Gaming Computers in popular culture

[Cyan]

I've noticed that computer in movies are specifically switched in 2 groups :

cool guys : Mac, usually a notebook.
Bad guys : Win, and usually a big computers with many wires.

 

[Skyline969]

the funny part. the latest mac os uses a Linux kernel. i think mac just pays for hardcore advertising.

Do some research before posting complete utter bullshit like this. It runs off Unix. Way different to linux.

I always thought Linux was based of Unix

I learned about this in my OS fundamentals class. In the beginning, there was DOS and Unix. Microsoft owned MS-DOS. Microsoft made Windows as a shell for MS-DOS (initially). However, other groups used Unix. This started the birth of Linux and Mac OS... however, there are more Unix based OSes out there.

 

[Deleted_171835]

Well, in the show Human Target The Border, they have a nice AlienWare running Vista (bleh) instead of a Mac. I've yet to see a Mac in that show.

Most other shows have a Mac, though.

 

[FAST6191]

http://www.cracked.com/article_15229_5-thi...ers-can-do.html
http://www.cracked.com/article/18350_how-t...vies-5Bcomic5D/

That over (sorry people who have not visited such a site before) back on topic.

http://blog.massmediasecurity.com/2009/01/...frienemies.html
And the old staple of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2rGTXHvPCQ&fmt=18

Sorry I am really over now.

Above all my biggest gripe would have to be use of a keyboard- people always seem that little bit disappointed when I roll up after a "FAST6191 FAST6191 come fix my computer" and fix it by clicking with the mouse a few times. I have been tempted to find myself a command line undelete app for just such purposes (not that I have had to recover anything in about a year now).

Apple stuff in films- I find it as amusing as all product placement and indeed the reverse of it where something popular/known is replaced with something else.

Linux- I watched criminal minds the other day and it was mentioned in that. It is rare otherwise.

Sticking with crime shows I always find the "lets just try it out" approach hilarious- I lose count of how many failsafes/burn setups I can have buried on a system with just the stuff I have in arms reach.
This is almost as funny as the cryptography/firewalls being but a minor hindrance (obligatory XKCD link: http://xkcd.com/538/ ) in said shows.


I guess it comes down to computers being the "magic" of the age.

 

[Urza]

the funny part. the latest mac os uses a Linux kernel. i think mac just pays for hardcore advertising.

Do some research before posting complete utter bullshit like this. It runs off Unix. Way different to linux.

I always thought Linux was based of Unix

I learned about this in my OS fundamentals class. In the beginning, there was DOS and Unix. Microsoft owned MS-DOS. Microsoft made Windows as a shell for MS-DOS (initially). However, other groups used Unix. This started the birth of Linux and Mac OS... however, there are more Unix based OSes out there.

This is a very simplified, and arguably incorrect history.

In terms of hobbyists, in the beginning there was really only Unix (although prior to Unix there was a mainframe OS called 'DOS', but it's not related to the x86 arch DOS in any way, which is what MS-DOS was based off of). Prior to the DOS as you know, and any public move from Microsoft, Apple had released their first two platforms, the Apple I and II. The Apple II became hugely successful and pretty much dominated the home computer market for several years (there were other competitors, such as tandy, commodore, etc, each with their own proprietary software, but none saw the success Apple did at the time), as they were the first to implement many of the innovations (borrowed*cough*from the alto) you see in platforms today that allow them to be "user-friendly." This trend continued through the Macintosh era, where GUIs started becoming commonplace, and lasted until Windows 95's release. This was essentially the point where Windows' GUI had "caught up" with that of Mac OS (which I think was System 7), and the hardware backing the IBM PC had become more powerful and less expensive. Unix-based/likes (speaking primarily of Linux, but technically OSX falls into the category since it conforms to the spec) really doesn't see any significant amount of desktop penetration post-Apple II until the 2000s, when companies with relevant financial backing actually start marketing to that group.

EDIT: Also would like to mention that Mac OS had no Unix code in it until OS X, when it assimilated OpenStep. Linux also has never used any Unix code, being a Unix-like and not Unix-based.