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270 Comments
- xninjatylerx, on 07/14/2009, -15/+67i love ubuntu but it's nothing compared to windows or mac (yet) Ubuntu is Ubuntu and nothing else, Ubuntu always seems to be caught up in being another operating system but they should really focus on being Ubuntu and not try to be windows or mac, they are a fast growing OS and they dont have to pretend or to be or suck up to anyone else
- spinchange, on 07/14/2009, -4/+39"The worst-kept secret of the OS wars is that Apple sells OS X to consumers by selling its applications, not by selling the OS itself. Sure, occasionally a new Dock feature will make it into John Hodgeman and Justin Long commercials, but most of the hard marketing is done on iPhoto, iTunes, iWork and the rest. Ubuntu, of course, ships with far more bundled applications than OS X, but from a usability perspective the system defaults are where the head-to-head comparison belongs."
- buddamus, on 07/14/2009, -7/+40Its nice to see an Linux Vs Apple article, Its a nice change from Linux Vs Microsoft thats always popping up
- toastmonster, on 07/14/2009, -4/+32Buried for the full-screen pop-up and multi-page list. Sorry.
- Punch405, on 07/14/2009, -0/+27A lot of people that run Windows can't set that up, either. Or keep it clean.
- forevernomad, on 07/14/2009, -19/+42So many comments about Ubuntu always needing you ***** around in some random text file or cmd line codes to get it working, rubbish! I use all three OSes(?) and by far Ubuntu is the simplest to use. Examples -
I need some software to do this one thing just once:
Ubuntu - Quick search on the repository finds compatible software that I can install, use and uninstall quickly and simply.
Windows - spend a few hours searching google for non infected software that does what I want for free then remember to watch for checkboxes that want to install evey pointless toolbar known to man and get rid of it when I'm done, but always leave the remnants in the registry.
OSx - Spend even more time looking for free software of any kind, then looking for the software I need, at least uninstalling it is simple.
Updating the system:
Ubuntu - click the button and continue working (unless kernel update)
Windows - click the button, restart, restart again then I can carry on (or wait until I switch off)
OSx - click the button, restart, continue working.(even for itunes!)
General working:
Ubuntu - has almost eveything I need to work perfectly.
Windows - firefox, vlc, irfanview, openoffice, avg, winamp, nice set of software.
OSx - iwork, ilife and itunes about covers it.
Games:
Ubuntu - With wine installed you would be really surprised how well games run.
Windows - well ok all games run.
OSx - Are you kidding me, games, ***** off I'm a mac.
The only real issue I have found with Ubuntu is that a lot of flash games will not work ie, zylom, arcadetown, with wine installed I have to use a windows version of firefox to be able to download and play them through wine, nightmare and completely unnecessary. - ZippyV, on 07/14/2009, -0/+20I've had problems when a copied text is not available anymore when I close the application where I copied from.
- waspbr, on 07/14/2009, -9/+28depending on what exactly you want to do with your computer, ubuntu, or more generally linux distros can are much more prefered than mac OS X. I myself use my computer to do computational simuations, the versatility of linux makes it the ideal choice for that, besides beign free and all.
Though if one wants to use their OS without any tinkering, where money is not a problem. Then OS X will work, I think of macs mostly as an appliance, you just use it as it is. It is user friendly for media stuff, but again you will have to cough up a bit of cash.
ubuntu can be very easy to use, heck, I have installed ubuntu on my mom's PC and in less than 1 hour everything was sorted including some apps that she uses like skype, picassa and windows spider solitaire (through wine), I also enabled 3d effects and put on gnome-do's docky, to make things more accessible.
Both OSs are good though I do reckon that linux in general is better value for money and the quality of the OS has been increasing noticeably.
Use what works for you. - mickstephenson, on 07/14/2009, -0/+18"I've had problems when a copied text is not available anymore when I close the application where I copied from."
Firefox is the most annoying culprit for this. - insanebrain, on 07/14/2009, -2/+20What's wrong with the clipboard ?
- sqtab, on 07/14/2009, -5/+22As someone that uses both operating systems almost everyday, I think I can lend some insight.
Let me first say though that I LOVE Free Software and want to see GNU/Linux/Ubuntu go as far as it can.
I think Mark Shuttleworth does make a good point. If there is ONE OS to aspire to, it's probably Mac OS X. I mean, OS X is, in so many ways, a lesson in simplicity, ease-of-use, non-distraction, focus, and beauty. I'm not sure how else to put it.
I will admit though that as someone surrounded by Microsoft Windows, it is easy to overlook the features it brings: An OS for the masses, the ability to run on most hardware, an incredible array of software, ....
