An Apple User Tries Ubuntu
itmanagement.earthweb.com
An Apple User Tries Ubuntu
1–10 of 58 posts
Re: An Apple User Tries Ubuntu
#2> I know Ubuntu is free software, but I don’t care about that. It’s more important that my system be good, not cheap. (And if it was really that great, they’d charge for it, right?).
I wanted to stop reading right there, because the reviewer is ill informed by what it means to be "free," however I stuck it out and he gives a favorable review.
Re: An Apple User Tries Ubuntu
#3This wasn't a bad article to read, although it doesn't really get anywhere. A reasonably novice Mac user tries out Ubuntu, finds some pros and cons.. the end. Quite well written though but some of his insights don't quite make sense..
> I had heard that Linux users still use a command line. Instead of pointing and clicking, they actually type in obscure commands – a series of numbers, letters, and squiggly things. It’s very Russian spy, black hat, deep nerd.
So do most technically minded OS X users. Admittedly he says he finds the command line quite useful on page 2, but Linux's command line offers no benefits over OS X's.
> My test laptop was using the GNOME desktop interface. On start up, it offered me a choice of interfaces (KDE, GNOME, etc.) The oddness of this struck me: isn’t Ubuntu enough? It appears I still needed to select a separate desktop interface. [...] The Linux desktop needs to eliminate that extra choice if it wants to reach a mass audience.
That's what Ubuntu is attempting to do: enforce a standard. I don't recall Ubuntu asking me this question with a default install. You're never going to be able to eradicate the ability to choose though, because people on both sides of the KDE/GNOME fence are pretty diehard. I can see why, because I "quite like" GNOME and think KDE is a bloated, ugly, block piece of Windows-inspired junk (basically, I respect KDE as much as I respect Comic Sans) and I don't usually take sides on things like this..
Re: An Apple User Tries Ubuntu
#4This wasn't a bad article to read, although it doesn't really get anywhere. A reasonably novice Mac user tries out Ubuntu, finds some pros and cons.. the end. Quite well written though but some of his insights don't quite make sense.. > I had heard that Linux users still use a command line. Instead of pointing and clicking, they actually type in obscure commands – a series of numbers, letters, and squiggly things. It…
I might quibble with the "Linux's command line offers no benefits" line. It's true that the shell is identical. But OS X, out of the box, is lacking huge chunks of what you expect to find out-of-the-box on a typical Linux distribution. That's a problem for anyone who wants to be able to portable scripts, etc... Add that to the fact that the existing package managers for the command line tools are kinda lacking, and I'd honestly put OS X behind even cygwin as a good example of a OS command line environment.
The bit about Gnome vs. KDE is a sore point, alas. Canonical itself is clearly a Gnome shop, and that's what they ship on their core Ubuntu Desktop distribution. But KDE has a huge user base of near-fanatic volunteers, who insist (how dare they!) on maintaining the Kubuntu distribution in parallel. Both desktops work very well, and at this point neither is likely to disappear.
FWIW, I use Gnome and prefer the architecture and API.
Re: An Apple User Tries Ubuntu
#5This wasn't a bad article to read, although it doesn't really get anywhere. A reasonably novice Mac user tries out Ubuntu, finds some pros and cons.. the end. Quite well written though but some of his insights don't quite make sense.. > I had heard that Linux users still use a command line. Instead of pointing and clicking, they actually type in obscure commands – a series of numbers, letters, and squiggly things. It…
He also seems to be stuck in the past on a few features. For example:
[On Ubuntu] First off, immediately, before anything: the rotating desktop. Damn, that is totally cool. You click an icon in the screen’s lower right, and the desktop rotates to a fresh view. Remarkably, you can have up to 16 different desktops.
Apple introduced the same feature (Spaces) with the Leopard release of OS X.
Re: An Apple User Tries Ubuntu
#6> It’s not just cool, it’s great for workflow. You can have files and documents open on one desktop – maybe you’ve got four browser windows open, researching something – and a single click takes you to a fresh desktop, with documents and apps open as you like.
The article was written on May 2, 2008, well after the release of Leopard which ships with Spaces.
> The results come up in different colors, which helps you locate things. (I think.)
The article is filled with little nibblets like this that scream novice user.
> And what the heck is ‘KDE’?” The Linux desktop needs to eliminate that extra choice if it wants to reach a mass audience.
Probably the most significant thing in this article: I wholeheartedly agree that for everyone else, it should ship with one desktop interface--likely the more popular one. I imagine that would be Gnome. I agree with him that if someone like my grandmother tried to start up Ubuntu for the first time would see this and think she had done something wrong.
Re: An Apple User Tries Ubuntu
#7This wasn't a bad article to read, although it doesn't really get anywhere. A reasonably novice Mac user tries out Ubuntu, finds some pros and cons.. the end. Quite well written though but some of his insights don't quite make sense.. > I had heard that Linux users still use a command line. Instead of pointing and clicking, they actually type in obscure commands – a series of numbers, letters, and squiggly things. It…
He also seems to be stuck in the past on a few features. For example: [On Ubuntu] First off, immediately, before anything: the rotating desktop. Damn, that is totally cool. You click an icon in the screen’s lower right, and the desktop rotates to a fresh view. Remarkably, you can have up to 16 different desktops. Apple introduced the same feature (Spaces) with the Leopard release of OS X.
Damn, you beat me to it. I love how this guy is _such_ an apple fan yet he isn't familiar with Spaces.
There's a lot of these ill-informed and vocal mac fans out there that give the rest of us a bad name.
Re: An Apple User Tries Ubuntu
#8Another Mac user here. I gave Ubuntu a spin the other week, running in Virtualbox on my main machine.
I thought it looked slick and was very usable.
Then I tried downloading and installing Firefox 3.
I grabbed it, unarchived it and then.... then what? Where's the bloody installer.
Re: An Apple User Tries Ubuntu
#9Safari's video support and general works-well-ness was bad 3 years ago, but it's just fine now.
edit: he doesn't seem to know that macs have a command line
Re: An Apple User Tries Ubuntu
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
He also seems to be stuck in the past on a few features. For example: [On Ubuntu] First off, immediately, before anything: the rotating desktop. Damn, that is totally cool. You click an icon in the screen’s lower right, and the desktop rotates to a fresh view. Remarkably, you can have up to 16 different desktops. Apple introduced the same feature (Spaces) with the Leopard release of OS X.
Damn, you beat me to it. I love how this guy is _such_ an apple fan yet he isn't familiar with Spaces. There's a lot of these ill-informed and vocal mac fans out there that give the rest of us a bad name.
Forgive me, but spaces doesn't have the nifty cube does it? I think he just likes the 'eye candy' that comes with Compiz (which, btw isn't enabled by default).