OfB.biz: The Point Not Taken

[ Thanks to Timothy R. Butler for this link. ]

"No matter how often it has been said, it seems that many GNU/Linux and Macintosh users refuse to see the obvious. The response to a recent article of mine demonstrated this statement as well as any other example I can think of. What is so obvious? That while speciality software and functionality is nice, it isn't going to make or break adoption of an operating system.

It all started at the beginning of this month, when I published the article Mac OS X: An Apple a Day keeps the Penguins Away?, which clearly noted that in every area, GNU/Linux was nearly as good, as good, or even better than Mac OS X for the average user. I was not surprised that my mail box was flooded with dissenting opinions, particularly from Mac users, however something did surprise me--the supposed reasons I was being given for Mac OS X being better than GNU/Linux did not even make sense in the context of my article.

"I expected to be told about how easy it was to use Mac OS X, or how much better the software was. Instead, the majority of 'reasons' I was given were focused on specialty applications such as Photoshop and Final Cut. One person asked me something to the effect of 'tell me where I can get Quark Xpress for Linux...'"

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• ZDNet UK: Apple Pitches Mac OS X to Linux fans(Oct 11, 2002)
• O'Reilly: OpenOffice/NeoOffice on Mac OS X(Oct 08, 2002)
• OfB.biz: Mac OS X: An Apple a Day keeps the Penguins Away?(Oct 08, 2002)
• Boston Globe: Mac Poses as Much of Challenge to Linux as to Windows(Sep 30, 2002)