whats better macs or windows?

Answer 1

No argument has pitted technology professionals against one another more than this one but why? Why do responsible grown men become insulting, foaming at the mouth pitbulls when trying to discuss the pros and cons of Linux and Microsoft OS's? Because everyone loves an underdog, everyone loves a stone wielding David or a Rocky Balboa. Unfortunately for Linux admin's, there is no reason to believe that Linux will be toppling Microsoft in the future.




IDEOLOGY (MS)

Let me start by saying, I have found that this is mostly an emotional argument more than it is a tech argument. There are people out there who absolutely hate Microsoft and will literally risk body and limb to see the company hurt. Many of these people happen to have an affinity for the Linux OS. The fact of the matter is that Microsoft is the number one software manufacturer in the world and just like the United States, the Redmond, Washington manufacturer has found out, when you're the top dog on the block you're also the most hated.

Here is a listing of the ideological issues pertaining to Microsoft OS's.

The source code is not available to the public. IT professionals like to tinker or mold inventions, it's intuitive, the fact that MS does not allow for this is viewed as a snub. Microsoft appears as the rich kid who does not want to play with the other kids.
Microsoft OS's are notoriously buggy. Everything from a windows 98 that never shutdown to debugging errors in its newest OS's, MS has always managed to keep people like me employed. There is nothing more annoying than watching someone strut around the dance floor like he's God's gift to women but he 's ugly as a toad. It's not as if the competition think they can do better, the competition knows they can do better. In this case the competition would be the overall programming community.
Microsoft's notorious way of forcing its products on the IT community. Bundling Internet Explorer into its OS's and then assuring any attempt to remove the OS crashes the OS is evidence of such. Leaning on independent software manufacturers to discourage free competition is not going to make you very popular, specifically in the IT industry.
Success in the eyes of adversity. Despite all of the viruses, all of the haters, all of the unixes, novells, linuxes etc etc, Microsoft maintains enough consumer confidence to out perform its nay sayers when it comes to market share and that is undeniable. It's like the girlfriend who keeps going back to the abusive boyfriend, the global software consumer has remained fiscally faithful to Gates and company.


Ideology (Linux)

Every Superman needs a Lex Luther and every packer fan needs a bear fan. According to International Data Corp, a leading technology researcher, Linux will increase its server market share from 24% to 33% in 2007, however, Linux's desktop market share is only expected to top 7% by that time. It is in these numbers that you begin to weave the story of Linux...past, present and likely future. Enter from stage left, Novell, personally the most stable server platform I have ever had the pleasure to work with.

In 1996 Novell held a 25% lead over what was then the number two server platform, Windows NT. By 1997 MS had surpassed Novell in server market share by nearly 10 percentage points.

Novell would never again reclaim the lead.

A listing of ideological arguments pertaining to Linux.

Linux has its own club. Linux administrators loath MS admins. Linux admin's see themselves as industry purist or Jedi masters of the computer industry and they see MS admin's as clones of the evil empire. Contrary to popular opinion, the Linux clique or Linux nation, if you will, does not want the average computer user amongst their ranks. It is a special club for special people and they like it that way.
Linux hides as the alternative for those fed up with MS. This is part of the reason why Linux has become so popular within the last five years. Most of this has to do with MS's buggy OS's and failed product launches. Naturally, customers fed up with MS will take a second look at Linux, after taking a second look, they are most likely to stay with MS and bear the pain.
Linux OS's are open source platforms. The impression is that this makes it open for everyone with nothing to hide. People like and appreciate honesty and that goes a long way.


THE HARD COLD TRUTH

To Linux or to Microsoft? The answer lies hidden and in the numbers but also obscured by a number of factors. If you are computer savvy, Linux Server OS's, such as RedHat, SuSe and Debian, make great alternatives to a Microsoft server OS. Running Linux in a mixed server environment with MS servers is what I would prefer and the reasons are simple.

