I have tried very hard to show you the light, but like most old dogs you refuse to learn new things!
The only advantage for Linux-on-desktop over MacOS X is price, and even that is not significant. Apart from that, every true geek wants a MacOS X machine under their fingertips. As one who switched in Jan this year after 3 or so years as a Linux desktop user, I can tell you it has been pleasurable all the way. You get everything one gets on Linux/Windows, and better eye candy: I get MS Office vX, I get 3 browsers (Safar, IE 5.2 and Mozilla), I have all the Unix toys -- X Windows, vi, bash, PostgreSQL, emacs, Apache -- and I have Windows XP running under VirtualPC, for those times when Windows is required.
And the Apple software is a joy to work with: Apple Mail is so clean and fast and has such a powerful built-in junk buster, it integrates beautifully with the Addressbook application, iTunes the music player is so nicely put together, the list goes on.
And we haven't even started talking hardware -- oh! Any one out there who can do DVD playback on a Linux or Windows laptop for 2 1/2 hours -- on battery -- give me a call!
So, Linux on desktop, last I checked, is improving greatly each passing day, and the numbers will be good if only because of Linux's growing market share. But MacOS X will beat the pants off Linux in useability for years to come, particularly now that they've done the Unix core thing.
I am too sold. Linux is still very much the old girlfriend: she was good, very good, but wasn't quite good enough to keep around when the next one came around.
P.
On Tuesday, Jun 24, 2003, at 08:32 Africa/Kampala, Kiggundu Mukasa wrote:
http://slate.msn.com/id/2084727/<image.tiff>
Business Week columnist Alex Salkever dropped the bomb last week that next year, "Linux should pass Apple in market share for desktop operating systems on computers."
