linux vs windows vs mac,who is the best?

[BullyWiiPlaza]

@Monado_III
On Windows, hardware pieces always work so don't pretend it's all hoping like on Linux. Also the Windows 2000 comparison wasn't visual but functional in terms of what the OS can do.

 

[TecXero]

No, Linux doesn't support most hardware pieces and barely has any software. The OS also looks and behaves like Windows 2000 or something. We've already got an obvious loser.

If you think that's bad, I deliberately went out of my way to find a lightweight interface setup similar to what classic windows used. When I have nothing running, only about 50mb of RAM is used. I like things lightweight and efficient, that way I can put resources towards whatever it's really needed for.

 

[yodamerlin]

@Monado_III
Hardware support is an issue, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Linux#Hardware_support
It's for no-lifes because nearly everything is command line based so you need to remember all the silly commands and flags to do most things.
One thing I forget is gaming support is nearly non-existent.
It might work perfectly too but it's severely lacking functionality so that barely matters and besides, the bash terminal is even visually bugged sometimes when you scroll through text and such.

Linux is only good for being a server for something but not for a working machine.

I also agree with the commands, but you have to do that with windows too, 'cause, you know, who uses the GUI. Obviously everyone uses the command prompt, and has to remember all those illogical command names, and a lack of tab completion. Also, you can't expand the size of it. It's so difficult to use Windows.

 

[Monado_III]

@Monado_III
Hardware support is an issue, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Linux#Hardware_support
It's for no-lifes because nearly everything is command line based so you need to remember all the silly commands and flags to do most things.
One thing I forget is gaming support is nearly non-existent.
It might work perfectly too but it's severely lacking functionality so that barely matters and besides, the bash terminal is even visually bugged sometimes when you scroll through text and such.

Linux is only good for being a server for something but not for a working machine.

LOL you read that link right? It says right there that "This is not so much the case now. You can grab a PC (or laptop) and most likely get one or more Linux distributions to install and work nearly 100 percent." Linux once had a problem with drivers and stuff but that's the past, it's improved dramatically now.

 

[nastys]

@Monado_III
Hardware support is an issue, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Linux#Hardware_support

It says that it WAS an issue. In fact, everything works in my PC without installing any driver (except for the optional proprietary video driver.)

@Monado_IIIOne thing I forget is gaming support is nearly non-existent

It's growing very quickly.

@Monado_III
the bash terminal is even visually bugged sometimes when you scroll through text and such.

I've never had such "bugs".

 

[BullyWiiPlaza]

Alright, so Linux is catching on but it still doesn't mean Windows isn't superior so that's all. May I ask you Linux nerds something? Why does nobody use your OS? Yeah, because it sucks and I told you many reasons why. Also the big commercial Windows applications are unmatched. Here's the operating system marketshare by the way: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems#Desktop_and_laptop_computers
Numbers don't lie. People are using Windows because it's great. Will you surpass 1% soon? How cute.

 

[nastys]

Alright, so Linux is catching on but it still doesn't mean Windows isn't superior so that's all. May I ask you Linux nerds something? Why does nobody use your OS? Yeah, because it sucks and I told you many reasons why. Also the big commercial Windows applications are unmatched. Here's the marketshare by the way: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems#Desktop_and_laptop_computers
Numbers don't lie. People are using Windows for a good reason.

Just because it's preinstalled on most PCs it doesn't mean it's the best.
Numbers don't lie:

 

[Monado_III]

I agree. Linux has no software.

And Wine sucks at running anything. (Including lots of apps made by people from gbatemp)

 

[yodamerlin]

Alright, so Linux is catching on but it still doesn't mean Windows isn't superior so that's all. May I ask you Linux nerds something? Why does nobody use your OS? Yeah, because it sucks and I told you many reasons why. Also the big commercial Windows applications are unmatched. Here's the operating system marketshare by the way: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems#Desktop_and_laptop_computers
Numbers don't lie. People are using Windows because it's great. Will you surpass 1% soon? How cute.

Scroll down a bit, look at the only one that is increasing.

 

[BullyWiiPlaza]

Just because it's preinstalled on most PCs it doesn't mean it's the best.
Numbers don't lie: View attachment 23786

Like I said, it's for no-life nerds which are clearly in the majority on this forum (hence gaming console hacking and such). Everyone else doesn't use Linux, it's not well suited for the average user.

