Re: OS X packaging is an embarrassment

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From: Luke Kanies
Subject: Re: OS X packaging is an embarrassment
Date: 19:38 on 21 May 2006
On Sun, 21 May 2006, Peter da Silva wrote:

> In OSX you know the ownership and purpose of any file because that
> information is built into the file system. You don't have to look it
> up, it's right there in the name and owner and type.

Sure, just like an *nix or whatever; but you don't know why it's that way,
and you don't know if that's correct.

Anyone know how Apple's "check disk permissions" tool works?  Can I
introspect that?  $10 says it's just a huge list of permissions, and that it
only ever works for OS stuff -- I can't add to the list, for instance.

How can I ask my Mac if a given package is installed correctly?  Oh, right,
I can't.

> If you insist on treating it as a kind of inconvenient subset of Linux
> you're going to lose out.

It's got nothing to do with Linux; it's got to do with the OS being able to
answer straightforward questions like, "Are you configured correctly?".

> > Those who do care can run Debian on their powerbooks.
>
> Why, for god's sake? Apple's laptops are horrid, and even if you bought
> one and you're stuck with it, you can probably trade it even up for
> something like a thinkpad that's actually designed for use rather than
> looks.

Yeah.  Buying a Mac to run Debian is about like buying a Porsche and putting
an American engine into it or something ridiculous.

-- 
The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe
is that it has never tried to contact us.
                --Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)
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Luke Kanies | http://reductivelabs.com | http://madstop.com

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