macOS or Linux: which to choose?

Bry89

This is something that has been on my mind for about a year now, and I wonder if you people can help me out which should be the best choice for a new computer should I get it in the near future, and it is a very hard choice between macOS (or OS X as it used to be called) or Linux. Firstly, I have had this one, a Dell Inspiron N7010 with Windows 7 Home Edition, for five years now and it's been very good to me. If anything, I could have it for another two years but as we know, Win7's support will be cut in 2020, and the fact that I still refuse Windows 10 for all the reasons said by the masses here, even when I have no faith in Microsoft for what they've done in recent years anyway, since the advent of Windows 8 that is.

One side of me says that I should get myself a Mac considering that I've used these things often during my college days, and now for work experience but back in 2007, this was when OS X Leopard was around and I still have fond memories of it. As much as I liked using Macs over these years and do love how the interface looks, there is one downside to it and that is the fact that I may not make much use of any software that comes with one now, as macOS Sierra is about now. I know in my mind that I will never use Siri and such, and maybe not Safari either as chances are, I'll still be a Firefox user, even though it has become the "crown jewel" of macOS. Also to note that nowadays, people can have their Apple accounts across other devices, which is another thing I won't be doing either as I don't own an iPhone or iPad. I don't think that really matters though... I guess they're only there should anyone want to take more advantage of their Mac.

The other side however, screams of Linux. As we all know, there is an immeasurable amount of distros out there using the Linux kernel but I would only want to deal with the top three: Debian, Ubuntu and Linux Mint. I have tried out Ubuntu under VirtualBox and I have gotten the feel of it, even though it has the Unity interface that some love to hate but, I don't mind it. Unlike getting a Mac which can be done very easily, getting this would be much more awkward but, I have come across sites where that can be done easily with one being Linux Emporium, that is a UK-based company, and the other The Linux Shop where I can get a CD of a distro of my choice, and use that to replace this laptop's OS, as long as it's compatible with it of course. On the plus side, one person I know happens to have an insight of Linux so that would be a better help I suppose.

Now, even though I am a naysayer for Win10, I could go for Server 2016 knowing that people use server OSes over their desktop counterparts as what BlueSun informed me of before. With that, I wouldn't have to worry about ads on the Start Menu or other needless gimmicks, and to be blessed with simple computing which is all I want anyway. Might be contradictory to what I said earlier but, just a thought.

So there you have it... indecisiveness of what OS to switch to. I'm not wanting to do the switch any time soon but, I just wanted to post this and get everyone's support, so that I can make a definite choice for the near future depending on what's been said. For now, I want to hold on to this lovely machine as long as I can. It had served me well since I first got it

dosbox

I'd say go with Linux, because you can atleast continue to use your laptop instead of having to buy a $2000 for an overpriced, underpowered computer. Plus installing Linux is so easy, a caveman could do it. Many popular programs on Windows also have Linux versions (like Firefox, Flash, VLC Player, etc., etc.)

I think server 2016 on a desktop is kind of pointless and wasteful, but atleast you won't have the bullshit Windows 10 is filled with.

Bry89

What... Macs are underpowered? I thought they were more powerful when handling graphics and stuff. I hope they're not as underpowered as one specific Mac I had used in my work, where apps loaded and operated very slowly, including Illustrator. And yeah, I'd figured that using a server OS as a desktop alternative seems a no-brainer, unless you want to do some server-related tasks on it. Even so, I believe a server OS would almost have the same functionality as the desktop counterpart, unless I'm wrong.

calvinb

Macs are more expensive for the specs, but so is every other Windows laptop in the class - a ThinkPad, XPS, Precision, Surface, etc. would be around the same price. You're paying for build and experience quality over a pure specsheet.

Ensure you have an SSD. All laptops Apple's selling since the new MBPs launched today will have one.

For Windows Server - you'll need to beat it into shape with power management and graphics acceleration.

Bry89

What are the specs for Macs nowadays? All I know is that they have about 8GB memory and 1TB disk space. Also, I don't have an SSD (had to look up what that is because I am unfamiliar with that term).

calvinb

The new MacBook Pros came out with Skylake CPUs (old, but Intel has been having some reliability and supply issues. the ones in the MBP run the gamut from 15W ultra low voltage to 45W quad full-voltage mobile) and on the 15", a new AMD GPU. the 12" MacBook has fanless Skylake-Y, (5W even more ultra low voltage) and the 13" MacBook Air is an older model with Haswell-U (15W ULV) CPUs and a kinda crappy screen - it was made into a low end model. 15W CPUs are generally the mainstream option, with the 5W, 28W, and 45W options as niches. (Apple's desktop options are a different thing; they're in desperate need a refresh soon.)

