“When people say they don’t have a choice, they often mean there is no other product that has all the benefits of Microsoft’s products without having the drawbacks. Give it up. I would love to own a car that is as fast as a Corvette and gets the gas mileage of a Honda, but it isn’t going to happen.” Read the opinion piece at TechNewsWorld.
Apple, Linux and BSD: The ‘Other’ Platforms
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
I believe that would be the Honda NSX, renamed here in the US the Acura NSX. Its a honda so it has to have the gas milage of a honda, and its arguably as fast as and a better all arround more balanced car than the Corvette. Next time think out the box and don’t use a stupid comment like that if there is a clear answer 😀
-=gabe=- Debian is my choice, what do you choose?
How does one get such a piece of flamebait published on a large site? Really, there are pretty obviously going to be drawbacks to every sytem, this isn’t new news, nor is it an opinion. There’s a simple fact everywhere in the world that even if have your cake and eat it too, you’ll get fat later. There are drawbacks to everyting, and for many of the AltOS folks the drawbacks are more signifigant on the PlatformThatMustNotBeMentioned.
well i find it odd that oses / arcitectures are so often compaired to cars, especially in pc vs mac debates. I use both and more and over all i see windows can be very risky and have huge vonerabilitys, but most will give that up for ease of use. i prefer OS X and Linux/BSD but windows is easy its just that simple, it is more popular because MS has truely taken over the market. but as other OSes get more popular they too get easyer, and i feel they will catch up and probabley highly out preform MS do to their open development. But this is only my view
Hes got to be kidding. Apple has been going strong for some time now. The last time they were in decline was in the middle of the 90s, and over all they are one of the longest lived computer makers of all time. He also unfairly downplays the value of their servers.
He also dismisses Linux way to fast, and gives way to much attention to a non-existant threat from SCO. Frankly, the “user-interface” issues he sites are very revealing. Just because its different from windows, he doesn’t like it.
For an article thats suppose to be about how Apple, Linux, and BSD really ARE alternatives to Windows, he does an awful good job of convincing people that they are not. Only BSD gets a reasonably fair shake, though he gave it a distinct lack of attention compared to the other two.
Haha LOL.
Another day, another “journalist” is saying Mac is heading for Chapter 11. At least he didn’t say that Apple was “beleagured”. Those types of journalists just love using that word and “Apple” in the same sentence.
Oh well, I’d better sell my brand new 15″ AlumBook since Apple’s on the decline (yet again). </sarcasm>
He needs to do his research. The 2003 Acura NSX gets 17 in the city and 24 on the highway. The 2003 Corvette gets 18 in the city and 28 on the highway. In fact the Corvette is probably one of the best, if not the best, for mileage in a sports car.
That’s not all he needs to research…
The article read like so much blather to me. He continually makes the assertion that the cost is going to be higher going with a UNIX, but never really provides any substantiations for the claims. 😮 zzzzzz…
As the only interesting piece of this article was the sub-head, I’d like to point out that older SAABs give you better performance than a ‘vette, and much better mileage than a Honda.
Says my 900 Turbo.
And we’ve all heard this said about Apple, Linux, and xBSD. It doesn’t look like there was a lot of research done on this article. Rather, the tone implies that the author has dabbled in each of the aforementioned OSs, and said to himself, “Well, I’m much more comfortable using Windows, but… meh… I guess you could use these, too. That is, if you really wanted to. Or something. Ooo, a ‘vette!!”
And that’s all I have to say about that.
if the editors ever pay attention to talkbacks, I think that this author will never get another article with them….there is nothing but criticizm for the gross faulsehoods and blatent lies the author spreds…people from all platforms are blasting this guy over all of the claims in the article….
there was a Linux guy who was bitching about some of the Linux points and then went on about the BSD and OS X points.
Isn’t this about the tenth time that a poorly written article on this very topic has been posted here in recent months? really, editors, come up with fewer articles of higher quality or continue to follow the /. trail of posting flamebaiting dreck.
There are big advantages to sticking to the standard win 2003/xp environment. I like linux and I still acknowledge this.
However, most of what he wrote could be the poster boy list of common misconceptions of the alternative OS choices he covered.
He hit almost every major misconception and fallacy told among people talking about platforms they know nothing about.
This guy wrote this with one hands in his pants half-asleep. It was obviously done without either research or thought.
What a wank-fest pile of FUD!
Even the MS choices were done a dis-service by the fact the man failed to point up many of the platforms advantages in his analysis.
It was an interesting read but it was just more Rob Enderle ranting on how troubled Linux is and how did I know he was going to mention SCO at least one time in his report.
