October is a big month for computer nerds.
Windows 7 (October 22nd) and Ubuntu 9.10 (October 29th) will both be released.
Two major updates to two of the biggest operating systems around.
But which should you use? Which is the best for your particular needs?
Let’s take a moment and rate them on each area (Photo Organizing, Gaming, etc.).
And, heck, while we’re at it… let’s compare them both with Apple’s latest: MacOS X 10.6 (aka “Snow Leopard”).
A quick disclaimer: I am the co-host of the Computer Action Show (previously the “Linux Action Show”) and am definitely a fan of Linux. That said I also spent several years as a professional MacOS developer and currently specialize in cross platform software development (translation: I spend a lot of time in Windows, MacOS and Linux). So I’m no stranger to any of them.
Look and Feel
This is a fairly contested topic.
Does it matter what an operating system looks like? Some people say, and with good reason, that it’s far more important how it works and far less important how it looks.
That said: There’s no denying that a good looking system grabs peoples attention. And, a more modern looking system, is likely to be looked upon in a more favorable light.
MacOS X has long been the champion in this regard (at least according to most people). With its transparent buttons and it’s “Aqua” look and feel, it has been the poster-child for good looking software for several years. And Mac OS X 10.6 definitely improves upon the existing designs. However there is almost no ability to customize your Mac’s look and feel. It has to remain exactly as Apple designed it. Which is a bummer.
Ubuntu 9.10 is, likewise, a great improvement over past Ubuntu releases.
If there is one word that has been used to describe Ubuntu it has been “brown” (or “orange”). Ubuntu has never been “ugly”… but it certainly has been in need of a new hair cut. In Ubuntu 9.10 the look and feel is classy. Not a dramatic departure from past releases, but significantly more polished. Plus it is infinitely customizable. Don’t like the theme? The icons? The UI layout in general? There are simple ways to change them all.
Plus there’s compiz. Which is the bees-knees of 3D effects (think: “3D Rotating Cube Desktop”) for any operating system.
Windows Vista was a pretty significant change (from a look and feel standpoint) over Windows XP. Transparencies. Updated colors and general design improvements.
Windows 7 takes those improvements a step further. The traditional Windows Task Bar has been significantly improved (with cool “peek” effects). And the general design is consistent (for the most part) and pleasing on the eye. Plus Windows 7 has some very cool customization options (such as color hues, transparency levels and desktop gadgets) that are nice to see. Not as customizable as Ubuntu, but more so than MacOS X.
Look and Feel Winner: Windows 7
A great out of the box experience. Customizable enough for most people. Polished and refined. OS X looks good. And Ubuntu can be made (with work) to look even better than both. But Windows 7 provides the slickest experience for most.
Photo Organizing
This is something we all do. Some of us have only a small handful of pictures. Others have tens of thousands of family photos that need to be organized, edited, enhanced and shared.
Windows has not, traditionally, made available a great (or, really, any) photo organizing application. This has changed with Windows Live Photo Gallery.
Windows Live Photo Gallery is… okay. It provides a decent way to browse and organize the photos on your hard drive with basic tagging and searching features in addition to a few more advanced features (such asPanoramic Stitching). It does the job, but isn’t a deal maker or breaker.
With MacOS X, you have iPhoto. Which looks great and has quite a few very cool features (including a facial recognition system: how cool is that?!).
However iPhoto has one, huge, Achiles’ heel: it stores your photos in a proprietary, locked down way. So, if you ever decide to move your photo collection to another computer that is not running MacOS 10.6? Hosed.
Ubuntu 9.10 has F-Spot. Visually, F-Spot looks okay. Nothing to write home about… fairly plain looking (though a step up from Windows Live Photo Gallery).
It also lacks many of the awesome features found in Windows Live Photo Gallery and iPhoto (you won’t find Panoramic Stitching or Facial Recognition here).
What it does offer is all the basic organizing, tagging and enhancing features people typically need in a very fast package. Plus it has the best options for sharing your photos of the bunch (with full support for Flickr, Smugmug, Picassa Web, Gallery2, etc. right out of the box).
Photo Organizing Winner: Ubuntu 9.10I take a lot of photos. I’m not a professional photographer, just a guy with a nice camera and a habit of snapping photos all the time. F-Spot is the easiest, fastest and least “in my way” photo organizer I have found. For this, I give this win to Ubuntu.
Video Editing
Not everyone edits videos. But, for those of us that do, this is a must-have feature. Even if we’re just doing some basic edits to a home movie we filmed of a birth day party (and adding a little bit of title text to be fancy), it’s something we simply can’t do without.
Microsoft’s solution to this is the Windows Live Movie Maker. It’s a simple tool that handles the basics. On the upside, it is pretty easy to use and comes with some very nice transition effects and titles. But, for anything more, you’re going to need to go out and buy a more expensive software editing package (such as Adobe Premier or Sony Vegas).
Apple, on the other hand, ships new Macs with iLife. Which includes iMovie and iDVD. The combination of these two applications is pretty extraordinary. They allow for simple video editing, using some stellar effects, as well as numerous options for authoring your own (professional looking) DVDs.