At the end of the day though, if one actually sits down and uses a Mac, the focus, ease of use, and almost complete lack of distraction are undeniable. Everything seems to be done with so much elegance. The hardware is pristine; the interface is clean; installation of programs is a simple drag-and-drop; removal of programs is a simple drag to the trash; there are no annoying pop-ups; there is no need for annoying anti-virus software; the system is always responsive; rebooting is rarely necessary; going to sleep and resuming from sleep is almost instant; and so on and so forth. And most people are already very well aware that iTunes is the standard, bar none. The rest of the iLife suite is also extremely impressive.
Using a Mac is a lesson in clean, elegant, beatiful design. The *attention to detail* is just so impressive.
Windows 7 is shaping up to be probably the best Windows version in history. Up to this point, I dare say that Windows XP was probably the best version ever to ship. It is great testimony that XP is still in use 8 years after its original release. That's impressive!
It is also great testimony however that even Microsoft has, for probably about 3 decades, always aspired to make their OS more like Mac.
The GNU/Linux/Ubuntu family will do very well to hold itself to such exacting standards of uncompromised engineering and clean, elegant design. - korvins, on 07/14/2009, -1/+16Ubuntu is nice but the site is down.
- Tiak, on 07/14/2009, -4/+19mirror:
http://74.125.155.132/search?rlz=1C1GGLS_en-USUS29 ... - MacParrot, on 07/14/2009, -1/+15I have a friend whose kids are almost always on their computers not letting Mom on. I could go into talking about a permissive society and how she COULD simply put her foot down and say GTFO the computer so I can use it, but that's neither here nor there.
She asked about possibly getting a Mac so she wouldn't have to worry about all those viruses and such (her words not mine as it's relatively simple to keep Windows free from that junk now) and I reminded her that the cost of a Mac isn't cheap. It's worth it for me, but she just wants to check her email and go online. Not exactly pushing the envelope no matter what OS you prefer. She told me she has a 4-year old laptop, but it hasn't worked (probably OS problems as it's most likely a rarely updated version of XP) in a long time. I suggested taking it to a local computer shop (she's about a 7-9 hour drive away) and have them configure Ubuntu for her. Cheaper than a new laptop, certainly less expensive than getting a Mac, and on an older laptop there shouldn't be any driver issues. Put the shortcuts for FireFox and whatever mail program comes with Ubuntu and she should be good to go.
Many times Windows or OS X is going to be overkill for what a lot of people actually use their computer for. - Spuy767, on 07/14/2009, -0/+14You didn't happen to copy the rest of the article did you? WordPress, as per usual, has ***** the bed.
- Spuy767, on 07/14/2009, -1/+14Moot!!! The point is ***** MOOT, not goddamned mute.
- yevkasem, on 07/14/2009, -6/+17i think a better metaphor is how does a amphibious boatcar with wings compare to a tour bus that you have almost no control over?
- pixelguru, on 07/14/2009, -1/+12You could use OS X as a "appliance", but you can also easily dig beneath the glossy surface and tap the command line power of the BSD Unix that runs the core of the OS. Apache, PHP, Ruby, Rails, and Python are pre-installed, and apple ships XCode with every Mac. Or you could use all this power to just run iPhoto & iTunes... your choice.
- spinalcracker, on 07/14/2009, -1/+12Exactly... his mom I am sure couldn't install windows and get the apps setup either so the point is mute. Also, the fact that his mom has probably only ever been exposed to a single OS, that being windows, the fact that she could comfortably use Ubuntu I think speaks to it's ease of use.
I honestly think people like to bash Ubuntu to feel justified in paying for Windows either as a retail buy or with MS tax.
and to play devil's advocate, Linux users that like to bash windows like crazy seem elitist. (Although releases like ME and VISTA gave a lot of fuel to the argument, but XP and Seven both are great pc's of software)
Fact is All modern OS's do a lot of things right and all can use some tweaking. - repruhsent, on 07/14/2009, -12/+22Totally, if you like editing config files to get your sound working, ***** with settings to get Flash working...
I rather like not having to dick with my machines when I get home from my paying job. - pyrates, on 07/14/2009, -9/+19I'd like to make a comment on the 100 paper cuts. The main thing that people have wanted fixed was to have a proper clipboard on linux. The developers shot it down. I can definitely tell that the ubuntu brainstorm website is populated by traditional linux users because of suggestions that get put up that OS X is doing they don't want.
- paulsmith288, on 07/14/2009, -4/+14A couple of years ago I switched my desktop from OSX to Ubuntu (although Im the only one in the office to do so) - Because of the apps. We use linux on the servers so it was a good choice from a work point of view - although the servers run RHEL which isnt the same as debian.
