Mac vs. Windows vs. Linux (sorta)

Okay this is great. My Literature/grammar teacher is now my favorite teacher ever. We have a two week segment on editorials and persuasive essays and debates. We will write an editorial, and at the end of the weeks we will have a debate. The topic was... Macs vs. PCs I never would have guessed it and that is such a great topic! She went from a so so teacher To an awesome teacher!

So heres what i want from you guys. I need you best pro mac pro windows and pro linux arguments. This is kinda a continuation of the post your specs topic, but not so off topic Anyways, i hope people can give their arguments for their side. It will be fun and you can all help me with my homework!

Anyways, lets hear some arguments on why macs are better then windows computers

Mac are better than windows because Mac is more organised and it does not lag that much.

Mac all the way xD I use it A LOT and it much easier, and faster.
But I think the best kind of Windows is I think its called Predator, the Ultimate Gaming machine xD

Of course Linux wins by a mile. But in gaming Windows is better. Dunno 'bout nothing of Mac.

Hendrix and sharpclaws: Im gonna need more than just "macs are easier and faster" or "mac does not lag that much" Facts would be great. Im so anti mac that i cant even see that side, so you guys gotta convince me how good macs are

Just enter, let ur spirit be free and enjoy!!! lololololololol
http://www.apple.com/mac/

I use... no, I mean "a friend of mine" uses VMware from time to time to launch that lame OS called windows XP. Oh no, tvi tvi :p now I gotta go and brush my tongue :s VMware is not free either. Another virtualizer is virtualbox, which is free and really good! Previous versions did not have support for openGL, but recent versions have it (still in beta phase).

Amazing with all these linux and mac users in AC Or maybe not, since it is one of the very few fps that are ported for mac and linux :s

It is also amazing how easy it is to get out of topic :8

Quote :

Doesn't get PC viruses. Apple website

And guess what? PCs dont get MAC viruses!! Lol and Linux doesnt get pc or mac viruses!
I know that there are almost no mac viruses, but that argument is just silly

WINDOWS RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lol for windows (best so far) its always being updated where mac's are not. windows is always upgrading getting more advanced and JY lol good for your track pad to change tabs on a PC desktop comp you press and hold "alt" then you press "TAB" once at a time and you can change programs in game and everything its so much easier.. lol you didn't know this omg! windows is so much easier because of the "start Button" it will hold every program you have on your comp in there. not on your desktop lol. also you dont have to go through all the BS on a mac to open a program and windows comps are faster! lol they can hold more memory And unlike the mac apple program windows only takes up 2 - 3 gig of mem to run the computer were mac its like 6- 7 gig because of the crap and stuff lol. point made and im done

Question: how's windows 7 looking? any of u peeps got it?

nope

I have windows 7, its a ton better then vista and some better than xp

lol how much it cost?

sounds good, ye i was thinkin of pickin up copy, i havent heard anything negative bout it yet

Macs are like the government, they limit your freedom and charge you a lot of money. Sure the physical hardware looks sleek and cool, but the user interface feels too dumbed down.
If your hardrive is completely full, what happens? -The whole OS freezes and runs insanely slow.
Plug in a bad mouse what happens? -It freezes and boots up to a screen that has the swirling cursor and it locks you out of the OS.
On the hardware side, my friend had to replace his screen a couple times after breaking it, and it has frozen on him a couple of times, but he is still loyal to it.
Mac has Propaganda going for it.(Maybe thats a stretch?)(NO IT'S NOT)

The only good thing Winblows has going for it are third party programs(even though most of them are viruses). Yes, Winblows does receive updates(not as often as any major Linux distro) but these updates don't solve the core problems that it has with older hardware, lack of native drivers, and completely locking up your system. I admit, Win7 is a major improvement over Vista, and it can even run on a netbook. But the version that runs on a netbook (Win7 starter edition) lacks many features an operating system should have.
Win7 made such an improvement, it only takes 1GB of ram to run!
Many Linuxs distros only need 256mb or 512mb, some can even run on 64mb without using a hard drive!

Linux is Flexible. Any third party organization can take Linux, modify it, and let it run on almost anything, from embedded chips in automobile engines to supercomputers(Linux is on 469 of the top 500 supercomputers).
A perfect example is Android Linux by Google or Nokia's Maemo platform. (lol, I find this video awesome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxiOKKF721U).

