Either You Succeed or Explain

Software Bundles: Good or Bad?

 For Mac users, software bundles are a hit. The idea is simple: you pay a small price and get about 10 times as much in software. The package is fixed, so you don't have a choice. Some bundles even promise to donate a portion of the income to charity. The most famous is MacHeist, but other sites followed like MacUpdate and others. I'm really not familiar with similar concepts for other OSs, but I'm sure there are. 

I am really struggling with this concept. It's a mixed bag and I thought I'd share my cons and pros, just to understand what I missed.

User Perspective

From the user standpoint, it's a bargain. You get tons of good apps for a fraction of the cost and, it's legal. In most cases, the bundle includes several products which cost alone more than the bundle itself. For example, in the current MUPromo Spring Bundle, you get 11 apps including Parallels Desktop for $50 whereas Parallels alone costs $80. 

I purchased a MacHeist bundle about 2 years ago and I am very happy with this decision. I still use some of the apps I got like CSSEdit, Pixlemator, Typinator,  Speed Download and AppZapper. For me, it was well worth the $32. For example, I paid $50 when I purchased TextMate alone, so you can understand the difference. 

Since then, I've been following the MacHeist and other bundles, waiting for the next bundle that will be worth buying and I still didn't find any. Why?  Maybe it's because most of my needs are already met. If I need to "scratch the itch", I find a solution, either free or paid. Maybe it's just stuff I don't really need. I have a simple rule in life: I don't buy bargains because they are bargains. I buy the stuff I need and, if I can find a bargain for it, great. It's a bit like throwing the darts and then painting the target where they hit.

So, why you shouldn't buy a bundle:

• You get stuff you don't need and you will be inclined to install it. Some apps will just waste disk space. However. there are apps that will have a negative impact on your machine's performance. One such example is Clips from the latest MacHeist bundle.
• You might not get the best tools for the job: on occasion, the apps you get in the bundle are inferior to other apps on the market. However, you will probably be using them anyway because you already paid, instead of buying the better product.
• In most cases, the bundles are offering many applications for a limited time. This does not offer enough time to properly evaluate each product.

The last bullet can be further emphasized when it comes to "24 hour sales" which I especially dislike. I already bought two products in such sales (PathFinder and ExpanDrive), just to discover later down the road that their performance and quality makes them unusable for me. 

So, what do you think?  I'm interested in hearing your take as users. I will complete this article by covering the developers' perspective. If you are reading this post and you are a developer which participated in such a sale, drop me a line. 

Casual Computing

I read so many lukewarm reviews of the new iPad that I simply have to write my own opinion: it is an amazing product and it will be a hit. The reason for that is simple: people are lazy. We value our comfort. We value our time. We crave fun. And, we are willing to pay for it. 

It is quite simple: we like sitting on the couch. We prefer sitting on the couch over sitting in a chair in front of a desk.  When you come home in the evening and want to check your emails for a few minutes, would you rather do it with your family in the living room or in the small home office?  Would you rather have a bulky laptop separating you from the rest of the world, requiring the use of a table or a small, unobtrusive device that fits every posture?

It is called casual computing. It is going to be a massive hit from the same reason that I play games on my iPhone even though I have a way more capable PS3. The PS3 takes time to load, it occupies the main TV in the living room and it bothers the surrounding environment. 

One should also remember that Apple is still a software company. Yes, it sells hardware which is designed by Apple. But the software is the real unique value here. Apple is going to succeed because of the software. Take the iPad, install Windows 7 and it won't sell half as much. Yes, Windows 7 has multitasking, Flash and it is completely open. If that sounds good to you, there are tablets out there already running it, so don't you have one?  Because the desktop OS doesn't fit well with the tablet paradigm. You are getting an awkward experience combined with a resource hog which dictates bulky devices and poor battery life. 

The UI is very much like the iPhone. We are used to that UI so there's no wow factor here. Here's what I think: this is a lifestyle device and in order to truly appreciate it you need to spend some time with it. See how well it integrates with your life. See if it contributes to your comfort, if it makes life more fun. Then, you can give a verdict.

