To me, this sounds incredibly similar to the Mac switch campaign and the mac arguments for switching. No more spyware! It's easy to use! No more hacking! We all know that particular ad campaign helped them so much... *sarcasm* I for one was not a fan of Apple's attempt at appealing to the "average joe," and to that extent testimonial ads have always seemed ineffective. "Why should I care what that person thought of this product, your probably paying them!"
(For the interest of disclosure and irony, I have am posting with with my Powerbook G4)
I thought I'd weigh in. I've used extensively linux, OS X, and Windows, and I've had to teach people all three.
Windows will get slow, bogged down, spyware ridden, and crash prone, but if there is one thing I've found, it's that people can pick it up fairly quickly and keep their computer running for long periods of time. Not running well mind you, but you need no technical knowledge for the most part to just have the thing do your email, web browsing, etc.
OS X, once you learn it, imo is fast, powerful, and does some amazing things. On the other hand, I've never thought it was terribly user friendly. Granted, you will never need to touch the terminal, but getting someone up and running on the basics of OS X takes a lot longer then explaining to them the very basics of Windows. However, I appreciate that much of the power and many of the unix preferences are still there, just buried where the "typical" user is unlikely to find them.
And now, Linux. Linux is a power trip to me. You have every option available to you, you rarely have to dig for those options, and they're not explained or simplified... they're just there. Even when everything goes right and you don't need to use the shell at all, the sheer number of preferences, options and unfamiliar terms are just overwelming for new users. Plus, the OS's dutiful following of your commands is just overwelming to anyone I've tried to teach it to. If you tell the driver to switch to a resolution the driver can't do, it'll do it and you'll be at a shell prompt next time you reboot. The OS just expects the user to be competant and know what they're doing. I consider that to be the greatest strength and weakness of Linux.
Anyway, those are my 2 cents. Having worked with all three and taught people all three, I can say that despite what any fanboy says, each has it's strength and abilities, and not one of them is "superior in all ways" to the others.
Slashdot Mirror
To me, this sounds incredibly similar to the Mac switch campaign and the mac arguments for switching. No more spyware! It's easy to use! No more hacking! We all know that particular ad campaign helped them so much... *sarcasm* I for one was not a fan of Apple's attempt at appealing to the "average joe," and to that extent testimonial ads have always seemed ineffective. "Why should I care what that person thought of this product, your probably paying them!"
(For the interest of disclosure and irony, I have am posting with with my Powerbook G4)
*insert Ellen Feiss joke here*
Agreed! I couldn't help but think "The Internet is only as good as it's worst website" when I read that line. Bunch 'o crap!
Unless your skipping out on the IRS or from some country other then the USA... You are.
I thought I'd weigh in. I've used extensively linux, OS X, and Windows, and I've had to teach people all three.
Windows will get slow, bogged down, spyware ridden, and crash prone, but if there is one thing I've found, it's that people can pick it up fairly quickly and keep their computer running for long periods of time. Not running well mind you, but you need no technical knowledge for the most part to just have the thing do your email, web browsing, etc.
OS X, once you learn it, imo is fast, powerful, and does some amazing things. On the other hand, I've never thought it was terribly user friendly. Granted, you will never need to touch the terminal, but getting someone up and running on the basics of OS X takes a lot longer then explaining to them the very basics of Windows. However, I appreciate that much of the power and many of the unix preferences are still there, just buried where the "typical" user is unlikely to find them.
And now, Linux. Linux is a power trip to me. You have every option available to you, you rarely have to dig for those options, and they're not explained or simplified... they're just there. Even when everything goes right and you don't need to use the shell at all, the sheer number of preferences, options and unfamiliar terms are just overwelming for new users. Plus, the OS's dutiful following of your commands is just overwelming to anyone I've tried to teach it to. If you tell the driver to switch to a resolution the driver can't do, it'll do it and you'll be at a shell prompt next time you reboot. The OS just expects the user to be competant and know what they're doing. I consider that to be the greatest strength and weakness of Linux.
Anyway, those are my 2 cents. Having worked with all three and taught people all three, I can say that despite what any fanboy says, each has it's strength and abilities, and not one of them is "superior in all ways" to the others.