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In Which OS Do You Feel More Productive?
HTMLChecker asks: "I found an article in which the author talks about how she is more productive using Mac OS X.
What about the people of Slashdot? Where do you feel more productive, in Linux? Windows? DOS? Mac OS X? Also, what is the best way to rate productivity in an OS?"
This question is critical in all environments, end-user and enterprise. The answer is really another question. What role does the end-user or server need to do? If the end-user wants to simply read websites, check mail, and write a document or two, a Celeron with Windows XP is the ideal choice. If an end-user wants to play with multiple OSs in VMware, terminal service to their house from work, and play the latest games, a P4 with W2K is the ideal choice. If a server is going to perform SMTP/POP3/IMAP/webmail, I would recommend an HP DL 380 G4 with RHEL 3.0. If they want to upgrade their domain controllers, I'd go for HP DL 380 with W2K3.
Not to mention OS X has a decided lack in the virus and spyware departments that certain other OSes are plagued with. Not having to reformat or reinstall the OS every other week adds a great deal to productivity I would say.
Is Quake 3 an operating system??? :)
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing. Emo Philips
I'd have to say that this topic and pretty much all the replies, as is typical of slashdot, is just one big flaimbait trollfest.
Windows, Windows, Windows.
:) Where they loose on stability & security they win on those two key values imho.
Yeah yeah, i know, all Linux / Open Source Zealots starts to bash me now.
But it is true:
Windows is fast starting from the install.
You get windows box working well in 2hours easily, 3hours if doing some customization other than few settings.
Them there is software support:
Photoshop
Dreamweaver
of the most notable ones.
Haven't still foudn anything that can replace those two with atleast the same productivity!
I do a lot of web coding, daily, even it is not my work, about everyday i code something.
Then there is Microsoft Office, in my opinion,
open office doesn't come even close to the productivity.
Oh yeah, i have unwillingly been even on office course learning how to use them, after you get how M$ Office works, it's just FAST, and CAPABLE.
Then the OS Gui itself... Well Windows has it's annoyances right where every else GUI but it is fast also.
And atleast in my use very rarely crashes.
My puter is up 24/7 most of the time, and i do A LOT of tasks at the sametime, and it is stable enough.
Putty handles connections to server, and i do some of the coding directly with vim on the servers, but most happens on Dreamweaver as it
handles colour coding, automatic uploading etc etc.
Photoshop is on the graphics side most creative, GIMP simply SUCKS compared to it.
On Linux after installing it which takes about 1hour, you need to start finding drivers, then possibly even debug them & fiddle around quite a long to get them working.
Then you have obscure problems like you can't get 5.1 support (audio) work etc etc.
with poor selection of Distro also UTF-8 problems, no application support etc etc etc.
BUNCH of hindrances.
I used to like Linux a lot and recommend it into every place possible, but it is just not viable.
Linux works well on servers etc. but don't take
it even near to desktop if you need to be even
somewhat near to today's level in productivity.
Where do i need Linux's stability on desktop? Does my desktop need 100d+ uptime? No.
Windows is well stabile enough for desktop with it's average 20d+ uptimes.
Updates are easy to do, no need to compile stuff, simply works.
Tell me where to get something to replace
dreamweaver & photoshop which comes even close
to their productivity and i might give linux
a shot again on desktop.
But for sure, it is still not fast as windows because of the GUI.
Linux was made by geeks to geeks. Not by geeks to mainstream.
Thus mainstream people will not adapt to linux until some of the geeks understand that productivity & ease of use are key values in desktop success.
About Mac OS i don't know, but given the options
i've had so far, Windows takes the winning.
M$ people has worked hard on the productivity & ease of use side
And let the flame wars begin!
Now all Linux advocates comes bashing me, but i don't care, as i get the job done in half the time as they do.
Pulsed Media Seedboxes
Well, I appreciate you comment although I personally disagree, but... having X in userspace is the whole point of it, really. It means less "critical" code to mantain, and it usually leads to less security flaws. More, I don't think that having X integrated with the OS would necessarily mean a faster X. Also keep in mind that X11 was born for truly different reasons than M$Win. Can you have more than a person using a Windows computer at the same time with a GUI available?
As for keeping in topic, I must say that I'm a lot quick developing in GNU/Linux than in Windows or MacOSX. Probably everything is about habit, when you get right down to it; but speaking as an ex 13yrs-long Windows user, I can say that I got fed up with it for its counter-intuitive (yes, you heard me right) interfaces. I find a console damn simpler (maybe because I started with MSDOS so I ain't afraid of typing), and it doesn't force me to do what M$ wants because I don't understand what I'm doing, I'm forced _to learn_. And someone that has learned _why_ a thing works that way, can use it faster and better the second time. Maybe this is why a lot of Unix users don't like Windows (more than for ethical / political issues): they find themselves limited, like passing from swimming in the sea to swim in a seven ft. depth pool.
Also, on my old PIII 500Mhz 128Mb RAM, a Gnome 2.4 DE was twice as fast than Win98!! I even tried XP once, you know, but it lasted three days or so, even on my new 2.4Ghz 256Mb RAM. Just opening "My computer" made me cringe, and gave me the time to rewatch a Kurosawa's movie from the beginning to the end.
Another thing I found really simplier in GNU/Linux, is installing new software. It gets where you would like it to get (I really like the Unix approach: divide the files by function, not by productor), and a good package manager (I use emerge) does everything you want: download the needed files for you, solves dependencies, and install it automagically.
In Windows, you had to go to the site, download the program, accept fourteen licenses, install it, wait for it to add 5000 keys to the register (and thus making it slow in a couple of days...), and so on.
Unix systems are known to apply the KISS philosophy. But in Windows I had to keep: Media Player for wma, DivX player for DivX, WinAMP to play OGG, Adobe Acrobat to see PDFs... in Linux I just type "mplayer filename" or "xpdf othername" and I'm set up.
Last time I tried to set up a network in Windows, I got those six or seven errors that are cryptic and inexplicable, such as "the host could be disconnected" (when I could ping it?) and "unknown error" (winxp, if you're wondering). To get two computer connected via crossover cable, I had to configure one, disable network for it (it takes >2 minutes, don't ask me why), disable network for the other one, enable it for the first, enable it for the second, disable it for the first, re-enable for the first (dhcp related problem). Okay, there's a good explanation and it's not the Right Way(tm) to do it, I can admit it. But what's up with an "ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.1" on the first computer (with the dhcp server) and "dhcpcd eth0" on the other(s)? And it didn't took >2 min per operation, I assure you.
A thing I couldn't really do without, is the Unix "API". "CreateProcess" & friends give me the willies, when you just need a "fork()" and an "exec??()". I found Unix libraries syntax much more clean, less bloated and well built than its M$ counterpart. Do you need a pipe? "man pipe". Do you need a socket? "man socket". As simple as that. Threading? "apropos thread", "man pthread_create".
At the end, Unix was wrote in academics by academics for academics, while M$ products were wrote in corporation by corporates for corporations. The first one is a more "elegant" approach, which is often explained with elegant math formulas, stratified development and clean design. On the other side, it all seem to me a huge hack (except for NT 3.0, wrote by a VMS engineer
42.
"Scroll Wheel" any OS or platform that does not support this is wasting time! Hence less productive.
ftp://81.86.159.146/latest.png - need I say more?
BTW, might want to get rid of that immediate link to the DVD copy crack on your site, http://brainglass.com/downloads.htm Them there RIAA, MPAA and SPA folks are monitoring this site, ya know. :)
Q: How low can a Mac user go?
A: Low enough.