On Jul 26, 2010, at 5:28 PM, Chris Knadle wrote: > I would be interested in hearing comments on the subject, which > preferably refers to features rather than program names.
I got to the LISA (Large Installation System Adminstration) conference every year. This is a conference whose population slews heavily to Linux/UNIX admins (next to zero Windows admins). By far the dominant thing staring back at you as you look at the people from the podium is a sea of glowing white Apple logos. Speaking for myself, it was about how "stuff just works". - I plug in a cell phone? It just works, offering to sync my contacts to it - I plug in a camera? It just works, sucking down my photos and videos - I tell it to talk to an (IMAP, Exchange, whatever) server? It just works (and, in the latter, also automatically syncs my calendars and contacts) - Want things like Flash, etc. on popular web sites, to "just work"? No problem. - Want to burn a CD or DVD? Not a problem. It all "just works". - Want to go multi-headed, or give a presentation on a projector screen? It just works. And while you want to avoid "program names", it's still important in the business community to have guaranteed compatibility with the Standard Office Productivity Package in the business world. I can't count the number of times I've struggled with various Linux settings/drivers/etc. trying to get something working, figuring out what device name to talk to, what sound driver to load, how to get multi-headed X working, but JUST FOR RIGHT NOW ON THE PROJECTOR, or any of those various nightmarish things most people in the business environment have to deal with from time to time. All of those sorts of things, "it just works" on a Mac running OS X. And, near as I can tell from talking to other people at LISA (because every year the percentage skews further and further towards apple), I'm not the only one who thinks that. :-) Cheers, D _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Aug 4 - Samba Sep 1 - BOINC Oct 6 - Creating Firefox Extensions
