Defensive Computing

(Credit: CNET Networks )

Robert X. Cringely writes a technology blog for PBS, which I've read for a long time. In his August 29th posting, What Did You Say?, he discusses his unpleasant experiences as a new iPhone owner/user.

I have no iPhone experience, so I can't judge his opinions. However, Cringely's blog is always thoughtful and, to me, he is a very credible source. Plus, he has an excellent perspective owning two iPhones, a Samsung AT&T phone and having just switched from two other cellphone companies to AT&T.

In a nutshell, he says that the iPhone makes a miserable telephone.

The posting is long but only the first five paragraphs address the iPhone. For more about the iPhone, see CNET coverage.

See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.

A few days ago, Walter Mossberg, writing in the Wall Street Journal, offered a verbal peek at the Mac user interface (see Some General Tips for Switch to Mac From Windows) intended as heads-up for Windows XP users thinking of switching.

I'm not a Mac user, but from reading the article, it seems that the initial learning curve for switching from Windows XP to Linux, is less than that for switching to Macs. Both Macs and Linux are immune to the vast majority of malicious software, so from a Defensive Computing standpoint, each is good choice.

One advantage Mac users have is that there is, at any given time, a single latest and greatest edition of OS X. Someone switching from Windows XP to Vista has about six editions of Vista to deal with, but on the Mac side it's Leopard, just Leopard; nothing but Leopard.

The choices available to someone interested in Linux can be mind boggling. Different editions are referred to as "distributions" or "distros" for short. There are dozens of popular Linux distributions to chose from and I can't even guess at the total available, hundreds for sure. For this article, I chose the desktop version of Ubuntu 8.04. Not the server edition or the MID edition. Not Kubuntu or Xubuntu or Edubuntu or Gobuntu. Just plain vanilla Ubuntu.

Below I offer the Linux side of the various user interface aspects that Mossberg raised and contrast it with Mac OS X Leopard.

Menu Bars

Macs are drastically different than XP on the fundamental issue of menu bars. In both Windows and Linux each running program/application has its own menu bar across the top of its window. Below is a screen shot of Klondike solitaire and the Calculator running in Ubuntu. Solitaire has the colored menu bar because it's the active application.

According to Mossberg, Macs have " ... a single menu bar at the top of the screen that changes, depending on which program you are actively using." That must take some getting used to.

Task Bar

Both Windows XP and Linux have a task bar along the bottom of the screen that provides an inventory of currently running applications. In the screen shot below you can see that Calculator and Klondike solitaire are both running, and that Klondike is minimized.

Just as with Windows, left clicking in Ubuntu on the task bar button for a minimized application makes it visible. Right clicking on items in the task bar brings up the same five options as in Windows (Minimize, Maximize, Close, Restore, Move and Size). In addition, Ubuntu offers an "Always On Top" option and a handful relating to workspaces, a concept you can grow into or easily ignore.

As Mossberg describes it, there is no Mac equivalent to the task bar. The Dock comes the closest but it sounds more like the Windows Quick Launch toolbar in that it holds icons for the programs you use most often, rather than those running now.

Start Menu

The Start button also doesn't have an exact equivalent in Leopard. Mossberg says "Its functions are divided between the Dock and the Apple menu at the upper left of the Mac screen."

Many Linux distributions have a Start menu/button exactly like Windows. For example, here's a a screen shot of Mandriva Linux. The yellow Mandriva button in the bottom left corner is exactly analogous to the XP Start button.

Rather than a single starting point, Ubuntu has three, and they're at the top of the screen instead of the bottom. This was visible in the top left corner of the prior screenshots. The starting points are: Applications, Places and System. The screen shot above shows an expansion of the Applications menu. Below you can see the expanded Places menu. The System menu is the next topic.

Control Panel

The area where all three operating systems seem the most similar is their self-configuration. Windows has a Control Panel, Macs have System Preferences and Ubuntu has the System menu, shown below. Apple offers a hidden path to System Preferences in the Apple menu and wastes real estate by including it in the Dock. Ubuntu makes system configuration always visible while using a minimum of screen real estate.

