[ELECTRON] Maklab Shopping List... Help needed....

[Martin McGrath]

On 8 February 2012 15:52, Thomas Parry <yrrapt at gmail.com> wrote:

> Was having a read through the wiki and just wanted to ask about one thing.
>  I will preface this with a warning coz I don't want to start one of
> "those" debates, but is the choice of an iMac for workstations really the
> right one?  Talking engineering/fabrication wise, there is very little
> software for the mac, PCB design, SPICE programs, compatibility with test
> equipment etc.  Of course you can dual boot but then why pay such a premium
> for the box?  I realise these workstations are meant for other purposes as
> well but even then, off the top of my head FinalCut is the only program you
> can get on OSX that you can't get on other machines.
>
> I could be completely barking up the wrong tree but I just thought I'd
> raise the point and see what other people thought before money was spent.
>
> Tom
>

>From the wiki:

"We have included macs at the moment for school design workshops - we
appreciate that won't impress everyone.

Then idea is that people bring in their own laptops to work and link to the
server, the hope being that macs have less chance of going down with
viruses."

Less chance than what? If Windows, then I'd say maybe so, if Linux perhaps
not. Like anything it depends how they're administered. Given the fanfair
their marketing/press Apple gave about device security out of the box iOS
has been jailbroken many times, often a few days after it's release by
opening a specially crafted PDF file (exploiting known vulnerabilities in
PDF viewer/rendering libs?) or even using a web based tool.

I've speculated for quite some time that their traditional line of products
(desktop systems) will end up like the 'walled garden' that is Apples iOS,
where (without jailbreaking) you have to use their App store* to install
software. In some fairly recent conversations I've found that die hard mac
users (artists and open source hardware/software developers/manufacturers)
think that there's a good possibility this could happen on Apples desktop
OS.

Software vendors are attracted by Apples implementation of their App store,
it's DRM and the ability to delete something someone has already installed,
for reasons such as the perception of reducing piracy, not printing
installation media/packages, shipping etc.

Someone else having a 'kill switch' for software you've installed, or
restricting is something many people find unfavourable, myself included.
Their marketing phrase "Think differently" doesn't seem to line up with
what they're doing in many respects.

On a related topic, Andrew "Bunnie" Haung has a nice recent post titled
"You bought it, you don't own it" which is worth a read:

http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=2164

Martin
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