Microsoft To Mac: Stop Making Fun of Us

Finally, Apple is insulted for those clever but desperate attempts to overcome Microsoft (R). But Ubuntu should come in with an AK-47 in each hand and shoot. It is better in many ways than both.
1. easy 3D desktop-simple and easier hardware than aero, by alot
2. It is safe. the logged in user can’t do damage easily, neither can a hacker & viruses aren’t written for it
3. It runs faster, less bloatware
4. it doesn’t crash. software issues will just end in an terminal program, not computer
5. automatic defrag
6. many more, I’m tired so I will cut this short

Why are people still peddling the ubuntu crash lies. I have it on several systems at home. It’s great. But Oh does it crash. It crashes more often on my wife’s laptop (firefox locks up the entire system) way more often then XP crashes.

It’s just as annoying as when apple was lying about how system 8-9 was stable. yeah right. I watched it crash daily, Hourly in a lab I worked. OSX has also crashed on me, locked up and required reboots.

It’s BS. Ubuntu crashes, end of story.

Ubuntu is not crash free.

I’ve given Ubuntu 3 chances, and it failed miserably for me.

It was NOT crash free as people say.
It is not nearly as user-friendly as Windows XP
Installing ATI drivers? What is the point when ATI drivers suck on Linux?
Again for drivers, there still is no point because there is nothing that can properly give my card a run for its money.

Why do I have to put in command lines that I don’t understand just to install a simple program?

I’m not bashing Ubuntu, or Linux in general. It is good for certain things, because Linux in general is more lightweight than Windows or Mac, but seriously…there is just no point in peddling the Linux bandwagon to normal computer users.
Ubuntu offers no incentive for me to switch again, I have OpenOffice, I have Firefox, all my drivers are installed and the hardware functions properly, I do a simple task without typing in command lines.

Note: I understand the idea of user-control, but user-control does not = user-friendly
End

i recently decided to turn over my machine to full Ubuntu. at night when i want to play a game i boot up XP, but that’s all i use it for. Ubuntu does everything else just fine. and 7.10 really steps it up with the ease-of-use, drivers, codecs, mozilla plug-in finder, non-free stuff, etc… really nice.

People are entitled to their own opinions regarding PC/Windows, PC/Linux and Macs. I have used all three throughout my life and still use all in my day to day activities. This is what I think about all three:

PC/Linux

Linux is great for servers, developers and techies as it is secure, robust, streamlined, versatile and rarely crashes. There are many different distrbutions, each with pros and cons. Some are designed to look and perform more like Windows. Not all are easy to install and configure but when you get past this step they can be as easy to use as Windows.

PC/Windows

Windows XP is great for home users who are generally not very technical and are familiar with the Windows GUI and applications which run on it. The main benefit of Windows in general is that is has been the market leader for a long time and everyone writes software for it meaning there is a lot to choose from. Also games generally get released for the Windows platform before they do for Linux/Mac making it good for games. One of the disadvantages of Windows is it’s flawed security and the number of viruses and other malicious software that can affect it.

Windows Vista is another story, I find that the move from the traditional GUI is flawed and will only confuse the users who either adopt it or get it preinstalled on their new computers. It is also slower, less reliable and more prone to crashing than Windows XP. The sooner Microsoft release Windows XP SP3 the better as Vista is, in my opinion, a backwards step and an rather poor attempt to rival Mac OS X and it’s stylish approach.

Macs

Macs are not just the OS and software but also the hardware so I will break this into two parts:

Hardware: I have had many laptops in the past and the best by far is my MacBook Pro. It is the quietest and lightest laptop that I’ve ever used and the battery life outperforms all my others lasting nearly twice as long. Even after using it on the battery over the last 5 months it still goes up to 3.5-4 hours with normal use or 1.5-2.5 hours with audio and video. I have used each and every model of Mac whilst visiting the Apple Store in London and all I can say is that this elegant and efficient form factor is the same across the entire range of Mac computers.

Software: The Mac OS X is stylish, easy to use and very functional. Software is also easy to use and where the program you want is not supported on a Mac you can usually find other programs which do the same tasks, often better than their Windows counterparts, and in some cases these are free. Now that Macs use Intel processors it is possible to run Windows on your Mac hardware – either as a bootable OS or in a virtual machine running running on top of Mac OS X. This gives users the option of using one, the other or both. Mac OS X also has the security of Linux as it has Unix at it’s core.

