the squad system is hidden
I'm not sure what you are talking about, the squad system is right there, it's not hard to get into one or switch to another one.

there is no squad leader, no squad way points, no intrasquad commands
There is a squad leader it has a star next to their name. They can order what to defend and or what to attack, so yes there are intrasquad commands. way points are gone unfortunately, but I don't think anyone was using them.

no squad based VOIP
There is squad based VOIP.

and no commander
The commander abilities are now spread over the several classes. This is better as sometimes the commander wouldn't do anything.

I played on teamplay BF3 servers, made no difference.
I'm not entirely sure what you mean with teamplay servers.. if you are talking about "team deadmatch" then you probably want to stay away from it. Team deadmatch has only one objective, kill the other team. This is usually easier accomplished by doing the run and gun type of play.

Sure BF2 wasn't always a team play game, but it happened if you fell into the right group of folks.
Same with BF3, if you want team play you need the right group of players. This has been a problem with the BF franchise since the BF1942 days and I doubt it's going away ever...

For reference, I really liked Battlefield 2: Bad Company, and even Battlefield 1942 (playing both on a PS3).

The one on PS3 was BF1943 not 1942. I've played all of them. I had bf 1942, bf2, and bf 2142 on the pc. Then I stopped caring about PC games much and played mostly on consoles. Dying at the drop of a hat even when you are in a squad is a symptom of a crappy squad and some bad luck. There are a few things that could help:
1. Learn where the sniper nests are. There are usually a few places that the snipers will usually look for, once you find them stay away from their line of sight. It's not that hard once you know where the bullets are coming from and where to take cover from them.
2. Being in a squad doesn't mean anything unless the rest of the players are also playing with a team mentality. If they are just playing Rambo style, then even if you help them you are going to get killed too. Also, before respawning one of your teammates make sure they are not being attacked and that they are behind cover else you could spawn and die.
3. If you are playing assault with a medic role, then stay behind your squad. that way if htey die, you probably wont. IF they die, check if hte killer(s) is near their bodies. If he is then either surprise attack him and then revive your squadmates or stay behind and not get killed so that your teammates can respawn on you. 4. Try to attack from the sides (unless you are defending). And if you are playing support behind friendly lines, then check to the sides and back regularly or you are going to get killed from behind.

All in all, I do agree with you in that it can be too much happening. It can be overwhelming for those that don't understand what is happening. But once you understand what is going on, it's actually a lot of fun.

Woah! I knew MS was expensive, but didn't know it was THAT expensive... /should have used "M$" // wait.. this is not fark /// slahies!

hat all said â" I'm pretty surprised that no one has bundled up clang/gcc for free yet.

Apple does :). You can use llvm/gcc (backend/frontend) if you want. The newer Xcode versions default to LLVM but you can choose llvm/gcc and even gcc..

On the other hand, OSX is atrociously tied to the mouse.
No it's not.. In fact, I'll say that it's quite the opposite. It helps to know the shortcuts, but I get to do lots without touching the mouse.. some of hte most important shortcuts are:
- cmd-space (opens spotlight) Spotlight can be used as an application luncher and/or find specific files
- cmd-q (quit current program)
- cmd-w (close current window)
- while typing, pretty much if not almost all the applications allow for a few of the emacs shortcuts. For example, ctr-a to move to the front of the line, ctr-e to move to the back...

2580 is a straight line down.
0852 is a straight line up
I dunno about 5683, I find that one little bit weird

I don't get it, "pad" sounds horrible. Hell, it was mocked to death when the original iPad was released. Why is everyone using it now?
The Asus unveiling video is so hillarious: Link

I like the green carpet and blue ceiling. It's the crazy big light bulb that I dislike.

Pot, meet kettle....

I still remember the nightmares I had after trying to get the stupid winmodem to work.. FFFFUUU!!

you can see the packages at this location. Homebrew is pretty neat, I dislike fink and Macports. Said that, the documentation needs some work and there aren't as many apps, but the most popular applications are there.
http://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/wiki/_pages

He should work for the Millennium magazine in Stockholm...

