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Linux or Mac: Which is the better alternative to Windows?

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zridling:
Serdar Yegulalp  and Mitch Wagner over at InformationWeek give their respective takes on Ubuntu Linux vs. Mac with Linux vs. Mac: Which Is The Better Alternative To Microsoft Windows? Doesn't go into detail, but a very nice overview of the current state of these two alternatives.


GNU/Linux


OS X

To this day, I could never afford a Mac, so you know my choice is GNU/Linux.

icekin:
I use Linux and Windows at the moment. I have used mac extensively at college though I never owned one. I think that Mac is a good alternative for people who want something that works and simple as a calculator to operate. The feature set might be limited, but so are most mac user's needs from what I've noticed. Linux, especially Ubuntu has become easy to use, but I still think it has a while to go. Driver support is still an issue and many widescreen laptops, such as mine are not properly supported.

At any rate, I don't see either of these displacing Windows on desktop anytime soon. While all three operating systems are about equal in capabilities, the wealth of software available for Windows gives it an enormous edge. I will personally never go to an OS which I can't tweak the hell out of (Linux is actually good for that).

nontroppo:
After we evaluated Vista, and after I had fought on and off with Linux, several of our university department have moved Mac-ward bound. With University pricing, workstations are cheaper from Apple than Dell (strange-but-true), and as we have a sitewide Microsoft licence, Bootcamp turns them into dual-boot workhorses easily.

I *love* Apple's superior typography support, system-wide ligatures :-) However I suffer iTunes  >:(. Overall, I spend as much time as possible in OS X, as once the switch-shock wears off, I really like it. The unix base makes tweaking lots of fun and I disagree about feature set icekin - there are lots of settings and advanced technologies in OS X, and the freeware scene is very active[1]. I have Ubuntu on my old laptop, and I had a terrible time failing to get wireless working, and it still doesn't understand widescreen laptop screen resolution without hacking xserver configs. My problem with Apple is lock-in. I now really respect OS X overall and would love to have it run on any hardware. The rest is irrelevant - mouse keyboard, screens - one can use anything, but legally running OS X anywhere isn't possible.

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[1] I love tweaking, and did so extensively in Windows. I indeed tweak the hell out of my browser. I have not missed anything with OS X, if anything, the technology base (much better systemwide scripting support and automation baked into the core OS, including hooks into the *nix base) makes tweaking endlessly pleasurable.

Darwin:
Er... have to agree with nontroppo about the "tweakability" of OSX (though I'm still running 10.2x!) but need to point out, as icekin does, that the biggest stumbling block is application compatability. Yes, I know I can spend a premiium on an Apple machine (with half the RAM of a PC that costs a fraction...) and run BootCamp or something and have my cake and eat it too, but consider that I'd first have to buy a copy of Windows to make this happen. That's another $100 minimum to be factored into the cost of switching to Mac (well, for me anyway as both my copies of XP are OEM and Win2k is getting a bit long in the tooth). Then there's the PIA factor associated with having to switch back and forth between OS's. No thanks. I like Macs but the premium is too high. I'll stick with Windows and if forced away will look to Linux, where I know I can tweak to my heart's content and download Open Source apps that are good analogues for their Windows shareware counterparts. Also, I know damn well that I can run any Linux distro available on any of the hardware that I already own - wouldn't have to spend a penny on a new computer if I did it. Actually, I'd happily switch today if there were better options for my work specific applications available. My plan is to shove a bigger harddrive into my Win2k machine and dual boot it with Ubuntu and start learning the OS and the software that is available for it.

nontroppo:
Indeed, I have only used Intel Macs, where Windows support is native. Actually, Parallels and VMWare Fusion have an amazing mode where the guest and host OS windows live in the same space. You can use Word 2007, Mac Photoshop CS3, IE7 as if it was the same OS, weird but useful; you have to see it to believe it! But most Mac apps do what I need anyway (and CS3 works faster on Mac than PC ATM), apart from Matlab, which although Intel compatible in the latest release is quite clunky (it is derived from the Linux version).

Oh, lots of open-source stuff from the *nix world makes it onto OS X, and indeed there are two large repositories of OS *nix utilities available; including most X Apps via Apple's X Server.

Darwin: definitely worth dual-booting Ubuntu, good fun to play with, but boy does linux drain time trying to get everything working ;-)

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