Linux is Freedom. You are free to completely customize the OS from ground up, make copies to freely distribute, and modify the code.

Linux is Open. Developers of open source technology can generate code faster and they don't have to re-invent certain software that already exits because they can just build upon other open source technologies.

The community around Linux allows any non-techie or techie to get answers to any problems they might have with Linux because there are many forums and even more gurus that can solve your problem.
(Although if you sound like a noob on an Ubuntu forum, people might just tear you apart).

Linux is Secure. Very, very few viruses out there for Linux. You might be able to find one if you look hard enough. But with Ubuntu, pretty much any software you need, it is in their package repository (20,000+ packages). And if you stick to these packages, you won't encounter viruses.

Linux isn't just for Geeks. This is a common misconception. It may have been true in 1999 when the first Linux desktop version became available by Corel(bought out by Microsoft), but it isn't true today, where many Linuxes are user friendly and are easier to setup that M$.(I hate dealing with those pesky drivers and having anti-virus software slowing my computer down). Many Linux distros work out of the box.

Sidenote: It's funny how the first netbooks ran Linux and people thought that this would be Linux's niche. The Windows offered XP to manufactures(almost for free) to put on netbooks. But I think Linux will become strong in mobile phones and smartbooks(cross between smartphone and netbook, processor only allows for Linux or Windows CE to be installed, and M$ said they wouldn't port Win7 or XP to that platform.) Smartbooks offer twice the battery life, smaller form factors, most smartphone capabilities (bluetooth, GPS, wifi, etc) and instant on OS starting at a prive of about $200. Netbooks typically cost $300-400.

I think I've become obsessed with Linux on mobile platforms xD. Probably because it is what I want to do when i grow up.

I hope thats helpful
Linux FTW!

did u cp this from somewhere?

Umm no, just some info I've gathered over the years. Although some of stuff I looked up to make sure it was correct.

Lol, I realize how biased I am towards Linux
buts that is just because it's obviously the best

Balian wrote:

Umm no, just some info I've gathered over the years. Although some of stuff I looked up to make sure it was correct.

Lol, I realize how biased I am towards Linux
buts that is just because it's obviously the best

Hail, Balian! You're damn right. Linux owns Windows and Mac. Sure, Windows and Mac got good sides too. In gaming Windows is good, because mainly all the good games are made for Windows. Although if you are a geek so you can change them to Linux... But anyway, Mac the other hand is good for making music. But Linux is just best. And all the Vista user's I recommend you to buy Windows 7 because in some point Vista is going yo broke down.

Dogma wrote:

... and windows comps are faster! lol they can hold more memory And unlike the mac apple program windows only takes up 2 - 3 gig of mem to run the computer were mac its like 6- 7 gig because of the crap and stuff lol. point made and im done

Ur so wrong there Dogma There is no "memory-eater" as windows, by far! Windows faster???? nope. I made a benchmark of a computationally intensive software. The windows version was 87% slower than the Linux version! Of cause ur more restricted on mac compared to linux, but not as much as on windows. And don't forget, mac OSX is based on "linux" (freeBSD actually). I use free GNU software allot! both with nice graphical interfaces an directly in the terminal. By the way, is there anyone who heard someone that like to work in DOS? mohahahahha. Don't think so.

Balian wrote:

Lol, I realize how biased I am towards Linux
buts that is just because it's obviously the best

YES WIN

I kinda cheat...and use them all XD depending on how i feel

Oh I'm going to promise myself to not post in this thread. Haha. I'm an avid Windows XP user.

First of all some facts.
Windows has millions of viruses.
Mac has a ridiculously low amount.
Currently Linux has none.