I dunno if you are going to read this, but:

But until you learn all the keyboard commands it can take a lot of mouse moving.

I agree, again, that goes both ways someone moving form mac to windows/linux will have the same problem... A very handy shortcut if you are using 10.5+ is command-space, to open spotlight and then run an application or document without using the mouse. Most apps have similar shortcuts of course and all use command. for example command-, opens the application preferences.

That and I find I really miss MDI All those windows everywhere are just pain

I guess I got used to it. It makes the screen very cluttered that's for sure. Since I got used to the whole command-tab and command -` I haven't had that many problems. It's all about getting used to it to be honest. One thing I like about the command key as the primary meta key, is that termnial shortcuts do not conflict with the system ones :D Also, if you have used emacs, you should try some of the shortcuts like ctrl-A and ctrl-E work in pretty much every place where you can type at.

Getting my cell phone and another device to work over bluetooth? Have not got it working yet.

what devices are you having trouble with? Some of them require either plugins (for sync) or drivers. It not up to Apple or even MS to make sure every device works with their OS. I had a sony ericsson cell that I had to find a 3rd party plug in for isync to make it work.. I don't see how this is Apple's problem

Why must I grab the bottom right corner to resize a window? Under Windows I can do it from any part of the frame

I dont like this either.. so really, dunno why apple does it this way :'(

I have to click on the window and then move my mouse to the top of the screen to pick a menu item! Grrrrr...

of course, you have to focus on the window you are working. This is the same in linux/windows and any other OS. The difference is that you alt-tab to change between windows in other OS. In a mac, you can use the command-tab to change between apps, and if you are in the application you want to use, but in the wrong window, just command-~

I think the open apple key is the single worst thing about it. I HATE IT. And I am sure I can map the keyboard if I really want to but where? Oh and don't hand me the "ctrl and alt are only better because that is what you are used too" crap Yep but it is also what Linux and Windows both use! If Microsoft put a function like copy and paste on their "Windows keys" I would want to hurt them as well!

I'm sorry I'm going to have to use the "ctrl and alt is what you are used too" crap (I didn't say they are better tho, they are just different). When I go back to linux or windows, I try to use the "windows key" to copy, paste, switch between windows, etc. It's just what I'm used to. The main difference between the command key (used to be the apple key) and the windows key is that the apple key was introduced in 1980 for shortcuts like this. That's 15 years before the the windows key was introduced. I'm not saying it's better nor anything like that. I'm just saying that that key was introduced 20 years ago to be a modifier key. When the windows key was introduced, there was no clear reason it was really introduced for. It sucked back then. I'm not sure if it has any better uses now after vista and win 7.

Can't find a program that plays videos at 2x speed without making everyone sound like chipmunks

umm, if the video plays at 2x, but the sound does not then it will become out of sync. Action will happen in video before you can hear it.

Can't run Internet Exploder (not that I would want to... just saying)

Thank god for that. MS IE browser for macs was horrible.

Can't find any decent emulators for Atari or C=64 or Super Nintendo gaming

Most of the emulators I've seen are pretty much exactly the same as the non-mac ones. In fact, many of the better emulators for windows have either a direct port to mac or where developed with multiple OS support in mind. That you can't find them says more about you than of the system.

Doesn't have a convenient start menu to quickly-and-easily access all my programs.

Just put the application folder in the dock. It becomes like a start menu that lists all the applications. Even better, press command-space and start typing the name of the program and spotlight will find it for you...

- Doesn't have a task manager to adjust priorities or kill programs (at least not that I'm aware of)

Activity Monitor, the app that comes with every mac, can help you with killing programs but not with adjusting priorities iirc. You could use the terminal to adjust priorities I'll assume.

here's a pic of the 300+dpi screen compared to anon 300+dpi iphone:
linky
I know that it's not as amazing that apple wants to make it sound, but the pixel density is awesome and would help a lot on applications that have lots of text. Hell it's great for pictures too.