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Ubuntu, Macintosh and Windows XP
LXer has an interesting look at the big three operating systems with some surprising results. From the article: "If you think that a Linux advocate cannot make an objective analysis of desktop operating systems, then you need to read this report. You may find yourself surprised with some brutal honesty that leaves out the free software philosophy."
Have there been any really good studies showing this? I'm aware of a few very small samplnigs that show something like this, but nothing that was statistically significant. I'd be grateful if anyone knows of a good study showing usages. Anecdotally, Red Hat dominates my group of friends -- if we knew about a survey, we'd probably skew it pretty good too.
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm
I wonder if the /. editors are on the take from pharmaceutical companies that sell anti-hypertension drugs?
It seems like once a day there is an article like this that provides no real content, but may inspire limited skirmishes between hotheaded zealots. No doubt some of them are on these medications.
Or maybe the editors just like to see the ants fight after they shake up the bottle.
Franklin Hoenikker, is that you?
I've developed networking code on both Linux and Windows, and by my estimates I can get stuff up and running in half the time under Linux with it's standard socket interface. Basically, the Windows tools are designed to be good at cranking out MDI applications; once you attempt to move outside Microsoft's standard application model, getting anything to work properly becomes like pulling teeth. Now, if you wanted to compare writing straight GUI code in Xlib versus Windows, I don't know; Microsoft may have an advantage there.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Really? Windows has excellent development tools (almost all 3rd party tools run on Windows, and Visual Studio is usually considered one of the best if not the best IDE for development).
*cough* Ok, I'm not going to get into a debate about VS with you. It's been about two yearsa since I used it and it may have changed. But my residual opinion of it is vastly different from yours.
Having said that, I don't think Windows is a good development environment for the very non-scientific, non-quantifiable reason that I feel more productive under OS X. Yes, you can get many of the same tools that come with OS X for Windows, such as GNU Screen, vim, and others.
But like the author of the article in question, I started out with MS operating systems back on DOS 3.0. I used MS OS's for almost 20 years before I switched to OS X, and I was amazed at the cohesiveness of that OS. I get more done because of things both small and large.
And so forth. None of these things are killers in and of themselves, but taken together they tend to make your development efforts far less time intensive.
There are open source programs that provide some of the functionality of commercial desktop software. The problem is that for business you need software that is bug-for-bug compatible. Yes, it's deeply wrong that Microsoft file formats are a mess equalled only by the Emacs undumper in pure evil non-compatibility in the open-source world... but that doesn't change the fact that bug-for-bug compatibility is needed.
The Gimp is a decent tool. There's better free software on the Mac, and none of it runs Photoshop plugins and filters.
People use operating systems to run applications. Even on the Mac, which has thousands of times the application base of Linux, the lack of Windows applications hurts... because getting someone to choose applications on the basis of the operating system they run is hard enough as it is...
You're just as locked out of Windows if it's bootloader fails. I've never once had a problem with grub in the MBR on a multitude of systems, and most people don't. I have had a problem with the NTLDR, though. Does that mean that Windows must then suck, and not be at all good for new users? /. about things not working exactly as they do in Windows?
Better yet, what did you do with the bootloader to make it fail? Did you try to configure something offbeat? Did you submit a bug report? Or did you just come and bitch on
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
I don't do much in the area of Framemaker or Pagemaker, but most desktops will do fine with the functionality present in OpenOffice.org Draw
A better substitute, IMO, would be Scribus. But OO.o is pretty decent for what's included.
So that's "page hit ranking"... what does that mean? more people having problems with Ubuntu so they hit the pages more looking for answers? how are they ranked?
It's interesting to be since I have a fairly complicated return (including long and short term gains on taxable stock sales), I live in a sales tax state so I had that, I have accounts with interest income, my income is decent so I run it through the AMT (apparently I don't know what "decent" really is since AMT doesn't apply to me), I have a mortgage and school taxes. I'm reasonably smart but basically a "B" type not some superbrain.
My 2006 taxes took me about 100 minutes to complete from start to finish- by hand- without a program. The only thing I needed a calculator for was the sales tax thing (for the love of god could they have made it more complicated-- multiply the base amount by something like 1.337?).
Besides you only use tax software once a year as it is. Most people who would be interested in free software won't make enough that tax software would matter anyway.
Personally, I think the -government- should be required to produce a generic "C" program or web page that calculates your taxes according to the tax code and if it is wrong, you only pay interest- no penalties. Tax collection is a government function- it's insane that we have these huge industries built around calculating your taxes.
Sure-- 10% of the population would still need accountants and so on but 90% really don't need these things.
I'm moving pretty aggressively towards opensource software and mildly aggressively towards linix. It won't be because of the cost- I can buy a complete windows system at Fry's for $369 - slap in a hot video card and a cool quiet power supply and match 90% of the score of any single card $1800 system on the plant. How they do this when the operating system alone costs me $99 and the bloody hardware in the computer is worth over $369 purchased piecemeal is beyond me. Microsoft must be giving the OEM folks OS's for almost free.