I dont use photoshop for example and the gimp is more than enough for me. I found mysql , apache , php all to be bastards to install compared to a debian based linux. Lots of things I use wanted to be installed via fink - and X windows under OSX is *****.
Guess Im so used to open source software and decent package managers that any other way of doing things seems 1990s. - freediverx, on 07/14/2009, -2/+12Let's have this comparison on a rainy day driving home with five bags of groceries...
- Spuy767, on 07/14/2009, -1/+10OS X and Ubuntu are still miles ahead of Windows in terms of windows apps leaving ***** files and system settings on your computer. OS X is probably a hair superior to Ubuntu in that respect as well. Most apps on OS X, unless they use unsupported features or APIs can be drag and drop installed anywhere and uninstallation is generally as simple as deletion of the file in the applications folder. There are settings left behind that are fairly easy to get to if you really want to delete a file, but they are negligible in size and have no impact on overall system performance whereas with a system like the registry, which is essentially a mediocre database where the more information you pack in there, the more ***** the computer has to sift through to find your information. Another problem with the registry is that if an applications uninstaller leaves crap behind, it can be extremely difficult to get rid of what's left.
- minjae0810, on 07/14/2009, -1/+10This is like comparing a penguin to an apple 0.o
- AngelBunny, on 07/14/2009, -1/+10What an awkward form of stereotyping. Just because a select percent of users on OSX are grandmothers who can't figure out how to even use windows properly doesn't mean power users do not use it as well.
- fungie5, on 07/14/2009, -5/+13Actually it's the 'Linux requires loads of tinkering' argument that's arcane.
I use both Ubuntu and Windows and it's Windows that's far more work to maintain. I don't have to do anything to Ubuntu - I just use it. Ubuntu pre-configured all my hardware in the 15 minutes that it took to install it. On Windows, if you fail to be proactive by making use of up-to-date security software or fail to manually update exploit-prone plug-ins (eg. Flash) or programs (eg. Quicktime), your PC becomes OWNED and you unwittingly become a member of the latest botnet. Every hour I spend using Ubuntu is one less hour that my PC doesn't spend on background and scheduled anti-virus/malware scans while running Windows. In fact, since I now rarely use Windows to surf the Net, I only need to do system scans once a month, if any. Macs are for those who don't have any problem with depending indefinitely on a single profit-driven vendor for all their hardware and software needs. That's not me. - ZippyV, on 07/14/2009, -2/+9Uninstalling software in Ubuntu does leave traces in your profile directory. Windows is not the only os that has this problem.
- Balanced, on 07/14/2009, -3/+10Some comments:
I haven't seen a 'double restart' in Windows in a long time..
Your 'General working' seems very specific to your needs.
Wine can run on Mac OS X, too. - JQP123, on 07/14/2009, -0/+7"The developers shot it down."
Welcome to the dark side of Open Source. The developers aren't really accountable to anyone but themselves --- so piss off, noob! - TimtheTaxMan, on 07/14/2009, -0/+7It’s really not bad. I use Ubuntu on one of my laptops and everything works fine. It’s a good operating system for web browsing and general office work. The only thing is not any good for is gaming, so stick to windows if you’re a gamer.
If you download and burn an Ubuntu CD, you can boot from that disk to try it out and see if you like it before you install. Just keep in mind that it will run a lot slower when booted from CD. - yooftheness, on 07/14/2009, -1/+8"Jaunty Jackalope introduces a new restricted drivers manager"
that's been there for a while guys .. wtg - Kamujin, on 07/14/2009, -4/+11As a user of all 3 major OS's, I happen to prefer Ubuntu over OS X and Windows. This does not mean Ubuntu is perfect, but but for me and my use case, it seems to offer me the best solution. It runs well, on any hardware, and seems to be infinitely customizable. While harder to learn for intermediate level tasks, I find it to be the easiest system to use for advanced tasks.
I do like OS X, but I don't actually like the workflow of it. I think Apple has held on to some bad UI design principles which make it annoying to use for me. I do appreciate the beauty of the presentation, but that fades as soon as I try to use it for real work. Additionally, the lack of customization also frustrates me. Lastly, the hardware tying limits it usefulness to cases where Apple hardware will suffice, which is not always the case for me. - 3242130193, on 07/14/2009, -1/+7Well I'll try to clarify, even though I'm not sure how it works. Any time you highlight something, it gets copied to the clipboard and can be pasted by middle-clicking. When you use Ctrl+c, I think it gets copied to a separate clipboard. However, sometimes it might get overridden if you highlight text.