I work(ed) at a New/Used/Refurb Computer store for 3 years. All I here is “Apple Computers are too damn expensive!” It’s totally not the truth. I factor in the reason why they are in the store in the first place, replacement of bad hardware (because they look and find the cheapest stuff on the internet that comes from a little boy on a country I cannot pronouce), or they (laugh, call them-selfs computer techs) dont know what the hell is going on with the computer anymore, and have us fix it. Factor pain, suffering and financial loss (both the Tech’s bills and loss from not working), and you will notice that Apple computers look alot cheaper in the long run. And to the people who constantly smerk and state “It doesnt run my programs!” I say this, and only this to you… Virtual PC
On another note, for people who go computer part ‘shopping for price’ Just because a big retailer like Frys Electronics can loose money on their lost-leader combos, doesnt make the small guys ‘overpriced’ or ‘a rip off’ – You cant own a small business anymore for computers, people are only looking for the CHEAPEST CRAP YOU HAVE!
quote from the article:
<< Deploying Unix, according to what I’m told, is reasonably easy. >>
This little sentence shows exactly what this article is worth. I bet this guy never in his entire life used Linux,BSD or a MAC. But he did read allot of articles on non-tech sites like CNN and that is what made him an expert on it. He judges every OS he mentioned by that one great OS “UNIX”, senserely believing it is a single OS, citing mythical expensive UNIX tools. Maybe I should read more review articles by “Principal Analyst”, i love it …
Quite simply the sheer quantity and quality of apps. Though it is true that there are thousands of apps available for *nix, the fact that probably more than half run from the command-line doesn’t really count.
In Win32, if I wanted an app to measure the distance between my ass cheeks, I could look on Google and probably find one.
“Where I come from people call it decline if you keep loosing market share year by year… now Apple is at below 3% world wide. Talk yourself into as much bull as you will…”
That all depends on the market. They lead the market in multimedia, and have almost 15% of home users in the US.
Darius:
Though it is true that there are thousands of apps available for *nix, the fact that probably more than half run from the command-line doesn’t really count
Why not?
GG
“Though it is true that there are thousands of apps available for *nix, the fact that probably more than half run from the command-line doesn’t really count”
So should we count the thousands of solitare games on Windows?
“In Win32, if I wanted an app to measure the distance between my ass cheeks, I could look on Google and probably find one.”
The secret is, in Unix/Linux, one can already do that (or other small tasks, not specifically *that*) without looking for a program on Google. You just have to use a script or the right combination of the basic tools.
“Where I come from people call it decline if you keep loosing market share year by year… now Apple is at below 3% world wide. Talk yourself into as much bull as you will…”
Plu-eeze
You could read the recent news and realize that Apple’s market share is GAINING. And they are on track to be the portable leader.
That always the hidden trick when a Apple user cant convince someone to use mac Virtual PC. thats such a cop out, im a avid mac user but my god i cant stand VPC why not just get a PC, for the price of VPC you could get a real (old) PC that runs a little nicer. quit trying to convience people to switch just let them find their own way, yeah windows sucks but it looks retarded to push something like a OS or architecture unless you are a salesman, and ive known alot of sales men.
“Though it is true that there are thousands of apps available for *nix, the fact that probably more than half run from the command-line doesn’t really count”
all that windows apps are are a bunch of the same spyware crap repackaged with the same price really. command line stuff most of the time can be more effective and easy to use than GUI stuff if you try it.
You are absolutly right in one respect, there is no reason to buy a mac, only to open VPC to work. However, If for say my computer at work was a POS and kept crashing (like it did many times yesterday) the Mac was suitable for not only Mac Office but programs only written for Windows. I am not going to rely on crap hardware anymore, even my emulated x86 hardware is more dependable.
“In Win32, if I wanted an app to measure the distance between my ass cheeks, I could look on Google and probably find one.”
Windows users would probably need a specialty app such as this to make such a calculation. But would probably still need a 64 bit processor to crunch numbers so large. ; )
This article is one big piece of poo. It just goes to show that anyone can pretend to be an tech journalist on the web.
so what there are tons of apps that run from the DOS command line too, and the BeOS shell,never seen a command line on classic macOS,but the average user doesn’t want to mess with this type of stuff anymore.They want do point and click and work within the GUI.The command line is the realm of the geeks and power users and really has little place in the lives of the business people,graphic artists,musicians,or home users that use a computer as a tool to get the job done.When the LinuxBSD camp realizes this fact, and only when,they will have a chance to compete with the more modernly designed OS’s like Windoze,MacOS and BeOS on the desktop
ho hum, that article added nothing new to the debate. very very very shallow.
and I have to to say saying apple is in “decline” does take it a bit far. sure the company is a niche player, but last I checked its financial health was considerably better than all other PC manufacturers. Apple actually generates revenue, it may not be a huge amount but unlike others its not in the red.
Apart from a few applications, namely OpenSource and the couple offered by http://www.freshdevices.com , could someone name ONE unique and useful freeware application for Windows? Everything is either Demoware, Adware/spyware, freeware that roots the system or shareware that nagware’s you all dayware.
Look through the FreeBSD ports as one example, compilers, games, chat applications, desktops, web browsers, widget kits etc etc. Over 95% of them are useful, non-half baked and don’t have a big friggin Window saying:
*********************************************************************
* *
* *
* GIVE ME SOME MONEY OR I WILL NAG YOU *
* EVERY FIVE MINUTES!!!!!!!!!!! *
* MY PAYPAL ACCOUNT IS: [email protected] *
* *
* *
*********************************************************************
There is a difference between quatity and quality. It seems that Windows has a large QUANTITY of freeware but the MAJORITY is crap, written by teenagers using VB hoping to make their million via selling some registry tweaker that is meant to doo something, aka, TweakDUN. $20 for an applicaiton which simply sets the MTU in the registry. Do you know the sadest thing about it? people actually BOUGHT into it and the myth that through some miracle, your internet connection would speed up.
pc inspector file recovery. it’s free and it works (well it depends on the user also)