BlackBox

So at work I’ve been using Ubuntu on my desktop as my primary computer. I have primarily been a Windows user at work (because I have been forced to) and an OS X user at home because I prefer it. At first I kinda liked it, at least a little better than Windows. Then I began to hate it for the following reasons:

• It works just like Windows (and looks almost like Windows)
• Except when it doesn’t – then it sucks because it doesn’t work in a predictable manner

Here are some key problems I’ve had with Ubuntu:

• It can never quite remember my monitor settings properly – every time I remove a monitor or want to switch a display it loses everything or goes extremely flakey
• We play Unreal here afterhours and the audio just “disappears” – if I futz with the monitor settings then I lose Audio, hunh? Reboot required to get audio back
• No common UI – dialog boxes behave differently, things just feel “off” depending on which program I’m using
• Katapult is a poor replacement for LaunchBar or QuickSilver (which started crashing repeatedly on me on the last update so switched to LaunchBar)
• Installing an application takes command-line work – blech

The are a few good things, but not enough for me to love it:

• Wow, a real terminal – but I have this in OS X
• Updates are painless – again I already have this on OS X
• It’s stable – again I already have this on OS X
• That’s about it – otherwise, eh

This isn’t to say I don’t use Linux, I use it for my server, but I can’t see using it as a desktop replacement, not by a long shot. In order to win me over they have to really be thinking out of the box and not just duplicating what Windows or OS X has done – which they really haven’t yet (yes I know about things like Compiz Fusion – but that isn’t the whole user experience that’s just one small part – yes I said small).

So, I’m using a G4 machine right now to VNC into my work machine for specific apps I can’t install (or don’t want to) and will be upgrading the laptop to either a MacBook or MacBook Pro in the next few months. Then I’ll be really happy.

I hate to join in the chorus of “Me toos” but I was seriously disappointed in today’s keynote from Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference. Honestly it was one of the most non-event keynotes I’ve ever witnessed.

Let’s start from the top.

First, Steve goes over soem old ground with Leopard material with a few new bits in there on the new finder (Now with Coverflow!), stacks, quick look and some new iChat features. Ok, that was to be expected, every developer going to WWDC knew they were getting Leopard so no big surprises that Steve was going ot unveil some more of the OS.

Next came the announcement that Safari was going Windows. My first response was, hunh? My second was, “Well, I guess that is cool.” My third was “Crap, yet another browser to test all my Web stuff on.” Finally I thought, “This has to be part of some bigger plan that Apple has and isn’t ready to unveil yet.”

Then came “One More Thing”, iPhone third-party support through, uh, the Web. Alright, I admit that part of me likes this idea, being able to design a Web app that will interact with the phones features is cool, but this can’t be the solution, no way. Here’s why.

• Offline mode – hello, if I’m on a plane or somewhere with crappy reception there goes the app I was just using
• EDGE sucks – yeah, it’s better than GPRS but not by much. Apparently Cingular (nee AT&T) is beefing up their network to 2.5G but it’s still gonna suck. I’ve been on AT&T’s network – dropped calls, spotty reception, etc. So, every user is going to have to wait for your app to load through the browser before they can use it.
• Two – Three steps to get to an app – now this is pure fiction right now as we don’t know if there’s going to be a way to store an app shortcut anywhere on the iPhone. Launch Safari, type in the address, probably login to said service (most of these are going to have to be secure in some way, it is your data)
• Full power – you just don’t get the full power of the iPhone’s OS through the Web browser. Can anyone say games?

Overall I was very unimpressed with this year’s keynote. I was seriously hoping for a .Mac update (geez does it ever need it, talk about the red-headed step-child of Apple). Hardware updates I can wait for, but I was hoping for some real zingers this time out and it fell flat in my opinion. Now, I’m just going to sit back and wait for Leopard, hopefully fairly soon though I’m going to grab a new Mac Mini and start helping out on this project.