That’s my say on this, I am keen to see what others have to say in response. Please remember that this is my opinion – I am not trying to force these views on you nor am I saying that one should choose one over the other. The choice about which platform you get is yours and should only be made after working out what your requirements are and researching which platform is best suited for you.

why do you have to use “it’s” instead of “its”?

“their” two different things…

seriously. people do that all the time and I just don’t get why.

Is linux built for lower end machines? I have a quadcore, 4gigs ram, 8800gtx, etc. and I’ve had the most problems trying to get Ubuntu to work properly. I personally think that If I can’t get it to work after installing Ubuntu, and have to do all sorts of command line changes to get it to boot, it’s not worth it. The operating system should work for me, I shouldn’t have to work for the operating system.

I use vista ultimate, and I honestly don’t have that many problems with it. Everyone says it’s to slow, buggy, etc. But could it be that vista software is ahead of our hardware?

*For example: I’m a computer tech, and work on a wide range of computers. Every now and then someone will bring in an old windows 2003 or previous version computer with 128mb ram, 1ghz pro etc. You would think that computer would be incredibly slow, but since 2003 was meant to work with that hardware, it actually preforms quite fast.

Now take vista for example, everyone says it runs to slow. But look at the hardware everyone is using. They’re trying to run vista on approved XP machines. Once everyone’s hardware catches up to what vista uses, it’s not that big of a problem.

But back to linux, if Ubuntu can’t install as easily as expected, that I don’t think it’s worth it. The only support you get is by joining IRC channels, or reading forums, and waiting until someone who MIGHT know what the problem is can help you.

For now, I’ll stick to my windows vista ultimate, and my mac os x computers until linux can clear itself up.

linux isnt meant to be installed right the first time anyways (collective opinion of many hackers i have spoken too) if you are having trouble isntaling it dont give up it will work itself out eventually….

Based on experience, I have formed my own opinions of the three main OSes.

Windows XP:

Many people say that Windows XP is the least secure OS today, due to all the virus, spyware etc scare stories. I have used it for 4 years now, and I have never had a problem. As long as the user takes sensible precautions against the malicious stuff, it will work fine. The problem lies with the inexperienced users who are not wise to this.

Of course, “taking precautions” does mean installing Firewall, Antivirus, AntiSpyware software. But there’s plenty of free ones about that are better quality (and value) than the marketed ones!

I use 3 firewalls on my XP rig: NAT and SPI hardware firewalls in my Netgear Ethernet router, and Comodo Firewall Pro (free!) is my software firewall of choice. Spybot S&D, while by no means a complete solution, is a great help. Oh, and Firefox goes without saying. Although I just did… ha ha. And I have never had a problem.

Oh, another thing. Windows doesn’t do the housekeeping. You need to schedule or manually run cleanup, defrag etc utilites regularly. My Windows machine gets this once a month.

So, to summarise: Mass market (so well supported), but more than a few unlucky users have had problems with viruses

Linux (Ubuntu):

It’s 100% free, open source, home-grown, honest linux. That comes in many different distributions – SUSE, Debian, DSL… etc, etc. I have used quite a few, but Ubuntu is particularly impressive.

I have used Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy – but also previous versions) on a number of machines (the fastest running a 3.6GHz processor, and even an old 700Mhz Intel ran it without trouble) – and with surprising speed. I have found the live installer intuitive and just generally fantastic.

Ok, so some of the more fantastic hardware setups (i.e. new graphics cards, as mentioned by Sp3c1alK) are less supported than on Windows, but the community (which I feel proud to be a part of) is constantly working on the newer, upmarket stuff. You can be sure that an update will be made that will squeeze some extra juice from that shiny new NVidia or ATI…
*jealous noises*

Although it takes a little while to get used to, and still has some undocumented problems, I find it the best, fastest, and most responsive OS I have run yet. There are virtually no worries about security, it comes pre-loaded with fantastic (and FREE- huzzah!) open software, and I love it to bits.

Oh, and for the techies, it is just… beautiful. But you know that.

Did I mention it’s free? My favourite OS, straight off.

Mac OS X:

I have never owned a Mac (I’m a student, for God’s sake! I have NO MONEY!), but from
the little time I have spent using them, I know that they are extremely “user friendly”- if there is such a term… – easy to run, and are fantastic for creative purposes. Video editing, images, sound – all brilliant. And fast.