No- the reason I will leave windows (and not go to mac) is because of DRM.
It's MY COMPUTER. Unless they are going to BUY it for me and give it to me free, I'm not going to give them money for a system that is going to snoop and report on what I'm doing, tell me what software I can and can't run, and tell me what content I can and cannot play.
Sure- I may have a $379 special version of whatever windows is out there the rest of my life- I also might have a PS2 or XBOX for the same reason- to play games (Tho there is a ton of MAME content out there these days for linux).
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
1) GIMP does not equal Photoshop. Yes, it has most of the functionality. Yes, it's plenty powerful for almost everyone. However, it is NOT Photoshop. The commands are different, and if you've just spent a year learning Photoshop, you probably won't want to spend another year learning a completely different system, which won't be installed on most computers.
2) Pagemaker is a LOT better than Draw for, say, laying out a newsletter. Yes, yes, LaTeX... but why learn a complicated system when there's an easy one available?
3) Dia may do for planning your network, but Visio is good for a lot of other things. Just because you only want it for one thing doesn't mean that's all it can be used for...
4) OK, can't argue with this one. The only advantage to Access is that it's more universally available on the Windows platform, and I don't see that as much of an advantage.
5) Wouldn't know about PDF Converters, since I mostly don't bother with PDF.
6) Writing my congressman doesn't help me play a movie tonight, tomorrow, next week, or probably even this year. People want immediate solutions. Let's keep working on the long term, but I'd like to watch my movies legally now, thanks very much. Of course, I have a DVD player, and a decent TV, so I don't really care whether my computer can play them.
The simple fact is that using Windows or MacOS X is EASIER if you don't already know linux. I use linux as my primary daily OS, but there are still things I end up going to Windows for, because they just work better. I prefer Visio to anything I've found in linux, and I'd rather be able to play my games without having to hope WINE is up to the task.
6) Writing my congressman doesn't help me play a movie tonight, tomorrow, next week, or probably even this year. People want immediate solutions. Let's keep working on the long term, but I'd like to watch my movies legally now, thanks very much. Of course, I have a DVD player, and a decent TV, so I don't really care whether my computer can play them.
Y'know, we bitch about this one quite a bit, but the fact is that software decoders must be legal on some level, or they wouldn't exist for windows either. And the licensing fees can't be too outrageous, because many popular DVDs come with software decoder "upgrades." So what we need to do is start some kind of foundation and get people to donate to it (or sell something related people would want to buy) and purchase a license.
In fact, I wonder if I haven't missed the boat and someone's already doing this right now...
Sure it might be a less principled action than getting sufficiently large groups of people to set aside their militant apathy* and get congress to vote the "right" way, but there are are so many other more important things they could be spending their energy on if they'd bother to care about anything at all that it seems a bit selfish even.
*a term I'm sure I wasn't the first to coin, which is the only way I can describe the reaction of a friend of mine when I tried to engage in a little political discussion. I'd never before heard the phrase, "I don't care" uttered with so much passion.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
I've installed Linux on desktop machines over about a 10 year cycle. I started with Red Hat and Caldera, went exclusively with RH, then kind of fell behind. Now I've tried SuSE, FC4 and Ubuntu. All of them kind of suck in one way or another, as far as the home user is concerned.
I'm frustrated by the "Open Source-iness" concept. If I get windows or a mac, I know my video card will work. I know I can play a friggin MP3. I know that QuickTime will function. As a home user, I don't care if nVidia isn't open, I just want my damn card to work. I don't care that some dude patented MP3, I just want my songs to play.
Granted most home users aren't running Linux for ease of use. But, if stuff just worked out of the box, Linux would be adopted faster.
Tax software is not really the problem. There is no real alternative to quickbooks on linux yet and until there is linux adoption will never hit the small business desktop. Small businesses will carry linux with them when I they hit critical mass and bring linux to the corporate desktop if there is an accounting package to run.
Once open office base becomes stable that will answer the other critical need for small business.
I understand where you are coming from, and in your case you are making intelligent economic choices about what software you want to use (i.e., it is worth the money to pay for legitimate copies of audio software). The development of the "attitude" you are addressing is, however, based on somewhat different circumstances. Normally, people make a non-economic comparison between commercial and free software, and therefore the "free" part is quite unimpressive to them. They are either pirating the commercial software (I'd guess nearly 100% of home users fit into this category) or they paid for it but don't understand that fact ("Oh it came with my computer so I got it for free").
So when I suggest that Nvu is an alternative to Dreamweaver, people respond just like you did and rag on Nvu's feature set. And when I point out that there is a USD400 price tag difference between them, it's meaningless, because they know they can get Dreamweaver "for free."
And finally, when I point out that the Nvu developers are safeguarding your data and workflows because the product can never go away, they respond with quips like "Macromedia isn't going anywhere." (Ahem!) Either they can't or won't remember that the instant it becomes financially undesirable to support Dreamweaver it will disappear from the market. Mac users know this lesson better, because they have felt the sting of having their work disrupted when Company X suddenly desides it is no longer in their interest to support Mac.
