Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Apple
    • Apple
    • Servers

    Mac Takes Honors as Best Unix Desktop

    By
    Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
    -
    October 13, 2004
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      When I first started using Unix, my favorite “desktop” was the Korn shell. Its still my favorite command line interface.

      As the years went by and interfaces grew graphical, I grew fond of SCOs Open Desktop. Or, as I sometimes called it on days when my top-of-the-line ATI Ultra card with its 1MB of RAM was grinding away at putting a glorious 256-color display on my monitor, Open Deathtrap.

      Then, along came Linux, and life got a lot better. Ive used both KDE and GNOME and a host of more obscure Linux desktops such as Enlightenment. These days, though, Ive become a confirmed KDE user.

      /zimages/3/28571.gifClick here to read about the latest and greatest from both GNOME and KDE.

      Of course, none of these is even close to being in the running for the best Unix desktop.

      No, the best Unix desktop is Aqua, and youll find it running on any Mac running Mac OS 10.x.

      /zimages/3/28571.gifClick here to see a preview of Mac OS X 10.4, aka Tiger.

      Somewhere along the line, we over in the Linux/Unix/AIX/Solaris world seem to have forgotten that Macs are now Unix workstations.

      Under every bright, shiny Mac desktop beats a Unix heart named Darwin. Darwin, in turn, is built on top of Mach 3.0 operating-system services, which run on top of the 4.4 BSD Unix operating system.

      KDE and GNOME have both gotten much better, but lets get real. Theyre not even in the same ballpark.

      It comes down to fundamentals. Linux desktops come from developers whose primary interest has always been building powerful tools that give the informed user almost limitless power over how his or her machine works. The key words here are “informed” and “power.”

      Todays Mac desktop comes from decades of a different design philosophy, where ease of use is all.

      Now, as someone with more then 20 years in Unix/Linux, I appreciate what the KDE/GNOME designers are doing, and I know lots of other Linux and Solaris power users do, too.

      But most desktop users, and certainly most enterprise desktop users, are not power users. They want their systems to be easy to use and for their applications to work. To them, the fact that GNOME configuration management editor GConf-editor lets a GNOME power user fine-tune everything on the desktop to their fondest wishes is less than meaningless—its useless.

      Todays business users also want the applications they already know. StarOffice and OpenOffice are all fine and good but, like it or lump it, most users want the applications they know from Windows, and the Mac gives them most of those. Indeed, Microsoft just released the first service pack for Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac.

      Yes, as Ive explained before, you can run most Windows applications on Linux with programs such as my personal favorite Win4Lin, but the bottom line is that you have to go to extra trouble to run applications.

      I also have recently had friends rub my nose in the fact that theres no built-in Linux desktop help thats anything close to what Macs offer, or even, dare I say it, Windows.

      Just because you or I have no trouble finding help for our desktop problems using a combination of man and apropos, along with a HowTo file we found on the Web, doesnt mean anyone else wants to go to that much trouble. Or, more to the point, that some would even know how to find an answer that way.

      The default Linux approach has always been to either look up the answer, as I describe above, or to look for answers in the Linux community. That was fine when Linux was a hobby, but business users want to find their answers on the desktop, not in a LUG (Linux User Group).

      I really hope Linux developers start spending more time on polishing up the desktop and improving its help systems and documentation. In the meantime, while Linux and KDE make up my preferred desktop, I think there can be really no question that the best Unix desktop for most users is Mac OS X and Aqua.

      eWEEK.com Senior Editor Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has been using and writing about operating systems since the late 80s and thinks he may just have learned something about them along the way.

      /zimages/3/28571.gifCheck out eWEEK.coms Linux & Open Source Center at http://linux.eweek.com for the latest open-source news, reviews and analysis.

      /zimages/3/77042.gif

      Be sure to add our eWEEK.com Linux news feed to your RSS newsreader or My Yahoo page

      Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
      I'm editor-at-large for Ziff Davis Enterprise. That's a fancy title that means I write about whatever topic strikes my fancy or needs written about across the Ziff Davis Enterprise family of publications. You'll find most of my stories in Linux-Watch, DesktopLinux and eWEEK. Prior to becoming a technology journalist, I worked at NASA and the Department of Defense on numerous major technological projects.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Applications

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Applications

      Kyndryl’s Nicolas Sekkaki on Handling AI and...

      James Maguire - November 9, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nicolas Sekkaki, Group Practice Leader for Applications, Data and AI at Kyndryl, about how companies can boost both their AI and...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×