XP, Vista, OS X and Linux Comparisons

OrangeCrate · 2007-03-12T09:53:46.000Z

An interesting page on the strengths and weaknesses of the major operating systems can be found here:

http://www.pcworld.com/zoom?id=129284&page=1&type=table&zoomIdx=2

bob3160 · 2007-03-12T17:45:08.000Z

To efficiently run your computer, you need Software.
This comparison points out one interesting fact:
More software is available for MS Windows than for any other operating system.

Mac · 2007-03-13T02:06:30.000Z

because MS uses its market share to force users to use its OS and whatever OS has the biggest share of the market will have the most software

bob3160 · 2007-03-13T13:56:06.000Z

.: Mac :. post:3:

because MS uses its market share to force users to use its OS and whatever OS has the biggest share of the market will have the most software

I don’t remember being forced. It was a simple economic choice.

Lisandro · 2007-03-13T17:45:01.000Z

I don’t remember being forced either… 8)

OrangeCrate · 2007-03-14T16:00:57.000Z

bob3160 post:4:

I don’t remember being forced. It was a simple economic choice.

Tech post:5:

I don’t remember being forced either… 8)

Gentlemen, my name is Leo, and I’ll be your server this evening. On the menu, we have a deluxe cheeseburger, or a deluxe cheeseburger. Which would you prefer?

system · 2007-03-14T16:05:12.000Z

OrangeCrate post:6:

bob3160 post:4:

I don’t remember being forced. It was a simple economic choice.

Tech post:5:

I don’t remember being forced either… 8)

Gentlemen, my name is Leo, and I’ll be your server this evening. On the menu, we have a deluxe cheeseburger, or a deluxe cheeseburger. Which would you prefer?
[/quote]
I must agree with OrangeCrate that XP and Now Vista are the Only OS you see in stores. So It’s either XP Or Vista or Nothing

Al968

system · 2007-03-14T18:24:33.000Z

al968 post:7:

I must agree with OrangeCrate that XP and Now Vista are the Only OS you see in stores. So It’s either XP Or Vista or Nothing

Reminds me of this ;D

system · 2007-03-14T18:49:06.000Z

Nice cartoon ;D

Al968

system · 2007-03-15T11:22:37.000Z

al968 post:7:

OrangeCrate post:6:

bob3160 post:4:

I don’t remember being forced. It was a simple economic choice.

Tech post:5:

I don’t remember being forced either… 8)

Gentlemen, my name is Leo, and I’ll be your server this evening. On the menu, we have a deluxe cheeseburger, or a deluxe cheeseburger. Which would you prefer?

I must agree with OrangeCrate that XP and Now Vista are the Only OS you see in stores. So It’s either XP Or Vista or Nothing

Al968
[/quote]
I just went to Office Depot and Best Buy and say a few flavors of Linux right beside Windows OS’s. I wouldn’t exactly say XP and Vista are the only OS’s you see in stores.

OrangeCrate · 2007-03-15T12:25:32.000Z

Negeltu post:10:

I just went to Office Depot and Best Buy and say a few flavors of Linux right beside Windows OS’s. I wouldn’t exactly say XP and Vista are the only OS’s you see in stores.

Your comment interests me…

I’m into both of those stores on a regular basis, and the only Linux distribution I’ve seen was Xandros at Office Depot. Nothing at Best Buy. I just checked their websites, and it’s the same. Xandros at Office Depot, and nothing at Best Buy. And there’s a reason why you don’t see Linux desktop distributions in stores. They’re free.

The top ten desktop distros for Linux are listed and described here:

http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

Please note that all offer free downloads, though Xandros has several paid versions, which we’ve already discussed.

The choices I see in stores are the various versions of Windows, and Apple, though the “box” their operating system comes in, is a bit more expensive that the cardboard boxes Windows Vista comes in (read that - you have to buy the computer too).

All distributions of Linux are free (as in freedom). Read here:

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

Though free (as in freedom) does not necessarily mean free (as in price), ain’t it great, that the top ten desktop distributions for Linux (including a version of Xandros), are also free (as in beer).

Edit:

Forgot to mention…

The reason that there are so many Linux distros, is that free (as in freedom) thingee.

Free (as in choice) is a wonderful thing!

system · 2007-03-16T09:23:05.000Z

Actually… It was Fry’s not best buy… my mistake. However…

They did have I believe… Xandros and Linspire…and FreeBSD (not linux based of course but still an optional OS).

And I believe Office Depot here in Oregon had both Xandros and Linspire (I could be wrong, I know they had Xandros.)

Xandros at Office Depot is what? $80?

OrangeCrate · 2007-03-16T10:12:27.000Z

Negeltu post:12:

Xandros at Office Depot is what? $80?

