I’ve read description about some incomprehensible command line black magic you’re supposed to do in Ubuntu, so I guess it works if you’re a full time geek.

Another thing for the comparison: Edit a picture. Now GIMP comes into the Linux picture. This is where all non geeks run away screaming.

There’s a reason why 98% of computer users choose a non geek OS.

I missed that part in your entry, sorry.

I do disagree with your “trendsetter” remark, but that might just be a case of what one sees as setting trends.

I could tell you horror stories with setting up of printers, I support a bunch of macs and printers are always a pita.

Good luck with your blog as well :) I see you post sparingly. I’ll keep an eye.

Regards

Quintin

The prohibition against installing OS X on non-Apple hardware is specified in the EULA, and courts of law have been known to rule against them; so, the legality question is far from settled.

As for chip compatibility I should have said Intel-compatible since a number of users have reported successful installs of OS X on AMD-powered machines (see Wikipedia article on “Hackitosh” for details and links, plus Google is your friend).

My point is that it is unfair to characterize the Mac OS as technologically limited simply because of its EULA. By this same token one would have to characterize the Windows Vista as incompatible with VMWare since its EULA forbids virtualization.

Software engineers build the OS while corporate lawyers put together the EULA. I prefer to keep them separate when I describe them; especially since the EULA seems to have more to do with the CEO’s mood than with actual technology.

As for drivers, I have yet to hear any horror stories of Mac users — and I interact with a good many — having to return their latest bang-whiz video card to the store because their Mac tower couldn’t configure it. But I am always looking out for a good story if you can furnish it.

Finally, thanks for reading my blog, but please make sure you understand what you read. In my latest post on the subject I stated “I will not dispute that there might be more Android phones out there than there are iPhones.” — my exact words. This means that I DO agree with those who state this incontrovertible fact.

I did, however, go on to state that iOS remains the trendsetter in the mobile OS space because its user base is more loyal and less likely to switch. But that’s grizzle for another thread.

I will end on the good note of commending your effort. I do interact with multiple OSes and GUIs almost everyday and do find usability comparisons instructive as I am sometimes involved in UI decisions. Keep on trucking.

I am not sure how you disagree with me.

You suggest that I either do something illigal (“Less than legal” in your words) OR I buy a Mac.

How does this:

1 – Answer the issue of not being able to install MacOS on a PC?
2 – Answer the point of this test of testing Operating Systems that can be installed on any PC?

As you rightly pointed out any other operating system can run on an Intel Mac, but MacOS cannot run on any Intel (or AMD for that matter) PC – and that is by Apple design, since with hacking (as you state) you should be able to do it.

And then:

3 – You take issue with me accusing Apple of licensing lock in, and then point out how versatile the hardware is. a) What does the versatility of the hardware have to do with the inability to install MacOS on your PC _BECAUSE OF THE APPLE LICENSE_ and b) Try and install a better/different graphics card in your Mac, go on, I’ll wait.

This from a guy who claims that Android has not surpassed iOS on mobile devices…

You may accuse Apple of “licensing lock-in”, but hardware-wise the Mac OS is one of the most versatile commercial OSes available today. In the future, please do your homework before making such categorical statements.

Did you look at the improved comparison?

Let me know if you did and what your thoughts are on that.

Regards

Q

I can then conclude one of four things:

1- You are trolling for attention.
2- You are fourteen.
3- You can’t read.
4- You can read but was desperate to say something negative and jumped at the opportunity before reading everything on this page.

Have a nice day.

This kind of ’scientific approach’ is usually conditioned out of your system possibly with use of ruler slaps on finger knuckles, as it should be.

Congratulations, it just beat “The tube smelt a bit funny, which accounts for our measured speed of sound being 15% higher than the tabled value” in the list of most nonsensical experimental highlights I ever encountered.

If your metric has no meaning and/or no clear, singular relationship to the thing you try to measure, better save yourself the time and effort and learn how the grownups do experiments.

My big issue, which arose like a behemoth subsurface iceberg of murderous death in LUPU, is application download and installation.

Could you give a quick addendum about which of these has a simple and routinely effective way to search for and add new apps, without going searching for where they are, updating lists that were out of sync from day one of the release, and can’t be found once they are “installed”?

Thanks

Well at least you took the time to comment.

I did not test firewall rules or fileshares settings. If you look at the link at the bottom of the article I have included these in new review criteria.

One reason I did not include the need for setting up firewall rules is that Linux by default has a blacklist/whitelist philosophy. No ports are open by default. You do not need to tell the OS what you need it to do.

Filesharing is also very intuitive, as opposed to the Windows way of doing it. One gripe I have with Ubuntu is that Samba is not installed as a default, but you right-click on your file/folder that you want to share in your home directory, install the package at the prompt and set up sharing. The first time you do it there are quite a bit of steps to go through. That is the same in Win7 where you need to set the homegroup, set the homegroup password and then allow sharing.

The thing is, that with Win7 you face a bit of a nightmare to change your sharing preferences, and heaven forbid you want to turn password protected file sharing on, or off, or specified a network as a public network instead of home or work network.

Working with a tech support team on a daily basis I can tell you that it is a nightmare to try and help an end user to set up filesharing over the phone in Win7. I actually have a few clients with Ubuntu and setting file-sharing for them is less of a hassle.

I am certain Win7 will fare worse than most Linux distributions if I do these tests. Ubuntu will definitely get docked a few for not including Samba by default, Win 7 will get docked a few for the pain in the behind setting of everything the first time.

I will check, but I count more than three steps in there… I am working to re-do these tests and the scoring system and will try and have the results of a more in-depth test for Monday.

In Windows 7 there are only 3 clicks to display connection information statistics.

Right Click on Network Icon. Click on open network and sharing center.

There is a section labelled “View your active networks” which has a subsection labelled for each network – on the right of this section there is a label “Connections:” and to the right of that a list of connection names (e.g. you might be connected to your Home network by LAN cable and at the same time by Wireless) each label is in a blue coloured text and is clickable – 1 click will show you the connection statistics.

(As an aside, there are 3 clicks in Windows Vista as well.)