Thoughts of a recent Mac-convert....

[Applespider]

I have met and worked with one of the creator's of YellowDog Linux. Intelligent person, and he agreed that Linux is not for the common person, and never will be. That's my point. Linux has nothing to offer me or anyone else that need high end products to facilitate their working needs.

It's got nothing to offer you personally which suggests you've not really used it so you're not really qualified to say that it sucks. Or perhaps you used a very early build. That's exactly the same as those people who we all love to hate who used System 7 back in high school and now proclaim that Macs suck.

I'd agree at the moment that Linux isn't quite there for the man in the street to use; there's a few too many hoops to be jumped through just yet to get some peripherals etc working. And since the Linux help groups assume that you have some tech background, it's not always as easy finding help unless you understand what's wrong in the first place.

But to say that it will never be there for the everyday user is wrong. In the last 5 years, it's come on amazingly and with more and more Linux developers out there, it should improve exponentially in the next 5 years. To be fair, if you have a Linux admin who knows what he's doing to make sure that the periphs work, then I'd guess that many people in an office environment could quite happily use it.

I'd go so far to say that Mac users should want Linux to improve and get greater market share. If OS X and Linux could each grab 10-15% of the OS market, MS dominance would be severely shaken. Manufacturers would have to consider both groups just as seriously.

 

[Mr_Ed]

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As someone who uses OS X at home and both Win and Linux at work, I can tell you both of you make valid points. I think the original issue with your exchange was simply the tone of Onizuka's comment ("Linux sucks..."). There is a difference between a comment like that, and an objective expression of reasons why you don't like something (Linux). Had Onizuka done the latter, I doubt anyone would have taken offense. If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that "it isn't WHAT you say, it's HOW you say it" that counts.

 

[njstaffer]

... Beside Office 2004, I haven't paid for any software yet.
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Same here, and I only paid 10 bucks for Office.

 

[XNine]

As someone who uses OS X at home and both Win and Linux at work, I can tell you both of you make valid points. I think the original issue with your exchange was simply the tone of Onizuka's comment ("Linux sucks..."). There is a difference between a comment like that, and an objective expression of reasons why you don't like something (Linux). Had Onizuka done the latter, I doubt anyone would have taken offense. If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that "it isn't WHAT you say, it's HOW you say it" that counts.

Perhaps. I personally don't give a **** what Eva likes. Or what he thinks is useful. So Linux is all he needs. Hoorah for him. I was stating an opinion, and he went and blew it out of proportion, like typical linux fanboys do. But, whatever.

All I'm saying is that OS X beats Linux hands down on GUI, on developer support, application selection, etc. Believe me, I hate windows. I don't hate Linux. I work on Winblows every day as well at work, and half the time I want to throw that damn Dell out MY window. GAH! If I really hated Linux I would have intentionally attacked it.

But like I said, I don't care if he uses it or not. And I can care less if he "drops OS X". Those kinds of statements make me push for people to stay off of Macs. When I worked part time at Apple, I'd have customers say that kind of **** to me, and on my last night, I finally told one "have your sister return her Mac and have her go buy a dell and see how much support she gets then, see if I care." Yeah, she won't, and they knew it and immediately they stopped bitching like bratty little children.

 

[26139]

Uh....

I still like using Mac. OS X is very robust and serene, and I absolutely love my Mac Mini. But I do feel annoyed that everything costs money.

How do you suppose software gets developed without having to pay for it? You know that Linux developers MUST have some other sort of funding available...you obviously can't make a living writing free software...

 

[Evangelion]

Perhaps. I personally don't give a **** what Eva likes. Or what he thinks is useful. So Linux is all he needs. Hoorah for him.

Well, I AM using Mac, so.....

I was stating an opinion, and he went and blew it out of proportion, like typical linux fanboys do. But, whatever.

Seriously, what is your problem? "typical Linux fanboy"? As opposed to typical Mac fanboy who start to disparage everything that is not related to Apple or Mac? You do seem to have an axe to grind when it comes to Linux and people who use it.

All I'm saying is that OS X beats Linux hands down on GUI, on developer support, application selection, etc.

Not necessarily. OS X does have the eye-candy, but there are several things that I miss from KDE. OS X doesn't have robust remote-GUI (Apple Remote Desktop is merely a glorified VNC, I'm talking about something like NX), Konqueror mops the floor with Finder in filemanagement, many things in Konqueror the web-browser are better than in Safari, OS X doesn't handle network-resources transparently like KDE does, there's no window-specific settings. etc.

You might think that OS X beats Linux everywhere. But that's your subjective opinion, yet you tell it like it's a fact or something.

But like I said, I don't care if he uses it or not. And I can care less if he "drops OS X". Those kinds of statements make me push for people to stay off of Macs. When I worked part time at Apple, I'd have customers say that kind of **** to me, and on my last night, I finally told one "have your sister return her Mac and have her go buy a dell and see how much support she gets then, see if I care." Yeah, she won't, and they knew it and immediately they stopped bitching like bratty little children.

like it or not, when people choose to use Mac or Linux, it also means that they will associate with certain bunch of people, namely the Linux/Mac-community. And comment like yours do sound overly elitist and negative, so it's no wonder that many people are put off by such comments.

 

[Evangelion]

How do you suppose software gets developed without having to pay for it? You know that Linux developers MUST have some other sort of funding available...you obviously can't make a living writing free software...

In case you didn't know, lots and lots of software have been written by purely volunteers. KDE for example was created by volunteers (well, there are handful of sponsored developers, but 90+% of developers work on it on their free time). Most Linux-developers do work for living. But most of them don't get their money from developing Linux or related applications. Some do (Linus Torvalds does for example), but not all.

And while the software itself can be free, you can (and often do) charge for other services. These might include training and support and customization. Take a look at Red Hat. All their software is free software, yet they are making lots of money. so you CAN make a living from it.

Seriously, you CAN develop software for free just fine. Getting paid to do it is not a requirement. Why do people then write free software, if not to earn money from it? The reasons are numerous:

- It's fun! They do it because they enjoy coding. And free software has a social aspect to it, it's about collaboration between people

- They need the software. Many people write free software because they need it for their work. But they also know that they can't do it alone, so they seek the help of others. Beowulf was created at NASA because they needed cheap alternative to supercomputers.

 

[khammack]

Perhaps. I personally don't give a **** what Eva likes. Or what he thinks is useful. So Linux is all he needs. Hoorah for him. I was stating an opinion, and he went and blew it out of proportion, like typical linux fanboys do. But, whatever.

I'd say one of you is blowing it out of proportion. Apple fanatics can be just as rabid as Linux fans, as you have just demonstrated.

-kev

 

[Evangelion]

Some of you might be interested in this review of KDE by an OS X-user. Granted, he's using FreeBSD there, but as far as the UI is concerned, that doesn't really matter. While he does prefer OS X, he sees many advantages that KDE has over OS X. The version he reviews is 3.1.4, which is quite old by today's standards (3.5 is about to be released, with lots and lots of improvements).

Some people might think that Linux or related software (in this case, KDE) has nothing to offer to OS X-users. But that impression is clearly wrong. And besides, that software has given you Safari, CUPS and Samba