An SSD is a solid-state flash storage device. Extremely fast, no latency, but pricier per GB. The performance gain is absolutely worth it though; mechanical hard drives are the biggest bottleneck in a computer.

The nice thing about macOS is that it gives you a "just works" experience, ISV apps like Adobe CC and Office, a healthy shareware ecosystem, as well as the soft Unix underbelly.

BlueSun

ampharos wrote:

For Windows Server - you'll need to beat it into shape with power management and graphics acceleration.

Not really... install the desktop experience feature and call it a day.

One issue you might run into is that some software that is free is only free on desktop versions of Windows for home use. Sometimes they check the OS version and once it sees "server" in the name, it errors out the install and won't let you continue. There's various ways around it, but it will largely depend on the software. But honestly, it's a rare problem... 99% of the software will work fine.

Bry89

ampharos wrote:

The nice thing about macOS is that it gives you a "just works" experience, ISV apps like Adobe CC and Office, a healthy shareware ecosystem, as well as the soft Unix underbelly.

Are all Macs bundled with these now? If so, I didn't know that. Although, I would prefer to use their open-source counterparts like GIMP, Inkscape and LibreOffice (especially the first two, that I use often). Don't want a Microsoft account just to use office software you know... but an interesting thing to know about nonetheless.

garirry

They aren't bundled with Adobe or Microsoft software, but Apple has a fairly large library of their own software that is either included or available for purchase and optimised.

For example, you will get Pages, Keynote, and Numbers, which are basically the Apple equivalent of Word, Powerpoint, and Excel respectively, except it is included in every Mac and iOS device since 2013 and there is no subscription or anything alike (hell, even if you don't have a Mac, you can still use the apps for free on the iCloud website. Though I can't think of anything else right now because it's 3 AM and I need to sleep Of course, most other 3rd party software works pretty well on Mac. And yes, I'll repeat what ampharos said, SSD are considerably a better storage method nowadays, even if they are more expensive for less capacity, though the speed is worth it (in fact, in the new MacBook Pros that were just announced, they clock at 3.1 GB/s, compared to the hard drives' ~100 MB/s, which is pretty much 30 times faster).

Bry89

garirry wrote:

And yes, I'll repeat what ampharos said, SSD are considerably a better storage method nowadays, even if they are more expensive for less capacity, though the speed is worth it (in fact, in the new MacBook Pros that were just announced, they clock at 3.1 GB/s, compared to the hard drives' ~100 MB/s, which is pretty much 30 times faster).

That's pretty good, when it comes to backing up my stuff and transfer it over, even when it's just over 2GB. Could import my VMs on it to take more advantage of that also

birdy

I'd say go with your gut, If you want to spend $1k+ on a laptop with fancy graphics and easy to use interface, then just do it. If you want to save on money and instead revive that laptop with the many flavors of Ubuntu, or Debian, just go for it. Either one you choose will have a *nix core system. 8)

Bry89

I know that. I just wanted people's opinion on which would be a better option and why. And yes, the *nix core system is definitely one thing to be blessed with, no matter which I choose

pcgeek

I reccomend using any Linux distro that you like (Fedora is probably a good choice. I used to use it in a VM and on one old laptop until a few years ago. It was back then ultra stable, and probably still is.) , but ensure you have a fast CPU (The Celeron G1820 is very fast on Win7, even when using a VM to run another OS). As others have stated, an SSD is preferable if you wanna get max speed from your PC.

Bry89

The processor of this laptop is a Pentium P6200 (special thanks to System Information for telling me that). Don't even know if that's just as good or is the Celeron indeed faster than it. Whichever way, I'm not bothered. As long as I can multitask and not wait minutes for the system to start up each day.

For Fedora, I had tried it out but it wasn't to my liking, even when under a VM installation of it failed one time (and I can't figure out why). I would just stick to Ubuntu or Linux Mint, or even any offshoots of Ubuntu such as Xubuntu, Lubuntu or Ubuntu MATE if I wish.

dosbox

pcgeek wrote:

I reccomend using any Linux distro that you like (Fedora is probably a good choice. I used to use it in a VM and on one old laptop until a few years ago. It was back then ultra stable, and probably still is.) , but ensure you have a fast CPU (The Celeron G1820 is very fast on Win7, even when using a VM to run another OS). As others have stated, an SSD is preferable if you wanna get max speed from your PC.

Fedora is stable? Hah, no it isn't; well, it hasn't been stable in my experience.

garirry

I don't like stock Fedora because Gnome 3 is a bad desktop environment. Even Gnome 3 Classic isn't really great. Gnome 2 is good though so if you like it get MATE. And even when you install Fedora Xfce or something, it doesn't seem to be very enjoyable to use tbh.