Lack of Support
Linux is not rock solid
Lack of end-user (desktop) continuity.
There is a term I manufactured while writing my novel, it is called "The Point of no Return".

Every computer professional has faced The Point of no Return at some time or another. It is is simply the decision making pivot you arrive at during an implementation where you will not be able to reverse your committed actions. It may be the reboot that will decide if you will be leaving the office at 5:00 P.M. or 6:00 A.M. or it could be the strike of the ENTER key that activates the program that is supposed to repair a mainframe database.

Once you begin to make a full implementation from a Windows Active Directory Domain to a Linux domain you will quickly cross The Point of No Return and it is at that point, you had better have a damn good understanding of Linux or you better have a damn good support contingency.

Which brings us back to the three main Linux gotchas.

Lack of Support. Every tech at some point in time requires support. Don't ever allow some hot shot administrator convince you that he never has, nor will he ever need technical support. If you think about it, that's like declaring, he's Jesus Christ and where as it is very possible he may have a Jesus complex, he is not the second coming. I once asked a Linux Guru, who do you call for support. His response to me was, I call my brain. We’ll come back to this in a second.

For all of the problems you may run into with Microsoft OS issues there is always one safety catch you wil always have. If you cannot fix your way out of a dilemma, call this number...1800.935.4900. Now you may have to pay as much as $245.00 an incident but you will talk to a live support person who will take ownership of your problem until it is fixed. This is another fact. Now, consider the alternative.

Navigate to www.linux.com or www.redhat.com , you will not find any 1800 numbers here, you will not find any hyperlinks for contact or support other than a generic email address. If you purchased your Linux servers through IBM, hopefully you purchased the support packages as well. I'll have you know these support packages are expensive and usually have to be renewed annually. I'll also have you know that in comparison from a support perspective, Microsoft support beats IBM and most other tech manufacturers hands down. As a matter of fact, most computer and software manufacturers have modeled their tech support of off Microsoft’s. Now let’s go back to the Linux guru who only consults his brain for all Linux problems. It is in this statement, that seals Linux’s fate. Remember…70% of IT implementation projects fail. The number is stunning but why do these projects fail? It comes down to mostly two words, Pride and EGO.



FROM THE NOVEL…Information Technology is a building of complexities and within that building

are several floors. The floors require a certain amount of accreditation to master.

On these floors are rooms and it is possible to master a floor but highly unlikely

all of the rooms on a floor. If you continue to follow this analogy, you’ll come to

the inevitable conclusion of the near impossibility of any one person mastering

the entire building.



The final support option for linux users are the endless array of online user groups. Where as there are many competent Linux professionals in these groups, there is no guarantee that the person helping you restore your SuSe server may very well be some fifteen-year-old hacker in St. Petersburg Russia.

I have professed many times over, Linux will never overtake Microsoft in market share until the geniuses at Linux erect a building full of support professionals and provide a 1-800 number to anyone who buys it.

Linux is not rock solid

One of the primary selling points to move from Microsoft to Linux is the theory that the Linux OS’s are much more stable and secure. What happens when that theory turns out to not be true?

I currently run two RedHat 9 servers in a predominately MS domain. These servers have performed very well for me. Have they performed perfectly? No. Of course those of us who have been around the block a couple of times know that there is no computer OS silver bullet and without jumping on the MS bandwagon, Microsoft servers are no where near as fallible as some in the industry would have you believe.

From a security stand point, again, I caution before you jump into Linux only relying on industry propaganda. In a study conducted by Forrester Research, Microsoft Windows had 128 security flaws while Redhat had 229 and Debian had 286. I personally have never bought into the open source argument regarding security. To me it’s a pretty open and shut case, If your source code is open to the public, you are more apt to security violations. On the other hand, what is Microsoft’s excuse for such poor security regarding Internet Explorer? It would appear to be more laziness or negligence, which does not make me put too much faith in Microsoft’s private OS either.

