In a Slashdot interview in 2004, in response to the question:
... have you embraced the new UNIX based MacOS X as the OS you want to use when you "Just want to go to Disneyland"?
he replied:
I embraced OS X as soon as it was available and have never looked back. So a lot of In the Beginning...was the Command Line is now obsolete. I keep meaning to update it, but if I'm honest with myself, I have to say this is unlikely.
> I embraced OS X as soon as it was available and have never looked back.
I used the original Mac OS from 1984-2000. I've used Windows since before 1995 until earlier this year. I've used Linux since 1998. I've used Mac OS X every once in awhile when using other folks' computers.
I honestly don't know why someone who's comfortable on the command line (and doesn't need certain proprietary desktop-publishing programs) would use Mac OS X (or Windows). It doesn't give me a decent window manager. It doesn't let me keep my hands on my keyboard (right now, my mouse is almost two feet from my hand, and yet I'm completely happy and able to get around as I need). It doesn't use screen space very well. It's not free. Where having the menubar atop the screen was a good design decision in 1984 with a monitor a few inches tall, it's a horrible choice on a modern large screen: I spend so much time moving the mouse that I spend very little time actually using the computer, rather than moving-and-reading. It certainly doesn't feel like a well-designed, well-integrated whole: it feels like a colossal heap of mystery meat navigation, where nothing is obvious or intuitive, things bounce and slide for no apparent reason and I can't just get my work done.
I get that for certain desktop publishing tasks it's superior, and that if one wants proprietary software then it's a friendlier alternative to Windows (which is the obvious best choice if one wants proprietary software support). But other than that, why pay extra for a Mac? A modern Linux has terminals, web browsers and editors; sound and graphics are not the pain they were in the 90s; what else does one need than a command line, a web browser, a decent editor and some music?