Some footnotes:

1. What's the obsession with video conferencing?  Who wants to get dressed before a phone call anyway? Front facing cameras are very common in Nokia devices, yet, I'm not familiar with a single person using them.
2. I can see why Multitasking is missing. I feel it on my iPhone. However, the combination of apps loading fast and keeping their previous state with notifications (like incoming call or chat) makes it much less of an issue. Eventually, it will come.
3. Sites requiring Flash?  As a long time Mac user I encounter sites that don't work well with browsers other than Internet Explorer. I use remote desktop for those sites. You can do that from the iPad. In the long run, I do my best to avoid these sites (it's something to consider when picking a bank, a Telco, etc.).
4. Keep in mind this is the first iteration of a brand-new device. Let's leave something for v2 (otherwise, nobody will want to upgrade :-).
5. This can be huge in an enterprise setting. Think about all the hi-tech action shows (CSI, 24) with their cool tablets. 

Installing Eclipse Galileo on Mac OS X

I wrote two articles on this issue in the past and I'm still get a lot of search hits everyday for people searching for answers, which means it is still a hot topic. Things changed a bit since I wrote the articles, so it's worth bringing this update.

If you check the Eclipse download page, you will notice that there are plenty of options to choose from. 

The purpose of this post is to help you make the best selection and install it properly. It applies to all the Eclipse packages, including Java, JEE, PHP and C++. I did my best to assume little knowledge with Eclipse. If you still have questions, please ask in the comments.

Leopard (10.5.x) Users

Download the Mac Cocoa 32-Bit version.  

The Carbon version is there in case you encounter compatibility issues with older plugins. The 64-Bit is there in case you need to run a plugin which requires Java 1.6, since Leopard Java 1.6 is only 64-Bit. Otherwise, I don't see a real reason to use it (although not everybody agrees) and you will be wasting RAM and machine resources.

Read the original post for more details. 

Snow Leopard (10.6.x) Users

Download the Mac Cocoa 64-Bit version. 

Again, the Carbon version is there in case you encounter compatibility issues with older plugins. The main reason you would want to use the 32-Bit version is because of plugins which are incompatible with 64-Bit. This time, the 32-Bit version will waste your resources because you will cause the OS to start a whole bunch of 32-Bit services.

Read the original post for more details. 

The 64-Bit Eclipse will consume more memory than a 32-Bit Eclipse of Leopard. There's a small tweak you can use to reduce the memory consumption of the 64-Bit Eclipse: add the UseCompressedOops flag to the Eclipse JVM. Here's how:

1. After you downloaded the Eclipse package, decompress it. Locate your Eclipse.app.
2. Right-click it and select Show Package Contents.
3. Under Contents/MacOS, locate the eclipse.ini file. Open it with a text editor.
4. At the end of the file, add two lines:
   -XX:+UseParallelGC
   -XX:+UseCompressedOops
5. Save and close the file.

Full explanation on the UseCompressedOops switch can be found here. Note that this option may not be the most stable: if you experience crashes, remove it.

Installing Eclipse

After you downloaded Eclipse and untar/ungzip it, you will get a folder called eclipse. Several people asked my what's the best practice for installing Eclipse. Eclipse is a bit different than other Mac applications. It needs to stay in the same folder with all the files that came along with it. So, naturally, installing the Eclipse.app directly in your Applications folder is a bad idea. 

My favorite is this:

• Create a folder inside your Applications folder called Dev. This folder hosts all my development related applications.
• Copy the eclipse folder to the Dev folder.

Note that there's no limitation on the number of Eclipse installations you can have in this Dev folder. For example, I have both Eclipse 3.4 and 3.5 installed. I even have Eclipse 3.5 Carbon which I use for testing. You can rename the eclipse folder after unzipping the downloaded zip: I usually use the full name of the zip (sans the suffix) as the name of the folder.

Your Workspace

The default Eclipse distribution will ask you for a workspace by default. I have a number of workspaces and I switch between them. I keep my workspaces under ~/dev/workspaces/<my workspace>

Final Thoughts

Installing Eclipse on Mac OS X is a simple task. If you want to simplify it even further, including ease the installation of Plugins (like nWire :-), I suggest looking into a more user friendly and powerful distribution like Pulse.

