Poll Results: MacOS X vs. Linux!

Update: In the time I was writing the article, 3 more votes came in and it ended up:

MacOS X: 725
Linux: 725

So it was an absolute tie. Amazing.

i think it dumb that people are prepared to sacrifice power over an operating system like mac os x. Linux should of one by alot. I demand a recount.

i like to corect my mistake in the second line, instead of "one" it should be "won". sorry for the mistake.

Frankly, I can't imagine running Linux as a desktop OS on a daily basis. It's certainly come a long way but it's got quite a bit of catching up to do, IMNSHO, especially in the area of mature, polished applications. It's in dire need of a standard, world class UI, too.

OS/2 forever man!

Atari rulez dood!

I think Linux is pretty much ready for the desktop, at least for some users. Both KDE and Gnome are at an acceptable level of usability. Obviously OSX and XP are more polished, and have more overall consistency, but Linux is perfectly usable as a desktop, even now. I run it side by side with XP, and with a fairly small number of exceptions, there is little I can do on XP that I can't do on Linux.

I think some of it is what the user is willing to work with, but if Windows vanished overnight, Linux _could_ pick up the slack, and if it had a larger user base, the applications would follow.

Linux after Microsft

and others sux

that is my oponion

I didn't vote because it's moot anyway, but the comment "would be willing to leave the PC entirely to go to MacOS is impressive" is misleading. These voters were asked, if pc's didn't exist what would you use.

How come the abacus wasn't a choice.

All in fun
Chris

Yippee KaaJay Windows Lover!

They weren't ask if PC's didn't exist. They were asked if WINDOWS didn't exist what would you switch to.

I recently migrated my primary home PC from WXP to RedHat 7.3 and so far I'm very happy with the results.

Email and web browsing and pretty much the same between the two.

The main reason I switched is that with the release of WineX 2.1 (another subscription based company!) I can play most of my Windows games on Linux (Warcraft, Starcraft Half Life, etc.)

I initially tried Linux back in 1999 and found it too difficult to setup and run. Based on my expierences so far with RH 7.3, Linux has come a LOOOONG way and is very much usable now.

John

About 'switching' (very popular term, used a lot by Apple):
I recently 'switched' on work, from Mac OS 9 to Mac OSX. The results are good, now i can do more tasks simultaneously, such printing long sizer postcript files and convert to CMYK on Photoshop; the print jobs now are much faster. I also use a good enhanced desktop (not intuitive as OS9, but have a lot of improvements).
I'm trying to 'switch' on my home. On my Intel computer, i installed recently a Linux distro, and i'm very impressed: good desktop, i can run Some Windows apps, faster performance (and i have not well installed the driver-monitor modules!). Not all are happy on WIndows, sometimes i need to use the Terminal, but there's no problem to do all tasks, includig designing and painting.
I also checked my Mac computer, crashed recently, and my problem are the CD drive. For low cost, i can run again my Mac at home. Don't surprise if i don't upload some skins/icons here on the next months.

Hmm... there shoulda been an "OSX86" option. I love OSX, but couldn't give up that configurability with the hardware.

I doubt we'll ever see an OS X for x86. It doesn't make business sense for Apple, a mostly hardware based company, to do so... If Apple were to ever adopt Intel/AMD cpu's it would no doubt still be running inside proprietary boxes. There'd be no OS X to slap on a Dell, for instance.

As far as configurability goes, I don't think there's anything I can't upgrade in my Power Mac that I would have normally upgraded in my old Wintel PC. Hard drives, memory, video, audio, CPU upgrades, etc...

I use all three and if I could get the compatibility for games etc. I would drop Windows like radioactive waste.
I would probably go with OSX as first choice but as far as Windoze goes I would leave without looking back.

Yes , i aggree with the half of you that would rather switch to the more powerful system linux. Leave the "colorful" OSX for girls that need their computer to look cool...For us that want power and something actually Useful. Let's just go and get a linux system. I can't believe people actuall would even consider the mac. !

Given the audience, enthusiasts looking for good looking GUIs, it's actually not that surprising. They both have their respective strong suits:

Mac has generally had the nicest graphics by default of any OS, so you can get a good looking OS without much effort, while Linux has been skinnable from the ground up from day one, so it's even more skinable than Windows.

I would give Linux the edge thought because I think some of Mac voters would chicken out when it came time for ponying up for new hardware.

Yes unbeliveable.. that so many ignorant people exists... Mac should only be allowed to run one (1) thing.. no desktop, nothing.. except photoshop, after all; it's the only thing it can do (and it do it well i might add)

Personally i would chose neither.. i'd go back to my amiga for true multitasking, custom chipsets and nice setups ( )

If BeOS and/or OS/2 were still alive (sure the IBM website says OS/2 is alive, but they are the only ones convinced that) then I'd go for one of them. I've never used either of them, but there's no way I would ever use an Apple (besides playing around with in the shops).

On the other hand, if Linux ran every windows app (exe files) I'd probably be using it right now.

Linux.... by far. I think as soon as enough devz are ready to port their apps to Linux, it will be a no brainer. Once things like WineX are working like a charm, it will be an ez switch. If they could only get a Wine port to work great for both the games, AND the other apps, it would ROCK! And, I would say bye bye windoze FOREVER

I was, until recently, a Mac hater. What changed my mind? MacOSX being based on Unix. I And yes...there is an x86 version...just download Darwin (the open source Unix backend of OSX) and go at it. I dont think anyone wanting an x86 Unix would actually consider Darwin but I may be wrong.

All that aside I would choose Linux. I have been working with Linux for years and the only thing stopping me from using it as my primary OS is game compatibility. Wine is fine but not nearly compatible enough to pair with the newest games. I usually have at least one of my computers running Linux (Mandrake 9 right now) and if Windows bit the dust that would be my primary OS (depending on a few other things).

Should I assume that with Windows gone Microsoft would not just put all their money into MacOS? After all...they own half of Apple. Microsoft has been screwing Linux users for years now making sure it is harder to run Windows ports on Linux so would it change much if Microsoft moved to OSX? I cannot answer that but I am sure alot of the software companies out there would welcome the death of Windows so they could finally move to Linux as their primary target OS. I know my company would!!! Of course cross-compatibility is key to a strong software project in a world where the OS market is split 50/50 but it would be nice to drop the bloat involved with Windows.