One last bit: you should in fact be thankful that there are free (as in speech) alternatives out there for the software you use, even if you choose not to use them. It is a check against serfdom.
Our intelligent designer has never created an animal that we couldn't improve by strapping a bomb to it.
No, but there are thousands of companies with dozens to hundreds of users. And that, my dear sir, is a market of equal size.
Your comment really illustrates my biggest problem with Linux folk. Point out an issue and they'll do a song and dance about how that issue really isn't an issue because no one who's "intelligent" really needs to do it that way anyway.
Can't print to your printer? Well who'd want to! And besides, it's not our problem, go talk to the printer people, or buy another printer, or write your own damn driver.
Now go away. I'm adding 50 more Yiddish translation functions to PHP....
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
"The fact is, Apple hasn't gained markeshare over Windows since OSX was introduced in 2000."
Market share is the same? That's odd, I can find articles that say otherwise. Do you have articles that say your point? Check out the table on this page. Apple's share is growing. It's not meteoric, but it going up. Or by "not growing" do you mean "hasn't gone up 10 points"? I switched, I know many others who have, and I have been asked by many people interested in switching.
"The fact it, most companies are not going to switch to OSX for the simple cost of ownership. [...] Once you switch to OSX, you have to buy a whole slew of applications for it as well, which compounds the cost."
OS X is cheaper. There was an article not too long ago that I read that said that for a business, a Mac costs $1500-$3000 less than an equivalent Windows desktop when you add in all the time with security updates, virus protection you have use, spyware protection, etc. This was for 1-3 years. That means the Macs PAID FOR THEMSELVES, not just the difference between the PC and the Mac. As for the apps, big deal. You are a Photoshop shop? Instead of buying CS 3 (or 4 or whenever you upgrade) for the PC, buy it for the Mac and make the switch then. Office is there too. Most programs are there. Give it a try. And with the Intel transition, it won't be long at all before you can run legacy or custom code under WINE at full speed just like under Windows.
"Application support just isn't in OSX also because the development environment for Windows is so much easier and more robust then OSX. XCode and Objective C, while free, represents everything that is wrong with Apple, their adherance to old philosophies that are failing, but too much ego is involved to let it go."
There is no application problem. I never had one. The one program I haven't found a replacement for in the very short time I looked? Microsoft Project. I'm sure there are replacements though. And have you used XCode and Objective-C? They are a pleasure to use. Objective-C and Cocoa makes GUI programming SO MUCH NICER than other languages. Have you done much Windows programming? A big GIANT HOG of an application (Visual Studio) to do it all for you and lock you in just as much as you seem to think XCode will. Except XCode is built entirely on top of GCC, a standard compiler. Visual Studio is built on top of Microsoft's compiler.
And XCode is free. Microsoft will give you the compiler, but you have to pay out the nose for the IDE.
"If your serious about Mac programming, then you use CodeWarrior instead of Apple's free tools. Without good software tools, then the slew of shareware and freeware apps that PC users get to use just isn't available on the Mac platform."
Can you back that up with examples and proof? Most people I know are happier with XCode than CodeWarrior. And what "shareware and freeware apps" does the Mac lack? What about all the nice things Macs come with (iTunes, iMail, iCal, Address Book, iPhoto, iDVD, iMovie, Garage Band, iWeb) that Windows computers DON'T?
"I will whole heartedly agree that Microsoft has a lot to fear with Ubuntuu and other Linux alternatives."
Agreed.
"But to suggest that people are adopting OSX in droves is just unfounded."
Wrong again. You just have to remember that compared to an installed base of 200 Million or so, droves can still look small.
"Microsoft will never have to worry about OSX, in fact, with people finding ways of running WindowsXP aond the new Macintels, Microsoft is laughing their way to the bank as PC users buy Apple's to run Windows in a fancy box."
Wrong again. Microsoft has to worry about OS X. They have to RIGHT NOW. Why do you think they are adding so much stuff to Vista? The search (see: Spotlight), the sidebar (see: Dashboard), the 3D accleerated GUI (see: Quartz). It's not Linux th
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Actually the problem was likely with hdc since the problem was in stage 1.5 meaning that the boot sector on hda was working fine, the problem was in finding stage2 on hdc.
Somewhere on page 4 or so he lets it slip he had to replace hdc before because of problems.
Of course we will probably never know what the problem really was, but it could have been the mobo not talking to hdc properly.
Now if he had of actually responded to people's requests for more information on page 1, they probably would have figured out the problem and found a fix for it (and using "please" and "thank you" on occassion would have helped too). By acting like an asshole and not answering questions from people who were trying to help him, he eliminated any chance of getting his problem fixed.
Setting up a WPA connection is a bit different than your $20 linksys soho solution. The guide at my university explaining how to connect to our secured wireless network has 12 steps for WinXP. Whenever there's more than one option, people may need help in setting it up.