Comments on: If Microsoft Windows operating systems are so terrible, then why are they so popular?

By: Evan Smith

Evan Smith — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:19:35 +0000

It's because they are cheep.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 18 May 2009 00:51:00 +0000

FYI, My grandma is using Ubuntu just fine right now.

It’s not hard to learn linux. It gets more user friendly every day. When I started, I had no clue what I was doing, but I kept at it.

It’s a matter of apathy why Windows is so popular. I think people just resign themselves to it because Mac is too expensive and Linux is “too nerdy”

It sucks, but it’s the truth. I hate Windows. I hate using it at all, even at school. I preach, but for a good reason.

/rant

By: Mason Whitaker

Mason Whitaker — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:51:05 +0000

Here’s my comparison of the three major operating systems, I have experience with all three of them, so I’m not as biased as most. Here’s my take on six key points which I think best describe a good operating system.

1. Customization
Linux: Very customizable, but to much customizing may cause some problems.
Mac: Very little customization support, but there are third party programs that change things such as the Window Skins and the Dock.
Windows: More customizable than Mac, but again, but there third party programs to change anything major.

2. Stability
Linux: I have never had Linux crash on me in the four years I’ve been using it, and miraculously I’ve never had a program crash either.
Mac: I have also never had Mac crash on me either, but I have programs crash on me often.
Windows: Windows crashes and so does its programs, go figure.

3. Community Support
Linux: There is a HUGE Linux fanbase which offers support for any Linux Distro. There is generally always someone on a Linux forum ready to answer your question.
Mac: Support on the Mac Website is mediocre at best, and there seem to be few technical Mac Users on any forum or website.
Windows: Generally good Website support, but not very much community support.

4. Programming
Linux: I know of very few Programmers who hate Linux. Linux uses a very wide range of programming language, and has fairly diverse community driven compilers.
Mac: There are only like, five official program languages you can use in Mac, and all are pretty much centered around Objective-C. While this does call for more native Mac applications, it can cause some problems for Programmers who want to switch to Mac.
Windows: Windows has a fairly large amount of supported programming languages, from Fortran to C#.

5. Graphics
Linux: Linux is great for graphics, but has few professional graphics programs. Albeit there are many great community based graphics programs out there ( Tuxpaint, GIMP, ect )
Mac: Not Surprisingly, Mac almost demands that you either Photoshop if you want to do graphics work. There are a few Image Editors for Mac, but nothing very technical or offering as much support as lets say, Paint.NET for Windows does. ( I would have to recommend SeaShore, it offers layering and brush support )
Windows: Windows can run Photoshop and a number of other image programs such as Paint.NET and Gimp.

By: The Monetizer

The Monetizer — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:22:20 +0000

In response to comments above about having to re-learn Mac, the newer models offer the ability to switch between Mac’s operating system and Windows. So in essence they are much much more versatile than PC’s.

By: The Monetizer

The Monetizer — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:20:17 +0000

I agree with several people above that cost has played a role into whether people go for a PC with Windows or Mac OSX. I also think Microsoft does quite well by preying on the fear of less-tech savvy computer users. Many people I recommend a Mac too just cringe and say that it’s too hard to learn to use the Mac’s OS, when they really don’t know. I’d recommend a Mac any day over PC, but unfortunately our world is heavy with PC users afraid to switch.

By: Owen

Owen — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:45:32 +0000

I don’t think this is the year of the Linux desktop, to be honest, I don’t think it will ever have a “year.”

By: Windows Vista Support

Windows Vista Support — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:41:05 +0000

Mind you, Iâ€™m not a zealot whoâ€™s ranting that â€œthis is the year of the Linux desktopâ€. Iâ€™m just pointing out what I think are flaws in your argument – and your conclusion. I do think that Linux desktop adoption will grow – very slowly, but surely. Until one day people will wake up and itâ€™ll be a major factor. Just like with Linux on the server. Linux has too much efficiency in its model of production, and in its cost of production. Think about it: Linux has no need to â€œrushâ€ its adoption in order to satisfy VCâ€™s. And it will never â€œgo out of businessâ€. It will always remain a player, and keep making itself better and better (and never increase its price!) until eventually more and more people will begin to realize it.