The drawbacks? Expensive. Buying a Mac is more expensive than a bog-standard Windoze laptop, but I suppose the investment is worth it… sorta. So says the open-software guy…

But anyway, don’t be afraid to try new things – and formulate your own opinions. You will almost certainly find that some things suit you.

I’m going to jump on the bandwagon here a bit, and give my opinion:

I’m a bit of a Windows geek – network/system admin, all that rubbish, and been working with windows ever since 3.11 (professionally on NT/2000/2k3 – personally on 3.11 all the way through to Vista on every single OS). Honestly? I’m fed up to the back teeth with it. XP’s (finally) got to the point where it’s pretty good, in much the same way that 98SE did, but Vista is a poor attempt to rival OSX, with the result that unless you’re running it on a high end machine, it sticks, jerks, crashes, hangs and generally annoys. Yes, it looks pretty. But why would you want to fork out all that money on a high power machine, just to have all that power used up just to run the OS – wouldn’t you like to have some to do some actual computing with?

Now OS X: I’ve just switched from Windows to Mac (Leopard on a G4), and I’m in the middle of a steep learning curve trying to get my Mac knowledge to come up to speed with my Windows knowledge. But already – it looks prettier than Vista, it runs smoother, it’s less horsepower intensive, it’s designed better (try installing an app on OS X then on Vista. They try uninstalling it). It doesn’t seem to crash (time will tell), there are few (if any) viruses made for it, it doesn’t hang, it doesn’t jerk unless you’re really pushing it. And the hardware is real top quality – somebody has finally paid real attention to making an attractive and well designed computer.

As for Ubuntu and Linux in general, I’m afraid I’ve had very limited experience, but what experience I have had is that if you know what you’re doing, it’s awesome, though a little fiddly (techy). It’s a bit more of a geek’s OS, but does everything very well, with slightly more limited support and software availability. Nowhere near mainstream yet (but catching up fast).

Windows:
I personally quite like windows but i cant say much about vista! But XP is very nice, its user friendly and has 1000’s of applications available because its so mainstream. Which is good and i appreciate alot more now that i also run Ubuntu. Its nice to be able to google pretty much any application that takes your fancie and then find 100’s of results to download. The install is also nice on windows and incredibly simple to use just click the EXE and then follow the steps! Windows does have a few cons though the main one being its always under attacks for viruses spyware etc, i mean if i go online with my windows machine without a firewall it would be like committing technological suicide i know this unfortunately i know this from experience . But on the plus side developers havnt ignored this problem and you can pick up a free firewall or a commercial one if your willing to pay in seconds.
So in brief:
PROS; user friendly, easy to find applications, even easier to install, very mainstream, everyone uses it (very versatile)
CONS; constantly under attack from malicious software, its windows

Linux (Ubuntu):
I love ubuntu! its brilliant as far as im concerned and to this point has done everything ive needed (but then again i don’t need to do much im only 14!). saying this i use my computer a silly amount and after much hunting have found every program ive needed and best of all they have all been open source so completely free. But i know linux isnt for everyone and i wouldnt recommend it for anyone who dosnt have at least a medium level knowledge of computers, as linux is despite how hard the developers have tried, confusing and slightly scary to start with (i mean scary as unfamiliar not as in its going to kill my machine if i do something wrong!) But like Windows linux is still usfull and is literally NEVER under attack from viruses and is very hard to attack in theory because it dosnt have a registry which makes it difficult for malicous code to spread and infect your system i think im no expert here but this is a logical conclusion

PROS; Eveything free, open source, great for learning programming/computing

CONS; Difficult for anyone who isnt tech savvy, sometimes difficult to find programs, UI sumtimes confusing shells etc..

One last thing:
Please do not sterotype me to be a “14 year old hacker” im not.
and i hope this helps someone!

GNU/Linux: Gnome has ugly icons and lacks features that KDE (and Windows) have. Enlightenment and Puppy are nice too. Lack of vendor support for e.g. some embedded sound chips.

Mac: Expensive hardware, great design, bit of a black box.

Windows: Cheap, easy, dirty.

seriously this is sad who actualy cares let them keep working and we reep the benifits.

All operating systems suck.

I’m going back to my ZX Spectrum!

Wow, arguments on which is the best OS never get old.
Wait, they just did.