Many people automatically jump to the conclusion that this is because of the amount of users each has.
This is ridiculously false.
Linux is on 469 of the top 500 supercomputers.
Not only this, but most servers run Linux BECAUSE it's virus free.
Simply for that reason Linux has been the MAIN target for viruses in the fast few years.
Still none.
I'll bet that you want to know why right?
Administrative lock.
Native to Linux is the functionality that no user of the computer is allowed modify ANYTHING outside of the home folder. (The home folder is where you're personal files go, and where unsupported applications [programs] get installed to run from.) This makes the computer insanely secure. And unless you are logged in as the root (Administrative) user, than you would be asked for the administrative password every time you tried to modify something that you shouldn't. Windows has of late, attempted to replicate this feature and failed. Now, you get a LOT of viruses, AND it bugs you for a password every ten minutes.
Graphically Mac wins out of the box, however right click on the desktop in a Linux, hit 'Change Desktop Background', switch to the tab 'Visual Effects' and hit 'Extra' or 'Custom' and you'll find yourself with a hole new array of effects that Mac is just starting to bring to life.
My brother likes to say that Linux is just the free Mac, and he's right in some ways, but in others it's so much more.
Ease of use?
I've heard the start menu mentioned earlier and that it was easy to use. Here's what the Linux 'Start' bar looks like.
Right off the bat it's broken up into three buttons. Applications (Programs), Places (on the hard drive, or any other storage device), and Settings (I don't think that this needs to be explained).
Applications is further broken up into: Accessories, Games (that's right, and there's hundreds of free games in the repositories.), Graphics (Any graphic editing software), Internet (Any program that uses the Internet as a key feature), Office, Sound an Video, and Add/Remove. Most of these go without saying but under add remove, it brings up a window that lets you easily and quickly browse through thousands of programs that can be downloaded and installed in bulk just by selecting the ones you want and hitting install.
Places is where your stuff goes. Mp3 players and external hard drives and network places get placed there. Now System. This is my favourite. It is broken up into two VERY different categories. Preferences: which is where you go to change anything that you're allowed to change. Like Screen resolution, desktop effects, screensaver, network connections, appearance, blutooth, keyboard shortcuts, preferred applications, sound, yadda yadda yadda, the list goes on. Settings is also broken up into Administration: where you go to for any settings that you shouldn't be able to change. Like users, hardware drivers, system testing, software sources, passwords, package managers, stuff that you don't really ever need to change, and especially the stuff that you hope a program wont change.
Games?
Oh yeah.
Like I've said, not only is there hundreds to thousands of packaged software in the repositories (Add/Remove or Synaptic Package Manager) that are just games, but lets say you just bought a new game and want to play it on linux.
Here's your options.
Wine. Wine is a windows compatibility layer similar to bootcamp execpt there's no confangled restarting required. It will run most .exe programs.
VirtualBox. It's been said before. Run a complete OS (for free) inside your computer. You can put it on another desktop (left or right) or have it run in integrated mode, having a windows taskbar at the bottom connected to all things windows, and a linux bar at the top. This can be very usefull.
Or if you want to stay away from these..
PlayOnLinux. It's a program that lets you run and configure your games that came on disk with retarded ease.
And hows this for not using much of your computer. You can run Linux AND install programs without a hard drive. The Live feature of most Linux instillation disks let you run Linux on the computer and boot up from the disk without ever touching your hard drive.
And get this, no matter how many programs that you have on Linux, you computer won't and I repeat WILL NOT be slowed down, bogged down, cramped, sluggish, or anything else windows users call an 'expierienced' windows operating system.
Not only is it faster, but without the need for anti-viruses and firewalls, the internet is faster too.

Now it's Windows bashing time.
"What good are windows in a world without walls?"
How long does it take to install Windows?
Do you know how?
The point here is that the instillation proccess is whack.
And you pay for that crap!
Windows 7 costs upwards of four hundred bucks.
And believe me, Windows 7 is Vista with a slightly more bugfree environment, and we all know how crappy Vista was. What kind of upgrade takes 5 years to come out with.
Lets just say that since windows XP, windows has needed much more proccessing power than it should need.
IMHO though, if you have the money, do yourself a favour and buy a Mac.
You may not have the freedom of doing whatever you want, and it may not be as pretty as Linux, and it may not be easy to fully customize, but it's sure as hell easier to use.

Oh and on a side note, if you've ever tried to install windows without your hardware's software disks, you're SOL. Windows itself supports very little software by default. Linux supports over 90% of it without installing anything. Out of the box freedom.

And who the hell wouldn't want to run an operating system called: Ubuntu Satanic Edition.

Show your friends that and they'll even believe that the computer is demonic. Too demonic to run buggy software like viruses anyways. ;D

There are many arguments on why each is better, so you should probably google it. But keep in mind that there is a society of people in our world that still believe that the Earth is round, and a group that believes that magical beings are everywhere and nowhere at once, allways, that know everything (Christians Lawl), and people that believe that Canadians live in igloos, and people that believe evolution doesn't exsist.. Just don't believe everything that you read.

Just because someone isn't lying to you when they say something doesn't mean it's the truth.