Linux is the only winner in the PC vs Mac war

Over the past several months Apple has been battering Microsoft's software with a series of adverts. It's getting to the point where you have to be a hermit not to have seen them especially with the

Over the past several months Apple has been battering Microsoft's software with a series of adverts. It's getting to the point where you have to be a hermit not to have seen them especially with the localized versions popping up.

While there is no official Microsoft reply, many anti-Apple protesters have risen to the occasion, Laurie McGuinness's being the best I've seen... so far.

While I cannot condone the tactic of trying to smear the other guy, it is funny to watch but Apple forgot something when they started this battle — exposing consumers to the idea that there is more than one operating system will inherently mean they find out about the third "contender" in all this: Linux.

Don't Apple see that by showing that they are the underdog and they might make superior hardware and software combinations that there might be even more out there? If a computer that a consumer thought would only run Windows can now do more than that with another operating system, they might investigate the term Linux and find something they like.

Linux is more mature than OSX, growing (feature wise) much faster than OSX. In fact, OSX wouldn't be around if it weren't for the Unix operating systems. Linux (et al) all have more available software then Windows and OSX combined with the vast majority of it being free, including the operating system.

Once you factor in that it runs more efficiently than the new operating systems and should be able to make your older computer run for a lot longer, the economics start to speak for themselves. The consumers might even learn that governments around the world are swapping out millions of copies of Windows for its free and more secure contender — why aren't they choosing Apple's OSX?

It might look like I'm hinting that educating the masses is a bad thing but quite the contrary — it is only going to be bad for the two people who have significant financial interest, namely Apple and Microsoft.

Written by Oli on Wednesday, 07 February 2007. Tagged with apple, microsoft, linux, technology. Read 2960 times. If you liked it, please give it a digg.

#1 /* 2 years, 10 months ago */

The reason why anyone's trying out Linux rather than Mac OS X is because Linux, like Windows, is much more immediate and available to them, rather than having to buy a whole new computer for Mac OS X.

The people most likely to do it are the ones who are either knowledgeable about computers in general (like my CIS class) or don't want their home computers to be obsoleted just yet (at least, not by Vista).

However, Apple's Mac(intosh) is simply the last of the "control the whole widget" kind from the 80's and 90's, and their computers no longer have the differential appeal which had won so many people as customers back in the day (lime-green iBooks, ruby-colored iMacs, the infamous G4 Cube).

These days, Apple invests far more into their OS, even to the point where, hardware-wise, they turned the Mac into a PC in order to win over customers.

Most of these computers which we see are designed with a utilitarian aesthetic ("dull, little boxes"), designed to simply operate the operating system and not much else.

The same can be said about Linux, I suppose. Designed in every distribution to conform to arbitrary standards (POSIX, FreeDesktop.org, Filesystem Heirarchy Standard, etc.) and to be interchangeable and modifiable.....just like a PC.

I guess, like how the IBM-PC became a commodity hardware platform (with multiple clones), Linux could become a commodity software platform (also with multiple clones).

I mean, where's the innovation on the desktop? Is there any these days?

/never owned an Apple product

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Rayne Van Dunem Anonymous User

#2 /* 2 years, 10 months ago */

"Where is the innovation on the desktop? Is there any these days?"

Yes. The innovation is occurring at the presentation level, right where it should be: KDE, GNOME, Beryl, and a host of others, all running on commodity OS and commodity graphical base Xwindows (xorg). How can so many different systems be innovating at the same time? Because they're all built on commodity standards and standard protocols.

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Bob Robertson Anonymous User

#3 /* 2 years, 10 months ago */

Good post, although, if there hasn't been an "official Microsoft response", (i.e. a piece of paper with a written statement and the Microsoft logo somewhere on the page) did you hear about the interview with Newsweek in which Bill Gates got peeved at Apple's ads?

Funny.

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Jeffrey Rollin Anonymous User

#4 /* 2 years, 10 months ago */

Mr. Gates is upset at Apples ad's because they are not all out lies. There is truth in the ads, there is levity and all that adds up to a very fun and convincing 30 second entertainment piece. Unfortunately for MS those ads seem to be working.

Cheers,

Alex

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Alex Chejlyk Anonymous User

#5 /* 15 months, 20 days ago */

I've heard that there are some Linux vs Windows vs Mac ads made by Novell.
They're hilarious.

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root at localhost Anonymous User

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