#3 Questions

[microchip8]

Originally Posted by consused

Save your tongue and tears for a more deserving case. I slipped in the 2 gig little beast so you couldn't resist it.

It's the only Apple product I have. Someone did a bit of cross-border shopping, so avoiding western european prices, and I couldn't justify a big-boys ipod. Apple's stuff is expensive, but it has a reputation for excellent build quality. The shuffle is small but perfectly formed. However the included 'phones are **** quality, and I had to make a small and fiddly repair to them recently. I discovered since, that replacement 'phones can be bought from Amazon for the equivalent of an inexpensive bottle of wine i.e. they are at least cheap and ****.

You mean excellent quality as in exploding iPods and leaking batteries? My Proline has the exact same quality, is pretty strong built (dropped it on many occasions and it still works with no problems) and offers much more features compared to the iPod Shuffle, for only ~2-4 € more. Apple is much more cashing in on its name than on the quality

It's a shame I couldn't tempt you to speculate. I will just have to carry on in the belief that providing software for Linux just doesn't fit in with Apple's business model.

Well that could very well be the reason. It could also be that Linux market is too small and Apple doesn't see the benefit of going through the pain in porting for such a small Linux desktop market. There may be other reasons as well but since I don't really care about Apple, it beats me if they get anal about what to support or not. The only reason why I argued in the past about Apple porting iTunes is because lots of Linux users would want it (me not including). Check the thread we had about most desirable applications for Linux that are still not available. Among the top list is, toghether with Photoshop, iTunes and a few others. And this thread is only on our forum. Consider if we had a global thread on all distro forums. I'm still pretty sure that both Photoshop & iTunes will be somewhere at the top of the list

[ken_yap]

But you know, sometimes people ask for something by name because it's all they have heard about, which is a victory of marketing. At least one of my friends thinks the iTunes UI is abominable. He bought an iPod Classic on impulse, but I think he was hoping to use Amarok, until he discovered that it wasn't supported. Fortunately the reverse-engineers came through a few weeks later.

[microchip8]

Originally Posted by ken_yap

But you know, sometimes people ask for something by name because it's all they have heard about, which is a victory of marketing. At least one of my friends thinks the iTunes UI is abominable. He bought an iPod Classic on impulse, but I think he was hoping to use Amarok, until he discovered that it wasn't supported. Fortunately the reverse-engineers came through a few weeks later.

That's so very true. This is similar to Windows. It's not so much that it's better than this or that but because virtually all if not all people know what Windows is. You don't even have to talk directly about computers. Just throw the name Windows randomly in your conversation which superficially touches the subjects of computers and most if not all will know what you mean by the word Windows. Now do the same with FreeBSD and lots will ask "what's FreeBSD?"

[consused]

Agreed with the "victory marketing" comments. When I bought the Shuffle over a year ago, it was on impulse during a conversation, the other person was about to make the trip to the Store, and Apple was recommended. I'm not sure there was anything else similar and visible here at the time - certainly had not heard of the Proline.

[microchip8]

Originally Posted by consused

Agreed with the "victory marketing" comments. When I bought the Shuffle over a year ago, it was on impulse during a conversation, the other person was about to make the trip to the Store, and Apple was recommended. I'm not sure there was anything else similar and visible here at the time - certainly had not heard of the Proline.

My Proline (though a bit different this model but offers exactly same features as mine, except it has a red instead of a blue OLED display) PROLINE NK01 4GB MP3 speler Kenmerken bij Vanden Borre

And the iPod Shuffle APPLE SHUFFLE 1GB SILVER NEW MP3 speler Kenmerken bij Vanden Borre

Compare prices/features and you'll see for yourself

[dragonbite]

Originally Posted by consused

Agreed with the "victory marketing" comments. When I bought the Shuffle over a year ago, it was on impulse during a conversation, the other person was about to make the trip to the Store, and Apple was recommended. I'm not sure there was anything else similar and visible here at the time - certainly had not heard of the Proline.

My brother gave me mine as a Christmas gift. We've gotten other things as well from well-meaning family members who don't understand we use Linux and some things don't work the same as they do for Windows.

I don't know if they would do much better (maybe some) if we had Macs instead, except then they would be able to look/talk/shop at the Apple store and know it is going to work.

[6205]

1./ Back in the days of openSUSE 10.1 fiasco with package management i have downloaded SLED 10 and used for some time with GNOME. It has not suffered from flaws of it's "free" version and was much more stable, like rock solid.. There was 60 days of free updates, it has automatically downloaded and installed nvidia driver and old xgl+compiz from those days was working perfectly. Also it was compatible with openSUSE 10.1 packages, so i've used Packman repo for adding all necessary multimedia stuff. I was very happy with it back in those days But after 60 days trial period, you can use it, but won't get any new updates unless you will buy support for something like 1 year or so.. SLED is targeted for business and corporate use with support subsription..

2./ Only experienced computer geeks and maybe some sado/maso BFU's

3./ Depends on mood