Leopard versus Ubuntu

[blippy]

I bought my iMac in April 2007. I'm keen on Linux, so I have mostly been using Ubuntu on it. I decided to buy Leopard, and see if I liked it better. Here's what I think are the pros and cons of Leopard (and OS X in general) compared to Ubuntu:

LEOPARD PROS:

* It's really beautiful. Ooo, so gorgeous and detailed. Ubuntu brown. 'nuff said.

* Applications are more polished and work better. You may have to pay for some of them, but you get better quality.

* More "fuss-free" than Ubuntu

* Seems to be faster than Ubuntu. I find that Ubuntu seems a little less responsive, and does a bit more disk thrashing

* Applescript is nice

* Nice things that comes with Leopard that didn't come with Tiger:
- Apache/Sharing installed as standard
- X-Windows built-in - sorta.


LEOPARD CONS:

* doesn't have apt-get

* Ubuntu has more applications. (although I guess some people are going to debate this)

* I wish it were easier to customise the date so that it showed on the taskbar

* keyboard niggles:
- hash key on uk keyboard wrt aquamacs was tedious to set up
- begin/end line keys only seem to be supported on some apps

* Right Mouse Button doesn't work properly out of the box

* No easy locking of screen

* my webcam isn't supported - even though it is under linux

* Comparison with GNOME:
- Gnome has a button whereby you can minimise all apps on the desktop - OS X doesn't
- In Gnome, you can minimise or display an application by clicking it on the taskbar
- In Gnome, you can add applets to the bar really easily
- Gnome has an application menu to logically organise your apps.
- It's easy to create scripts that work with Gnome

* Proprietory formats - applications have their own formats, and are opaque

* Leopard seems like "UNIX with quirks"

* X-Windows is a bit odd on Leopard. It would have been nicer if Leopard's GUI was built on top of it.



Let the flamefest begin.

[popch]

You are prejudiced. Just look at your avatar.

[corney91]

* More "fuss-free" than Ubuntu

This always seems to come up when comparing proprietary to Linux, but tbh I prefer the tinkering ;)

[mdsmedia]

Never used OSX.....never likely to..probably.

I like Ubuntu....hey I'm still on Dapper and no problems here.

Maybe if I decide my next notebook will be a MacBook I'll look at this.

If you want flamewars, don't invite them.

[blippy]

Never used OSX.....never likely to..probably.

I like Ubuntu....hey I'm still on Dapper and no problems here.

I think both have their niggles, but in different areas. I'd like to see each of them copy each other's good ideas.

On Gnome, you can easily extend Nautilus using scripts. Very useful. You can do it on XP too - but I haven't worked out how to do it on Finder, yet. What OS X and Gnome needs is a dual pane file manager like FreeCommander on Windows.

I'm finding that I use Spotlight on Leopard a lot. Say I want to start Keepass. If I type Cmd-Space I bring up Spotlight, I type "k", and it is intelligent enough to know that I use Keepass a lot, and highlights it as my first choice. I press return, and it launches Keepass. Very nice. You can also evaluate mathermatical expressions on Spotlight, simply by typing them out.

I really wish that the Leopard GUI was built on top of X-Windows, rather than use whatever wacky system they do now. Mind you, given the current bugginess of Leopard's implementation of X-Windows, I guess I have to be careful what I wish for.

I generally find that my fingertips are more in tune with Gnome - so I'm not ready to give up Ubuntu just yet. My plan is to try to not use Ubuntu until Heron comes out, and then give it another try.

Having used Linux for some time, I would say that switching back to OS X, I definitely noticed a quality advantage in OS X. I would say that Ubuntu needs five years, as a minimum, to reach the level of quality and finesse that other operating systems have.

[roaldz]

OSX uses Quartz instead of X11. In my opinion much better.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz_%28graphics_layer%29

[Erunno]

Here's a link explaining some of Apple's reasons for developing Quartz instead of using X. Mind you, it's 5 years old so both Quartz and X probably advanced in the meantime.

http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=75257&cid=6734612

The following Ars Technica article explains the evolution of Quartz and the components it is made of. Rather technical but also pretty interesting. Since it's part of the 10.4 Tiger review any technical advancements in Leopard are not covered.

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/macosx-10-4.ars/13

The Quartz enhancements for Leopard are explained in Ars' Leopard review.

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/9

[SunnyRabbiera]

Yeh but leopard from what I heard is not doing so well by even the most hardcore apple fans.
There is even a blue screen of death now 0.o

[karth]

AFAIK this only occured on modified OSXs when upgrading Tiger towards Leopard
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306857

And BSoD (windows kernel panic) is a Microsoft specialty, there is no such thing on OSX (instead, there is a darkened screen with a multi-lingual message asking for a reboot)
http://www.dashboardwidgets.com/showcase/data/57/Kernel_Panic-1p0f.png

[Erunno]

What can I say, even kernel panics look fashionable under Mac OS X ;-)

On a more serious note, I had some severe system stability problems under Mac OS X 10.4.9 which lessened considerably with Leopard. The only applicatons which still tends to crash occasionaly is VLC.