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After annoying Doug for several weeks to convince him get a Macintosh, he came up with a great idea for how to allow current Windows users objectively assess if switch to Mac is going to be a pain for them.



The idea seemed very attractive, so in the best traditions of the Rule of Thumb of Programming ("if you do not like something - write it yourself"), we opened a sourceforge project to write a program like that. I am really curious to see how it goes.

java.net has recently published an article by Gianluca Brigandi about Single Sing-On integration in Apache's Pluto Portlet container. He shows how to provide Single Sign-On functionallity in Pluto using JOSSO. You can read the article here

One significant feature that brings JOSSO out, shining with glory, of the several alternatives is that it is "Cross-platform: It allows for the integration of Java and non-Java applications, such as PHP or Microsoft ASP applications. It uses the standard SOAP over HTTP as the standard communication layer to deliver this cross-platform feature."

The only remaining questions are: performance and security. To my inexperienced eyes, this looks like an MS Passport-alike solution and, if I am not wrong, MS Passport service is being abandonned by Microsoft for the lack of security. If that is true, will JOSSO share the same fate, in the future?

- Hi
- Hey
- So, you have had a Macintosh for some time now. How do you feel about it?
- I think it is very sexy.
- Yeah?
- Absolutely. The one I have is a Mac Mini. It gets so much attention, from everybody who sees it, if it was your wife, you should get jealous or she should divorce you.
- Well, that's just a slick-looking box. How big deal is it?
- Huge. This "box" is lighter than my Compaq laptop used to be. It is, definitely, quiter and cooler. I put it in my backpack and carry to work, so I do not need to deal with M$ crap, at work, either. That's a big deal once you get used to a Mac...
- Speaking of that. What's this addiction you guys have with Macs? Lack of apples when you were kids?
- Well, we touched the coolness of the hardware a bit, but mostly - it is the software. Mac OS X is great.
- Why?
- To begin with - it is beautiful. Some people may enjoy the simplicity of black screens with green letters (and you do not even get much of that on Windows) but I want the interface, that I spend a huge part of my day with, to be attractive, nice and kind on my eyes. Call me an aesthete.
- Well, beauty is a relative term...
- Yes, but most of the people do agree on what UGLY means. Also, Mac OS X is very, very intuitive and easy to use. It takes me much less time to do the same on Mac, compared to Windows, leave alone Linux. I like when things are done the way I would want them to be, not the way some bighead wanted somewhere up in the state of Washington.
- Fair enough...
- Well, also, I find it very convenient not to be afraid of "spyware", "viruses", "trojans" and all kind of dirt like that. I do not want to spend my time haunting them, neither do I want my top-notch computer to suddenly become a slowly crawling, half-dead beast.
- You mentioned Linux... It is quite resistent to the "dirt", too, no?
- You know... If anybody is a supporter of open-source, that's me. If anybody admires Linus Torvalds and the whole community behind Linux - I do. But, seriously - Linux is not a desktop OS, yet and I do not see when will it become one. I tried switching to Linux several times. Even managed to stay there whole of 3 weeks. It sucks. And not so much that you almost have nothing there - OpenOffice is nowhere near a decent office, media support is less than good etc, etc, etc - you may get away with that, if you try real hard. The point is very simple - every minute that I spent on Linux, as my desktop, I was missing Windows UI, and when I finally gave up and returned to Windows - I was literally experiencing pleasure of working as a normal human, not some shadow-headed geek. It is a shame how crappy X11 is, considering how long it has been around. Neither KDE or Gnome add anything valuable to it - just more bugs and uglier design.

On the contrary - every minute I spend with Mac OS X, I feel literal pleasure to be working with a responsive, intuitive, beautiful, smart system. I never, even for a second, had a desire to go back to Windows and at several occasions that I had to work with Windows, on other people's computers, it really felt unpleasant and wrong. Once you go Mac, you do not want to go back.

And Mac OS X has wayyyyyyyy better support than Linux, for sure. Consider drivers, programs - anything, the situation is much better than for Linux. I also find it very amazing that a Mac feels much more comfortable in Windows networks than even Windows computers :) You gotta admit - most of us have to deal with WinNet at work and this compatibility is a big deal.

- Well, that was some speech :) Don't even know what to ask next.
- Don't, get a Mac and get a life. Gotta go now. Take care.
- Hm, thanks...
:-)