MacDrama
It was around 11am a coupla weeks ago, and I was happily coding away on my 3 yr old Dell XPS 1710 running Ubuntu 8.10 (and it was running fine too), when it suddenly gave in to some cosmic dust. Or whatever else that made it go bust. I was not too pleased ofcourse, and had to get myself another laptop asap to get back in business (and keep the company that hired me happy). So I went online to get a good deal, but couldn’t resist that voice in my head that said: “its time to get that Mac now boy”. And so I did, I fell for the powers of the dark side and got myself a brandnew MacBook pro. Hoping to find comfort. Which I did find, but lost pretty soon afterwards.
See, I was happily installing and configuring, using my new friend quicksilver, when after 2 days it wouldn’t start up anymore. The infamous question mark folder appeared after the infamous white screen of death, leaving my macbook locked for ordinary humans like me. Google couldn’t help me. Nothing on the net could help me out. On day one I installed all the updates it could find, so I figured all would be well. But no. I even reinstalled OSX that night, only to be left with the same white screen and questionmark folder upon first reboot. I was, however, able to deduct that the hard drive was fine (because disk utility said so after each test).
So the next morning I gave the machine back to the store, which gave me an entirely new macbook in return the next day, telling me they found the harddrive to be faulty (!). Too bad that I never got the chance to backup all my work, so I decided to do that every so often from now on. And that was no luxury decision. Because after another 9 days the same problem happened to me again! And again I could tell that the hard drive was fine. So I went back to the store and told them about my findings. I even mentioned my suspicions about a flaw in the EFI boot loader, because both disks proved fine. I asked them to backup the goods on the harddrive (which they said they would). But when the store gave me back my machine (after 3 days!), they said that they changed the harddrive because it was faulty (?). And when I asked them where my files were, they said that somehow that information was not given in time to the tech ppl. NOOOOOOOO! So much time lost! (back to scraping the interweb). They did however tell me with a friendly smile that they had already preinstalled OSX for me. How nice!
In the mean time I had found more posts regarding my macbook’s symptoms. Many people believe it has to do with a flaw in the EFI bootloader, but which is denied by Apple themselves. So by now I was worried that this new harddrive wouldn’t be the solution to my problem and wanted my money back. Hell, I can’t work on-site as a freelance programmer with a failing laptop! They would not do that however, hiding behind saying that the period in which I was able to do so expired. But when I asked them how long a period that is, since I only had it under 2 weeks, they said “we cannot disclose that information”. How frikkin weird and customer unfriendly that came across, you can imagine.
So off I went to work again, reinstalling my time machine backup, working through lots of hickups because of broken symlinks and files that disappeared somehow. (Strange.) But then I realised that my screen was too dim, and had only about 60 to 70% of the brightness as my first macbook pro. So I went digging on the net, and eventually found out that the store’s technicians had preinstalled one of the most ancient versions of OSX from late 2007 (9G55). And it was known to have a brightness issue. But worst of all, it had kernel version 9.6.0, which wouldn’t be upgraded to the current 9G2141 version with 9.6.2 kernel (that is on my install DVD). For heavens sake! Haven’t you Apple store airheads caused me enough grief?! That night I had to redo the entire days work. All in all I have lost over 3 billable days to this sharade. Pfffff…
Did I tell you that I have a friend who had his Mac repaired 5 times within half a year? Stoopid me knew this, but I decided to buy one anyway. Hoping that wouldn’t happen to me, reasoning about Apple selling controlled hardware with specialized software.
So whats my advice? Don’t buy one? I am not saying that, don’t get me wrong. Maybe I am the victim of a poor hardware/software combo, and if so, many with me (do you? is that how you found this post?). And I certainly feel that I was not helped by the Apple store and its crew, even though they were a smiling and friendly bunch. But I like a LOT of my Macbooks offerings, and am certainly willing to spend all that time to get used to its crippled keyboard layout (no delete key, no right CTRL key, bad keyboard mappings in Terminal), or find ways about cut and paste not working in Finder (only drag and drop will work, how painful!), or … pffff, what a list that has become. But like I said, I am willing to go ahead with it. After having had the pleasure of Ubuntu’s super functionality, I am crazed about the crispness of OSX. And to be able to use Quicksilver in all it’s might, as opposed to the flimsy wanne-be Gnome-Do (which not only lacks Quicksilvers usability and true powers, but also lacks a good team leader with vision in my opinion, you can find a post on this blog about that here) .
Anyway, it’s been a week now, and I haven’t had any problems since then. Time machine is backing up right now, using a custom sized sparsebundle on my external harddrive (thanks to a little app called TimeTamer).
Lets hope I don’t run into more MacDrama (which is how I dubbed my macbook :p). No coincidence. Did you know my first nickname is MoDrama?
Next time you check in here I hope to have filled up my fav OSX apps section. It will be worth checking out!
16 Comments, Comment or Ping
Avdi
Your experience with MacBooks echoes mine; in fact, at the organisation I worked with previously I was able to get some numbers on MacBook failures and it was frankly shocking. I’m going to write a blog post about it one of those days.
