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BBC To Host Multi-OS Debate

Bananatree3 writes "BBC is currently seeking submissions from all you Microsoft Windows, Mac and Linux devotees "in 100 words or less, why you are such a supporter of your chosen operating system and what features you love about it". They will then select one user of each platform to go head to head in a debate that will be part of the BBC's Microsoft Vista launch coverage on January 30th."

4 of 344 comments (clear)

  1. Context and styles by SpanishArcher · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I foresee a potential disaster in the linux presentation.

    It's undoubtful that the most hardcore Free Software fringe of the Linux community has the most public appeal.
    I mean...they're somewhat "weird", it's likely that the BBC will chose a super nerdy guy that bitches on everything that is not free software, and the topic will change from a mere technical analysis to the usual religion flamwar.

    Windows and OSX will be presented as desktop systems. I doubt the server side of the story will be interesting to the average BBC listener.
    Linux, unfortunately, will fail to show its good cards there. I'm not talking about mere graphics, of course, but the whole user friendlyness "from the scratch", hardware support...

    I hope the supporters choice will be wise.

    --
    640KB of virtualized ram will be enough for everybody
  2. When I submitted this article a day ago, by Bananatree3 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    they only had a few submissions. I guess news spreads quickly beyond Slashdot. :)

  3. It's 2007 by suv4x4 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There's no "good OS", "bad OS" anymore. We have a developed industry and specialization. We have a bunch of OS that are all good, but for vastly different purposes.

    My web servers run on BSD and Linux (simple, secure, stable, proven, ... free).
    My designers run Apple-s (cultural phenomenon, the whole product line speaks "design", good software, user friendly).
    Most of my developers and my accountant run on Windows (user friendly /less than Mac, but not a lot/, lots of software, superb dev tools).

    When you grow up, you realize there's no place for favoritism and politics in here, just tools you pick depending on your task.

    That said I suspect Apple supporters will come out the winners from the BBC competition. It's purely a branding thing, and entirely predictable: all Apple does it cool (good job, Steve & co!), all Microsoft does is not cool (with power comes resp... come the obligatory haters), and all Linux does, is way too geeky (by geeks, for geeks) and no one in the general public cares.

  4. Re:Scary.. by Don_dumb · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What I noticed from the comments, is that it seems most people who have tried multiple systems, prefer Mac or Linux. Most people who prefer Windows have ONLY ever used Windows, which defeats their arguments, they dont even know an alternative to compare against, they are simply saying a computer is better than not having a computer.

    That to me would seem to be the best argument for a non-windows supporter, "I KNOW there are better OSes because I have actually used them".

    --
    If this were really happening, what would you think?