I’ve been playing with Linux on two machines the past two days. An old clamshell iBook (whose noisy HD irritates the hell out of me) and an old Dell Latitude (whose overall lack of quality just irritates me).
Installing Linux is generally a lot harder than Windows, and everything is harder than installing OS X. Installing Linux on notebook computers is even more troublesome. If I wanted to super geek out, I’d look up the complete hardware details of a machine before installing Linux, but who really wants to do that most of the time? I want to use the software or toss the machine!
The old iBook is troublesome primarily because Linux distros are supporting PPC architecture a lot less since Apple dropped PPC and it is a notebook with its own unique hardware. Most distros I’ve tried fail somewhere in the install process or don’t boot from the iso CD at all. It’s a shame, but YDL (Yellow Dog Linux) 5.0.1 seems to be going ok. Though 5.0.2 failed.
It’s ironic since they are Mac Linux specialists and Macs have had a fairly small number of variations in hardware compared to PCs over the last 10 years.
The Dell Latitude is particularly troublesome for issues that I always considered just Windows, but may be poor quality components as well (common with Dells). Random failure after random failure on installation, finally it works, but the button on the CD tray does not function under Linux.
But over all, I have to say, Linux for the desktop is just not there yet. Ubuntu and Kubuntu versions are nice in their individual ways they mimic Windows and OS X, but both Gnome and KDE fail to do more than look nice. The Ubuntu/Kubuntu family also have the most painless installation process, and it’s a lot shorter than with SUSE or Gentoo, but still lacking at times. The desktop environments themselves lack workflow almost as much as Windows does. (I know, I’m spoiled by OS X) Gnome is prettier, but the interface is less stable. KDE really does a better job with QT for interface widgets, but neither one comes close to OS X or (*shudder*) XP or Vista.
The text editors bundled are also nothing to love. Talk about hard on the eyes. I haven’t that kind of headache from staring at a screen since Windows 95!
I like what is done overall with both systems, but nothing beats a nice new Mac for developing on.
One thing I seriously miss from the OS X command line is the OS X command line tool open for opening a file in a GUI application or opening a directory in the Finder.
It thought it would be a fun learning experience, but, seriously, its not. Coding should be done with tools that are nice to you like TextMate.
Conclusion:
If you need a cheap server, you could do it with Linux. You’d probably have more fun with a used Mac tower (G4 or G5) and OS X Server.
For anything else, Windows is still nicer to work with than Linux in the GUI.
For everything, OS X still wins hands down. (except for games and game development, of course…)
3 comments ↓
Here’s a true story. A few years back I needed to take a medication for a condition. The medication didn’t work at all. It failed miserably and I had to tough it out without it. Last summer I was introduced to another medication that worked with flying colors. I’m much healthier than I have been in years. It’s amazing how good I feel. So why did one medication fail and another succeed? My insurance doesn’t cover prescriptions. The first drug cost over $400 a month and it worked “ok”. The second drug (which has been around for a long time and isn’t covered by any patents) cost $42 a month. You see if a drug cures the condition but costs more than the patient can afford, then it doesn’t work, period.
I think I could be very happy with a Mac. But it doesn’t “work” for me.
I installed PCLinuxOS on a Dell Latitude 510 laptop. I confess to know very little about laptops, it was my first encounter with one. In short order it found 4 wireless routers, 2 were “locked up” but the other 2 worked fine (BTW none of the routers were in my apartment). Maybe I was lucky, but that was my experience. The fonts on the LCD rendered beautifully too. So could I say “Linux” is ready for laptops? No, but I could say PCLinuxOS is ready for the Dell Latitude 510.
Your work is appreciated, especially the work on the PPC. There are many old and orphaned computers with the PPC CPU in it and GNU/Linux can make many of them functional again. And as for the developer, he/she needs to take special care in the choice of GNU/Linux distribution. Some distros are geared mostly for home use (read Ubuntu) and are ill suited for programming. Others work well for development work.
Nice try, but you don’t have to explain cost to me with metaphors. Computers have never been cheap, but they’ve never been cheaper than they are now! Indeed, even a Linux installation today is 1000 times better than what was available 10 years ago, but the machines are too, and they’re cheaper now.
I also find it interesting that you only cued in on the Mac. Modern Macs are not much different in price than accurately comparable PC sold with Windows. Especially so when you consider the software itself.
I agree that computers, software, and internet access should all be more accessible to more people, and they are more so than they ever have been in history.
But stealing WiFi is not a benefit of using Linux, it’s just stealing. Do you run an extension cord to your neighbor’s home for electricity? And a pipe for water? Do you steal gasoline as well?
While you’re at it, why don’t you just steal a better computer than a Dell and pirate better software?!
I still have yet to have anyone tell me why Mac´s OS is so great. The problem is that most of the people who use Macs seem to be snobs, and just spend there time scoffing at other OS´s rather than explaining exactly why Apple/Macs/OS is so good. The only thing that I know of about OSX is that is not happered by problems of shared librarys, like .dlls or linux dependencies. Id really like to know if it possible for Linux to ever use such a sceme with its apps, because having to have your computer synchronized with a repository is only good if youre only ever going to use open source apps, it kind of shuts the door on Linux ever attracting commercial software. Since OSX is a fork of FreeBSD, that proves its already possible with *nix. JJ, do you know exactly how the OSX shared librarys or lack there of works?
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