Comments on: Another mac bites the dust http://liftlab.com/think/laurent/2008/03/21/another-mac-bites-the-dust/ Thoughts on technology and society Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:55:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=wordpress-mu-1.2.1 By: mfavez http://liftlab.com/think/laurent/2008/03/21/another-mac-bites-the-dust/#comment-5355 mfavez Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:56:49 +0000 http://liftlab.com/think/laurent/2008/03/21/another-mac-bites-the-dust/#comment-5355 Welcome to the wonderful locked world of Apple... How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong: http://tinyurl.com/yoekso My strategy: using SaaS as often as possible...maybe not yet so flexible as desktop apps, but it will probably minimize the potential loss of your data... Welcome to the wonderful locked world of Apple…

How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong: http://tinyurl.com/yoekso

My strategy: using SaaS as often as possible…maybe not yet so flexible as desktop apps, but it will probably minimize the potential loss of your data…

]]> By: laurent http://liftlab.com/think/laurent/2008/03/21/another-mac-bites-the-dust/#comment-4911 laurent Sat, 22 Mar 2008 11:25:20 +0000 http://liftlab.com/think/laurent/2008/03/21/another-mac-bites-the-dust/#comment-4911 I think I need to try Linux for good. But where can I get a pre-installed machine? Lee: I'm not very comfortable with having all my data in a small, portable and therefore easy to lose device. That's why I only keep my hard drive at home, maybe until portable drives can be encoded, and you should be thankful I don't wander around town with those pictures of you I took at the LIFT fondue ;) Paul: I can access my folders yes, but it's like on an iPod, files are organized in a way that prevents me from restoring them easily. I don't have a my documents folder, it is spread all over the hard drive and there is no easy way to bring my files back. I should restore on a mac, then copy to another system. I think I need to try Linux for good. But where can I get a pre-installed machine?

Lee: I’m not very comfortable with having all my data in a small, portable and therefore easy to lose device. That’s why I only keep my hard drive at home, maybe until portable drives can be encoded, and you should be thankful I don’t wander around town with those pictures of you I took at the LIFT fondue ;)

Paul: I can access my folders yes, but it’s like on an iPod, files are organized in a way that prevents me from restoring them easily. I don’t have a my documents folder, it is spread all over the hard drive and there is no easy way to bring my files back. I should restore on a mac, then copy to another system.

]]> By: Paul Mison http://liftlab.com/think/laurent/2008/03/21/another-mac-bites-the-dust/#comment-4891 Paul Mison Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:31:21 +0000 http://liftlab.com/think/laurent/2008/03/21/another-mac-bites-the-dust/#comment-4891 Time Machine backups aren't any more closed than backups of any platform. As <a href="http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/14" rel="nofollow">John Siracusa</a> describes (look at the section "Time Machine Internals), your backups are just standard folders, and given a utility that can mount an HFS+ disk (the hfsplus kernel module on Linux, or products like <a href="http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/" rel="nofollow">MacDrive</a> on Windows), all your data should be easily accessible. (The one possible drawback is that Time Machine uses special hard links for directories, but I'm assuming that the HFS+ implementations for Windows and Linux can deal with it.) Obviously, if you have data that's app-specific, you'll need that app to read it, but that's as much a problem with Windows applications as it is with ones on Mac OS X. (It's far, far less of a problem with <a href="http://diveintomark.org/archives/2006/06/02/when-the-bough-breaks" rel="nofollow">Linux</a>, admittedly.) Also, you say in passing that "iTunes files can be played only on iPods". That's true of iTunes Music Store purchases, but not of songs ripped by iTunes (which uses either MP3 or AAC, both of which are used by other applications and players). Yoan: While Flyback sounds interesting, it's arguably less open than Time Machine- SQLite is very free, but you still need it to read the backup; Apple's solution just needs filesystem access. Time Machine backups aren’t any more closed than backups of any platform. As John Siracusa describes (look at the section “Time Machine Internals), your backups are just standard folders, and given a utility that can mount an HFS+ disk (the hfsplus kernel module on Linux, or products like MacDrive on Windows), all your data should be easily accessible. (The one possible drawback is that Time Machine uses special hard links for directories, but I’m assuming that the HFS+ implementations for Windows and Linux can deal with it.)

Obviously, if you have data that’s app-specific, you’ll need that app to read it, but that’s as much a problem with Windows applications as it is with ones on Mac OS X. (It’s far, far less of a problem with Linux, admittedly.)

Also, you say in passing that “iTunes files can be played only on iPods”. That’s true of iTunes Music Store purchases, but not of songs ripped by iTunes (which uses either MP3 or AAC, both of which are used by other applications and players).

Yoan: While Flyback sounds interesting, it’s arguably less open than Time Machine- SQLite is very free, but you still need it to read the backup; Apple’s solution just needs filesystem access.

]]> By: Colin http://liftlab.com/think/laurent/2008/03/21/another-mac-bites-the-dust/#comment-4887 Colin Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:17:27 +0000 http://liftlab.com/think/laurent/2008/03/21/another-mac-bites-the-dust/#comment-4887 I made the shift from XP to Ubuntu Linux one year ago on my X60s Thinkpad and never looked back. I had the 50% of same lock in issues you had. Music I accepted that I needed windows on a virtual machine which is easy. Re backups, I use Amazon S3/Jungledisk. You can access that from any OS. I made the shift from XP to Ubuntu Linux one year ago on my X60s Thinkpad and never looked back. I had the 50% of same lock in issues you had. Music I accepted that I needed windows on a virtual machine which is easy. Re backups, I use Amazon S3/Jungledisk. You can access that from any OS.

]]> By: Yoan http://liftlab.com/think/laurent/2008/03/21/another-mac-bites-the-dust/#comment-4882 Yoan Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:09:51 +0000 http://liftlab.com/think/laurent/2008/03/21/another-mac-bites-the-dust/#comment-4882 Il est temps de passer au pinguin ;-) Flyback is the linux clone of time machine: http://flyback-project.org/ and the benefit is that it doesn't rely on a proprietary format (it uses sqlite and rsync basically). Il est temps de passer au pinguin ;-)

Flyback is the linux clone of time machine: http://flyback-project.org/ and the benefit is that it doesn’t rely on a proprietary format (it uses sqlite and rsync basically).

]]> By: Lee http://liftlab.com/think/laurent/2008/03/21/another-mac-bites-the-dust/#comment-4872 Lee Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:59:00 +0000 http://liftlab.com/think/laurent/2008/03/21/another-mac-bites-the-dust/#comment-4872 Dude - you need one of those little passport external drives to hold your time machine backups even when you're on the move. Anyway, I am writing this fom a Macbook Ai with a very dodgy 'r' key as you might be able to tell ;-) But who caes about one little letter when it looks so nice! Dude - you need one of those little passport external drives to hold your time machine backups even when you’re on the move.

Anyway, I am writing this fom a Macbook Ai with a very dodgy ‘r’ key as you might be able to tell ;-) But who caes about one little letter when it looks so nice!

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