godawful - Slashdot User

Is Apple Killing Linux on the Desktop? 1224

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday January 04, 2008 @04:03PM from the multiple-alternatives dept.

Domains May Disappear writes "Chris Howard has an interesting commentary at Apple Matters on recent trends in OS market share that says that while OS X has seen continual growth, from 4.21% in Jan 2006 to 7.31% in December 2007 at the same time, Linux's percentage has risen from only 0.29% to 0.63%. The reasons? 'Apple has Microsoft Office, Linux doesn't; Apple has Adobe Creative Suite, Linux doesn't; Apple has easily accessed and easy to use service and support, Linux doesn't; Apple is driven by someone who has some understanding of end-user needs, Linux is not,' says Howard. 'Early in the decade it seemed that if you wanted a Windows alternative, Linux was it. Nowadays, an Apple Mac is undoubtedly the alternative and, with its resurgence and its Intel base, a very viable one.'"

Submission + - Apple's Market Share Up (cnn.com)

Submitted by Divebus on Wednesday January 02, 2008 @01:08PM

Divebus writes: Snips from the article: "Reflecting strong holiday sales of both MacBooks and iPhones, Apple's (AAPL) market share grew sharply in December, as measured by a Net Applications survey released today. The Mac OS share, by contrast, grew 7.4% in the past month, nearly double November's rate. The iPhone grew even more sharply, jumping 33% over November's numbers. The Linux operating system also showed strong growth (up better than 10% to hit a .63% share), as did "other," a category that includes the iPod touch, Web TV and the Nintendo Wii."

Folklore says the Linux install base is much larger than Apple's OS X but a measurement like this says otherwise. This method only appears to measure market share for computers certain hitting web sites. Market share is always the focus of these articles when growth/decline may be the more interesting data point.

Submission + - Mac OS X 10.5 Java Developer Preview 8 Released (apple.com)

Submitted by

HeaththeGreat

on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @03:35PM

HeaththeGreat writes: "An updated developer preview of Java SE 6 for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard has been posted to the Apple Developer Connection. The download is available in the Java section at http://connect.apple.com/ and requires a free ADC account to login.

For more information please see the accompanying release notes and description at http://developer.apple.com/java."

Submission + - Mac QuickBooks Pro Update Deletes Desktop Folder

Submitted by krawz on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @02:41PM

krawz writes: Someone on the patchmanagement.org mailing list brought this news to my attention. There is apparently a bug in a recent software update for QuickBooks Pro Mac (2006 and 2007 versions) which can result in the deletion of your Desktop folder. Ouch. More details here... http://technologyexpert.blogspot.com/2007/12/mac-quickbooks-update-deletes-desktop.html

Submission + - Apple Releases Java 6 for MacOS X (devnulled.com) 1

Submitted by

booms

on Friday December 14, 2007 @06:13AM

booms writes: "A Java developer up a bit too late experiences first hand that the long awaited release of Java 6 for MacOS X has finally been put into the wild via the Apple Updater."

Submission + - Mac OS Leopard Bug Cause Data Loss (xuecast.com)

Submitted by

XueCast

on Tuesday November 06, 2007 @09:36PM

XueCast writes: "The bug can cause data loss when moving data or files on Mac OS Leopard if there is any disruption with the transfer connection ( Data loss not just on the target, which would be normal, but also on the source as well. Continue reading for more information ). And there are reports that this particular bug has been in existence since Mac OS 10.3 Panther. The person who identified this bug in Mac OS Leopard is Tom Karpik, a Computer Science Student at The British Columbia Institute of Technology. So if you try to move a bunch of data or files on a Mac OS Leopard system for example from Drive C to Drive D and if the transfer connection got disrupted anywhere before it is finished, Leopard will delete that data and files from Drive C even though it knows that the transfered data and files in Drive D are incomplete thus corrupted, now you get what I mean right?."

Submission + - Darwin 9.0 Code Released (macnn.com)

Submitted by mr100percent on Tuesday November 06, 2007 @03:00PM

mr100percent writes: MacNN reports that Apple has released the source code to Darwin 9.0, the backbone of OS X 10.5 Leopard. x86 and PPC versions are available. According to Apple's developer mailing list, some key drivers are missing however.

Submission + - Issues with Leopard's firewall possibly made up (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Anonymous on Wednesday October 31, 2007 @05:15AM

Anonymous writes: UPDATE: More and more screenshots appear online indicating that the claims by Heise may be false. This blog even points to a partnership between Heise and Microsoft regarding their security section.

Submission + - iPhone Now Hacks Itself (iphonefaq.org) 2

Submitted by

hackshack

on Wednesday October 31, 2007 @04:09AM

hackshack writes: "Unlocking an iPhone to add third party apps and themes used to be a tedious, risky process. A team of hackers have released a utility called AppSnapp, which makes it simple enough for Grandma to use. Simply visit the AppSnapp homepage on your iPhone- the software automatically "jailbreaks" the phone and installs the Installer.app package manager, in about a minute. It even patches the iPhone TIFF vulnerability while it's at it."

Submission + - iPhone jailbreak 'for the rest of us' arrives (itwire.com)

Submitted by

WirePosted

on Tuesday October 30, 2007 @06:45AM

WirePosted writes: "An automated jailbreak for the iPhone and iPod touch has been developed, bringing the process within reach of anyone capable of operating the devices."

Submission + - Apple Doing Well on Macintosh Sales (cnn.com)

Submitted by PhotoGuy on Monday October 22, 2007 @07:45PM

PhotoGuy writes: CNN Money/Fortune is reporting on a great quarter by Apple. For those of you who keep saying Apple is primarily an iPod company, and other products are secondary, should note that Macintosh sales accounted for 64% of the company's revenue (up 34%). Aside from straightening out those who dismiss Apple as not being focused on the Mac line, this provides some comfort to me; knowing how integral the Mac and OSX is to Apple's ongoing success certainly helps ensure its ongoing future and support.

Vista Runs Out of Memory While Copying Files 661

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday October 16, 2007 @02:02PM from the how-hard-can-it-be dept.

ta bu shi da yu writes "It appears that, incredibly, Vista can run out of memory while copying files. ZDNet is reporting that not only does it run out of memory after copying 16,400+ files, but that 'often there is little indication that file copy operations haven't completed correctly.' Apparently a fix was scheduled for SP1 but didn't make it; there is a hotfix that you must request."

Submission + - 64-bit: More than just the RAM

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 16, 2007 @12:51PM

An anonymous reader writes: In recent times, a lot of people have slagged off 64-bit operating systems, saying the only true benefit is addressing a true 4GB of RAM. Bit-tech decided to cut through the BS to look at the real pros and cons of a 64-bit OS environment. From the article: "Time and time again, self-proclaimed gurus determine that the only real difference between 32-bit computing and 64-bit computing is the memory limit. Are they right that RAM is a reason? Definitely — but that's missing about 99 percent of the true differences."

Submission + - SCO Layoffs Begin 2

Submitted by StevisF on Tuesday October 16, 2007 @12:43PM

StevisF writes: ... SCO Group Inc. says it is planning to lay off 16 of its 123 employees and has asked a federal bankruptcy court to keep their identities secret because it fears they could be harassed.

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