P
pixelsmith
Guest
Ubuntu vs Mac OS X
(High bar, but very much in GNOME's sights.)
? Macintosh hardware integration is far better: they only have to support a few configurations, they have all the specs, the hardware is designed to work with the OS and it's attractive in its own right. Plug a TV into the composite port and it just works. Sleep/hibernate just works.
? The Mac GUI is really beautifully polished, both visually and ergonomically. GNOME is getting better but isn't there yet: fonts on X11 used to be awful and are now OK.
+ On the other hand, you don't need to buy new hardware, PC hardware is cheaper per cycle, and you can reboot into Windows to play games.
+ Linux is now the standard Unix. Ubuntu is more consistent with what's likely to be running on your servers. Linux is faster on some benchmarks, but all benchmarks are bogus, and particularly so for desktops.
+ Linux utilities tend to be free, not annoying $10 shareware. (OK, I know about Fink, but still.)
+ Better (though slightly less consistent) keyboard navigation.
+ Less Macintosh historical baggage. OS X suffers some friction between the Mac and Unix parts, in for example handling case sensitivity or resource forks. (Mac apps can be in the wierd state of running but having no windows open, which seems to me of very marginal benefit. It's debatable.)
? No single-source 1-800 support.
? No pretty PDF alpha-blended display (yet), but I'll live. Less consistency in the GUI (though it's coming). Not every program runs under GNOME, so there's likely to be some inconsistent GUI toolkits popping up for some time.
? Some functions just have no GUI configuration tools at all: configuring wireless or a VPN may require sudo vi .
+ If something annoys you, you can patch it yourself.
+ The defaults are good, but more of them can be changed; if you don't want Nautilus or Metacity you can just install something else. That's harder/more scary on Mac OS.
+ Both GNOME and OS X are more attractive than Windows. GNOME is probably a slightly easier transition for Windows users, though neither would be very hard.
http://sourcefrog.net/weblog/software/ubuntu/compared.html
(High bar, but very much in GNOME's sights.)
? Macintosh hardware integration is far better: they only have to support a few configurations, they have all the specs, the hardware is designed to work with the OS and it's attractive in its own right. Plug a TV into the composite port and it just works. Sleep/hibernate just works.
? The Mac GUI is really beautifully polished, both visually and ergonomically. GNOME is getting better but isn't there yet: fonts on X11 used to be awful and are now OK.
+ On the other hand, you don't need to buy new hardware, PC hardware is cheaper per cycle, and you can reboot into Windows to play games.
+ Linux is now the standard Unix. Ubuntu is more consistent with what's likely to be running on your servers. Linux is faster on some benchmarks, but all benchmarks are bogus, and particularly so for desktops.
+ Linux utilities tend to be free, not annoying $10 shareware. (OK, I know about Fink, but still.)
+ Better (though slightly less consistent) keyboard navigation.
+ Less Macintosh historical baggage. OS X suffers some friction between the Mac and Unix parts, in for example handling case sensitivity or resource forks. (Mac apps can be in the wierd state of running but having no windows open, which seems to me of very marginal benefit. It's debatable.)
? No single-source 1-800 support.
? No pretty PDF alpha-blended display (yet), but I'll live. Less consistency in the GUI (though it's coming). Not every program runs under GNOME, so there's likely to be some inconsistent GUI toolkits popping up for some time.
? Some functions just have no GUI configuration tools at all: configuring wireless or a VPN may require sudo vi .
+ If something annoys you, you can patch it yourself.
+ The defaults are good, but more of them can be changed; if you don't want Nautilus or Metacity you can just install something else. That's harder/more scary on Mac OS.
+ Both GNOME and OS X are more attractive than Windows. GNOME is probably a slightly easier transition for Windows users, though neither would be very hard.
http://sourcefrog.net/weblog/software/ubuntu/compared.html
