Amiga.org
The "Not Quite Amiga but still computer related category" => Alternative Operating Systems => Topic started by: Tenacious on December 08, 2003, 06:01:38 AM
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In the last year or so I've bought a few older Macintosh computers. I liked the build quality and the ergonomics. One of the first was a Server G3 300MHz. I tried OSX and hated it, very slow and combersome. So, I found OS9.2.2 on Ebay and installed that, which, improved the speed but ignored a PCI USB card.
Tonight, I tried to get this USB card working (months after installing OS9) and DL'ed "USB Card Support" (a driver file & docs archive) from Apple's support site. The archive unpacked well and after being installed, suggested that I restart. A minute later, an image of a bomb appeared and suggested that I reboot with the extensions turned off, which I did, 7 times. I still can't get the Mac to restart, even with the OS9 Install CD loaded (in fact, I can't get the CD back out, either)
There is simply no substitute for the elegant simplicity and reliability of an Amiga. It is designed to serve computer users, not be served by them. I pray that the people developing Amiga OS4 do not "improve" it to be like a Mac or Windows or Linux (with swap files, registries, a Shutdown proceedure, and no integrated ram disk). Amiga IS the exception, the alternative. Everything else is a bad copy of their own compitition!
I will quietly step off my soapbox now.
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It will not boot to a desktop without extensions?
Is the hard drive spinning up?
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No
Yes
The only difference is the installation of the driver. It gets 45 seconds into the boot and the error bomb pops up.
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Ever tried to throw it off??
Just kiddin.. :-D :-D
But maybe this CD in drive is the problem.. dunno..
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It seems to me that your PRAM (Parameter RAM) is fscked. What you need to do is hold down the command (apple) + option + P + R keys simultaneously, and you must do that right after the computer is turned on. Keep holding the keys down. The computer will reboot. Keep holding the keys down for 3 consecutive restarts. After the last restart, immediately let go of all the keys and then hold down the shift key until you see the MacOS splash screen with the text "Extensions Off". This will turn off all extensions (kind of like windows safe mode). Turn off any extensions (such as the apple USB support extension) using the Extension Manager, which is located in Control Panels. Then reboot. It should fix the problem.
If you want to get the cd out, there is a small hole just underneath the cdrom drive. Get a paperclip, straighten it out, and then put the paperclip in the hole. The cdrom drive should open up.
If you want to try to boot from the cd, just hold down the c key right after the computer is turned on.
I hope this helps.
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frankb wrote:
(..) hold down the command (apple) + option + P + R keys simultaneously, and you must do that right after the computer is turned on. Keep holding the keys down. The computer will reboot. Keep holding the keys down for 3 consecutive restarts. After the last restart, immediately let go of all the keys and then hold down the shift key until you see the MacOS splash screen(..)
That's why I didn't wanted to have one of those MAC things.. :-)
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Reboot three times to get to "safe mode"? :-o
This is either a joke or somebody at Apple has seen Wizard of Oz a few times too many.
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Roj wrote:
Reboot three times to get to "safe mode"? :-o
This is either a joke or somebody at Apple has seen Wizard of Oz a few times too many.
Umm no, the three reboots with buttons held down were to clear the messed up PRAM..
A bit like if you have a modern PC and you set your CPU's clockspeed too high in the BIOS setup. It won't boot and will need a reset to factory values. :-)
You can boot a Mac to "safe mode" any time by holding down shift while booting..
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Here's what you do. Open the case and remove the CD-ROM drive, install it in your Amiga. Power up the Amiga and eject the disc. Take the disk, break it into little pieces and then throw it in the garbage, along with the mac. Problem solved, plus you have a new CD-ROM drive for your Amiga! :-D
- Mike
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Reboot three times to get to "safe mode"?
This is either a joke or somebody at Apple has seen Wizard of Oz a few times too many.
You obviously did not read what I wrote too well. Zapping the PRAM just clears the PRAM to its default state. Holding the shift key down is what disables any extensions that are installed under MacOS (pre OS X). This allows the end user to selectively take out extensions that are fscking up the system.
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Maybe, but unless there's a major difference between a restart and a reboot, 3 restarts/reboots to get this done seems... well, excessive.
The computer will reboot. Keep holding the keys down for 3 consecutive restarts.
I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just saying this part of your step-by-steps, while probably necessary (I know next to nothing about Macs) struck me as being a little odd, that's all.