I think that’s the price I saw too. I’ve seen Linspire at CompUSA. For the benefit of others, I’ll provide the links to the Wikipedia entries on both:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linspire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xandros

Both use the KDE desktop interface as default, which resembles Windows in appearance. I personally like the softer look of Gnome, and as you can see from my signature, Ubuntu is my distro of choice.

And yet, both Tech, and Justin1278 use Kubuntu, which are KDE. That’s the nice thing about Linux, lots of options and choices, they all work well on older hardware, and most distros are free (as in price).

Oregon’s a beautiful state, I envy you living there.

DavidR · 2007-03-16T13:08:30.000Z

I think both Linspire and Xandros are both trying to make it considerably easier for the novice user to get into Linux with their ease of installation. Probably most importantly the ease of installing additional software, Linspire with its on click-n-run CNR, this is a service that you have to pay for but there is also Freespire ;D if you don’t like the cost, http://wiki.freespire.org/index.php/Freespire_Roadmap.

I get the occasional Xandros and Linspire newsletter, but I’m not ready to make the jump just yet

Lisandro · 2007-03-16T14:32:05.000Z

DavidR post:14:

I think both Linspire and Xandros are both trying to make it considerably easier for the novice user to get into Linux with their ease of installation.
But I’m not ready to make the jump just yet

When you want, I suggest you start using VMware server (free) and learn into a virtual environment. Most robust distros (like Fedora or my beloved Kubuntu) could have a more difficult installation but, after all, you have a more complete and functional Linux installation at the end.
Why are you afraid? You’ll learn a lot…

DavidR · 2007-03-16T15:53:40.000Z

Long ago as an analyst programmer I had to use Unix, with none of the niceties of a graphical interface, that and working in DOS really puts me of having to tweak, work using command modes.

I look at it this way I don’t have any requirement to use Linux, XP pro and the software I have suits my needs. When it doesn’t then I will start to look to a replacement, by that time and we are talking years. Hopefully by that time the collective wit of these distros and OSS application programmers should be able to come up with an installation routine that is easy and to be able to install new applications without having to resort to command line tweaks.

If they can’t then Linux will remain exactly where it is now and no threat to Windows and without competition M$ will continue to charge an arm and a leg for its products. There must be thousands who would consider a move away from M$ but not having a computer science degree (joking) they are a captive audience. They really have to look to the novice user as the future and plan their user interface accordingly.

OrangeCrate · 2007-03-16T16:13:12.000Z

DavidR post:16:

…They really have to look to the novice user as the future and plan their user interface accordingly.

You’ve made up your mind, and I’m certainly not going to try to change it. I comment on this only for other people who may read this thread…

On Ubuntu, the installation was all GUI. My day to day interaction with the OS is all GUI. The installation of new programs and updates is just point and click. It has menus, and all the things that you have learned and loved from Windows…

The only time I’ve used the terminal, is when I got myself into trouble on a couple of things, and I simply followed the instructions that some kind folks on the Ubuntu forums helped me out with. And then, it was just cut and paste the instructions that were provided to me into the terminal, and hit “enter”.

Now granted, you can be a purist, and run everything from the terminal, but you certainly don’t have to with modern day desktop Linux. I too came from DOS, so I’m not afraid of screwing things up using a terminal, but I’m at the age where if I learn something new, I have to forget something old.

I have no intention of using Linux in terminal mode. The GUI works great. As I’ve said many times on this forum, I don’t care how the box works, as long as it works, and it does. Linux has been great.

system · 2007-03-16T17:37:10.000Z

Hi,

Very interesting read (both the beginning link and all of the posts ;)). In my opinion in a few years Microsoft will begin to worry about Linux, thats really all I have to say about that.

@ Mac

Since OS X is based on Unix doesn’t some of OS X need to be open source?

OrangeCrate · 2007-03-16T20:08:03.000Z

justin1278 post:18:

Since OS X is based on Unix doesn’t some of OS X need to be open source?

Yes…

http://www.apple.com/opensource/

Edit:

Oops, sorry to butt in Justin, I didn’t notice the “@ Mac”.

Mac · 2007-03-17T01:40:53.000Z

Both the PowerPC and Intel source code for darwin is freely available and can be downloaded at the address below

http://www.opensource.apple.com/darwinsource/

all versions from 10.0.0 to 10.4.9 are available

also apple’s developer tools (X Code) is also available on that page to download the source

The Safari Webkit source is avaliable along with lots more components at

http://developer.apple.com/opensource/index.html

Apple has always embraced open source from the beginning of Mac OS X. Linux/Unix users are not our enemy, Microsoft is!

Announcements