Linux MUCH better than Mac OS X!!!

[honda882000]

I currently own 3 computers in the house. My primary, a Toshiba laptop with Ubuntu Gusty, a desktop with XP and my newest addition (2 days old), an eMac G4 passed down to me from my brother in law, whom is one of these "trendy, mac is the best and I have white apple stickers on my car to show my Apple Pride, even though I don't really know much about operating system operations at all" people.

According to him, it was going to revolutionize my life. Everything is supposed to by easier than Windows, not to mention Linux. Well, so far its been a major headache. I might be having this experience since it is a new OS for me, but I don't remember having these issues when I started using Linux 2 years ago. Not only does it lock you out of essential hardware features, such as bios configuration (boot order, etc, even though the C key is supposed to replace this), but things seem to be either way to simple, or WAY too complicated. It seems to make it easy surf the net or play music, but anything more advanced, such as installing a database server, needs to be done through command line (Unix)...no package manager.

I might be missing something, but why are these things so popular. Is it because most users for these things don't really need to do anything more than play music? I actually know some true Mac lovers whom are much more technical than myself, but for the most part, these fans seem to be blind with trend. I guess I am just amazed that Linux still has somewhat of a bad rep for being difficult to use, while I believe the learning curve is much shorter.
Anyone else have an opinion on Macs vs Linux? Like I said, I might be missing something, but so far I am deeply disappointed...

[racoq]

I might be missing something, but why are these things so popular

Good old marketing campaigns, have been doing miracles for Apple. I have use MacOSX, and it is not such a big deal to the medium to advanced user who wants to do more advanced things like you've referred, it's in fact rather limited.

Probably it is good for the average joe who wants to do basic things, because of some accessibility features, besides that... it's just another OS

[aysiu]

It seems to make it easy surf the net or play music, but anything more advanced, such as installing a database server, needs to be done through command line (Unix)...no package manager.

I might be missing something, but why are these things so popular. Is it because most users for these things don't really need to do anything more than play music?

Well, most users do not install database servers on their Macs, so that's why they're popular.

There are a lot of reasons to like Macs (my wife loves hers). They're pretty to many people (not to some people on these forums, but to most people I talk to in person). The hardware-software integration is tight. The animation is smooth (and, yes, I've used Beryl and Compiz--no comparison... Mac wins on the smooth graphics). The configuration for graphics (and extended desktop, especially) actually works (not like displayconfig-gtk, which is still rough around the edges). If you rely on Adobe CS3 or Macromedia Flash to make a living, it's much easier to install those on the Mac than through Wine on Linux.

I could go on and on about why Mac appeals to many users.

The bottom line, though, is that it doesn't make sense to say Linux is much better than Mac or that Mac is much better than Linux. People should just find the operating system that works best for their own needs and preferences. For you, it's clearly not Mac OS X.

[jviscosi]

There are a lot of reasons to like Macs (my wife loves hers).

My wife also loves her iBook because it's "pretty" and it "never crashes". She understands that whenever my Linux box freezes up it's usually because I did something to it, but she still gives me that look when I hop on her Mac and use webmin to kill X on my machine. (She doesn't find the fact that I can do this to be remotely as cool as I do.)

I like OS X well enough, but I wouldn't use it as my primary OS. I like tinkering with Linux too much.

Well, most users do not install database servers on their Macs, so that's why they're popular.

I just recently installed MySQL on my wife's iBook as part of the classroom gradebook program I'm working on for her. It was easy to install but then I couldn't find it -- evidently Spotlight doesn't look in /usr/local/bin/mysql, which IIRC is where it went. Anyway once I located it everything was fine.

[Frak]

To compare something such as an OS is relative to the user.

[honda882000]

I realize that OS is relative, but my point is that I feel Linux is easier to use than Mac (assuming installation goes right and all hardware is compatible), at least based on my experience. I still think Windows is easier to use overall (even though Linux is my primary use), but I am really surprised to have a hard time with Mac since I heard so much about it's ease of use.

[Frak]

I realize that OS is relative, but my point is that I feel Linux is easier to use than Mac (assuming installation goes right and all hardware is compatible), at least based on my experience. I still think Windows is easier to use overall (even though Linux is my primary use), but I am really surprised to have a hard time with Mac since I heard so much about it's ease of use.

I think OS X is superior to Linux or Windows. Again, relative.

[boast]

I realize that OS is relative, but my point is that I feel Linux is easier to use than Mac (assuming installation goes right and all hardware is compatible), at least based on my experience. I still think Windows is easier to use overall (even though Linux is my primary use), but I am really surprised to have a hard time with Mac since I heard so much about it's ease of use.

how is OS X hard? theres not much to use.

Click icon, open program.
installing a program? following the wizard, drag program in applications folder, done.

[hanzomon4]

I realize that OS is relative, but my point is that I feel Linux is easier to use than Mac (assuming installation goes right and all hardware is compatible), at least based on my experience. I still think Windows is easier to use overall (even though Linux is my primary use), but I am really surprised to have a hard time with Mac since I heard so much about it's ease of use.

A hammer is easy to use, but not so much if you need to watch tv on it.

[honda882000]

To compare something such as an OS is relative to the user.

Ok, I guess ur right. I was just disappointed, thats all