Advantages in using Linux Ubuntu 10.10?

Just downloaded version 10.10 of Ubuntu (mostly to learn a different OS). From the more experienced users of Ubuntu, what are the pros and cons of Ubuntu in comparison to Mac OS X or Windows 7? Any input would be deeply appreciated.

May God bless.

Ed

Pros and cons are a hard thing to articulate given that we all have different experiences and needs. My suggestion would be to setup an Ubuntu virtual machine and simply try it for yourself.

In my personal opinion, for general desktop use, I'm not sure there are necessarily pros or cons - it's just different.

Like vansmith said, it's more a question of "different" than "better" or "worse".

Also, it depends what you plan on doing with Ubuntu. If you have an old PC laying around somewhere definitely install Ubuntu on that; where it's got the same kind of strong UNIX base as OSX (Ubuntu is based off of Linux, & OSX off of BSD, but both Linux and BSD are based on UNIX), it will be as stable as OSX would be on a normal PC.

I.e. an Ubuntu PC is the closest you'll ever get to a legal Hackintosh, you can even change the theme to make it look like OSX.

However, if you install Ubuntu on your Mac it'll be no more stable than if installed on a PC (both are just computers to Linux).

That said, considering it as a secondary OS for your Mac, there are a few pros:

• As stated above it's more stable than Windows, even if not quite as good as OSX.
• It's free, versus Windows's hefty price-tag.
• It's virus & malware free, like OSX.
• There's at least as much freeware for Ubuntu as for Windows, it's easier to find (most being in a repository that can be accessed form the OS's application manager), and where it's all developed by one user/developer community it has a similar level of uniformity of standards & neat integration with the OS as Mac apps for OSX.
• It'll have an easier time than Windows accessing your personal files from your Macintosh partition should something go horribly wrong with your OSX install (hardly ever happens, but anything's possible), due to the more-similar architecture.
• It's probably the most customisable OS there is, with thousands of themes available (including ones to make it identical to OSX, as said above, or even Windows 7), and practically all of the guts of the OS is rewritable too, if you dare!

That's all I can think of for now...

Good luck and happy computing

iHarrison said:

Ubuntu is based off of Linux, & OSX off of BSD, but both Linux and BSD are based on UNIX

Click to expand...

Close. BSD is Unix based, Linux is Unix-like (it was modeled to act like a Unix OS but isn't itself Unix based) . Just a bit of info for you.

vansmith said:

Close. BSD is Unix based, Linux is Unix-like (it was modeled to act like a Unix OS but isn't itself Unix based) . Just a bit of info for you.

Click to expand...

Well, yes, that's why I said "based on"; I was making a general reference to how BSD is built on UNIX, while Linux has a design that emulates UNIX... That part of my post was already technical enough, I didn't think I needed to go into that much detail! ;P

Thank you both for the very informative responses. The more I learn about Mac OS X and now Ubuntu (Linux) the more I feel I really don't want to use Windows anymore. I really like the interface of Windows 7 (I have same installed in Parallels 6.0 along with Ubuntu 10.10), but using Windows since 1995 and going thru quite a few of the different upgrades Windows offered (95, 98, ME, XP, Vista, and now 7), I just kind of got burned out with Windows (ME was the worst operating system Windows ever created). Coming into Mac OS X in 2009 when I bought my first iMac, really refreshed me and got me interested in computers again. I'm also really into photography, so the Mac experience was really worth it for me. I'm hoping to continue learning about OS X (learning something new everyday about OS X/still very much a beginner). Mac-Forums has been a great place that has helped me learn. Thanks again folks and may God bless!

Ed;D

Hi ronin

Interesting question. I use Ubuntu as my primary operating system and decided on it after going through a few different ones, including windows, os x and other linux OSes.

My experience is as follows:

* Freedom and flexibility: One of the main advantages that Ubuntu has over OS X is freedom and flexibility, which OS X does not offer. By this I mean that you don't need to pay anyone to use your own computer. So there is no need to spend money on purchasing expensive software. Secondly, being an owner of an iPod and and iPhone also, I find Apple's policies too restrictive. For instance, my iPhone's bluetooth only responds to the bluetooth from other iPhones and not to any other phones. So I cannot transfer photos and files with them unless i email it to them which uses my 3G data. Similarly, I purchased a video connector to connect my iPhone to my TV; however iOS does not allow it to function. Apple wants me to spend my money only with them, which I do not find reasonable.

* Security: Mac has traditionally not been targeted by hackers due to its insignificant numbers; however due to the popularity of the iOS and increasing numbers, new malware has started appearing. Linux on the other hand does not suffer from such targeters. Experts recommend using Linux for online banking.

* Eye Candy: Ubuntu has a lot more eye candy than OS X. Youtube 'Compiz Fusion' to see what I mean.

* Ease of Use: I also find Ubuntu a lot easier to use. For example, last night I tried to format a new hard drive on Snow Leopard and found the procedure more complicated than my liking. On Ubuntu on the other hand, it was a simple right-click command. The 'Me' menu located on the desktop is highly recommended for users of chat, facebook and twitter.

* Speed: Ubuntu in my experience works a lot faster than OS X. I haven't timed it as yet, but the booting and shutdown are lightning fast e.g. my old PC shuts down in 5 seconds flat (I've timed it).

Disadvantages of Ubuntu over OS X:

* Polish: OS X is certainly a lot more polished and its applications are more stable than Ubuntu's. However, it should be kept in mind that the people making OS X applications are well paid professionals, however the people making Ubuntu applications do not get any money out of it because they are free. So although some of these applications may not be as stable, they are very close to the paid versions, if not better. If you compare free applications available for OS X and Windows with the free applications available for Ubuntu, the Ubuntu ones are far better.

* Hardware: due to their popularity, most hardware is designed to work only with Windows and Mac and not (yet) with Linux. So when purchasing keyboards, webcams, wireless mouses etc, I need to check for Linux compatibility which can get quite frustrating.

A reasonably good comparison is provided here: OSX vs Ubuntu - WikiVS