Jamie Zawinski Switches to Mac OS X

iskander writes "After a disappointing experience with sound, Jamie Zawinski has finally given up on desktop Linux and switched to Mac OS X. The future of apps like xscreensaver and Gronk is now ``highly ambiguous''. He has already ditched a free/open platform before, but he seems a lot angrier this time. Indeed, twisted by the Dark Side of the Source, young Zawinski has become."

Who the hell is Jamie Zawinski

[Anonymous Coward]

and why should i care what OS he is running ?

maybe i should submit a story about what OS my neighbour runs, or perhaps his brother and wife

From TFA

[byolinux]

Dear Slashdot: please don't post about this. Screw you guys.

D'oh!

What is this article doing on Slashdot?

[Anonymous Coward]

So someone is switching to OS-X? So what?? And this made the frontpage news? May I ask why? Is it happening so rarely that when one person makes the switch to OS-X it is a front page news?

Congratulations, Jamie.

[croddy]

You got your LiveJournal linked on the front page of Slashdot. Now get your butt upstairs, Mom needs help with the dishes!

The reason he switched..

[wfberg]

.. it DIDN'T go "beep beep beep".

I Find Jamie's Lack of Faith Disturbing

[TooMuchEspressoGuy]

C'mon... a sound problem is enough to make someone abandon an entire OS? Heck, if that were true, I would have abandoned my Windows box years ago.

Farewell, O ye of little faith.

Obnoxious screensaver

[art6217]

Perhaps it is because the Mac OS X screensaver does not have the obnoxious features like:

1. Short timeout for writing passwords, what may make it difficult for some people to unlock the screen at all.

2. Stupid, delaying messages after entering the wrong password, as if the security delay by the authorization system was not enough.

3. Ugly, ugly, *ugly* logo.

4. Small, non-antialiased fonts in the password dialog, as if the screen space was so scarce when all other windows are hidden anyway.

;)

From the blog of George W Bush

[p3d0]

I have decided I'm going to go ahead and invade Cyria.

Dear CNN: please don't report this. Screw you guys.

Funniest post on livejournal:

[haggar]

Dear Slashdot: please don't post about this. Screw you guys.

You'll be lucky. This will be posted to Slashdot within twelve hours. And then again twelve hours after that.

Re:From TFA

[RonnyJ]

See, reverse-psychology does work!

Re:What is this article doing on Slashdot?

[generic-man]

It's open source, right? That means that anyone could be an xscreensaver maintainer! Everyone can modify the code and the software will be updated forever and ever!

If you need me, I'll be in my ivory tower.

Re:From TFA

[Rahga]

Nah, it's just more proof that even /. editors don't read the articles.

And people wonder why there are so many reposts....

Re:Who the hell is Jamie Zawinski

[PsychicX]

According to the link on his name, he's a contributor to XEmacs and Moz.

An XEmacs contributor switches to a more useful system. I love the irony.

That's it, I'm switching too!

[bgfay]

I've had it with these complicated operating systems. I've never gotten my printer to work correctly on Linux, my Mac is just a total pain in the ass and slug, and I spend hours upon hours trying to do the easiest things on Windows.

The hell with all of you. I just installed DOS on my box and all is well.

Slashdot, please don't post this. You guys are jerks and I'm going to tell my mommy about you.

Re:From TFA

[BigGerman]

no reverse-psychology never works. I am telling you never.

Torvalds next OS X user?

[yerdaddie]

With Linus using a Powermac [slashdot.org] for his development, you can't help but wonder if he secretly uses OS X now and then ... you know to run Photoshop and stuff. Now that jwz and all the cool kids are making the switch, it could only be a matter of time...

Re:Who the hell is Jamie Zawinski

[matt me]

Zawikski's just this guy, you know?

Re:Who the hell is Jamie Zawinski

[isny]

From free software to selling beer? What happened to the 'free beer' step?

Re:Macs Intel and Switching

[online-shopper]

you run fucking *GENTOO*?!?!?!? you bitch about tweaking and you run *GENTOO*?!?!? and a Pentium MMX no less... here's a clue, for your next computer, buy some moderately modern hardware with a halfway decent linux distro.

Re:Dark Side

[generic-man]

Hey, this whole article is "One man abandoned an operating system, so I guess that OS really sucks now." How much scientific thought did you expect?

Re:Sounds familiar

[kubrick]

and then watch American Idol until my brain falls out

Sounds like a precondition, not a postcondition.

Re:Obnoxious screensaver

[WWWWolf]

If you think the current logo is ugly, please don't look at the old logo. That was scaring old ladies.

(Really. I was working in one place where my work computer was previously being used by visitors. I locked my display when I went off for a bit and when I came back I heard some grandmommies had been getting scared by the logo or something)

I was pleased when the logo was replaced. Actually, I kind of like the current logo. In a weird way. Simple yet interesting. =)

Re:Who the hell is Jamie Zawinski

[Have Blue]

And if he releases the formula he uses under the GPL, is that free as in speech or beer?

Re:WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think what he meant by saying that was, "Oh fuck, you're right...you didn't say that. But I can't admit that I was wrong, and was blinded by my Linux fanboy tendencies, so I'll extrapolate as much I can out of your ACTUAL words, and pretend that I was right all along"

Years from now, people will ask each other...

[whatthef*ck]

... do you remember where you were when you first heard the news?

They'll nod solemnly, and in reverent tones, tell with precise detail where they were when they learned that Jamie Zawinski had switched to OS X.

rice burners suck runs FreeBSD

[rice_burners_suck]

ATTENTION PLEASE!

I have hereby removed Linux from my hard drive and have replaced it with FreeBSD. That is all.

Re:Torvalds next OS X user?

[zr-rifle]

So who is this Linus guy and why should i care what OS he is running ?

maybe i should submit a story about what OS my neighbour runs, or perhaps his brother and wife

Re:From TFA

[bahamat]

Even better:

from the don't-worry-jamie-we-won't-post-it dept.

Re:new flash...

[chrish]

The best part is how the Linux community is banding together to investigate why someone (anyone; I know a lot of Linux folks moving to Mac OS X) would dump their OS in favour of a BSD variant. And how they're totally not burning bridges to lure folks back!

Re:Who the hell is Jamie Zawinski

[BigBuckHunter]

Just because this guy wrote UNIX N1.1 doesn't make him some sort of God or anything

But it does qualify him for demi-god status. When you get to hang with the gods, and have a small cult following of strangely deticated people.... Maybe a shrine or two...

BBH

Copy & Paste

[blackpaw]

Its a good thing he didn't try to copy and paste any meaningful information between apps (or even on the same app) on Linux - then he'd be really pissed.

Re:Sounds familiar

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a message: if OSS developers or advocates care about the adoption of their labors of love, they might consider paying attention to this "bitching".

And therein lies the flaw in your argument. OSS zealots DONT want to see mainstream adoption of their "labors of love", because it gives them one of the only things in thier lives in which they can feel superior to the the average Joe. "Oh you dont use Linux? You prefer Windows/Macintosh? You must be a simpleton, then" If these people define "freedom" as staying up late on a friday night, hand editing .rc files and hacking sources just to get something simple like a videocard to work, then the only thing I can do is feeel sorry for them. I'm sure, though, that the rest of the idiots who use Windows/Macintosh computers are grateful that the ease of use that these mainstream OS's offer them allows them to have REAL lives (of which sexual relations is very commonly a subset.)