 

[TecXero]

Alright, so Linux is catching on but it still doesn't mean Windows isn't superior so that's all. May I ask you Linux nerds something? Why does nobody use your OS? Yeah, because it sucks and I told you many reasons why. Also the big commercial Windows applications are unmatched. Here's the marketshare by the way: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems#Desktop_and_laptop_computers
Numbers don't lie. People are using Windows for a good reason. Will you surpass 1% soon? How cute.

Yeah, because Windows is designed for the average consumer. Linux is still very niche and specialized. Sure there's a few distributions being designed for more general and ease of use. Even then, Linux is still ending up more places. For example: Android is built on Linux. I wouldn't recommend even Ubuntu to the average consumer yet. Ubuntu has come pretty far, but I bet my average customer could still screw it up somehow.

For general use by the general person, I'd say Windows is still better. I'd also say it's still better for gaming. That said, Linux is better for those looking for something more specialized or more efficient and has the knowledge to manage it.

 

[FAST6191]

On Windows, hardware pieces always work

*spits imaginary drink on the monitor*

Do what now? Granted I do often deal in some more specialist hardware but I have endless fun dealing with hardware not being supported on newer versions of windows (or indeed not being supported in older but still current versions) or shifting to X64 versions, device makers going out of business/rejigging websites and losing drivers along the way, hardware incompatibilities between devices (though many of these are more vendor level than OS level so forgivable to an extent), windows losing support for certain hardware types as versions of windows drag on and more besides.

 

[nastys]

And Wine sucks at running anything. (Including lots of apps made by people from gbatemp)

Most important apps work fine, even Office 2007 and 2010 work without issues.

Like I said, it's for no-life nerds which are clearly in the majority on this forum (hence gaming console hacking and such). Everyone else doesn't use Linux, it's not well suited for the average user.

Whether it's suited or not depends on the knowledge of the user.
A Windows user knows how to use Windows, and may not even know about Ubuntu and others, so Windows would be an obvious choise for them.
If someone wants to use a PC for the first time, Ubuntu would be better, unless they need a specific Windows-only program. The time needed to learn the OS is the same (or even less.)

 

[BullyWiiPlaza]

@FAST6191:
If a device is very old then why do you bother still using it? Also specialist hardware obviously isn't part of the standard so you can't expect it to be recognized/supported so your point is kinda missed. All half-popular devices are supported and I never had problems until now (10 years). Another question would be if Linux does it better? Nope.

---

Also to continue my point, here's another link to take a look at: http://downtoearthlinux.com/posts/11-reasons-to-avoid-linux/

 

[WiiCube_2013]

@FAST6191:
If a device is very old then why do you bother still using it? Also specialist hardware obviously isn't part of the standard so you can't expect it to be recognized/supported so your point is kinda missed. All half-popular devices are supported and I never had problems until now (10 years). Another question would be if Linux does it better? Nope.

It's still usable till it completely gives out. My pops still uses two shitty Acer laptops that have the screen hinges broken but aside that, they work fine with Linux distros.

 

[Monado_III]

Most important apps work fine, even Office 2007 and 2010 work without issues.

That was sarcasm, the link links to a list of fairly popular games that run well via Wine.

 

[TecXero]

@FAST6191:
If a device is very old then why do you bother still using it? Also specialist hardware obviously isn't part of the standard so you can't expect it to be recognized/supported so your point is kinda missed. All half-popular devices are supported and I never had problems until now (10 years). Another question would be if Linux does it better? Nope.

The first question I have an answer for. I have an old PC I keep around for some older PC games that don't quite work properly under VMs. I have a backup of all the drivers for its hardware, because good luck finding them today.
As for the second question. A lot of more user friendly distros have pretty good generic stacks that will work with just about anything you throw at it. Might not be the most optimal. It's generally (but not always) better to use the official proprietary drivers if available. That said, if you're using a proprietary USB device that only has a driver for Windows, we'll you're out of luck on Linux outside of using VMs.

 

[kuwanger]

As a relatively long-term Linux user, I'd tend to say Linux is better at the things it does but not very good at things it doesn't do.

Seriously, though, the biggest gripes I have about Linux are three things: 1) that a ton of games are still Windows-only, 2) that WINE as great as it is is still a 50/50 chance of games not working (apps it's more like 90/10, in my experience), and 3) that a combination of OEMs and hardware makers are so quick to void warranties over one's use of Linux.

