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The author made mention of Mac OSX. I thought I would quickly mention that the sole reason OSX is such a smooth *nix desktop experience is that they've only dev

The author made mention of Mac OSX. I thought I would quickly mention that the sole reason OSX is such a smooth *nix desktop experience is that they've only developed it for an EXTREMELY limited selection of hardware. That's the key to getting a good Linux desktop experience: very heavy pre-purchase research. There are machines and configurations with near-seamless out of the box experiences for your favorite Linux distro. That said, OSX still has better application experience. I've used it for the first time as my primary machine at work for the past few months, and coming from a traditional Linux background, I'm sold. Strongly considering a MBP as my next hardware purchase. Idealistically I'd prefer to go the OSS route, throwing Arch or Ubuntu on a Lenovo, but it's really just not there yet.

BenSS 15y ago
"developed it for an EXTREMELY limited selection of hardware" I'm happy in OSX, but I'd love to see any linux distro partner/associate with a particular hardware maker. Create an install & tested machine list that 'just works' on one line of hardware. Grow it from there.
- beej71 15y ago
  Even though a variety of hardware makers already do this with Linux, it's a different situation than with OSX. Apple can really dictate what goes where in the hardware, but Dell etc. are all buying the latest, greatest, and most cost effective hardware out there. And since makers of that hardware, and makers of software for that hardware, are so keen to have their stuff work with Windows, they do most of the heavy lifting, leaving Dell etc to package stuff up and ship it out the door. So while Dell etc might bust its ass getting a few Linux-based SKUs out there, they're going to have to keep up the hard work making sure it runs on the newest hardware, when the hardware manufacturers rarely care if Linux runs on their stuff at all. And as anyone who has installed Linux on brand new hardware knows, hiccups are not uncommon. The balance of power difference is that with Windows, everyone else works hard to make sure their stuff works with Windows. With Linux, Linux devs work hard to make sure their stuff works with everyone else. And Apple just has to work well with Apple and their few suppliers. Linux does hit a lot closer to the Windows model with Android, however.

BenSS 15y ago

"developed it for an EXTREMELY limited selection of hardware" I'm happy in OSX, but I'd love to see any linux distro partner/associate with a particular hardware maker. Create an install & tested machine list that 'just works' on one line of hardware. Grow it from there.

beej71 15y ago
Even though a variety of hardware makers already do this with Linux, it's a different situation than with OSX. Apple can really dictate what goes where in the hardware, but Dell etc. are all buying the latest, greatest, and most cost effective hardware out there. And since makers of that hardware, and makers of software for that hardware, are so keen to have their stuff work with Windows, they do most of the heavy lifting, leaving Dell etc to package stuff up and ship it out the door. So while Dell etc might bust its ass getting a few Linux-based SKUs out there, they're going to have to keep up the hard work making sure it runs on the newest hardware, when the hardware manufacturers rarely care if Linux runs on their stuff at all. And as anyone who has installed Linux on brand new hardware knows, hiccups are not uncommon. The balance of power difference is that with Windows, everyone else works hard to make sure their stuff works with Windows. With Linux, Linux devs work hard to make sure their stuff works with everyone else. And Apple just has to work well with Apple and their few suppliers. Linux does hit a lot closer to the Windows model with Android, however.