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Well, probably not the case here, but one of the problems is that everthing today is supposed to be for people that don't uderstand a thing about computers. With the Amiga you still have to know your way, wich is great IMO.
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by Roj on 2003/12/8 2:46:07
Maybe, but unless there's a major difference between a restart and a reboot, 3 restarts/reboots to get this done seems... well, excessive.
All Macs have something called PRAM (Parameter RAM). PRAM stores certain settings required for the Mac to boot, such as the boot device. The system software installed also places information there. If the data is corrupt, no booting will take place, or the system will be very unstable.
The reason for zapping the PRAM (Command+Option+P+R) three times is that it has been in my experience that the more times you do it, the more likely that the PRAM is actually reset.
I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just saying this part of your step-by-steps, while probably necessary (I know next to nothing about Macs) struck me as being a little odd, that's all.
It might seem strange to a person that is not familiar with the Mac.
There is an Amiga that has it's own "PRAM". The Amiga 3000. It stores SCSI settings and some other info. There is software that allows for manipulation of this specific ram on an A3000.
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Amiga is always the best !!!!
8-)
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@ Frankb
Thanks for the insight. I'll try it tomorrow after work. Are there other little known key combos for the Mac I should know about? Restart? Self destruct? Behave? I do like this machine, I have been able to network it to the A3000 and DL Mp3s.
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"Power through simplicity"! :-)
I agree, this is unique on the Amiga (AmigaOS, MorphOS, AROS). Lean and mean! :-)
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[color=0066CC]I absolutely agree with you with reference to registries, swap files, shutdown procedure and lack of integrated ramdisk. Absolutely begging for trouble and very cumbersome![/color]
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i agree....we dont need some lame windows or mac os registry style but i am pretty sure alot of people want it....bleh
long live the amiga!
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Apparently with Amiga OS4.0 you first have to dance funny like those monkeys at the beginning of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, before you are able to see the new and improved workbench...just kidding!..hehehe :lol: :-P
I'm pretty sure it will be the other way around: once the AmigaOne quickly boots workbench, all Amigafreaks around the world will dance weird like those monkeys :-D
(http://server4.uploadit.org/files2/081203-monkeys.gif)
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by Tenacious on 2003/12/8 7:26:12
@ Frankb
Thanks for the insight. I'll try it tomorrow after work. Are there other little known key combos for the Mac I should know about? Restart? Self destruct? Behave? I do like this machine, I have been able to network it to the A3000 and DL Mp3s.
Here is a list of Macintosh Keyboard Shortcuts (http://www.ohsu.edu/bicc-edutech/support/ss_support_mac_shortcuts.shtml) that I found using google, and it includes pretty much everything, and some I didn't know about.
I noticed that you had installed OS X on it. Though it is a much better OS than OS 9, it will be a slow as molassas unless you disable all the eyecandy features. I had OS X working on a Beige G3 300 with a G4 400 accellerator (w/no L2 Cache) and it did work pretty well.
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by lempkee on 2003/12/8 8:32:10
i agree....we dont need some lame windows or mac os registry style but i am pretty sure alot of people want it....bleh
The MacOS does not use registries. Prior to OS X, there was a system similar to DefIcons, but much more robust (projects/data automatically used the correct program). OS X is similar in that regard to OS 9, but is easier to manipulate. As MacOS X is based upon Unix, there is finally a shell, premptive multitasking, etc, etc. Much more like an Amiga.
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ColorAtlas wrote:
[color=0066CC]I absolutely agree with you with reference to registries, swap files, shutdown procedure and lack of integrated ramdisk. Absolutely begging for trouble and very cumbersome![/color]
Hrm. I wonder how people treat ENV: and ENVARC: nowadays. They bear an uncanny resemblance to /etc on Linux, which is a sort-of human-readable version of the Registry. If a lot less bloated and less likely to gather dust and crud.
I consider 'swap files', 'shutdown procedures' and 'lack of integrated ramdisk' to be Good Things and strongly advocate AmigaOS 4+ supports their presence. (Or in case of the RAM-disk, absence.) Most people think of Windows when it comes to the words 'swap file' and fear that this mediocre implementation is how it's supposed to be done. Or that the system will always prefer disk- over silicon-based memory. On a proper OS (like any Unix, and I hope AOS 4), a swap file is a useful and standardised tool for temporarily having more memory at your disposal. Swap files are slow, should only be used as a temporary last resort, but are cheap and can help a mite in a fix. The problem with Windows is that it thinks it is an emergency all the time. (Which, given the fact that it was programmed by Microsoft, is not a bad assumption.)