Keyboard Shortcuts

All three systems offer keyboard shortcuts for when you don't want to move your hands off the keyboard to the mouse. Windows and Linux use the Control key, typically abbreviated as "Ctrl". Macs use a Command key. According to Mossberg, the Command key isn't called that on the keyboard (that would be too easy), it either has "a cloverlike symbol or an Apple logo". He doesn't explain which Macs have which, let alone the inconsistency.

As you can see in the screen shot below of the Gedit text editor, Linux does many of the same keyboard shortcuts as Windows.

Quitting Programs

In both Windows and Ubuntu, when you're done with a program, just "X" out of it. That is, click the X in the top right corner of the application window. You can see in the Gedit screenshot above, that Ubuntu has the exact same three buttons in the top right corner as Windows. And, they do the same thing that they do in Windows.*

Macs will confuse Windows users. For one thing, the "X" is in a circle in the upper left corner. But most importantly, it doesn't shut down the program. In fact, as Mossberg described it, it's not clear to me just what it does. He says that it closes the window rather than quitting the program. Close the window? Could he mean that it minimizes the window? Maybe this is Mac terminology? When Windows and Linux users "close" a window, we're shutting down the program.

Maximizing Windows

Maximizing windows in Ubuntu works exactly the way it does in Windows, you click the middle box in the top right corner. Not so with Leopard, says Mossberg. Never mind that you start off with a green circle in the upper left corner, clicking it results in a window size "deemed optimal for its contents, which isn't always the whole screen." Apparently Apple knows best. Mossberg didn't explain how to force a window to occupy the entire screen.

Double-clicking on the title bar in Windows also maximizes a window. Same in Ubuntu (although you can configure this with a system preference). Other Linux distributions take a different approach. With Mandriva, for example, double-clicking on the title bar rolls up the window so that just the title bar is visible.

Switching Programs

Not much to say here. Both Windows XP and Ubuntu can use the Alt-Tab key combination to switch between running applications. On a Mac it's Command-Tab.

Right Clicking

The Mac legacy is a mouse with a single button. Apparently that's in the process of changing. According to Mossberg "Most desktop Macs now come with a mouse that allows right-clicking..." He didn't say which desktop models do and don't. And, I suspect he chose his words carefully. That is, "allowing" right clicking probably isn't the same as actually having two buttons on the mouse.

He goes on to note that "...you can use almost any two-button USB mouse with any modern Mac". But again, "modern Mac" is spelled out and he doesn't say why some two-button mice won't work. They all work in Windows. Then there a Mac laptops, which only have one button forcing users to fake things out to get right clicks.

Ubuntu, like all Linux distributions, fully supports two button mice and right clicking. Windows users will feel right at home.

Adjusting The Screen

Not a lot to say here. Macs configure the desktop background image, screen saver and screen resolution in System Preferences.

Ubuntu configures this in the System menu under Preferences. You can see this in the screenshot of the System menu above. The desktop background image is either configured using the "Appearance" System Preference or by right clicking on the desktop and opting to "Change Desktop Background".

Final Thoughts

Not to paint too rosy a picture, Linux has more than it's share of annoyances. Firefox running on Ubuntu, for example, wants to open audio .PLS files in the Movie Player program. And, to chose another program, you have to browse the file system rather than a list of installed applications. Even saving the PLS file locally and opening it with the Rhythmbox Music Player didn't produce any sound. Ubuntu knows that PLS files are "MP3 ShoutCast playlists" yet, it can't play them.

But, on the subjects that Mossberg chose to focus on, Ubuntu offers a more familiar environment for people switching from Windows. And, it's cheaper.

For more on Linux, see my previous posting Is Linux right for your mother?, a comparison of Linux vs. Windows at my personal website and Why you want a Linux Live CD.

