[AUUG-Talk]: Re: [BUGA] Sell me an Apple!

[David Vincent]

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On 27/03/2006, at 23:38, David Newall wrote:

> Gary R. Schmidt said:
>> Oh, it's _way_ beyond crap.  I just started working with it, my first
>> "Oh No!" is this - there is a Kernel Memory Allocation Zone where 
>> kernel
>> allocations greater than 8Kb go.
>>
>> Its size is calculated based on physical RAM, and it is *fixed*.
>
> This sounds like some sort of buffer cache, and an assignation based on

I am not a kernel programmer, but a Linux kernel contributor I spoke to 
thought this was more of a quirk than a fundamental defect.

Gary talks elsewhere about other issues apparently with the hardware 
and OS of his mac - crashing and so on, as well as poor service from 
"Apple".  I've owned about a dozen Macs since 1985 and at this stage I 
plan for more.  Sometimes they've crashed.  Sometimes I've met utterly 
moronic salespeople.  I've also had my boxes do wonderful things, and 
found retailers and support folk that have really helped.  I suppose 
Gary would say I'm living in some kind of fool's paradise.  Maybe 
people like me have been been duped to accept poor performance from my 
expensive hardware and OS.  It's not real Unix (he says), it's not real 
BSD.  But my limited use of software intended for Unix seems to work.  
(I couldn't live without emacs, for instance.)  The MacOS apps work, 
the hardware ages well, and it doesn't seem to cost too much.  In my 
office I have a Linux box at my desk.  We heavily use Linux and other 
Unixes (or purported Unixes) for engineering, and Windows for dumb 
stuff.  Nothing leaps out and grabs me as something I might want to 
junk my Macs for.

[Other good things snipped]

> for a frame buffer; and so on.  I'm guessing that the lessons they were
> supposed to have learned in 1986 all relate to that.  That doesn't 
> seem to
> have much in common with "Kernel Memory Allocation Zones."

No, the real lesson that Apple programmers (and others) should have 
learned by now is:

   No matter what you do, some clod is going to flame you for it.


Regards,

Dave.

(Daily user of Intel Linux at office, happy (maybe not trying hard 
enough?) owner of a B&W G3 and a PB G4.)

- -- 

David A Vincent                       dvincent at toshiba-tap.com
Software Engineer                    telephone +61 2 9850-2593
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT      TOSHIBA (AUSTRALIA) PTY. LIMITED
"We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities"  W.Kelly

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