Proper shutdown procedures are necessary to make sure all buffers and caches are flushed out to disk before the power is cycled. You also want to make sure that perhaps some automatic save-all or issue-a-warning-to-users script is invoked when someone inadvertedly cycles the power of presses the three-finger-salute. Or even make sure that not all people can reset your beloved machine. I'm sure some of you have had inquisitive family members poking around the machine...
The RAM-disk is an archaic piece of software which is no longer necessary with modern file caching and high bus transfer speeds. With the A1000 and A500, the RAM-disk was a useful way of speeding up file accesses, as the only alternative was the maddeningly slow disk drive. Modern OSes (and thus, I hope, OS4) cache all file system accesses, reading in and writing out changes in big and thus efficient chunks. (Hence the need for a proper shutdown procedure.) There is absolutely zero need for a classic Amiga-style manual RAM-disk. A good cache contains all of its functionality and more, and works automatically too.
The moral of this story is that one should stop the a priori imposing of old design decisions on a new machine.
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One thing I would like to see for Env: / Envarc: is an implementation that allows a single text file to represent all the vars an application currently may use a whole subdirectory for.
Consider some application has a bunch of stuff it stores under Envarc:Someappliaction/...
There could be lots of simple swiches, thats 1 char of text, each in a file requiring one block...
Suppose you could have a text file instead, where an OS recognised extension say '.vars' (meaningful only for files in Envarc: or Env:), where each line was the variable name, followed by the value.
Then instead of your Envarc:Someapplication folder, you could use insread
Envarc:Someapplication.vars
The OS could then intercept any attempted access to the directory Envarc:Someappication (assuming it doesnt exist) and look for Env:Someapplication.vars automatically. Conceptually, its not a lot different from a .prefs file, other than the fact its human readable text.
Some preference tool could set whether or not new env vars are to be dumped into files or create a directory.
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The OS could then intercept any attempted access to the directory Envarc:Someappication (assuming it doesnt exist) and look for Env:Someapplication.vars automatically. Conceptually, its not a lot different from a .prefs file, other than the fact its human readable text.
That's one of the really underrated parts of OSX to me. Most pref files, for the OS itself and other apps are .plist files - basically an xml document that holds info as (mostly) readable text.
Part of the benefit is not only that it's human readable, but there's a few commandline utilities for writing to and reading from those .plist files. Apps that wish to use them just use the system tools for creating/managing them. Ideally too, one web browser can read anothers bookmarks, or font prefs or other settings.
For example iTerm, a shell app, has:
-------------------
AntiAlias
BlinkingCursor
CopySelection
EnforceCharacterAlignment
HideTab
...etc
Quite an underrated feature... and at a guess 85% of programs/utils/whatever do use .plist files for their preferences.
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@danamania
No such thing as an original idea eh? I wasn't really thinking XML but since an xml parser service is one of the things OS 4.x is set to include, it could be ;-)
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I tried Os X and hated it, very slow and cumbersome.
I am using a 500 MHZ G3 Powerbook and OS X works great. i think you should try 10.2 or 10.3 on your system. i have a friend running 10.2 on a 250 G3 imac and its smooth and nice too. Ebay has some great deals on 10.2 you should check out. I picked it up for only $40 US.
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I'm using QNX6.2.1 these days, and I think it is a great example of how virtual mem/shutdown/etc should be done, at least from a user POV. What happens "under the hood" I really don't know, but the important bit is that it doesn't bother me. It's all quick and painless, as an OS should be. Not slow and annoying, like windows and to a certain extent Linux.
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The RAM-disk is an archaic piece of software which is no longer necessary with modern file caching and high bus transfer speeds
AmigaOS’s RAM-disk feature is useful for trialling software and temp related data.
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Ram disk rules. It is every system which doesnt implement an amigaos style ramdisk that is archaic and poo..
:-D
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Karlos wrote:
Ram disk rules. It is every system which doesnt implement an amigaos style ramdisk that is archaic and poo..
:-D
Exactly :lol:
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Seriously, however, it is the absolute ultimate in volatile drive space. I use mine for all sorts of stuff that would give any HD, no matter how fast, a heart attack from fragmentation and other problems.
