Apple

As I wrote quite a while back, there seems to be a convergence on open-source technologies that will enable all the old-school thick-client desktop applications and their nice interfaces, and much more for new applications. Now Apple has demonstrated a use and commitment to a JavaScript framework known as SproutCore which further pushes the state of the art in that direction.

So I just did several Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard installs, upgrading from Tiger (10.4) and even one machine from Panther (10.3). Although for the most part they went well (though very slowly),I have a few complaints. Some things are stupidly difficult, because Apple's obtuseness, combined with the plain complexity of the system (required, I suppose, to get the functionality), but mostly just because of the lack of documentation. So here are some:

The Parallels Desktop looks like it might be just what the doctor ordered for users who want to get away from the many annoyances of Microsoft Windows, or for the Mac zealots who just need to run the one or two Windows-only applications. It's also possibly the best thing since sliced bread for software developers who want to develop in the Mac OS environment, but need to test on other Intel platforms. Parallels doesn't just provide a way to run Windows. One can virtualize FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris and even OS/2.

I had thought about titling this post “Apple's Dirty Little Secret” but decided that was a bit strong, and it's really not a secret to anyone who thinks about it.