Interesting article over at Ubuntu forums:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=399997

In my opinion, the coolest thing with many Linuces is "live CD" or "live DVD" disks. One thing you are very unlikely to see is a proprietary operating system that you can run from an optical disk without installing it. This makes it very easy to try out a new version of Linux without having to install it (and maybe go through the even greater hassle of uninstalling it).

An interesting sidelight is in post #3 on the thread you linked to: I remember timing comparisons on mathematical algorithms in DOS, Win 95, Win 98, Win NT, etc. I believe the last one I saw was when Win XP came out. DOS always won!

It would be interesting to redo that on a dual-core or quad-core processor. DOS programs have not been designed to run in a multi-threaded environment. Win 2K and XP make extensive use of it. They might finally be able to challenge DOS on the efficient use of the CPU. That is probably also true of the current Mac OS X on a multi-core CPU.

I say the thing I like about open source UNICES are that you can hack at any code you give it (not the third party parts that are closed source). Like KDE/GNOME are desktop shells for them and they are open source. Sure, Apple's Darwin kernel for MacOS X is open sourced, but Aqua's source code isn't. So that's the beauty of it.

However, MacOS X like Linux are both built for SMP off the bat, even before SMP machines were popular. If I remembered correctly, when NextStep was designing OPENSTEP OS (precursor of MacOS X), they already had SMP in mind.

My favourite thing to do on my Mac is to install unlimited amount of software, just by dragging and dropping them into the Applications folder (assuming you already downloaded it)

xboxrulz

The GUI related points they make are all ones that are very significant to me... not because I feel they are the most powerful by any means, but they are hitting windows where it hurts haha. Windows claims to be more user friendly then linux but linux is the one with the open and customizable interface setup that allows you to heavily modify it to your liking until it just feels comfortable. Seems like something windows would be trying to catch up on more...

The new version that runs faster then the old is personally my favorite point haha. It really says alot that linux usually adds flashier things that run as smoothly or more smoothly while windows only looks better if it becomes even more of a resource hog.

In my opinion, even though I back open source software and Linux, but it doesn't even come close to Apple when it comes to "eye-candy". Sure Linux is doing a better job than Microsoft, but when it comes to looks great and still working fast, I have to hand it to Apple, by piping most of the graphic requests to the GPU and freeing up the CPU for other tasks. Like I'm encoding a movie, and expose still works very well, without dumbing it down like Windows Vista does it. KDE/GNOME just starts lagging, the clock starts to freeze, but not MacOS X's Aqua GUI. Also, no lag when I'm trying to close other software. Of course MacOS X is not invincible like Apple markets it, but you've got to give Apple credits for writing such a fine GUI system.

That's my 2 cents (or 0.02138 cents US ... lol)

xboxrulz

For work purposes, I feel tempted to buy a Mac.. but those things are really expensive, especially here in my country venezuela. You have to pay like 4 times the price in the US...

Anyway, I love linux.. I love the bobbling windows in gnome, and all the other effects.. and having multiple desktops... that's the most useful thing I love from my ubuntu.. though, I kinda use windows more than linux.. which sucks

Linux is straight forward - and its easy to read and understand - it talks to you in a similar manner as you would communicate with a human...

But I think the most important thing is - you do not need restart.

Cheers,

For a lot of people, it isn't that easy, when it comes to Linux gaming, it's a little hellish because of the configurations required to run the game. For other uses, maybe, but for gaming, Linux still has a lot of work before it can be called easy to game on. However, once you can get Linux gaming working, it's so efficient and beautiful. You actually can run a game that doesn't meet the Windows requirements, but runs on Linux pretty well.

xboxrulz

I heard you can run linux as a live distro of a USB...... If so, could someone tell me how, and what is the best version to use?