4 Linux Distros Compared To Win XP, Mac OS X

Morf writes "The Australian Consumers? Association has evaluated Xandros, Linspire, Mandrake Discovery and SUSE personal and compared them to Mac OS X and Windows XP in its latest Computer CHOICE magazine. The article is very much focused on "mums and dads", and concludes Linux is just about ready for consumers, although installing new software could pose some problems for those who aren't really computer savvy. The report is available free for a short time."

"Consumers?"?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, yes, the great Australian Consumers? Association!

Brought to you by the Puzzled Slashdot? Readers Group.

Not for long...

[Anonymous Coward]

The report is available ... for a short time

Okay, which one of you hosers told them we were coming?

Re:I disagree

[MarkRose]

Does Linux even have pf yet? Until it does, Linux will continue to be a niche OS.

Pico-farad? No way man. Linux is way tighter than that. Linux uses femtofarads!

Ozzies?

[BenjyD]

The Australian Consumers? Association has evaluated Xandros,

Is the "?" some kind of joke about the way Australians turn everything they say into a question by going up in tone at the end of every sentence? Or just an unescaped html character?

Because it gets really annoying? Trying to talk to people? When you're not sure whether they're asking a question or telling you something?

Re:We have tested...

[Anonymous Coward]

So is your "apple" their "Apple"? Or is "snickers" = "Apple"? Or...?

Installing software

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux needs to come a long way before installing software is as easy on Windows. On Windows I just need to plug in the network cable to get Netsky, Klez and a bunch of other software installed automagically. I don't need to click on anything.

Compare this to Linux, where installing software requires complex things such as clicking or even double-clicking an icon, which in turn requires learning to use a "mouse", a very counter-intuitive device, that you need to move while looking at something completely different, and when you reach the edge of the mouse mat, you need to carefully lift it and move it back to the center, such that the little arrow doesn't move, and then continue moving it where you already moved it once.

Re:Prefer Slackware

[Anonymous Coward]

That's because whenever they bug you for tech support on their windows machines you yell back "I can't help you now; I'm rebuilding my kernel!"

Re:"Consumers?"?

[91degrees]

It's the Australian accent. They often raise their voices at the end of a phrase so it sounds like a question.

Linux commands may as well be in Klingon...

[ABeowulfCluster]

... for 'Average Joe' to use. Seriously.. you type 'man' instead of 'help'? Ok mom.. now type ./configure What? DOT SLASH CONFIGURE.. no.. THE OTHER SLASH! GEEEZE!!!! And my document It didn't save? BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T MOUNT the DRIVE AS READ WRITE NTFS CAPTIVE! FOR FSCK'S SAKE GIVE ME THE KEYBOARD! MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOve!

Read my OS X vs Linux RAP

[Anonymous Coward]

Knock knock who's there ? It's Tux
Whoa hold on you aint installing THAT shit on MY box
A crate of junk you put together yourself,
Wasting your life compilin' da ELFs

Now every distro is just a big mess
'Drake, Suse, Red hat ? ain't no progress
5 text editiors, 6 media players,
7 terminal apps later an' they call me a hater?

They say the Penguin has 1000s of apps,
And installing em all is where it's at !
Sluggish ass desktops, layers of bloat,
To draw a motherf*ckin' window on your screen that floats

KDE and Gnome are so motherf*cking slow,
Double click an' 5 seconds later still no go
So now you wanna run a lightweight gui
But don't be thinkin' y'all gonna be loopy
'cause ice, blackbox and twm
Are more like something from way back when
Computers were the size of living rooms
And Unix was the king of the dust and gloom

One problem is X Windows
from a prehistoric age, man it really blows!
It has no place on the desktop
Sooner it's is gone, sooner Linux stops being a flop

Then we haven't even talked stability
No sound, no floppy just kernel panic city
And then there's the Linux classic to mention
The Spontaneous Self Rebooting invention!
Buy yo that's if you even manage to install,
Beyond messed up X11 drivers 'an all
******(Chorus here don't know what yet...)******

Well I tried to open GIMP but nothing's working,
Please Linux stick to web serving!
KDE ? looks like Windows 98
Oh and KWrite, Konqueror, and Kate
KSpread, Ksim, Konsole and Kedit
Kaint Kno Kuse Kcause they all Ksuck there I Ksaid it!

And lets not talk about that other one
With da worlds slowest ass file browser listen son
Shall we make something even worse than KDE ?
Sure I know lets call it G-N-O-M-E !
Y'see thats why A double P - L - E's GUI
Which runs on F-R double E motherf*ckin' B - S - D
Kicks the L - I - N -U - X D - E catastrophe
Straight into a G - U - I inferiority!

So baby take your vi, I'll take my pico
You take your emacs, I'll take my BBEdit so,
You take your X11, While I be in my Aqua heaven
You will still be rpm an' sudo make install again!

In fact take your KDM, rterm and XClock,
I'll take my Finder with drag and drop
Heck you know what ? I'll even take the Dock!
I'll even take Sherlock!! (over that Linux flop)

Sure it don't cost no money, But shit that Linux aint funny
It's so old, crusty, dark and dusty, That only geeks wanna run it
And it's hell with it's 5 minute booting,
Compared to OS X's 10 seconds then login
It's nothin' but a motherf*cking joke
Still 20 years away from System 8.0
And compared to magic Mac OS X
Linux may as well just start again
And you see that's why Mac users,
Say Linux what's that, something for losers?

Re:In breif summary

[pjt33]

We'd also like to see inbuilt antivirus software in all operating systems -- the tested operating systems don't currently include a virus checker.

They'd also like to see Wine installed by default on Linux and OS X to give the virus checker something to do.

Re:We have tested...

[bogado]

This I would like to see printed in an apple:

ingredients :

apple 99.90%
agrotoxic 0.09%
printer ink 0.01%

:-D

Re:I installed Ubuntu on my Dad's computer

[carlmenezes]

You installed it on your grand-father's grand-mother's laptop? DUDE!

Re:"Consumers?"?

[geoffspear]

1. Blame Microsoft for a problem with Slashcode.
2. Get modded "informative".
3. ???
4. Profit!

Only on Slashdot...

[krewemaynard]

...can an article about Linux vs. WinXP vs. OSX degenerate into a thread about the particulars of Unicode and apostrophes that, as of right now, took me 7 page-downs to get through.

ALL HAIL PETTY BICKERING!

Response: ALL HAIL

Re:"Consumers?"?

[ESqVIP]

Someone tell the Australians that the rest of the English speaking world avoids apostrophes in titles and proper nouns.

Brought to you by McDonald's :-)

Here's a choice nugget..

[musselm]

FTFA: "Windows XP was the only operating system that couldn't recognise and open an imported Excel file -- the included office software is very basic so you need to install Microsoft Office or another more advanced program." I'm not sure what opens an Excel file from the get-go on an Apple system, but it's still a fun quotation.

Re:"Consumers?"?

[sootman]

Maybe it was written by a 14-year-old girl. Ever hear them talk? "There's this magazine? In Australia? That compared a bunch of distros? and wrote about it?"

Re:"Consumers?"?

[lcsjk]

In the non-american speaking world, that is spelled "Playbouy".

Re:"Consumers?"?

[uhlume]

More to the point, someone please tell the Australians that the rest of the English speaking world avoids question marks in lieu of apostrophes, as they are not typographically equivalent.

(Shut up you pedants: I know it's a charset issue, but where's the humor in that?)