OSX>Linux>Windows
Yeah, so the rumours are true. I DO like OSX better then Linux. Before you get all Linus Torvalds on me, just hear me out…
I used to love Linux, I did. Sure, the freeness was really, really, good – as was the security, and the feeling of “Wow, I’m using something that doesn’t contribute to MS”. But like anything, the novelty wore off a bit – suddenly, apt-get was screwing up installs of programs, numerous compatibility issues rose their head(s), and finally, after stuffing around with a binary operating system (I’m looking straight at you, Ubuntu) it was time to go hard-core – and compile things from source.
Enter Gentoo, from the Gentoo Penguin – designed for speed. Well, source code takes ages to compile when you’re running on ancient hardware, and needless to say – Gentoo was a cruel operating system. Sure, after the code compiled, it was (reasonably) fast, and all was good. That is, until the minor issues like USB drives not auto-mounting on insert, doing the deluge of incredible, arcane stuff that you had to get things working “just right” – you know what I mean, like setting the CFLAGS, USE-FLAGS, and the kernel config – just seemed like too much work. Operating systems are supposed to be easy, not a battle of wills between the OS and the user! Far out, at least in Ubuntu, things “just worked”. I didn’t need to install a program/daemon just to get USB sticks automount on insertion! You know there is something wrong when simple things like that just don’t work.
Sure, maybe I was being a bit of a n00b when I installed it. Maybe I didn’t read all the instructions properly. But everything else worked fine! I don’t understand why it has to be that hard to get things to work properly. Anyway, as a direct result of this, I have now given up Linux. Sure, I’d still use it over Windows any day (cept for games – Windows for games) but other than that, Linux is only a tiny blip on the radar of this particular blogger.
Why Mac? Well, it “just works”. No messing about. No fussing with crazy configs, man pages, or anything like that. While those features are still there in OSX, you don’t need to touch them once to become proficient in OSX. No, becuase the GUI is so powerful in OSX, you have Linux command-line tools such as netcat become integrated into an awesome GUI – albeit without the more advanced options so that even novice users can use OSX. In Leopard, FSEvents (derived from yet another Linux command-line tool) has become the background workings to the best backup system available in any OS today – Time Machine. All this just contributes to the awesome power of the GU – flawless, yet so easy to use and advanced enough for the average user.
Windows is only good for games. Enough said.
Comments below, thanks.