Regarding Gnome-Do, though: wait, what?! One of the high points of coming back to Ubuntu after a year and a half on the Mac has been Gnome-Do, which is like a fixed, streamlined, featureful version of Quicksilver. Compared to Quicksliver, Gnome-Do is much faster (my QS would bog down and become unresponsive once I enabled all my plugins). It supports a modern and ever-growing set of plugins like Ping.fm and VirtualBox, where last I checked QS was firmly stuck in 2007. It doesn’t have QuickSilver’s disastrously overcomplicated configuration window. And finally it crashes less often than QuickSliver.
I can come up with plenty of ways Ubuntu falls short in comparison to Mac OS X (transparently handling multiple monitors, just to name one). But Gnome-Do is the QuickSilver re-write I always wanted.
May 5th, 2009
Morriz
Ha, nice to get some feedback on my nightmare :p A friend just updated me also with some stories from colleagues having problems with theirs.
Anyway, sry about my Gnome-Do statements, but its the little things that bug me the most about it (her I go again):
- the missing cut and paste functionality in its text input
- the lack of keeping state of my previous action
- the lack of shortcuts to instantly trigger an action
Maybe there are loads of plugins for it, but I haven’t been able to use the ones I was interested in because they were too buggy or simply not working. I can mention the Google Docs plugin and the Remember the Milk plugin (the most important webapps I use) in that regard.
Regarding speed: I have the latest macbook pro and don’t have a problem with Quicksilver at all.
About those bugs: I have learnt where its buggy and don’t get crashes that often.
In my opninion Quicksilver is just much more usable. It also just sits much closer to OSX’s core functionality (advanced options) and gives me way more power usage abilities. Plus, like I said, its in the small things like how many clicks or process switching it takes to do an action. Usability comes measurable to me, but Do’s lead developer Dave has his own agenda in that regard, and I’ve communicated about those things many times. I have found him to be a stubborn man, trying to impose his own ‘new’ visions on usability. Quicksilver may be old, and you may find its logical preferences window complex. But that is what it is, a complex tool to help you do quick actions. So getting to learn the configuration is a joy in my opinion. And I don’t think Do’s simplicity in configuration translates to a more intuitive user interface, or better and quicker tool. On the contrary.
Maybe we are just different users. Aren’t we all?
May 5th, 2009
conundrum
I’ve owned three Macs to date (two of which I still own) and none of them has had any problems that severe. The worst thing to happen to my Aluminum Macbook was one startup took more than 60 seconds. I would suggest you install AppleJack; while it might not have helped your past problems, it could be a life saver in the future. You can forward delete with Fn+ Delete, as well as use Fn + Arrow keys for page up/down, home and end. ^A and ^E behave like bash.
I actually really like the keybindings in Terminal.app. Cmd+A/C/V/T for selection tasks and new tabs, and ^ is unharmed. Win win.
In regards to GNOME Do, it sounds like you were running some old development versions. I always found it a joy to use. Its more “grammar” agnostic than QS, which forced me to change some habits, but I don’t feel either is vastly superior to the other.
May 5th, 2009
Morriz
Thanks for the info! AppleJack looks promising. Too bad I couldn’t even get into SUM mode, let alone any mode. It would only start from DVD, after which all diagnostics said my system was healthy….pfff.
And maybe you’re right and I am overstating the differences between QS and Do, but when I was on Ubuntu, I would use launchy in 90% of the cases (usually searching the web), and not Do. All because of the missing functionality I talked about. Since I don’t have launchy anymore, I found myself using yubnub more and more. I highly recommend it for quick access to your fav web apps.
May 5th, 2009
Jason
The copy + paste feature of GNOME Do most definately works in the latest release. Sounds like you didn’t review an up to date version, not very fair since I am betting you reviewed the latest release of quicksilver for comparison.
May 5th, 2009
Morriz
Jah, thats true. I just upgraded my old laptop to Jaunty and gotten Do 8.1.2 I think. Didn’t check it out, because wifi died with the dist upgrade and I suddenly got sick :p
But can Do already keep state and preselect my previous input? (hope so) And does it provide a keybinding mechanism already? And can it interact with the OS like QS’s ‘current selection’ and ‘current application’? I guess its just too much to keep up with, since QS has had such a head start.
May 5th, 2009
Jason
There are quite a few things Do can do that quicksilver cannot (just look at our now massive plugin list). Do started as a quicksilver clone but is very much so not trying to mimic it to be unrecognizably identical.
Does GNOME Do remember your last selections? Internally it would be trivial to implement (really really trivial), however doing so presents a stateful interface to the user that would be inconsistent with the rest of the way the GNOME desktop tends to work. While I understand why you like the feature, its more important to be consistent in the context of the desktop you or developing for.
Current Selection is known as Selected Text, and Current Application controls are available through the Window Manager plugin (I think thats what you are after). QS may have had a head start, but we aren’t even running in the same direction, so we’ll get where we are going first anyhow.
