OT: Problem with Firefox

[Rob]

snip

I've had the dubious pleasure of lending a PC laptop to a friend in his late 50s, who accepted it with bluster - 'if these kids can ...'. In the last couple of weeks he's been close to tears as I've tried to help him with simple things - shutting down (click Start!), saving documents, opening programs. He needs these skills to get a job, and refuses training. I think he finds the idea of 'school' demeaning - doesn't stop him asking me though ;-). In the end I asked for the laptop back - it was too stressful for us both. He's not daft - he has science and arts degrees. There's just some sort of blockage.

While I was on hols for a month I said he could try my Mac. I showed him how to switch it on and off, and how to launch programmes from the Dock. That's all. He's taken to it immediately - I watched him on it the other day, and while he and I do things differently (I'm still PC polluted), he just zoomed through everything he needed.

Perhaps Dave might be better trying a Mac if training isn't an option?

Rob

[LSR]

Or just type "%appdata%" (without the quotes but with both percents) in the address box of any explorer window.

[Doctor Drivel]

Will the warders allow those in the home?

[dmc]

I had the opposite problem :-)

Years of using windows (although I'm a solaris person really) meant that when faced with my first Mac I was trying to make things harder than they are.

I couldn't work out how to uninstall an application for a while - never crossed my mind to just drop it in the bin. My 6 year old however with no preconceptions of how it works on windows immediately got the hang of MacOS!

Would never buy anything other than a Mac now though - for me it's the ideal combination of Unix backend and easy to use GUI frontend. I spend my time at work wrestling with Solaris - I have no desire to carry on at home :-)

Darren

[Doctor Drivel]

No. That is UNIX with GUI front end, of which there are many around. The Mac OS never had UNIX behind it. One of the fellas who founded Apple branched off brought out an OS that was just like that. Great but never caught on at the time.

[dmc]

Errr... yes. Isn't that what I said? For the hard of thinking, I'll repeat it: "for me it's the ideal combination of Unix backend and easy to use GUI frontend" (actually it's not really UNIX till 10.5...)

What "UNIX" flavour do you suggest then oh wise one? Something as usable as MacOS for the entire family and that requires no maintenance?

No actually, forget it. I can't be arsed

Darren

[John Rumm]

Are you being obtuse (i.e. arguing a narrow definition of "UNIX"), or do you not realise OSX is based on a NetBSD / Mach backend?

That would be Steve Jobs...

He started NeXT in about 1986 (IIRC) when the board / Scully booted him out of Apple

That would be NEXTSTEP

Apple (under a new CEO) bought NeXT about ten years later and acquired Jobs with it. He became CEO again after the board lost faith in the incumbent.

You can get probably guess what technology OSX is based on...

[Doctor Drivel]

UNIX is er, er UNIX.

Yep. Full UNIX with GUI front end.

Yep, UNIX. The original Mac OS had no UNIX in it at all. UNIX flavours emerged with GUI front ends.

[Doctor Drivel]

Look at the history of UNIX and the MAC OS.

[John Rumm]

And would that just be AT&T's implementation, or would you include Solaris, Domainx, AIX etc?

Not really, Mach was a replacement kernel for NetBSD - one of the first micro kernels. Is NetBSD a "full UNIX"?

Yea, and?

[John Rumm]

Sorry about that DD. I'm just a sad Essex wanker who has no life except fecking around on usenet all day, like you. =================================================================\ | Internode Ltd -

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[Dave Plowman (News)]

any other.

[Doctor Drivel]

They are all variation of, er, er, UNIX

A variation or , er, er UNIX.

Read what I wrote.

[Doctor Drivel]

Self awareness is a good thing.

[John Rumm]

You originally wrote "The Mac OS never had UNIX behind it.", which is why I questioned if you were aware of the fact that this is not true (because that is indeed what OSX is based on), or whether you knew this and were instead arguing that NetBSD / Mach was not true "UNIX", in order to support your assertion.

[John Rumm]

Of course DD you are right. Certainly the original Macs in the 90s were not based on Unix

I was so tired still fecking posting at nearly 3am I didn't know what the heck I'm talking about but I like to have the last word.

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[Doctor Drivel]

The first was 1984ish. A revelation to all. The pros thought it a toyish machine, but good for secretaries. It initially hit me there was some sort of two-way interface, not one way with me just entering commands. It took the graphics market immediately. The MAC windows based GUI was based on research done at I think Xerox's labs in Paulo Alto.

This is something clearly to do with you coming from Essex.