Macintosh and Open Source: Part 1
By Lincoln D. Stein
I'm a frustrated Macintosh fan. My first computer was a classic Macintosh with 56KB of memory, and learning how to program the thing was the spark that pushed me into software development. I remained a Mac devotee throughout the 1980s, happily trading up to the next model every couple of years or so.
But like many Mac enthusiasts, I became disillusioned during the 90s as I watched Microsoft Windows gain on and ultimately surpass the Mac OS in the contest for best features and reliability. Particularly distressing was the Mac's penchant for crashing at the least provocation. During this time, I worked in a large biology lab where nearly everyone had a Macintosh, and I couldn't walk from one end of the corridor to another without hearing the "Bong!" of a crashed Mac rebooting. As the local Mac guru, I became adept at activating and deactivating Mac system extensions, swapping System folders, and changing Control Panel settings by holding down various key combinations during boot-up.
Linux Discovered
Around 1994, I discovered Linux. It ran on cheap Intel hardware, but had no dependence on Microsoft software. I was impressed by the stability of the OS, the knowledgeable user community, and most of all, the system's transparency. Unlike the Macintosh, where problem-solving consisted of blindly trying one obscure magical incantation after another until something worked, Linux actually let you think the problem out rationally. You could read through the system startup scripts to see exactly what happened while the system was booting, examine the source code of a misbehaving application, or even dig into the kernel source code.<>
