Computer OS preference

Yes, but the funny thing is that MS had an ad in magazines that I remember where they had a table comparing how often you had to reboot Windows 95 (multiple times a day or something like that), etc. They were essentially saying, "You trusted us before and we sold you an unreliable piece of junk, but NOW trust us again with a NEW and improved OS that only crashes a couple of times a month!" Priceless.

Unfortunately, this is beyond Apple's control. The glucose meter manufacturer spent money to develop an interface, protocol, and software years ago and they don't intend to spend any more now. (In fact, the "latest" version of their desktop software is web-based or something useless to us.)

What we really need is a standard for how glucose meters, regardless of manufacturer, can be queried and make their data available, along with a standard (say mini-USB ) interface. Then we wouldn't depend on a manufacturer who is using a 30-year-old interface and 10-year-old proprietary software.

I've found games that I enjoy on the Mac, including all the games by Blizzard, the Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights series, Unreal Tournament, etc. Not as much choice, but on the other hand I spend 10x as much time on my computer not playing games as I do playing games so I prefer the nicer environment.

Strange. MacOS X is UNIX and the Internet and networking in general was designed and built on UNIX machines, and is still served primarily through a UNIX-based infrastructure. MacOS X comes with many networking tools and free development tools that let you compile most of the open source software out there. I run everything from R (statistical tool) to custom Python code, from Final Cut Pro (video editing) to tcpdump and other network tools.

I have 10.6 installed, and can access my work's Exchange server (2007, of course) just fine, too, for email, calendar, etc. For that matter, I have Sun's free Virtualbox software on my Mac and can run XP, Vista, Windows 7, (obtained cheaply through my university) or Ubuntu Linux in a window, though as was already mentioned, I'd run a real shell window in MacOS X rather than running an add-on terminal in Windows. And of course MacOS X has a free development environment that includes all the usual UNIX tools plus a nice IDE and GUI-builder, too.

Not saying it's the choice you'd prefer or that it fits into every workflow and requirement, but I highly doubt that a Mac is "useless" in any field of endeavor.

 

It's an embedded RTOS, but is NOT open source. It's a "secure" RTOS. If you actually do development work with that company's products, you have to sign an NDA that forbids mentioning clients and applications

As a hint, though, think fly-by-wire fighter jets

 

I believe it would be possible to develop an interface standard that would work with the vast majority of I/O situations. Something like MIDI for standard hardware interface.

 

I still don't get it, your position seems quite irrational.
A company builds a better version of their product, so you refuse to use or give the company kudos for building a better product, because ... it is better than past products?
I mean, if you believe they WANT to frustrate you, I suppose it would then follow that they are continuing to try to piss you off.
Personally, I will give kudos to any company improving their product (even if I don't buy it). And I will use the products that meet my needs. Right now, that is Mac hardware with Windows OS.

 

I will give kudos to a company that seriously tries to always improve their product. I will not give kudos to a company that consistently sells a garbage product, that seems not to care that all their products are garbage, and whose advertising slogan is Our newest garbage product is a little less garbagy than our last product which even we knew was garbage.