Update July 9, 2008: As luck would have it, I spent some time with a Mac laptop today running OS X 10.4.11. As a Mac newbie, it gave me a chance to add something to Walter Mossberg's points. One of the first things I noticed was the lack of a backspace key. On Windows and Ubuntu, the delete key deletes whatever is to the right of the cursor. On this Mac at least, the Delete key deletes what is to the left of the cursor, thus, it's the backspace key, at least to me. I didn't bother experimenting to find the Mac way to delete stuff on the right.

The three circles in the top left corner all look the same, they're circles. Sure, they're color coded but I didn't get the memo on what the colors mean and I shouldn't need a memo. Windows and Ubuntu offer better visual clues for their window handling icons. Hovering the mouse over the circles does not produce a tooltip explaining what the circle does. It does produce a symbol in the circle, but it was too small for my aging eyes to decipher.

Finally, the lack of a task bar was a major annoyance. Other than Cmd-Tab is there is a visual way for Mac users to track the currently running applications?

* I have to vent. The gOS Linux distribution has three circles in the top right corner and they all look exactly the same. What were they thinking? If you hover the mouse over a circle a tooltip pops up that tells you what it does. But, the mouse pointer blocks almost the entire tooltip making it impossible to read.

See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.

The new MacBook Air laptop has one killer feature, the non-removable battery. Killer as in deal-killer. As in why would anybody use a laptop that has to be shipped back to the vendor to replace the battery? It boggles the mind. Here's why.

Have any sensitive files on your computer? Files you'd rather other people not see. Many of us do. Do you like the idea of your sensitive files sitting in a package on a UPS truck? Or being in the hands of a company Apple sub-contracted repairs to? Of course not.

Remembering to remove all the sensitive files from a MacBook Air before mailing it is only the first problem. Problem two is not making a mistake and missing a couple files.

Speaking of a UPS truck, laptop computers are fragile. And, computers disappear during shipping. Defensively speaking, I'd make a disk image backup of the hard disk before mailing back a MacBook Air.

(Credit: Malabooboo)

What if your perfectly working MacBook Air gets damaged on its way to Apple? According to the company:

"Service may not be available if your MacBook Air has been damaged due to accident or abuse. Please review Apple's Repair Terms and Conditions for further details."

But suppose all goes well. The MacBook Air gets shipped to Apple for a battery replacement and arrives in perfect condition with all sensitive files removed. You can still get screwed. On their battery replacement FAQ page Apple says:

"Will the data on my MacBook Air be preserved?
Don't rely on it being preserved. Many repairs require Apple to replace or reformat the hard disk, which will result in the loss of your data ... Apple and its AASPs are not responsible for any damage to or loss of any applications, data, or other information stored on your MacBook Air while performing service."

To me this means you not only need a disk image backup before sending a MacBook Air back for a new battery, you also need a backup of the backup.

Apple now charges $129 in the U.S. to replace the battery on the MacBook Air. Who cares? No one needs a battery replaced now. The question is, what will Apple be charging in two years when the first Air users need a replacement? Apple may decide to charge whatever the market will bear, which could well be more than $129. Air owners will have no leverage, they'll have to pay whatever Apple feels like charging in their time of need.

Some people use their computers for a long time. Will Apple still offer to replace the battery in 6 or 7 years?

While the battery is being replaced, you have no laptop computer.

Finally, there is the obvious.

The whole idea of a 3-pound laptop computer is to use it while traveling and this often means computing for hours away from electrical outlets. Many people carry an extra battery. Fellow CNET blogger, Gordon Haff recently wrote that he carries two extra batteries when he travels with his ultra-portable laptop. As a Seinfeld fan, let me put it this way: no spare battery for you, MacBook Air owners.

All in all, the non-replaceable battery seems like a really bad idea.

Update. January 24, 2008. I left out another drawback. There are times when a laptop computer gets so screwed up that the only way to reset it is to remove the battery. No can do with the Air.