By: The Linux Blog » If Windows Sucks, Why do people use it?

The Linux Blog » If Windows Sucks, Why do people use it? — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:35:38 +0000

[...] As you may know from previous posts I read Garry Conn’s blog on a regular basis. When he wrote an article on Microsoft Windows I couldn’t help but comment. You can read the post in full here. [...]

By: Owen

Owen — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:27:59 +0000

Hey there,

Ubuntu is probably the best for new new users. There are different flavors to choose from this too. You have Ubuntu which ships with Gnome, Kubuntu which is KDE based and Xubuntu which has Xfce. I like Xfce because it is light weight but it doesn’t have the best file manager. Therefore I would recommend Ubuntu. I think that the setup is a little easier now, it has automatic partitioning and all of that.

One advantage to Mac OSX / Linux while running Firefox is that you only get 1 instance for Firefox. Open it up on Windows (Even when you press CTRL+N for a new window) you get a separate Firefox instance taking up resources. This is not the case with Linux or OSX, it runs off of the same process which means it uses less resources.

Ubuntu has a nice program called automatix which is great to install stuff like Video Player Plug-Ins and PDF readers.

The only thing you will have trouble with Garry is Photoshop. There is NO Photoshop for Linux. Some may argue that The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is the replacement but it is far less sophisticated and difficult to use for the Photoshop user. I have got older versions of Photoshop working with Wine but they are a little buggy and sometimes crash, which is understandable since .exe files were never suppose to run on Linux.

You can use Pidgin for your instant messaging and it supports AIM, Yahoo, GTalk, Jabber and a bunch of others. That knocks out a couple of applications if you were to install each of them on Windows

Grahpics support is one of the things that really needs to be set up properly to enjoy Linux. The easiest to install by far is the NVIDIA graphics driver, I always try and make sure my hardware has a GeForce video card for this reason. ATI has some well supported 3d accelerated cards but all of the GeForces I have used have been much easier to set up.

I like my Toshiba Tecra M2 and Linux runs great on it. Mostly everything works with the exception of the SD card reader, Infrared and Modem, but I don’t use those and they apparently can be made to work. I have suspend when I close my lid and can also use Hibernate if I wish.

For my Windows Apps I can run VMWare and Windows XP and you could not tell the difference from running Windows on bogged down machine in my opinion. I showed a professor office 2007 running in a full screen Virtual Machine and he was amazed at how much quicker my Virtual Machine was then the 2.6GHz+ with over a gig of ram computers in the Lab. I have a 1.7GHz with 768MB of memory. So you could probably run Photoshop in that, I’ll try to get a video cast up some time if possible.

Again, Linux isn’t for everyone. It does break and its quite possible that when it breaks that you could spend a lot of time Fixing it. I have had it break right at the most inappropriate times but, at least I could fix it without having to reinstall everything which it seemed like I used to do on a bi-monthly basis before.

Hope this answers more of your questions.

- Owen.

By: Kiba

Kiba — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 07:42:26 +0000

I’d recommend Ubuntu just for the fact that there’s a huge and very active community to help you get familiar with the Linux way of doing things. It’s a great introduction to Linux. Of course, Mac is basically a very, very user-friendly Unix variant nowâ€”or more accurately BSD, which is even more stable and powerful than Linux, if not as bleeding-edge.

I really like Windows XP, but Vista is just garbage. It’s the best thing to happen to Linux, I think. I’ve installed Ubuntu on several friends’ systems, thanks to their horrible experiences with Vista.

Photoshop would probably run on Linux using Wine, but I’d get the commercial app CrossOver. It was funded by Pixar specifically for running Photoshop on Linux.