One of the most important things for you to understand when buying an OS is that Linux does crash. RedHat version 9 has no fewer than 118 needed patches, including a critical kernal fix according to RedHat.com. I have experienced many Gnome desktop crashes some that require a reboot of the server and some inconsistencies with the SAMBA agent, which did not work as reliably as indicated.

Lack of end-user (desktop) continuity



Here is a very important fact.



The number of IT professionals in the U.S. is shrinking, however, according to Computer Industry Almanac, there are 223 million PC’s in use in the U.S., that’s a lot of computer end –users.

Most corporate, computer end-users know very little about computers. Most corporate, computer end-users do not care to know much about computers. They just want the damn things to work.

This is why Linux would be great working behind the scenes providing the needed support for PHP users or web based programs. The flexibility of Linux to be re structured to the specific needs of organizations is superior to Microsoft’s OS limitations but on the front end, end-users don’t care and executives by in large, don’t care.

When the average end user opens MY COMPUTER, they want to see a C: drive and network drives not /root.

When things do not open the way the average user is used to things opening or performing, they don’t want to feel hopelessly lost and the average administrator does not want to be running around 24/7 showing users how to access network resources that they used to feel comfortable accessing just fine.

If the average administrator wants to use a particular modem in his Linux server, he doesn’t want to have to search the entire Internet for a compatible driver.

It could very well be that because Microsoft got the jump on GUI OS’s, PC users are just not willing to and have very little patience to learn a different system. I know how much this frustrates avid Linux users but as I have mentioned earlier, they are part of the blame. Linux requires a learning curve. I would venture to say when it comes to most end-users that learning curve is going to be painful. To deny, curse and create a climate that is condescending towards those very millions of users, is basically cutting off your nose in spite of your face. According to Gartner Research, 80% of PC’s sold with the Linux OS, will eventually run pirated versions of Microsoft OS’s. Now, if you work for Linux, this should ring a bell, you should be asking yourself, why does the world prefer to use Microsoft and how can we change that? Unfortunately for Linux the answer is well known. Inherently, Linux is simply an OS that is not designed for the average end-user. This is more a construct of the Linux user sub culture than anything else. You are what you eat. Linux is an OS that does not want to make things too easy for end-users and definitely not too corporate. We are supposed to be moving into a computer age where one simply speaks and the computer responds, where one flips the ON switch and there is no boot process, the PC is ready to operate within 2-3 seconds. So if we are moving in this direction, one would think, you would want to make using a PC almost thoughtless. Why write scripts to make the PC do what I want if computer usage is supposed to be becoming easier?

Increasing Linux market share to Microsoft end users would obviously cause a rift with Linux’s core programming community. It’s a lot like how most of us liked Pearl Jam until anyone who purchased their CD could become a member of their fan club, now we hate them.

The conclusion, the inevitability of this story saddens me because as a hardened PC professional, I don’t want Microsoft to feel they have free reign over the masses, quite frankly, I think that’s dangerous but I have seen better OS’s come and go (Novell Netware).

So which is it… Linux or Microsoft? The truth probably lies in your emotional attachment to the respective organizations but in my opinion, always go with the money it's the safer bet.

Answer 2

Depends on your needs...

Word processing, statistics, presentation- windows

Movie editting, mosic editting, and processing- macs

Answer 3

I can give you two possible options for your predicament: 1) Buy a mac laptop for college, or 2) Buy a windows laptop for college. Either way, you have a laptop for college.

Answer 4

Mac, there's less errors, there's less hassles, and although not many people are familiar with thier format, it easy to use and the newer versions are compatible with most applications.

Answer 5

Windows is better.

Answer 6

Windows.. of course,... most crack software only work for Windows

Answer 7

Macs anyday.
So user friendly and hardly any viruses...and they look gorgeous :-)

Answer 8

mac.

Answer 9

Windows

Thanks FLpcnerds for that detailed answer...not