Personally, after using a few different distros, the one I settled for would probably be Xubuntu, because Ubuntu isn't a bad distro and the Xfce environment is really really good (and yes, I do know you can manually install your own DEs to basically any distro).

calvinb

Gnome 2 was overrated trash. Gnome 3 is pretty fine IMHO.

If you don't have any preferences on DE already, just accept your chosen distro's default. If you feel some dissatisfaction, go on the vision quest of switching DEs. Just avoid distro hopping - it's the stupidest thing I've heard of.

Bry89

So, I took a trip to the Apple Store today and made my enquiries based on what I said here recently and, even though the sound of having an SSD drive and such sound promising, I believe I'm now having second thoughts when one: I won't even use any of the apps macOS has to offer (though things like Mail, Photos, Calendar and Reminders would be up my street, especially the last two. However, iTunes and FaceTime can just go away) and two: the price is too much yet Apple's site can offer "refurbished" Macs which may make things slightly better. I suppose £900 for one seems ideal than blowing over half a grand for one. Also, I can have a choice if I want Office and Adobe CC but, I'll use their open-source counterparts instead, when I believe they would only add more to the cost for the machine itself (plus, why should I have an online account just to use them? That's a bit silly in my opinion). And as said before, there is a chance that I'll still be using Firefox instead of Safari, even though I've been a user of that for over ten years now. Of course, there really is no need for Siri when the worker of the Apple Store that served me had hers disabled. The same for "Touch ID" where she told me that's a security risk, especially when Apple Pay goes along with it so I'm avoiding that too.

That said, I think I should just lean more towards Linux where I can keep this resilient piece of machinery alive and the best of all: save me a lot of money. I can still have time to think more carefully but I believe I've made my decision - just not 100% definite yet. Speaking of this, I still feel bad for not getting a Mac five years ago, back when I was a naysayer for Win7 and maybe I should've, if I wasn't naive enough to accept this laptop of having McAfee (which I purged just a few days later, until MSE came along to stay).

SomeGuy

Bry89 wrote:

Also, I can have a choice if I want Office and Adobe CC but, I'll use their open-source counterparts instead, when I believe they would only add more to the cost for the machine itself (plus, why should I have an online account just to use them?

Is the latest version of Microsoft Office doing that too? I haven't touched the latest version, and don't really want to. Office for the Mac used to be good because Apple made them keep the drop down menus. That Adobe Creative Cloud is complete BS that can't die fast enough.

calvinb

Office 365 is optional. You can still elect to pay for perpetually licensed Office.

Bry89

SomeGuy wrote:

Bry89 wrote:

Also, I can have a choice if I want Office and Adobe CC but, I'll use their open-source counterparts instead, when I believe they would only add more to the cost for the machine itself (plus, why should I have an online account just to use them?

Is the latest version of Microsoft Office doing that too? I haven't touched the latest version, and don't really want to. Office for the Mac used to be good because Apple made them keep the drop down menus. That Adobe Creative Cloud is complete BS that can't die fast enough.

Yes... since Office 2013 in fact. And, what's so bad about Adobe CC, just out of curiosity? I had no bother working with it for my work experience as it's pretty much the same as the older versions I used before, unless there's something else underneath that's got you grating your teeth with angst.

garirry

Adobe CC is a stupid and annoying business-oriented practice. First problem is obvious, is that I don't want to pay a monthly fee until I die. After two years, you've already paid the full price of a complete Adobe CS6 licence. Second issue is how that their whole marketing is that it's always up to date. Not only is that something I don't really care about - CS4 still works on 10.9 and I'll bet it should work on 10.12 just fine - but it's also a nuisance. I don't want to wake up one morning and see that everything has just changed. I don't mind it with stuff like Skype, since it's just a consumer program, but no way in hell I can just handle frequent updates to professional programs. When I want to update my pro software, it'll be after I've found out that the new one will bring more efficient work, and will work better on newer software in order to justify a purchase.

The programs themselves are fine, it's really just the way of paying for this that's really annoying me and others.

Bry89

Even though I made my decision as said in my previous post, I'm still uncertain regarding what distro to go for, but I think I might go with Lubuntu, as it's lightweight and gives me the Windows familiarity to it, and would be best for this laptop that was from nearly seven years ago. No point getting a distro only for it to crap out because of its specs that seem low compared to today's computers.

But what I am more concerned of are package managers, even though it may not be a thing to be bothered about by some. I say this because, when I used Ubuntu under VirtualBox, the Ubuntu Software Centre gave me access to pretty much everything I wanted whereas other distros could only offer few apps. Even though I would only want GIMP, Inkscape and LibreOffice, a selection of a thousand others would be nice.