If my ram gets too fragmented, a quick and painless restart and all is well.
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Another reason to love the os
Datatypes - the concept rocks, even if the implementation isnt perfect. Better support for streaming data and proper bidirectional support (encode methods) would realise the full potential.
People can say windoze has its codecs and so on, but lets face it, their implementation is terrible. A few media players use them and thats about it...
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Datatypes are Good Things. There are many reasons to love AOS, but I think the most important one is the total package. How the OS is "put together", and how it interacts with the user. I've yet to see anything like AOS in that department. In what other OS can you open an application, decide that you didn't want it anyway, and close it while it's loading? QNX comes close, but not quite.
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For those that want to try to turn the Amiga into Windows, then just use Windows and say "The Amiga is not the computer for me." Let the Amiga hold on to all those "archaic" old design features that separate it from other operating systems.
Yeah, I'm weird, but I like using a computer that four other people in the world use, and still get usefulness out of it. :-D
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Cymric wrote:
Proper shutdown procedures are necessary to make sure all buffers and caches are flushed out to disk before the power is cycled. You also want to make sure that perhaps some automatic save-all or issue-a-warning-to-users script is invoked when someone inadvertedly cycles the power of presses the three-finger-salute. Or even make sure that not all people can reset your beloved machine. I'm sure some of you have had inquisitive family members poking around the machine...
Oh god no. If the software is written properly, there should never need to be a shut down procedure. If the shutdown procedure isn't instant I wouldn't want it on any computer system I would willingly purchase. When I purchased my last development computer system for Java, I made for damn sure the case had a reset button on the front. The world is turning into an onslaught of mac addicts who don't care when they get the disk back.
80% of the computing world are 100% computer stupid and really don't know any better than what they are told. They believe the grass on the other side of the monitor is always greener (there's a jab in the eye of XP for ya). In today's world, it's bigger, better, faster, now or not worth it. There are even magazines devoted to how the world could improve on effeciency even without computers. The ultimate computer system has no feel of a standard computer, rather an extension of your own personal habbits/thoughts. It reminds me of my first published works titled "Would you like fries with that?" which covered the next steps in the computer industry after CD-Rom drives were included as standard. If I can find it, I'll scan it in and post a link for you to read. In a nutshell, the computer industry has gone backwards with the inclusion of a shutdown procedure.
Think about it... do you have to shut down your TV? What about your radio? Does your car have a button on the dashboard called "shutdown" before you can turn it off? Why is it, that every digital appliance out there (except computers with some operating systems) have no shut down procedure and are instant on/off machines? The answer to that; people have no desire of having to shut down things they use on a daily basis. If a digital appliance is a part of the daily life, there shouldn't be an additional step to turn something off, or even telling somthing to turn off only to wait 5 or 30 seconds before it does. Just imagine what it would be like if irons had a shut down procedure.
The RAM-disk is an archaic piece of software which is no longer necessary with modern file caching and high bus transfer speeds. With the A1000 and A500, the RAM-disk was a useful way of speeding up file accesses, as the only alternative was the maddeningly slow disk drive. Modern OSes (and thus, I hope, OS4) cache all file system accesses, reading in and writing out changes in big and thus efficient chunks. (Hence the need for a proper shutdown procedure.) There is absolutely zero need for a classic Amiga-style manual RAM-disk. A good cache contains all of its functionality and more, and works automatically too.
Archiac RAM-disk? Right now the slowest point in EVERY computer system is the hard drive. The fastest point outside of CPU/GPU is RAM. Why would anyone want to devote their entire operating system with the basis of a hard drive for primary data access is beyond me. With WindowsXP the more memory you give it, the more memory it takes for caching which eventually leads to slower performance overall. While XP has a way to turn on a RAM-disk there are people who pay near $300 for a professional package to install into windows so they can have this feature? If I had enough memory to do it, I'd run my development system off a RAM-disk but thanks to WindowsXP and how it handles memory, it's not possible. When I was working at Gateway, one of the key web computers was run entirely on RAM-disk. The boot times were insane of maybe 2 or 3 seconds. Everything was done in RAM except for the database, and even then it wasn't cached or pooled. The one time we had a power spike hard enough to crash that server it was back up and running from a cold boot in a matter of 4 seconds (from start time to serve time) with only 1 or 2 lost customers. The initial storage was from a static drive which held the operating system. On cold boot it was dumped into ram and modified with a small script file. I have a ram drive I use when I'm making a new cdrom image, it's tons faster than trying to work with some of the interfaces out there.