Update. January 21, 2008. A fellow CNET blogger, one who refuses to provide his/her name had this to say about the battery in the Air:

Let's face it: Apple's done letting you get a new battery when the stock one won't hold a charge anymore and having you milk your device. Their philosophy is that you should be turning these suckers over every two years or so, partially because that's the rate of significant advancement for components. In two years, it's going to be out of date. You may not like that philosophy, but the Macalope's found it fits his personal buying pattern anyway so no big whoop.

Wow. Talk about drinking the Kool-Aide.

See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.

In one of the new Mac vs. PC commercials from Apple, the PC guy, John Hodgman, has written two books. The first one is about buying a new computer, the point being there are so many choices in the Windows world that it's confusing and intimidating. Fine. The second one, though, is called "I just bought a computer. Now what?" That really hit home.

Back in 2003, I created a class called "So you bought a new computer. Now what?", that I taught a number of times both for a PC user group and at the Continuing Education division of a couple colleges.

The class was needed because a new Windows XP computer ships in, what I consider, a disgraceful condition, even to this day.

A huge number of default settings are poorly chosen. Lots of needed software is missing. For example, I consider Firefox, Thunderbird, a decent firewall, and antimalware software, necessities. Also missing is software that makes living with Windows so much easier, such as, Process Explorer, IrfanView, and Startup Control Panel.

Any new computer, regardless of the operating system, is going to ship with old software. In the Windows world, the preinstalled copies of popular software such as Flash, Adobe Acrobat Reader, and Java are guaranteed to be outdated and thus pose security risks. And, it should go without saying, that bug fixes need to be applied to the operating system. New Windows XP computers are typically missing a huge number of patches.

In keeping with my defensive computing bent, the class started with inventory checking (why does that 40 gigabyte drive have only 34 gigabytes of total space?) and hardware diagnostics. The handout, also an original creation, was about 100 pages and the class took so long, the allotted time was never sufficient. All this without spending much time on removing some of the useless software that typically comes preinstalled.

The Mac vs. PC commercials are funny (at least to me) because they contain more than a grain of truth. Many Windows XP users really do need a lot of assistance with initial setup and configuration.

I must be the real John Hodgman.

Or is he the fake Michael Horowitz?

P.S. "Now what" is the title of the ad. It is available from Apple, but only in QuickTime format. My next posting will be on the dangers of QuickTime. It is also available at YouTube.

This is not a commercial for my New Computer class. It hasn't been updated for Vista, so I haven't taught it in a while. In previous postings, I explained why I think XP remains the better choice for Windows users.

See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.

There is an interesting article in the New York Times today (September 16th) that anyone involved with personal computers should read. It's called "A Window of Opportunity for Macs, Soon to Close" and it was written by Randall Stross, a professor of business at San Jose State University.

The main point of the article is that Apple should be selling many more Macintosh computers than it is. I agree completely.

The author points out that the release of an obviously half-baked version of Vista provided Apple with a golden opportunity to sell computers to people who don't want Vista. In my opinion, no one should buy a new computer with Vista until 2.5 years after its release. For more, see my September 2nd posting "I pity the fool (Windows XP good, Vista bad)."

Leading up to the release of Vista, which anyone in the field knew would suffer bumps in the road, Apple's marketing team blew a golden opportunity. The article describes a whole host of mistakes that Apple has made to get this point. Huge mistakes and many of them.

Macs account for only 3 percent of personal computers. My Mac experience is very limited, but I'm sure that judged on merits, it deserves a much larger market share. If nothing else, just being (mostly) immune to viruses, spyware and other forms of malicious software should get it 10 percent market share without a single employee at Apple working on marketing.

The fallout from miserable Mac sales is not limited to Apple. Windows users suffer too, because without increasingly popular Macs, Microsoft can continue doing things the way it always has. Thus Windows users suffer from poor quality work done by an organization that doesn't have it's feet to the fire.

This isn't the first time Microsoft has benefited from the brutal marketing mistakes of competitors. Anyone remember OS/2?