

Top 6 advantages Ubuntu 11.10 has over OS X & Windows - mrschwabe
http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/ubuntu-advantages-over-windows-mac-osx

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hamidpalo
Virtual Desktops are insanely cool - You mean like those that OS X has and
that a billion utilities for Windows give you?

The Community support is awesome - And there isn't ##windows or ##macosx, or
sites like stackoverflow.com in addition to all the articles written by the
90%+ who use OS X or Windows?

Unity is better than ever - Unity being better than ever is an advantage over
earlier versions of Ubuntu, not OS X and Windows. What happens if I connect my
Dell laptop with an ATI card to a TV to watch a movie?

Beautiful Themes - They are beautiful indeed, but not very polished. OS X and
Windows have huge teams whose only job is to make sure that the UI not only
looks good, but also is functional and doesn't break down in all sorts of
situations.

An enormous free software library - Can I run iTunes on it and sync my iPhone
properly? I also want to watch Netflix and Hulu full-screen. Sometimes I like
playing that Angry Birds game, is that on there? No? I can't do any of those
things? But you say there's a 3D modeler there, as well as something called
DDD?

Ubuntu is Free & Open Source - Because all developers and nerds rewrite parts
of the kernel the way they work. Also, how does the OS being open source
prevent the OS vendor from making huge changes to it? If Canonical introduced
a breaking change to your application are you going to fork the OS or fix your
app?

Ubuntu is a great OS and arguably the best Linux distro out there, but this
article performs feats of logic I have never thought possible.

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mrschwabe
Great counter. Regarding the prospect of Canonical introducing a breaking
change to your app - obviously you fix your app. But the larger point is that
you can trust Canonical more than Microsoft or Apple that they won't introduce
a breaking change to your 'business model'.

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gravitronic
I agree virtual windows increase productivity.

I've been using them in windows for years via
<http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/>

Works just as good as the linux counterpart.

~~~
dhimes
Wow- thanks for that. I didn't know it existed.

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briandear
Well based on the article leading with the virtual desktop as a reason UB is
'better' than OS X, you'd think that someone obviously didn't know. Lion came
out almost 4 months ago.. UB isn't breaking new ground with that feature.

~~~
mrschwabe
Fair enough, but is mission control as fluid as Ubuntu's virtual desktops?
Like SuperKey + S to quickly zoom out and CTRL + ALT + up/down/left/right to
slide screens? And can you set it up to have like 9 or 20 some screens? I ask
because I honestly don't have OS X running on any systems atm. But I have a
feeling OS X cannot match Ubuntu's depth on this feature.

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ShaunK
Has the author of this article never used Spaces on OS X? The very first point
seems to indicate they have not.

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briandear
And mission control is even better -- especially with dual or triple monitors.

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super_mario
Actually, mission control is a giant step back. Spaces prior to Lion were
actually more useful and usable. Now they have turned to a gimmick to impress
the clueless in the apple store. This is one of the many reasons I have not
updated my macs to Lion, and if they continue this way I may just install
Ubuntu on them.

~~~
dextorious
I'm not clueless (I'm a CS graduate, I've cut my teeth on Sun OS) and I find
it more useful than Spaces. YMMV, but when you assume you make an ass out of
you and me.

~~~
super_mario
I never said you are clueless, but I have been using OS X for a while now and
it seems ever since iOS and massive iPhone uptake Apple has modified their OS
design to dazzle rather than actually do work. They often take good ideas and
concepts out of the OS and put something in that feels like a hindrance and
step backwards to users who depended on the functionality and behaviour.

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endeavor
This list sucks.

On the other hand, I've been running Ubuntu 11.10 on my notebook for almost 24
hours now and it is pretty nice. I think the biggest improvement is Unity.
Unity sucked in 11.04. But now it feels right. It's got the smart ideas from
Gnome3 while leaving behind the holier-than-thou stuff (i.e. the removal of
the minimize button). I will say that Unity in 11.10 has a number of bugs.
None of them show-stoppers but it's crashed on me a few times -- but it
automatically restarts so it's not a big problem.

A few minor hardware issues specific to my Lenovo notebook also seem to have
been resolved by default.

I agree with a couple posters that Ubuntu seems to be trying to copy a lot of
OS X and bring it to the PC. They are at least doing a half decent job.

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chris_dcosta
I always get the impression that Ubuntu is trying to be OSX for PCs. I know
it's more than that, I don't have a use for it myself, and I won't hold it
against you because you use it.

The point being that OSX is the one to emulate (in the non-computing sense) if
you're going to do it, and I have to say, Ubuntu now looks better than Windows
does, which is always so damned ugly. At least I found myself liking what I
saw.

But actually whilst we're on the point, what the hell are Microsoft spending
their money on? Mac OSX has been around for 10 years and you would have
thought MS would just take a pile of cash, hire the best graphic artists out
there and catch up. What's stopping them?

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cleverjake
I was really hoping for compelling reasons, because I do love ubuntu, but this
list is /really/ subpar. The number three reason to get ubuntu over windows or
os x - "Unity is better than ever"...? Within that, its "on par" with os x's
dock. "Free software" Again, eh. I can get a lot via brew or ports, and
compile most other things on os x. I love ubuntu, but I can't imagine sending
this list to anyone Im trying to convert.

~~~
nodata
True, but then again you're pretty much always able to compile X on platform
Y. That doesn't make X a feature.

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serverascode
I run linux on my laptop full time, but that article doesn't really do desktop
linux much justice. It's a softball article at best.

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drivebyacct2
I love a Linux environment over Windows and increasingly as 10.x progresses OS
X, but none of the things on this list would be reasons I would cite.

