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Linux is a passable desktop OS if you're a developer or most of the things you need live in the browser. I have an Ubuntu box loaded up and sitting in the garag

by jarin 16y ago

Linux is a passable desktop OS if you're a developer or most of the things you need live in the browser. I have an Ubuntu box loaded up and sitting in the garage just in case my Macbook gets stolen or dies on me, and I know that I'd be able to clone my projects and be up and running and billing clients again in a couple of hours. That being said, desktop Linux is lacking a lot of the other things that I use on a daily basis (no, Gimp and OpenOffice.org are NOT "just as good"), and I just don't enjoy using it as much as OS X. However, I in no way look down on the people who love their Linux desktop machines more than life itself, because without them we wouldn't have things like Webkit, TrueCrypt, VNC, Wine, Eclipse, and Cedega (and its cousin Cider, for running Windows games on Linux and the Mac, respectively). So keep hacking away on your Linux desktop machines!

StavrosK 16y ago
I'm the opposite, I used OS X for a few months and found it abysmal for development, really unfit for power-user usage (keyboard accessibility was horrid) and completely uncustomisable. I switched to Linux and never used it again. I used to use Windows before that, but now I've switched all my computers to Linux. Windows is a close favorite (7 is great), but installing the dev tools I need isn't easy (or possible, sometimes). OS X is a distant third.
- jarin 16y ago
  I can understand that point of view, but I notice that a lot of desktop Linux users bring up UI customization as one of the big arguments for using Linux. I've always seen extensive UI customization as just one more distraction between me and real work. I'd rather just set a flat black or very minimalist wallpaper and get cracking instead of spending hours finding the right interface theme, tweaking the colors and fonts, and designing the perfect wallpaper to highlight my CPU/RAM/weather/calendar desktop widgets (I have done all this before). I'm actually really glad that the only UI customization that's easy to do in OS X is choosing between color or greyscale title bar close buttons.
  - StavrosK 16y ago
    Oh, no, nothing like that. I agree, and never spend any time customising the look. My wallpaper is usually solid black color. What I mean is, for example, the horrible implementation of Spaces, which could very easily has an option to work correctly, but doesn't. I need virtual desktops, but it's not a virtual desktop when cmd-tab shows you all the windows on all workspaces. I need to separate workflows on each desktop, and I just can't do that on OS X. They could have a simple checkbox for this, but it's currently impossible, unless you use Witch (a third party alt+tab replacement). This is one of the reasons, but it's the general mindset that pervades OS X. It just doesn't want to give users options, even those are very sane.
  - jarin 16y ago
    Spaces definitely has its issues, that's for sure. Aside from the alt+tab problem you mentioned, it just started feeling really slow so I turned it off. I guess you could make an argument that Apple gets a lot of usability ideas from Linux, but when they go through the Stevejobsification Process they tend to lose some of their usefulness in trade for simplicity and prettier looks. I think the problem is that the only people who even notice these things are power users, so it's not even a factor in adoption rates.
    - StavrosK 16y ago
      Probably, but the stevejobsification process in this case completely missed the purpose of the feature and produced a larger desktop instead. I agree that only power users notice these things, but I was commenting on why I don't use it, not on why I don't want other people to use it :P
mkr-hn 16y ago
They're just as good for a lot of use cases.

by jarin 16y ago

StavrosK 16y ago

I'm the opposite, I used OS X for a few months and found it abysmal for development, really unfit for power-user usage (keyboard accessibility was horrid) and completely uncustomisable. I switched to Linux and never used it again. I used to use Windows before that, but now I've switched all my computers to Linux. Windows is a close favorite (7 is great), but installing the dev tools I need isn't easy (or possible, sometimes). OS X is a distant third.

jarin 16y ago
I can understand that point of view, but I notice that a lot of desktop Linux users bring up UI customization as one of the big arguments for using Linux. I've always seen extensive UI customization as just one more distraction between me and real work. I'd rather just set a flat black or very minimalist wallpaper and get cracking instead of spending hours finding the right interface theme, tweaking the colors and fonts, and designing the perfect wallpaper to highlight my CPU/RAM/weather/calendar desktop widgets (I have done all this before). I'm actually really glad that the only UI customization that's easy to do in OS X is choosing between color or greyscale title bar close buttons.
- StavrosK 16y ago
  Oh, no, nothing like that. I agree, and never spend any time customising the look. My wallpaper is usually solid black color. What I mean is, for example, the horrible implementation of Spaces, which could very easily has an option to work correctly, but doesn't. I need virtual desktops, but it's not a virtual desktop when cmd-tab shows you all the windows on all workspaces. I need to separate workflows on each desktop, and I just can't do that on OS X. They could have a simple checkbox for this, but it's currently impossible, unless you use Witch (a third party alt+tab replacement). This is one of the reasons, but it's the general mindset that pervades OS X. It just doesn't want to give users options, even those are very sane.
- jarin 16y ago
  Spaces definitely has its issues, that's for sure. Aside from the alt+tab problem you mentioned, it just started feeling really slow so I turned it off. I guess you could make an argument that Apple gets a lot of usability ideas from Linux, but when they go through the Stevejobsification Process they tend to lose some of their usefulness in trade for simplicity and prettier looks. I think the problem is that the only people who even notice these things are power users, so it's not even a factor in adoption rates.
  - StavrosK 16y ago
    Probably, but the stevejobsification process in this case completely missed the purpose of the feature and produced a larger desktop instead. I agree that only power users notice these things, but I was commenting on why I don't use it, not on why I don't want other people to use it :P

mkr-hn 16y ago

They're just as good for a lot of use cases.