The short of it: Unless the shutdown procedure is instant, I don't want it. Ram-disk, though archiac, should not be removed from the OS, nor should it be pivital. Virtual Memory can be good if the OS is done right, put it in but don't make it a full-time feature.
Oh yes, a single registry file is extremely bad design as well. A program should be able to run without any additional settings/files outside the initial drawer. An "uninstall" program should not be needed to remove software from a computer. Dead program settings only take up more room than needed. On the other hand, I am all for icon archives. I also think executable files with icon information embeded within under the strict ability to edit/remove/change/use the old icon structure along with them would be okay as well.
There are tons of things I want in the next AmigaOS but also tons of things I want to keep. I still have the narrator device from 1.3 that I use in 3.9 if that tells you anything.
:pint:
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Tenacious: A minute later, an image of a bomb appeared and suggested that I reboot with the extensions turned off, which I did, 7 times. I still can't get the Mac to restart, even with the OS9 Install CD loaded (in fact, I can't get the CD back out, either)
Paperclip time! :-)
I can't really think of a reason why the OS9 disc won't boot, though.
FrankB: What you need to do is hold down the command (apple) + option + P + R keys simultaneously, and you must do that right after the computer is turned on.
I still want to know why they don't print that stuff in the troubleshooting section of the manual. I remember the business version of the G3 tower came with several books on how to use the machine, set up SCSI, and so on, but they never even told you about the shift key and managing extensions.
Danamania:
HideTab
...etc
What's the advantage of this over "HideTab=true"? I don't see why everyone likes XML so much.
I also think preference files should be located in the application folder. Why do people insist on putting them in WinNT, System32, All Users/Documents, Preferences, Prefs:, S:, System Registry, etc... all that does is ensure everything is all mixed up, and you can't tell what is 1st party and 3rd party, and what is part of the system and what is an application. Maybe vendors like it that way.
If you want to uninstall the app and keep your config, delete every app file except the preferences. If you want a single, convenient place to browse your config files, ask the OS to compile the config files into a list. Dropping stuff all over the hard drive in random places is why filesystems are such a mess. There are still apps these days that drop their configs and logs in the root of the C: drive, for crying out loud.
Hammer: AmigaOS’s RAM-disk feature is useful for trialling software and temp related data.
So is a scratch drive or mount. But, you can't do that on Windows because files are thrown all over the place. If OS4 uses wizards to install software, like Windows, I don't think the RAM disk will be all too useful, either. I know of a lot of applications that store data in the temp folder, so flushing temporary files manually can really screw things up. Nothing like having 2+GB of files in the temp folder, and you can't remove them. Workstations tend to do this more than home computers.
Not to say I don't still want a RAM disk. ;-)
Karlos: People can say windoze has its codecs and so on, but lets face it, their implementation is terrible. A few media players use them and thats about it...
Codecs? Oh, you mean those things Windows says it needs and can't download them? MediaPlayer used to tell me it couldn't find a suitable compressor. Now it tells me, "ClassFactory cannot supply requested class", and when you go to Microsoft's website for more info, they tell you, this is an unknown error. Yeah! :-P
Roj: Let the Amiga hold on to all those "archaic" old design features that separate it from other operating systems.
No point to being an "alternative" OS if it's not unique. :-)
Kent: If the shutdown procedure isn't instant I wouldn't want it on any computer system I would willingly purchase.
No computer is instant if it supports any sort of caching or background processes that don't turn off unless the OS tells them to. What you're asking for is a non-multitasking system!
A machine without write-behind caching is a modal system, because you have to wait for the machine to finish performing a task before you can do something else. There's a reason OS's don't use hard drives like MS-DOS or AmigaOS, anymore.
80% of the computing world are 100% computer stupid and really don't know any better than what they are told.
That's the point. This is the information age, but nobody's interested in *correct* information. The people who sympathise the least with users are the people who know little to nothing about design.
Also, not everyone wants to spend 5 hours learning how to use a system. Fine for hardcore geeks, but not for normal people. That's why I hate Linux.
There are even magazines devoted to how the world could improve on effeciency even without computers.
Gee, I guess calculators are out, then. Ironic that most hand-held calculators are more useul than the on-screen variety.
