Ubuntu Linux vs. Mac OS X

An anonymous reader writes "An article on InformationWeek pits an Apple user against an Ubuntu Linux user (although he talks about other distros as well) as to which OS makes a better desktop operating system. As might be expected, the conclusion seems to be "different strokes for different folks," but it's interesting to see Microsoft cut (mostly) out of the equation."

Comments

It's about not switching again and again.

[twitter]

The whole point of TFA is about switching AWAY from Vista.

Actually, the point of the article is never going to Vista in the first place:

If you're a Vista-wary Windows user who would rather switch than fight, should you move to a Linux distro or Apple's OS X? ... If you're one of those Windows users who are less than enchanted by what you've seen of Vista and you're thinking about switching, you face some tough choices that can make you feel like a pioneer.

The problem is that M$ has already forced radical change on their users. Had M$ allowed competition or freedom on their platform, there would be a choice of UIs and this would be a non issue. Instead, M$ has kept their old school, forklift upgrade treadmill running. M$ fanboys who don't mind throwing away all of their hardware and software as still faced with the fact that M$ has not provided a stable and modern OS as a reward. Information week seems to have picked up on the fact that less than 12% of home and business users want Vista and Vista is not selling.

I don't think so.

[twitter]

Vista is selling via pre-loads and it'll keep selling this way until the public+dog are beat into submission and accept it.

You can't beat people down with something they don't have. It's not really selling and that's really hurting PC sales because people already own a system that runs XP. Vista has not been a big enough improvement, and many are calling it a downgrade due to bugs, outrageous hardware requirements and digital restrictions. Even M$'s bottom line is unchanged, despite Vista and Office releases. At this point, only gnu/linux and OSX have real improvements and they are both selling at an increasing rate. Vista is a long way from breaking even, say nothing of market dominance.

If you think that's bad for the Soft, just wait until the market is flooded with $200 gnu/linux laptops. Big changes that have been a long time coming are finally here.