I was an OS X user. I used to love its gray window chrome, blue scrollbars and pulsating buttons. I used to love its user interface effects. Exposé, Spaces, all the neat features that Apple invented that make computing fun. Even Finder.
But two days ago I got fed up with Mac OS X, saw the right path and switched to Linix.
Software
One of the main reasons to use Linix: CHOICE. Want a fart app? There are at least 3 GPU Licensed apps out there. And there’s a chance it’s in your distribution repository too.
Using the internet
OS X has a few browsers available for it: Safari, Firefox, Opera. But it doesn’t have Internet Explorer! I mean, come on, you want to be successful and you don’t include IE?
Having a great internet experience. Finally!
Chatting
No operating system is complete without a chat client. Since I’m using Yahoo! Messenger on Mac OS X, I went to find something like it for Linix. Since Linix offers you a lot of choice, you can choose between:
- Pidgine
- Pidgine-cli (cli? like client?)
- Telepaty
- Gyach
- Kontakt
Saw that? I don’t even have an AIM account! I’m using Yahoo! DO YOU GET IT, PIDGIN? Why are you not offering me the Yahoo! option? And why in the world would I need multiple accounts? It’s illegal to have more than one account anyway.
Bah! I wasn’t impressed with that.
Office
I was hoping Linix would already include Microsoft Office. I mean, how else could I write this wonderful article (which I’m sure you’re enjoying!) without Word?
The only option Linix gives me is something called OpenOffice.org. They claim it is “the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more.” Good, I say. But take a look at how it looks:
Doesn't it resemble Word?
That’s such a blatant copy of Microsoft Office! I will investigate this further, and I may inform Microsoft about this, because that can’t be legal. Free office suite, they say? YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR SOFTWARE! NO SOFTWARE IS FREE!
That said, I've installed Office 2003 so now I have at least an Office suite.
Multimedia
Linix comes with a music software called Rythmbox. After clicking on a music file, I was greeted with a confusing interface and after that it said it can’t play MP3s?????
At least Winamp works.
Antivirus
This one I wasn’t expecting. While Mac OS X doesn’t run any antivirus (because it runs on Macs only), I was expecting Linix to be able to! I mean, if you’re running on the same computers as Windows, why wouldn’t you support Norton Antivirus 2009? I don’t want to be infected and vulnerable!
Installing applications
Installing applications seems to be different in Linix than on Windows and Mac OS X. You have to click on Applications and then select Add/Remove. Then you are presented with a list of software and have to check a checkbox for the apps you want to install. It even offers descriptions for them.
But this is so cumbersome! Why do you Linix have to do it this way? Everyone knows that the best installation procedure is this:
- Search for the app on Google
- Find its website
- Click Download
- Mount disk image / Click Run
- Install
- Finish
“What are you going to do now?”, you may wonder. Even though Linix does some things unlike everyone else, it still seems like a good operating system. Of course, it didn’t come with Office or a Bluetooth application, nor it had a full system tray (why are you having a system tray if you don’t use it? Geez), but at least it detects my hardware and it runs my Windows software. It even runs Microsoft Bob!
I don’t regret switching from Mac to Linix. Mac doesn’t have much software, it doesn’t run Windows applications and its gray interface sucks! And compared to Mac, Linix at least offers you a lot of great themes:
John
