Well, if you're all chipping in your two cents, I should too...
Mac/OS X is the best desktop solution for me, my family, and my
coworkers. Video editing/DVD authoring, photo editing, sound editing,
programming (emacs + X11, vim, bash, tcl, python, ruby, etc.), testing
the above, Microsoft Office, and I even (before the family thing
happened) games all work great. :-) --------- I evaluated OS X
server--neat hardware with some really cool management options, but
threaded performance lagged (this was a G5 Xserve) and we couldn't get
all of the OSS server software running on it that we would have liked.
(ever try to custom-compile a bunch of OSS stuff on OS X that isn't
in fink or darwinports? Ouch.) I wouldn't choose OS X on the server
over Linux except for specialized tasks that linux isn't up to
(quicktime streaming?). I imagine BSD and Solaris would shine for
some specialized tasks as well, but I don't have much experience with
them yet...
Linux is the best server solution for me, because of better
price/performance, lots more server software availability. It also
works fine as a programming workstation, as long as you're just
working with code or other stuff closely tied to the server. ----- I
used linux as my desktop at home for two years. What. A. Royal.
Pain. YMMV, of course, but I really like my video editing, photoshop,
MSOffice, etc. etc. to "just work". Not "sort of work after doing 80
hours of research online and tweaking three-dozen parts of the
system." I wouldn't choose it again on the desktop over OS X as long
as I had a choice.
I don't ever choose Windows. I was a 100% windows user from 3.1
through 2000, and dual-booted XP and Linux. Once I discovered Linux
and OS X, and dumped games, there was nothing tying me to the
virus/spyware-riddled, unstable, completely proprietary,
pay-for-every-stinking-program-on-the-machine (i.e. no bundled or
built-in ANYTHING) piece of trash. YMMV, of course.
It's ironic that the only OS I ever paid an annual anti-virus tax for
was the only OS that I've ever had that got infected with a virus.
~ Nathan
On 5/16/06, Michael Bright <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
This has been a very interesting thread to follow. I would like to throw in my
two cents on the matter.
About a year and a half ago, I was confronted with a dead PCI board connection
on my laptop. I could boot the machine ever so often and upon booting, it
would die every now and then. I needed the laptop as it was the only
development machine that I had at the time (being a poor student) and I needed
to keep working. I was fed up with the PC world as I kept getting Lemons from
the various different vendors. I had been looking at a MAC for a while and
decided to try it. I have been using MAC OS X since.
I find it VERY interesting that people in general, not necessarily technical
people, have a tendancy to believe that their files will not run on a MAC or
that their MAC won't work with a Windows Environment! This is a belief that
many share. I found that shifting all of my files and configuring MAC OS X
Environment into what I needed, took me about 2 hours, (Mind you I had never
worked with OS X prior). I found it easy and very powerful.
Andrew, you are very astute as to the purposes of OS systems. When people ask
me what to buy, or what to get, I ask them what they want to do. This is
really what this all boils down to, what you want to do.
I am THOROUGHLY impressed with the OS X system. My Linux Systems, SUSE,
Debian, Gentoo, Red Hat, Mandrake, Knoppix, and Ubuntu I am always changing to
look like a MAC as I prefer the theme to all the others.
Windows....Well.....If people are used to it, and can't work with other
systems, let them work with Windows. I prefer the MAC OS X to that of Linux.
Although I can do a lot with other OS systems, I still prefer my MAC to others.
That is my two cents....I will take your answers off the air! ;-)
Thank you!
PS - I should say if I had to choose between having OS X, Linux, or Windows on
a box, I would have OS X and Linux on my box and use the Windows System CDs as
book marks, they do quite well.
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