Eclipse, Java and Snow Leopard

Update: I wrote a new post on this topic, giving more tips and details.

I'm getting about 50 hits a day from people searching for the simple answer "Eclipse Cocoa vs. Carbon" and ending up in my previous article. In the past, I recommended installing Eclipse Cocoa 32-bit. However, now that Snow Leopard (SL) is out, the situation changed and an update is in order.

There are some major news regarding Java in SL. First, it ships with Java 6 only. This includes 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The 32-bit is something which was unknown until the release of SL and it means Java 6 will be available on older intel machines which are not 64-bit capable (Intel Core Duo). Second, the 64-bit version is the default for users running 64-bit capable machines (Intel Core 2 Duo).

This means that unsuspecting users downloading Eclipse from eclipse.org will not be able to run it because the default Cocoa packages are 32-bit. There are a number of options for SL users: 

1. Change the default JVM to 32-bit using the Java Preferences application (under /Applications/Utilities).
2. Change the JVM for the Eclipse instance specifically. That's more of a hassle.
3. Work with 64-bit Eclipse. This installation may require more work, as there are no ready made Eclipse Packages for 64-bit Cocoa at the time of this writing.

In the past, I argued that running Eclipse in 64-bit has no advantage and just wastes memory. This may be the case in Leopard, but in SL, the situation may be different. The following is a quote from a comment on my previous post by Mike Swingler, a Java Runtime Engineer at Apple: "There is no reason to not use Cocoa/64-bit. Snow Leopard ships with Java SE 6 64-bit by default, and every other app on the system is 64-bit as well. Loading a 32-bit Eclipse is only going to page in a complete copy of every dependent framework on the system and waste time and space."

If this is the case, you should be running Eclipse in 64-bit Cocoa in Snow Leopard. My recommendation regarding Leopard is still the same.

There are no ready-made packages (e.g. JEE, PHP, etc.) for this architecture (vote for this bug if you want the situation to change). However, you can download the basic Eclipse Classic directly from the Eclipse.org downloads page (64-bit available only for the Eclipse Classic) and install the plugins as one package in a very simple process. See this post for a complete screencast or this post if you prefer simple screenshots walkthrough.

Finally, if you plan to do some Java development, you may find out that your JREs are not working properly. In that case, you can just delete your current JREs and search for new ones. This can be done under Eclipse -> Preferences -> Java -> Installed JREs. Also make sure that you have a working JRE selected for your Java projects, in the Project settings (under Build Path -> Libraries). 

The Mozy Fiasco: a Lesson on Customer Care

Mozy is an online backup service. They offer 2 GB of free online backup. Sounds sweet. I've been using their services (free edition) for over a year now as my secondary, off-site, backup solution. It worked just fine and I was a happy customer. Until that day. 

Mozy upgraded their client and the new version is incompatible with Apple's own Time Machine backup utility which is built in OS X. How incompatible?  I am using Time Machine over the local network with my beloved Time Capsule. This is my primary backup. One day, the backup stopped working. I found that the backup image was corrupt. I tried resuscitating it (almost 2 days of disk utility hogging my CPU) but it was just lost. I spent almost a day trying to start a backup from scratch. All my attempts were in vain.

Eventually, I googled a few messages from the Console which led me to some forum discussions. Reading through them I found out that it was Mozy's fault. I uninstalled Mozy and my Time Machine is now running smoothly. My previous image with a year of backups, is gone for good. 

I'm a software developer so I know that bugs happen. I'm not angry at Mozy for having bugs. Sure, I would expect a higher level of testing, after all having a Time Capsule is very common among backup-conscious Mac Users. But I can understand that this might happen. What I cannot accept is that Mozy knew about it and kept quite. 

Backup is a crucial business service for me. I need my service provider to be 100% trust worthy. This means being transparent and forthcoming. Mozy lost my trust. 

There's a lesson to learn here. Following the twitts and forum posts regarding Mozy (they don't keep a forum of their own) it's clear that I'm not the only one and they are bleeding. Bugs happen. The best thing you can do is fix them and issue an update on the spot. The least you should do is alert your customers even at the price of bad PR. Customer service is the key to viral marketing and the damage caused by negative viral reactions may be more expensive. Or is it?