[Tfug] Why Desktop Linux Holds Its Own Against OS X | bMighty.com

[Rich]

On Jan 7, 2009, at 7:23 am, Angus Scott-Fleming wrote:

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> Why Desktop Linux Holds Its Own Against OS X | bMighty.com: Blogs  
> For Small
> Business and Mid-Sized Business
>
>     ... Anything Linux can do, OS X can do better.
>
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> More here with links:
> http://www.bmighty.com/blog/main/archives/2009/01/why_desktop_lin.html
> http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=461

1. Flexibility? You can't run Gnome on OS X? Okay, if TechRepubic  
says so, I'd better stop.

2. Not open source, eh? Well the kernel is... but my drivers aren't  
all open. Same as my Linux box, really...

3. Okay, okay, I'll delete "Terminal.app", "xterm", and "gnome- 
terminal". Sheesh.

You get some nice commandline tools with OSX such as textutil,  
diskutil -- you can run numpty AppleScripts from the commandline too.  
Also the "open" command which opens a file as if you double-clicked  
it in Finder. (I keep typing "open <file>" on Linux by accident.)  
Compare to Windows, which has command-line and GUI tools to do  
*similar* but not quite the same things. Compare to Linux which has  
some good GUI tools for command-line stuff, but then some are  
completely useless. rdesktop comes to mind -- I can't specify color  
depth for RDC in the GUI and it assumes 8-bit.

4. Hardware requirements? I bought this Mac for its hardware, because  
there wasn't anything comparable from other manufacturers at the price.

5. Security -- fair enough. But of the commercial Unixes, it's the  
most secure.

6. Portability? While I've installed OS X twice, I haven't needed to.  
Upgrades aren't reinstalls. I cloned my iBook's and previous  
Powerbook's drives in turn; and each of the Powerbooks has had at  
least one drive. While OS X has just booted fine from a cloned drive  
with no anomalies, Linux has always died on drivers for me, and I've  
had to go in there and rescue them, same as Windows. Stick that in  
your "portability" pipe and smoke it, mister.

7. Cost of supported OS X: hundred and something dollars + the  
portion of "AppleCare" 3-year warranty that goes toward OS support,  
it being a given that most of it goes to support hardware. At most,  
$100/year for the OS. Cost of supported Linux: at least a couple of  
hundred, rising to a couple of thousand per year. Next?

8. "This may come as a surprise to you, but Linux has far more  
software available than OS X." Oh really? Then how come I can run ALL  
Linux software, plus Photoshop, MS Orifice, and iTunes? What's that  
you say? Gimp, OO.o and Songbird? OO.o comes very close, but the  
other two are barely adequate, which is fine. But "far more software"  
is just a blatant lie.

Unless he was talking about Linux drivers. I mean, they might  
outnumber all the OS X/non-Linux apps put together. Nope, it doesn't  
wash.

9. Not so dumbed down === not so easy. I bought my Mac because it's  
Unix laptop I can use when I'm drunk. Now I don't get drunk, because  
I have a toddler to deal with. Same difference. I can play at Macs  
while he plays at woodblock demolition.

10. Keyboard efficiency. Whine whine delete key. So install a patch.  
DoubleCommand should do.

11. Oh was that all he had to say? Shame I was enjoying it.

Note: I would truly love to be rid of OS X, but nothing comes even  
close for usability.

R.