaijin]

I've got the

...Titanium? Final Cut is great, but unfortunately all my favorite PC programs and utilities will run too slow on VPC (if at all). I worked for years in a Mac-centric post house, so I know my way around them, but they never won me over for a personal system.

[cstaylor]

OS X is pretty nice... you need a decent machine to run it (G3 machines with slow hard disks poke along at an unbearable rate), but the UI is really cool.

What kind of utilities are you running on your PC that don't work on VirtualPC? 8O

[ultragaijin]

I like OS X. I have an old (inherited) G3 iMac that I putz around with. The GUI puts anything Windows to shame, especially WinXP's default (which I hate - with all Microsoft's money, you'd think they could hire some decent graphic designers). I also like being able to pull up a console and play with Darwin. I even set up a mail server and PINE, for that old skool feel. I have the console with Green text on Black like the terminals from the old days.

If I could live on Final Cut and Adobe applications alone, Mac would be fine, but I run a bunch of freeware utilities especially for audio and video encoding (and other things). You'd be amazed at the number of highly specialized freeware and open source stuff there is out there for Windows (maybe it's because most people are running it). When you're encoding video for hours on end, you're living by FPS and running in an emulator doesn't cut it. Plus there are all those programs that make special hardware calls that might not work. I've even tested VPC running on a PC, emulating a PC and some things won't function (or function correctly) because the emulated hardware doesn't work properly (even though the actual hardware on the same machine does work).

I'm also running PHPDev and other utilities to test this forum locally. I was running Linux on one of my machines, but I went back to Windows, because there are just more things that I use on Windows. I hate to see good CPU cycles go to waste. I also have a system set up with an IR remote control, to output videos (in almost any format) to my TV, and I enjoy the occasional game too. Another thing is I always re-use my hardware when I upgrade. Running a Mac as my main system would be like being in a toy store, but only being able to play with things in one aisle.

Nothing beats the Titanium for instant coolness, but I need my trusty applications running at full speed. If they ported OSX to x86, so I could monkey around with my own hardware, I might give it another shot. Somehow, I have the feeling Bill Gates won't let them do that.

[cstaylor]

...when Steve Jobs is dead and buried. The only reason Microsoft is as big as they are today is through the Microsoft Tax: instead of expecting customers to buy their O/S (yeah, right!), they force the manufacturers to pay, and pass those costs onto the user. Do you really think anyone would actually buy OS X for Intel? :roll:

[ultragaijin]

Do you really think anyone would actually buy OS X for Intel?

You're obviously not a Windows user. It's a love hate relationship. A lot of Windows users have no love Microsoft or Windows and would love to have an viable alternative (open hardware with a broad range of applications). Not everyone is using Linux just because it's free.

There have been many articles and editorials requesting/begging for an OS X port to x86. Most of them end up saying Apple is a hardware company, not a software company (and that Gates is afraid and Jobs is too proud to do it). I think you'd be surprised how many people would be interested in trying OS X (just not on a Mac).

[cstaylor]

You're obviously not a Windows user. It's a love hate relationship. A lot of Windows users have no love Microsoft or Windows and would love to have an viable alternative (open hardware with a broad range of applications). Not everyone is using Linux just because it's free.


I'm a Windoze user... I've only been doing Mac stuff for the last couple of years (got a job contracting to a company that does low-level Mac programming, and they needed someone who knew Unix to handle the Mac OS X work)... OS X for Intel exists (well, the core operating system at least: Darwin), and since most of that code is written in a system-independent fashion compiling the rest of the platform (minus Classic support) would probably be very easy to do.

I hope Apple doesn't release an OS X for Intel, because it would just go the way of BeOS (a better Windows, but no vendor will preinstall it for fear of the Redmond giant) or Solaris x86.

[ultragaijin]

Here's a couple speculative rumor-mongering half-truths:

ATI and Nvidia now have teams actively investigating the port of OSX to an X86 CPU (http://www.theinquirer.net/07040202.htm)

The Power of X (http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20020214.html)

And before you reply, make sure your thoughts haven't already been covered on MeFi (http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/17133).

[cstaylor]

And before you reply, make sure your thoughts haven't already been covered on MeFi (http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/17133).
It's not going to happen, Captain. Cringley's entire point is to make Microsoft stronger... why would Apple commit suicide by giving Microsoft a new target to kill, an excuse to the government about the "competitive marketplace", and lose the tight hardware integration?

My answer is: "stop being a cheapass and go and buy a Mac... iMac's are cheap, and the LCD monitor is built-in".

One point that is *not* brought up is piracy. Microsoft goes through all sorts of contortions to make sure their O/S isn't pirated (but it still is). Apple has the best copy protection in the world: you gotta own a Mac to run their stuff. :wink:

[ultragaijin]

Ok, I think I should just let this thread die again. Oops, bumped it again.

[cstaylor]

Errrrrr!!! Yip Yip Yip! http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/images/YorkshireTerriertinker.jpg

[miniGaijin]

http://216.40.249.192/mysmilies/cwm/cwm/piss2.gifhttp://www.dogbreedinfo.com/images/YorkshireTerriertinker.jpg