For (1), the situation has improved a lot in part to things like the Humble Bundle (which helped spell out that Linux users spend the most*), in part due to SteamOS, and generally in part to a lot of games being based on game engines which have always been relatively portable due to running on multiple consoles. In fact that last part is one of the major reasons why games for a long time were Windows-only: they targeted the XBox or PS/2 and were Windows-only (if at all) ports. Overall, though, the situation keeps improving.

For (2), well, WINE is still a long ways away from being a bastion of working for games. The 50/50 number I state is from my experience with ~300 non-Linux Windows games and a lot of tweaking. Honestly, I don't see the situation improving any time soon on this front, so I can only hope that either (a) the situation with (1) keeps improving or (b) we finally get a VM that does 3D right (although that'll probably take a huge shift in the 3D gfx hardware market as secure isolation is a big root of the problem).

For (3), it just sucks. Thankfully it's often cheaper to custom buy one's hardware from a small shop than to go with an OEM (exceptions for laptops and very low end setups (<$400)).

Honestly, though, I switched to Linux because as a programmer it just made sense to me that if I'm going to use an OS that has bugs, and all do, that if I ever got to the point that I was really frustrated enough to work to fix said bug, I could actually reasonably do so without threats of lawsuits over claims of extortion, anti-reverse engineering EULAs, or the hassle of binary hack debugging for years**. So, to me that's the reason open source is generally better. But, that's definition a YMMV.

* Lying with statistics. 1-2% of users use Linux (excluding Android, iOS, etc which are a whole other thing). Linux users pay ~50% more. So, effectively 1.5-3% of Windows users in aggregate. Take the fixed cost of porting software (and hopefully the low variable cost of continuous support), and you've got an idea on if it's worth it or not.

** Because a rom hack targets a specific version, but OS files can update regularly totally breaking any sort of binary auto-patcher. Same could be said of a software patch, but then most open source projects aren't hostile to incorporating a software fix into their repository...unless you go out of your way to intentionally antagonize them first *then* submit a patch.

 

[FAST6191]

Some of this gear was not that old. Also why still use it? Because it works, consumables were still at hand, it does a task and replacing it with a shiny new device would cost a fortune (or at least be a pointless expense), which given the hardware still functions in a fashion that works for the tasks asked of it is a hard sell.

Some of it is industrial or specialist tech (though when the cost of said tech is enough to buy a house with, and it earns as much again for a company over the course of a few months...). Other things are rare and old music gear but stuff that is hard to find/get equivalents for in the modern world (there are a lot of nice audio chips out there that were made in the 80s and 90s before we all went all digital/software based). Other things still are perfectly functional printers, or even printers with serious capabilities, that the manufacturers, let alone third parties, are quite content to still sell me ink, toner, heads, fusers... for. Other things still are what was then still serviceable hardware -- I had some popular Asus/Asrock motherboards that I had to force the Vista drivers for sound through as they were not updated for 7. Today said boards are not much cop but at the time they were fine, what was worse was some of those had designed for windows vista stuff on the fronts of the machines (now we probably both remember how much of a farce designed for/compatible with Vista was but it was cause to raise an eyebrow).
You might well not have had problems; if so you were either lucky, deliberately purchased hardware with long support lifetimes or did not play with much hardware.

Likewise this does not distract from device vendors going out of business/being purchased and websites vanishing. Get it into Linux and it is probably going to be in a repo somewhere, if not as source, until the end of time.

Does Linux do it better? Actually yeah it kind of does. If it gains support at one point then you can probably get it working in a later version down the line, it might not be the easiest if you must continue to use a given distro and it might not be built in by default any more -- on Windows it has occasionally come down to I reverse engineer the thing and write my own drivers, I stick an old version of windows in virtualbox (not always an option) or I buy some hideous monstrosity of an embedded controller. Similarly make a driver that is incompatible with another, or is otherwise a piece of spaghetti code, and there is a decent chance it will go through Windows validation if you pay MS their money and it does not take out the operating system. If you are going anywhere near the heart of the machine (a basic module is one thing, and the module system is even designed as such) and you try to submit said same thing to the Linux kernel and you are likely to see it sent back at you, not foolproof but I would definitely rate the Linux kernel folks over MS driver signing by a long way.

 

[jonthedit]

Come on guys. No need to get hostile. I am surprised at @BullyWiiPlaza's response, considering his work with Gecko Codes.

Keep this civil

I do understand BullyWiiPlaza's points; sometimes identical software does not exist cross platform- alternates do, but sometimes that will not cut it.