is mac as good as linux?

mac os X or Linux?

Here's the rundown:
Both come with tons of stuff...
both look great...
both are simple to use (usually)....
BUT
Linux is free and runs on anything
while mac only runs on Apple hardware
BUT
Mac is supported
While Linux is not
BUT
there is software out for Mac
while Linux needs no more

YOU DECIDE!

The real question is: Is Desktop linux as good as Mac when you pay for either one. Both are supported when you pay. Plenty would say Mac is better in that case. Not that I know. I like linux regardless.

For most people, OS X might be easier for them to use as a desktop. As for me, I don't like the dock idea much as it's more suited to running once instance of an application at time (to me). KDE has multiple desktops and I use them extensively (~7 desktops). I do like maximize, and OS X doesn't have that. KDE does screw up once in a while (konqueror especially.. it crashes more than firefox). In general, I find that the OS X and Windows slow me down compared to Linux with KDE.

It's not really valid to compare a kernel (Linux) and a Desktop environment (KDE) with a full OS (Mac OS). It would be a much more accurate comparison to rank Mac OS next to SuSE, Red Hat, JDS, etc...

As far as ease of use, Mac OS wins over anything else hands down. Whether it's worth it, that's up to individual users. Personally, I don't use anything other than Macs for productivity (for servers, that's a different story).

I like all three of the major OS's (even windows to a point).

I would say though that I have become a Mac fan over Linux. Linux is a little faster in some regards, but it does not have the support or ease of use that OS X has. Not to mention the fact that OS X at it's core is just as powerful as Linux, thus that negates that argument.

I will say that Linux is a little more customizable then OS X as far as appearence.

However, OS X has far less issues arising than Linux. You can use OS X without any knowledge of computers and slowly become computer literate without your entire system becomming unstable. In other words, you can be as much hands on or off as you want with OS X than with Linux.

Now if the two combined...well then that wouls be something very very interesting, and Linux is still in its teen years compared to Windows and Mac.

We shall see.

Mike

EDIT: I would like to see multiple desktops come to OS X.

these kinds of comparisons are more fro desktops... linux may be teen as a desktop OS compared to windows and mac, but for serving or workstation applications, it's far superior. To tell you the truth, I actually perfer KDE (and to a lesser extent GNOME) as a desktop over Windows or Mac OS. I find that I am much more productive with KDE (Virtual desktops, customizability, etc.) Perhaps the idea of more than one desktop might be too frightening to the average windows or mac user? I don't know.

Actually OS X has all the same service daemons available as you have on Linux, and it's running a BSD-derived kernel and a BSD userland, so from a server perspective you could consider OS X pretty much like FreeBSD. The Department of Homeland Security (and some sections of the military) in the USA actually use OS X Server extensively. The interesting thing is that you don't even need the server edition to run these services. I've run Apache, Tomcat, and Postfix on my G4/OS 10.3.x laptop without installing any external packages.

As for multiple desktops, you can actually do that easily on OS X. There's a package called DesktopManager that I installed from Darwin Ports. It gives all the virtual desktop functionality that's available with X window managers, but it runs in Aqua and thus doesn't rely on X at all!

There's a virtual desktop thing on windows too. The XP Power Tools or w/e. I never found them as good as on Linux. I don't have a mac so I can't try the virtual desktops on the mac.

About linux being better for serving, I meant better than windows. OSX should at least be the same.

OS X is terrrific at file serving, I have had no problems what-so ever.

Again, my take on it is, OS X makes everything just work. I don't have to spend 4 days trying to figure out why my -insert hardware here- isn't working with -insert software here- It's like Windows but better. You can know as much or as little about the OS as you want and still be productive. <--Key part since Linux users claim they know more about the PC than the average Windows user.

As far as visuals, OS X hands down, with Fluxbox coming in a close second.

Mike

I think I read somewhere once saying that Mac/Windows is easy to learn easy to be productive. Linux is harder to learn, but once you do,you are much more productive.

Eh, really in the end, asking a question like this on a Linux forum is going to yield some pretty one sided results.

It would like me going to macrumors.com and asking how many people like Windows over Mac...chances are not a whole lot of people.

Point is, Mac is in the minority here, regardless of how one looks at it and in the end it comes down to personal choice, and personally, I choose OS X AND Linux. I love them both. Hell despite the fact that it's UNIX I still had Tux on my iBook's desktop for awhile.

Personally though, posts like this just piss me off.

Most of the comments there aren't very intelligent sounding and just sound like old predjudice's against Mac and Apple. There are many die hard Mac users who also see benefits in using something like Linux, but I have yet to see many Linux people give any real answer to why they don't like OS X besides old prejudices. That is one of the many reasons why I do not post here as much anymore.

I saw this in a review of OS X/iLife once: What is the point in being able to buy 30,000 apps when all you need is 5 apps.

Well to me its kinda the same thing, even when I had Linux, I tried to make it look like OS X, so to me that window manager is all I need or want.

But I am just rambling now...

Mike

when you take into consideration that OS X is nothing more than FreeBSD (modified for PPC Arch, of course) with a custom GUI (seems heavily QT/KDE based if you ask me... but then again, who did?) all it comes down to is a question of do you want to have free software or a supported system... of course you could have both i.e. YellowDog Linux. Personally I'd take the freedoms of a Linux box and run with them.

OS X is a lot more than "just a modified FreeBSD". It's true that a lot of the BSD userland utilities are imported from FreeBSD, and some of the kernel is from FreeBSD, but most of the kernel is Mach, which Steve Jobs brought in from NeXT, which NeXT got from MIT, which MIT got from 4.2BSD (or was it 4.3? I forget). The point being that the kernel is not a stock FreeBSD kernel and a lot of it is quite a bit different (with a ton of work done by the folks at NeXT, and now at Apple). The TCP/IP stack is the one notable contribution from FreeBSD.

The userland utilities in OS X make up a very small percentage of the usefulness of the system, and in fact you can install OS X without it. The real value in OS X is the GUI and it's NOT QT. The GUI is a combination of classic Mac and NeXT.

I just recently took a taste of the Apple (sorry), and so far, I like it. It really "just works", in sharp contrast to most of the other OS's I've tried (including Windows). It gives me the stability, freedom from malware, and powerful CLI of Unix, and the easy initial setup that Linux frequently lacks.

The cons are that it's hardware specific, not truly "free", and slower & less flexible than Linux.

chort, you make some valid points, but I guess you missed mine.
all I was saying was that when it comes down to considering a desktop env/OS and you are considering 2 similar *NIX based systems, cost becomes a big factor. While supported Linux distros like YellowDog linux still cost the end user money, it is far less than what one might pay for OS 10.X... and there are completely free, feature rich, PPC Linux Distros out there such as Gentoo Linux (although as far as the installation process goes I'm sure it's like 1,000X as difficult, Gentoo=Pain in the rear!)

My point is simply this, choose what is best based on your needs and the ease-of-use and functionality that you want... if you can't decide what to do, use both!