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

[Marco Savo]

NO comment.
1. This is FREE Unix Group? How Richard Stallman says:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html
"For the free software movement, free software is an ethical imperative,
because only free software respects the users' freedom. By contrast, the
philosophy of open source considers issues in terms of how to make software
"better"—in a practical sense only. It says that non-free software is a
suboptimal solution. For the free software movement, however, non-free
software is a social problem, and moving to free software is the solution."

2. My personal experience with Mac is that the hardware is good, but you pay
twice for a fashionable toy, and the software usually have problems. Not
that Linux or BSD doesn't, but I usually fix these problems or find a
solution even doing research on-line, for Mac you need to pay for "support".

3. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/04/apple_more_closed_than_microsoft/This
article talk enough how close is the Apple architecture

4. Linux run practically on everything: from the smallest architecture to
the supercomputer of 10 teraflops, you have version real time, server,
router firewall...

5. I run Ubuntu on my Dell laptop. I saved some money buying it with Ubuntu
preinstalled, instead then with Windows. Never had problems. It's the first
time for me with a computer.

On Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 8:06 AM, Rich <r-lists at studiosprocket.com> wrote:

>
> On Jan 7, 2009, at 7:23 am, Angus Scott-Fleming wrote:
>
>
>> ------- Included Stuff Follows -------
>> 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.
>>
>> --------- Included Stuff Ends ---------
>> 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.
>
>
>
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-- 
'The Magic Is In the Movement'

Marco Savo
SW Engineer

882 East Glenn St.
Tucson, AZ 85719
+1 (520) 623-2313
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