[OS X TeX] Why so severe?

[Alan Litchfield]

Having a bad day Peter?

I think, from the other posts I've seen in this thread, that other  
people have not experienced/reported the same problems you claim to  
have had. Perhaps it is not the OS in general that is at fault (I for  
one have not found any problems with Tiger and rather like using it  
for all things, including TeXing).

On 31/03/2007, at 6:00 AM, Peter Dyballa wrote:

>
> It's my general impression that Tiger gets worse every day. For  
> Panther I could not report so many bugs. And a standard answer to  
> all my bug reports is, it's already known. And the interface to  
> report bugs at Apple has become worse and less functional,  
> motivating me to deliver equally bad descriptions. So why should  
> TeX on Tiger improve in all this decline?!
>
> Have you heard about guerilla marketing? Mac OS X 10.4.9 is another  
> marketing trick to motivate people to buy Leopard. To get,  
> hopefully, at least rid of its pile of bugs.

Actually, that is not guerilla marketing.

>
> My response to André was partly a joke – and partly a complaint,  
> that TeX on MS Windows is so much more mature, offering real great  
> and useful services. And partly it was also a recommendation:  
> since /he/ has a (well equipped) intel based Mac he can use  
> Bootcamp to have some MS Windows running ...

I have found some TeX related applications on Windows to be good and  
others not so good. TeXLive operates equally well on all platforms  
that I use it (at least three) and I see no real difference in  
functionality between MiKTeX and TeXLive on various platforms. This  
is largely due to the excellent, diligent and free work provided by  
the volunteers who put it all together.

Also, there is no relationship, that I am aware of, between Apple's  
marketing department and Gerben et al who have slaved for many years  
to give us a great set of typesetting tools. Perhaps if there was we  
might not have got as a good a tool set as we have now. On the other  
hand, if there were then they might receive monetary reward as well  
as acclaim, although it may be debatable as to which is the more  
valuable.

Alan
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