But what about Ubuntu?
Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
Ubuntu 9.10 not only does not ship with any video editing software, there is (at present) no polished piece of software that an average user can pick up and create videos with. Certainly not anywhere near on the level of what is doable with iMovie or Windows Live Movie Maker.
Video Editing Winner: MacOS X 10.6The clear winner here is iMovie. Let’s be honest: This is the reason many people bought a Mac in the first place, and for good reason. High quality. Easy to use. Excellent. Windows 7 isn’t far behind in this area, but Ubuntu 9.10 trails by a mile.
Music
This is a difficult category for me.
On Ubuntu there is a great music player calledBanshee that, in my mind, is the best there is (on any operating system).
On Windows there is the Zune software. Which is, actually, quite a fantastic music player and manager.
But neither Zune nor Banshee ship with their respective operating systems. And many people will not think to go and download them (unless they buy a Zune, perhaps). So I’m going to pretend like these two don’t exist for the sake of this category.
On Windows 7, out of the box, there is… Windows Media Player. Which is better than it used to be.
That’s all I can really say good about it. As a music player it is clumsy and difficult to use. And, I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to get frustrated when I am trying to simply play a song or two.
For MacOS X 10.6 there is iTunes. We all know iTunes. Apple has made a bajillion dollars (give or take) because of iTunes.
iTunes works. It’s fairly simple to use and it has all the features most people will ever need in a music player. Plus it looks pretty nice and is backed by an easy to access music store (which most people will be happy with).
On the Ubuntu 9.10 side, there is Rhythmbox. Which is, for all intents and purposes, a pretty good music player. It has the basics and it works. But, if I’m being honest, it’s a bit ugly.
Music Winner: MacOS X 10.6If this were a stack up against Zune, Banshee and iTunes — the result might be different. Nay. The results would definitely be different. But for a pure out of the box experience, iTunes takes the cake here. Giving the Music category to MacOS X.
Office Work
Everyone needs a word processor. That’s just the way it is. Most of us will use a spreadsheet or two (or 5,000) in our lifetimes. And I know a couple of guys that live or die by their presentation software.
Windows 7 ships with nothing. In order to get a usable set of office software you need to purchase something like Microsoft Office which is, admittedly, an excellent suite of tools. Word. Excel. PowerPoint. All staples of most office places.
But, out of the box? Nothing.
MacOS X 10.6 ships with nothing. Microsoft Office and iWork are both available for purchase and both are quite good and will do everything most people need (and more).
But. Again. Out of the box? Nothing.
Ubuntu 9.10 is the only of these that actually ships with a fully featured suite of office applications - Open Office.
Functionality-wise I would say that Open Office is about on-par with Microsoft Office (and significantly more powerful than Apple’s iWork). Look and feel wise… Open Office is not the most attractive in the world. It’s not ugly, but the other two office suites look quite a lot more modern.
Office Work Winner: Ubuntu 9.10Having a fully functional, and well supported, office suite out of the box? That’s just plain incredible. The first thing many people do when installing Windows or MacOS X is install an office suite… that step isn’t even necessary with Ubuntu.
Gaming
We all play games. Some play solitaire. Others Sudoku. Others World of Warcraft. Either way, video games are a big deal. And a platform without good video games is in trouble.
And Ubuntu 9.10 seriously lacks in modern, commercial video games.
Sure, there are a lot of open source games available. Some of which are excellent. And, likewise, you can play a lot of games developed originally for Windows via WINE. While this works great for some games, it’s still not a perfect sollution. And most users simply won’t know it’s even available.
MacOS X 10.6 is in a similar spot. There are some big commercial games available, but not that many. And MacOS itself ships with very few games (just one actually).
Windows 7, on the other hand… now there is a system with some games.
For starters, Windows 7 ships with a number of casual games. All of which look incredible and modern.
Then there are the commercial games. Go down to any Best Buy, Target, Game Stop, etc… row after row of games built for Windows.
Gaming Winner: Windows 7Hands down. No doubt. Not even a contest. If playing games is of critical importance to you - You should be using Windows 7. All three operating systems have Flash support. Meaning you can play the wide variety of casual games available on so many websites nowadays. So all is not lost on MacOS X or Ubuntu, but Windows 7 definitely wins.
Customizability
What, exactly, do I mean by “customizability”?
I mean how easy (or possible) is it to change the look and feel of your system? Or, taking it a step further, how easy is it to change the very core of how your system operates?
MacOS X 10.6 is about as buttoned down as you can get. You can’t change the look and feel at all really (other than to change the desktop background). You can’t easily replace your file browser or your Dock. With MacOS what you see out of the box is what you get.
Windows 7 is quite a bit more flexible. You can change the colors and transparency levels of your windows and there are a few different themes available. And you can customize your desktop with Gadgets to really make your desktop your own.
Ubuntu 9.10 is extremely flexible. Lots of themes. Easy to change your icons. The default “panels” that Ubuntu ships with? You can get rid of them… or make more. Heck, it’s even fairly easy to change the entire way you interact with your desktop (by installing a different Desktop Environment such as KDE 4).