That really depends on what you consider a computer. There's a computer in your microwave, a computer in the fuel injector in your car, a computer in your DVD player... You could easily say that desktop computers are the best example of the least intuitive computers. Besides servers, that is.
The ultimate computer system has no feel of a standard computer, rather an extension of your own personal habbits/thoughts.
Too many people confuse habits with preferences. Humans all like different things, but they all have the same natural reflexes.
Think about it... do you have to shut down your TV? What about your radio? Does your car have a button on the dashboard called "shutdown" before you can turn it off?
That's a marketing issue. TV's, radios, and cars are made and sold as closed units, which have a specific way of functioning. Computers have to be flexible to handle software written by many different companies. If you don't mind buying all your software from the company that writes your OS, you're all set. :-)
...shut down procedure...
It's not so much the "shutdown" that hurts, it's the "procedure". You could get around this by putting the machine in sleep mode, but a power failure would raise havok. If you use slumber, the machine still has to write its memory out to a storage device. We're a long way away from having machines with large amounts of built-in Flash RAM. Solid state media is too expensive and unreliable. The most you can do is make it "seem" like an instant shutdown, and that's where good design comes in. You can reduce the time it takes to shut down (like, a half second), but you can't remove it entirely.
Windows is the best example of what not to do. Does anyone really know what Windows saves when it shuts down?
Virtual Memory can be good if the OS is done right, put it in but don't make it a full-time feature.
Yup. Virtual Memory is supposed to be a crutch when you have no other memory available. It amuses me that the OS will instead "swap out" unused parts of the OS, then swap them back in when needed, even though there's plenty of RAM available... just a "precautionary" measure, I guess. I remember turning off virtual memory on a Win98 system, and the machine wouldn't even boot up without scrambling the display and eventually crashing, and that was with 64 megs of RAM.
I once had a computer science student tell me any OS that didn't perform kernel swapping was idiotic. Yeah, never mind the fact that the kernel is only a small part of the system, and if you have to swap out the kernel to free up memory, chances are you're REALLY in trouble and need to rethink your memory strategy!
Oh yes, a single registry file is extremely bad design as well. A program should be able to run without any additional settings/files outside the initial drawer.
Funny, how we're using registries at the same time we're moving towards object oriented programming and multiprocessing. Now that I've learned how OOP works (or is supposed to), I really appreciate it more. Not a lot, just... more. :-)
My big beef about the registry is putting all your eggs in one basket. I don't like the idea of critical system information stored in the same file as application data.
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Wacoon: I still want to know why they don't print that stuff in the troubleshooting section of the manual. I remember the business version of the G3 tower came with several books on how to use the machine, set up SCSI, and so on, but they never even told you about the shift key and managing extensions.
Because Apple hides too much information. The manuals that come with Apple products are mediocre. The manuals that came with the Amiga were fantastic (well the A1000 manual was not so good -- too much like an Apple manual i.e. no info). Apple has never released anything like the RKM's either. C= had it all with the Amiga, but lost it. Hopefully an Amiga/Amiga-like solution will fill the void, and SOON.
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The problem with Windows is that it thinks it is an emergency all the time. (Which, given the fact that it was programmed by Microsoft, is not a bad assumption.)
Actualy thats very easy to change. I've configured my windows to use the swap only when its neccessary. There are various wasy to optomise you'r swap by puting it on a different disc or optomising the vcache settings.
Windows VM isnt all that bad, it prolly is bedefault because it tries to solve everyones needs. It pays when you take the chance to find out whats going on behind the sceens and figure out a better way of doing it for yourslef.
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@ Cymric
I can only agree to disagree with you. You can get the things you want in an OS simply by using anything other than Amiga. I would use a system like the one you describe only when forced, and I certainly wouldn't buy one. Why must OS4 be yet another flavor of a "modern" OS. They already exist and are easily available to anyone that wants.
I love the ram disk. I can unpack a large application there, run it there, evaluate it, and never write anything to the hard drive until it's proven.
I like the fact that my Amiga never writes to disk without permission. It can automatically do anything I ask. But, aside from a viral infection, it won't automatically do what an outsider directs without permission. There is never a question that it serves me and not the interests of a software vendor, IT department, or nosey corporation.
When installing software, I have the option of complete control. I'm never made to live with someone else's organisation. If I want something removed from the system, I can do it myself with complete confidence in the outcome. In short, I don't want another "modern" operating system, there are too many already.