May 5th, 2009
Morriz
The features you offer are probably really helping a lot of people out there. But you are starting to sound just like Dave, giving me bla why a useful, wanted and proven feature should not come into Do. Its this closing of doors that I have run into too often now while talking to the Do dev team. I guess there’s a lot of programmers outthere that seek reinforcement in their logic, and not in the obvious. Open up, and then truly think about these issues in all aspects. Is such a simple and useful feature as keeping state not built because that crappy Gnome desktop is also failing to deliver usability? Are you being held back because you are conservative and want to preserver the rotten old way of doing things? I suggest you too read up on usability. Until you can come back with a constructive vision on these matters, instead of closing doors with your logic about ‘consistency’ (of crap), I suggest we leave it at this, because I feel I am wasting time. I don’t want to be rude or anything, but I too am a logical thinker (sure, in my own way as well). And I get the sense this conversation is not going anywhere. Just keep happily working on what you are building. It certainly has potential and looks great. Hope you guys get a true interaction designer on the team tho. Pfff…its hard to say what I’m thinking without sounding condescending (if I read back what I just typed), but I don’t want to re-edit myself all the time until I am political enough. Plus I dont want to waste time. Off to a day with my friend and two recumbents now :)
May 5th, 2009
conundrum
You’re claiming features you want to see implemented are the best and most logical, and that Do’s developers are “closing doors” and being illogical for not agreeing with you. All the while, they’re implementing features they see as the best and most logical choices for everyone, not just themselves or you.
Just because it doesn’t perfectly suite your needs on a personal level doesn’t mean something is bad. There’s a saying you’ll hear a lot with that kind of attitude in F/OSS: “patches welcome.”
May 5th, 2009
Gleeb
As a user of Do, but not of QuickSilver, I can’t comment on it’s functionality, but I would imagine that if Do were to come up with the options I used last time, every time I summoned it, I would quickly become annoyed…
I can see how it would be useful if it occurred after a fail condition, though.
However, how you go about expressing your opinion could, quite possibly, have a negative impact on what you’re trying to advocate. Insulting people simply will not help your cause. Thumper had it wrong; If you can’t say something nice, say it as neutrally as possible.
May 5th, 2009
Morriz
@conundrum: Ok ok, I know I am not too tactical about this, and you can call it ‘not agreeing with you’, but I am still not given any convincing arguments about leaving out these features.
And I already told Dave and Jason if I am not mistaken that I am not interested in learning Mono, so don’t expect any patches from me. Feedback I gave plenty, but I guess you’ve had enough of that now ;]
@gleeb: annoyed, how so? Look at QS and Launchy keeping state. You can just immediately type over it. Nothing annoying, just always there so you can depend on it. Almost as essential as parcellite, my clipboard history tool. You’re a poweruser or your not. I just need quick access to my actions and dont like retyping or redoing stuff that can be kept statefully. There are just no arguments that go against such reasoning in my opinion. And there are way too many ppl out there asking for the same. Its not just me.
And I know I can come across a little autistic, but I hope I wasn’t insulting. I wanted to address these issues, not insult anybody. Neutral is a hard bargain for me tho. I guess I gotta start editing my posts then before I up em :p
May 5th, 2009
Morriz
@Jason: oh yeah, just installed ubuntu jaunty on my friends laptop. Saw it running Do 8.1.3. But it did not offer cut and paste (still). Nothing has changed since the last time I used it (2 months ago, also v8.something)
May 5th, 2009
Jason
Ctrl+C and Ctrl+v work in jaunty for sure. They are confirmed working, I just double checked, something is wrong with your setup.
I would appreciate talking to you on IRC, my name is DBO you can find me in #gnome-do on irc.freenode.net
May 10th, 2009
Morriz
Hi Jason, I actually saw it work on another computer this week, but wasn’t able to edit it after pasting. Arrow keys nor secting text worked, which is pretty basic but necessary stuff if you ask me.
About IRCing: I am preparing for my cycling holiday (leaving tomorrow), so I won’t be doing much on my computer for the next 4 months :) Hopefully I’ll have had enough wind blow through the holes in my head (airhead? nah), so I won’t be so agitated again about missing those little nifty things in my computerized existenz :p
May 11th, 2009
Jason
Heh, its not so simple stuff when you dont have a giant corporation writing your shiny toolkit. Gtk was never designed to do what GNOME Do does, so we have to make a lot of it ourselves. Writing a simple widget to display pasted text is about a 3 on the difficulty scale, rewriting an entire text entry widget from scratch, with inline editing and i18n support, and shiny compositing… now thats a 10. Core animation, for better or worse (worse, much worse) does not exist on linux. There are attempts to fix this with clutter and pigment and some other crazy blingy stuff, but at the end of the day we fall back to cairo because nothing cuts it and do it all by hand. If you want to rag on something, pick GTK, or Qt, or anything else really that fits the bill. Mostly though, pick GTK.
May 12th, 2009
Morriz
Sry to hear this is so hard to accomplish. I must say that your app looks very nice tho (one of the best so far that I’ve seen on linux). Its just those workflow thingies that bother me somewhat.
May 30th, 2009
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