Customizability Winner: Ubuntu 9.10If you feel the need to control the way you interact with your computer - whether it be a look and feel that is uniquely you, or a specific way you want to interact and work… Ubuntu is for you. The “out of the box” experience may not be as flashy as MacOS X or Windows 7, but you can customize nearly every aspect of it to meet your mood and style.
Performance
All three operating systems perform well. Let’s get that out of the way right up front.
On all three you can play back high definition video and play great looking 3D games.
But what about perceived performance? How fast and responsive do each of these operating systems feel to use and interact with?
MacOS X 10.6 is a but sluggish. I hear the Mac-faithful screaming now. But, seriously, if you use all three operating systems (on modern hardware) on a regular basis, you begin to notice how often the dreaded “spinning beach ball of death” appears on MacOS X. It’s not a deal breaker. But it happens far, far too often. Likewise the file browsing experience (Finder) is quite sluggish even on modern (made this year) hardware.
Ubuntu 9.10 is nice and peppy. You don’t spend a lot of time sitting around waiting, while staring at an hour-glass or spinning beach ball. That said, launching some applications can be a bit pokey. Not as slow as MacOS X, but I’d like it to be faster.
Windows 7… is actually pretty snappy. Applications launch fast. Switching between running tasks is fast and easy to do. The overall system feels faster than it used to. I know that’s purely the perception, but it’s still significant. Though file browsing, like MacOS X, can be a bit too slow for my taste (and patience).
You’ll notice that I didn’t mention boot time here. They all perform well enough in this regard and I consider it a non-issue.
Performance Winner: Ubuntu 9.10I am, honestly, not unhappy with the performance of any of these operating systems. Both MacOS X and Windows perform very well and this should not keep anyone from enjoying their computer. But Ubuntu is, indeed, the faster feeling of the bunch.
Programming
Software development is an area that very few people are actually going to care about. For those of us who develop software for a living (like myself) though… it is critical. On top of that, the easier it is to develop powerful software, the more great software there will (likely) be. And that is great for everyone.
MacOS X 10.6 has XCode. It is a mature, full featured development environment complete with a large supply of sample code and pretty good documentation. This makes developing native MacOS X applications a pretty straight forward process. Plus: XCode is free.
The downside is that the primary programming language for working on MacOS X is Objective-C, which almost nobody outside of the Apple world uses. This makes it more difficult to get started working on MacOS X if you come from another operating system. Likewise, experience developing with Objective-C is not overly useful elsewhere.
Windows 7 has many, many options available for developing software. Chief among them isVisual Studio, the defacto standard for so many Windows shops around the world. It’s robust and works incredibly well. Downside: Visual Studio is not cheap.
There are great options here for developers using any language (Java, C++, C#, Basic, etc.). As such it is a much more usable operating system for an average developer.
Ubuntu 9.10 is very similar to Windows 7 in this regard. Lots and lots of development tools with support for lots and lots of languages. As an added bonus, many of these development tools can be easily installed (for free) using the built in software repository.
Programming Winner: Ubuntu 9.10 and Windows 7 (A Tie!)Both Ubuntu 9.10 and Windows 7 have a large collection of tools and languages immediately available. Many of these tools are high quality and mature. Either would be a great choice for any software developer.
Available Software
All of these features are great.
Sure, we want our computers to look good, run fast and play awesome games… but what about those weird little applications that we tend to need?
Things like: Family tree software, Animation creators, Scientific tools or 3D modelers. The list of tools that you might need goes on and on.
Ubuntu 9.10 does a fairly good job in this regard. There are large collections of great (and, in most cases, free) software available to handle most any “niche”. And installing them is, often, a simple process. Unfortunately quality is often lacking in many of these “niches” as most of the open source projects available for Ubuntu are developed by part-time, hobbyist, developers who simply cannot always compete with larger software firms.
Windows 7 has an almost rediculous amount of software available. Some are free. Others can cost a great deal. And the quality bar swings both ways as well.
But there is no getting around the immediate benefit of having so much software available for Windows. There is, literally, almost nothing you can get on another operating system that you can’t also get for Windows.
MacOS X 10.6 is somewhere in the middle. It has a moderate third party commercial software scene, and many larger firms port their Windows software to MacOS X. But not that many.
And many open source projects get ported from Linux over to MacOS X as well. But, again, notthat many. And certainly not always with great results.
Available Software Winner: Windows 7I know. It’s a given. There’s a lot of software for Windows. Honestly most of the software you might need is available for all three operating systems (in some form or another). And, with our growing reliance on web services (such as GMail and the rest of Google’s suite of tools), this may be a moot point for many people.
So… who wins? Here’s the final score.
Ubuntu 9.10 - 5
Windows 7 - 4
MacOS X 10.6 - 2
Technically, Ubuntu 9.10 has the most points. But that doesn’t tell the whole story.
What if you need to edit video? Then, obviously, you’ll need to look at Windows 7 or MacOS X 10.6.
What if you need the latest in PC games? Windows 7 is for you.
Pick the area that is right for you and choose the operating system that handles that area best.
All that said…
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