Why Microsoft Should Fear Intel Macs" 537

Linux is not OS X, my friend. It DOES include the ability to better configure your desktop. But this 'configuration' does NOT include a user-programmable theming engine, as XP and Vista have. This engine allows one to make changes down to the very INTERFACE elements themselves (Windows, borders, icons, and controls), not just a few colors and desktop pictures, but no real changes. With Vista, windows will no longer NEED to be rectangular boxes, but can take ANY shape.

That few take advantage of it is mostly Microsoft's fault, just as the lack of a theming engine in OS X is Apple's fault. Microsoft has made the same mistake Apple made with its GUI. They just buttumed, like you, that the majority of people really DON'T want to dress up their desktops other than with pretty pictures. Hell, man, Windows has made it extremely difficult to even change the universally-hated green Start button. This is one of the FIRST things they should have worked on. Just as Apple should have made it easy for ANYONE to change the COLOR of the MenuBar. (God, I hate WHITE Menu Bars!!) Hopefully, Leopard will allow one to at least put the MenuBar anywhere on the Desktop his little heart desires.

However, people like Stardock and TGTsoft have taken advantage of this theming engine in XP (and soon to be Vista), and as a result, have made beau coup amounts of money doing so.

But you are...All you have to do is "pay your dime" for the Source Code, and "take your chances". In addition, Microsoft Windows DOES have an API for making additions to the OS. This is called an "open architecture". Unlike OS X, which can ONLY be changed internally by Apple programmers, and all changes must meet their design specs.

My friend, there is a BIG difference between "open architecture" (what I was referring to) and "open source" (what YOU are referring to). But Maccies wouldn't know the difference, since NONE of their OSes or machines have EVER been based on an "open architecture". The architecture of Apples has ALWAYS been "closed". PERIOD.

Hell, even little memory-resident programs which make it easier to use the Apple desktop (haxies) (Windows users call them "Terminate and stay resident programs", or "TSRs") are not even CONSIDERED "applications" by them, and the Mac Fanatics I know HATE them. They would rather have just the day of the week and the time in the MenuBar, rather than a full-featured MenuBar clock, which shows the actual DATE as well as the time. At least Microsoft's Notification Area (formerly known as the "System Tray") has always been able to show the FULL Date and Time, if one chooses, and there are MANY alternate Tray Clocks-Calendars for XP and other Microsoft OSes, either for free, or a small price. I know of exactly TWO for OS X: MenuBarClock, and iClock. And even THEY can only have the OS X colors: "blue, white, grey, and red". But you just CAN'T change the background color of the MenuBar. PERIOD. (by the way, of the two, I much prefer iClock, since the respective colors of the date and time can be changed independently, unlike MenuBarClock).

You may not understand this, but little things like this make it a little more fun to use a "dry, monolithic OS" like OS X all day. If we can't have fun while we work, what use is a GUI anyway? We might as well go back to the old Unix (and DOS) text-mode terminals, and be "all business, all the time", and stuck in our little boxes for the rest of our lives. This is what Mac Fanatics want for us, apparently. And they will fight tooth and nail to KEEP us stuck there, if they have their way.

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Donald L McDaniel Please Reply to the Original Thread. ========================================================