I think this is horrible behavior frankly - highlighting is essential and used for more things than just copying. Example: I copy output from the terminal to search in Google, but there's already text in the Google searchbar. To delete it, the fastest way is to _highlight_ (oops) and paste over. Therefore, if I've already copied the text, I'll lose it when I delete the next one.
One possible solution: don't highlight things. Instead you can just hold the backspace key like we're still in the '90s. However, here's a really good solution: get a clipboard manager (like Glipper). It'll keep archives of however-many copies you specify so even if you copied something 10 times ago, it'll still be there. I think this is the best solution, personally, and makes it possible to live with this stupid behavior. - daPhoenix, on 07/14/2009, -2/+8Mac was at 11% in the latest and rising.
- Spuy767, on 07/14/2009, -3/+9Ummm, the amphibious boat car with wings is not a good car, it's ot a good boat, and it's not a good airplane. The tourbus is, however, a good tour bus.
- mrBitch, on 07/14/2009, -1/+7Most of the sys admins I know use their Macs / MacBooks to admin RHE Linux servers...
- kevinmoore, on 07/14/2009, -0/+6I work on a team of four people that manage clustered and load-balanced Linux application server environments for a large enterprise. Three of us use Macs at home and the fourth plans to buy one soon.
- crimsonredmk, on 07/14/2009, -2/+8You guys do know that 75% of proposed papercuts have been shot down as "too hard to fix"? That's what I love about Shuttleworth - a corporate drone that's just in it for the free press.
- thunderl, on 07/14/2009, -8/+14Linux does not have integration between its applications and most of the 3rd party software disappoints. It's missing a general concept for interface, and how you should develop software for it.
I've been using Linux for 2 whole years on my job and I'll never ever even think of using it again on my personal computer. If you like it - use it, but don't tell me it's better than OSX and Windows. It's nowhere near that end-user experience. - BurtCokain, on 07/14/2009, -1/+7Interesting article - I use both OS's on a regular basis. A few points:
* Audacity is available for OS X too and is a great tool! I use it more than Garageband.
* Generally I've found apple support communities to be friendlier than Linux ones, you usually get help in both, but with Open source forums, you get told "it's free, fix it yourself" or "rtfm noob" a lot more often than in mac forums (macrumors.com is great).
* That hardware support statement is not true. I've got two realtek based wireless adapters (both RTL818x, one PCI, one USB). They do not plug and play in either OS. In OS X, I found a third party tool from the hackintosh community that made them work. No joy in Ubuntu or debian - they cause a kernel panic and the OS won't even boot. - thectrain, on 07/14/2009, -0/+6If you copy from a program, and then close it, it removes what you copied from the clipboard.
A horrible horrible system. - gamepr0, on 07/14/2009, -0/+6@scottuss: I don't get why people hate the close button in OS X it's great to be able to start iTunes and play some music, then close the window so that you won't be annoyed by it ever again except for when you press the icon again. Without this system expose would be useless.
- FKnight, on 07/14/2009, -1/+7@scottuss
Buy a two button mouse like everyone else. - John6000, on 07/14/2009, -0/+5he was just posting ***** to get his sig up
- appleseed1234, on 07/14/2009, -7/+12There's the huge ***** elephant in the room of how much more visually appealing Mac and Windows are to consumers than just about any linux distro. Maybe I'll get buried for this but the people want eye candy, and you could say it's a matter of opinion but market shares don't lie.
- forevernomad, on 07/14/2009, -1/+6I have never noticed a slowdown on Ubuntu because of this and I really do install and remove a lot of stuff on the fly, I guess my point there was that Windows really has issues with it and it's very noticable in terms of system performance.
I tend to do a full format every 12 months just to clean the pipes. I've been using OS X and various variations of Linux for about 4 years and never felt the need to do that. But I've also never had to use a single distro for any lengthy period of time like I have with windows. - mrBitch, on 07/14/2009, -0/+5RE: " .. Ubuntu isn't just better than Windows, but OS X too."
I have used Linux since 1998, and have installed various distros from Gentoo to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu is a neat little Debian based distro, but if you think it beats OS X, then you have not spent much time using either OS. - drhdylan88, on 07/14/2009, -0/+5That would be a good point, except only iWork is not directly bundled with a mac now (iLife comes included), and iWork is $50 for a single license, which is basically theft compared to Microsoft Office. I know, I know, Linux is free and so on...
- christoast, on 07/14/2009, -7/+12Sorry you're an idiot. I feel for you.
btw: im not poor, but you're still an idiot -
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