The American Freedom Network

Mac vs. Linux – The First Year

At the beginning of 2008, I decided to try out Linux in a serious, daily-use kind of way.  As a Mac user of eight years’ duration, the move was not sparked with dissatisfaction with Macs, per se, as they are clearly the best value in hardware, and OS X is generally free of the blue screens, viruses, spyware, etc. that drove me away from Windows in the first place. Macs are more intuitive, as well.  “It just works” is something that I, as a non-technical user, really appreciate.
Nevertheless, I decided to try Linux, because, as my brother Brian so aptly put it, “Sometimes you can’t afford a Cadillac, and a Pontiac is all you need anyway.”  So, I gave the Pontiac of operating systems a test drive. (I’d compare Windows, BTW,  to a sports car with lots of cool features, but which also has a hefty price tag, is a magnet for thieves, and which spends too much time in the shop.)  Economics do not favor new Mac prices, even given their resale value, at least for my IT budget, so exploring an alternative was reasonable.  (Besides, I am an OS 9 “Clasisic” guy, and miss the simplicity of the old Macs.  OS X is also rather jazzy, and uses more resources than fast, stabel OS 9.  Only lack of a modern browser keeps it from being my daily driver.)
After a year, I have tried Knoppix on a used IBM Thinkpag T20 (512 MB RAM, Pentium III), then a Dell laptop (512 MB RAM, Pentium III processor), then Ubuntu, first on the same Dell, then on a Powermac G4 “Sawtooth” (400 MB processor, 512 MB RAM), and for six months on the new Dell Inspirion 1420 (1.6 Ghz processor, 2 GB RAM) I’m using to type this, with Ubuntu installed out of the box.  By way of comparison, my Mac experience has been with a G4 TiBook (1 GB RAM, 667 Mhz processor) and a Mac Mini (G4 1.25 Ghz, 1GB RAM), both running OS X Tiger (10.4.11), as well as with a couple of ‘Classic’ OS 7.6 & 9.1 machines.
Macs do ‘just work.’  However, Linux provided me, both with Knoppix and Ubuntu, with an easy install, up on the Internet quickly, hardware recognition (except for my new dell, where the factory-loaded Ub untu does not recognize the modem for dial-up), and all the software a basic, productivity user could ask for.  (I don’t game, so that major Windows/Mac advantage is a non-issue here.)  Open Office is as good as MS Office for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. (I have not used the O.O. database, so I cannot compare it to MS Access, which I use daily  – and dislike – at work.)  The availability of ‘Wine,’ a program that runs Windows apps in Linux, allows me to run SPSS, TomTom software, Rosetta Stone, TI calculator software, and most other essential Win programs in Ubuntu.  (I had Mac equivalents for all of them, too.)  iTunes does not run in Ubuntu, however, and not being able to access the iTunes store is perhaps the most significant loss, aside from not having dial-up, that I’ve experienced.
Support is another issue entirely.  Mac support is award-winning.  Dell’s is not.  They were of no help with my dial-up issue, and I found them to be generally poor as a source of assistance.  Ubuntu help pages are time-consuming, too, and a non-technical user can get caught up in process – making something work – rather than just working on what he set out to do, all too often.
The first year has shown me that Ubuntu and Knoppix are both perfectly adequate substitutes for Mac OS, and while they’re not Cadillacs, they do get me where I need to go.  Given the huge cost savings, the galaxy of open-source software available at no cost, and the frfeedom from license restrictions, they are a serious competitor.  Mac hardware is still better than the competition, but Ubuntu runs on that, too, and it also takes away one of the majopr negatives to PC use – Windows.
More on this to come…