In Which OS Do You Feel More Productive? 1391
HTMLChecker asks: "I found an article in which the author talks about how she is more productive using Mac OS X.
What about the people of Slashdot? Where do you feel more productive, in Linux? Windows? DOS? Mac OS X? Also, what is the best way to rate productivity in an OS?"
Easy. (Score:5, Funny)
By the sheer number of FPS titles available native to the platform.
Inversely, of course.
M
Re:Easy. (Score:5, Funny)
By whether or not it comes by default with a firewall that blocks TCP connections to Slashdot?
Re:Easy. (Score:4, Insightful)
My productivity (as a programmer) has almost nothing to do with how easy it is to move the mouse around and hit key combos. Even imagining the worst environment - unfamiliar key combos, no copy/paste etc. - I think typing is very quick compared to deciding what to type.
The key to productivity really is: not reading email, not browsing the web, just firing up the editor and just getting down to reading, thinking, and finally writing code.
Re:Easy. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Easy. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Easy. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Easy. (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're comfortable with Linux, that's your choice, but you haven't mentioned a single thing that necessitates the use of desktop linux if you didn't want it. Expressing a preference is one thing, making it seem like a forgone conclusion is quite another.
I find my OS relatively removed from my productivity, after certain settling-in pains. Once I've got my OS customized to my liking, it's irrelevant which one I'm using for day to day work. I can code just as efficiently on Windows as OSX as Linux. Now that my most used apps (Firefox and Thunderbird) are tri-platform mostly-identical, as long as I can launch them and find a terminal with vim, the world is my oyster. If I need something advanced, I've never had any trouble getting it installed, ie: Apache on Windows, MySQL on OSX, recompiling PHP under Linux...whatever. I get the job done.
Re:Easy. (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, and I was expecting to find an explanation of why the common operations in a terminal window are as easy on OS X as on linux (or any X-Windows system). I've been using a Mac for a year or so, and I keep finding that nearly everything that I do is possible, but much slower than on any X-Windows box. It's partly that dumb 1-button "mouse", but there are other problems, too.
I was disappointed that the article only explained why OS X was more productive than Windows. Hell, I knew that. Watching over the shoulder of expert Windows developers is painfully slow. Yeah, you can do everything that you need to do, but it takes so many keystrokes and/or mouse events.
The simplest example is copy-and-paste. You can always do this. But the X-Windows scheme is quick and simple (and doesn't involve the keyboard at all); just three quick clicks or a click-swipe-release-click. OSX is materially slower, though slightly faster sometimes than Windows.
Similarly, linux and other X-Windows systems implements focus-follows-pointer, and doesn't insist on raising a window when it gets focus. This is a huge time saver when you get used to it. As far as I can tell, neither Windows nor OS X permits this. And they don't have a way to lower a window either; in X-Windows it's a single click. This means that you can push a window to the bottom when you're done with it, and get quickly to the next window. With Windows or OS X, you have to go through a real song and dance to locate and raise a hidden window (which you often didn't want to hide).
Now, I know I could put an X server on OS X. I haven't, because I've been trying to avoid falling back to what I know. I wanted to give OS X a chance to show how wondereful it was. So far, frankly, it hasn't been all that wonderful. Nearly everything is slower and clumsier than on my linux box. And when I ask Mac experts what I'm doing wrong, they usually tell me that I'm doing it right.
The one thing that I'd say is better on OS X is drag-and-drop. But even there, I keep trying it, and it either doesn't do anything at all (most often), or sometimes does something different than what I want. It's better than both Windows and linux, but still not all that good, and I can't find many time that I can actually use it while writing software. Dragging text between windows doesn't much work; you have to use copy-and-paste.
Resizing windows on OS X is a real pain, because you can only do it by adjusting the lower-right corner.
Also, it's not just that I'm a dummy. I do keep trying to watch the experts. Windows experts are agonizingly slow, with lots of extra motions for everything. OS X experts are noticably faster, but it's still painful to watch.
It's always a relief to get back to an X-Windows box, where I don't feel like I'm swimming in molasses whenever I try to do something.
Maybe I should give up and install an X server on my PB. If it's still clumsy after a year of experimenting and asking the experts, I've wasted too much time with it. I'd want to get a 3-button mouse, too; too bad I can't replace the PB's button with 3 little buttons.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Easy...Ninnle! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Easy...Ninnle! (Score:5, Interesting)
I too thought that Apple was just niche market, nothing but. Graphics, publishing, edu. That was it. And really, before OS X, I pretty much considered they sucked.
Of course, now they make a product that fits my niche, that of a network guy with an open source leaning.
It's really the best of both worlds. It's the shiny interface that I'd buy for someone like my father or brother and it's got that raw powerful system behind it that I can open up into even in their version of Terminal.
This is half rhetorical and half serious, but please don't take it as a personal criticism, but "How many niches will they have to fit in before they become big enough?"
BTW, might want to get rid of that immediate link to the DVD copy crack on your site, http://brainglass.com/downloads.htm Them there RIAA, MPAA and SPA folks are monitoring this site, ya know.
Re:Easy...Ninnle! (Score:5, Insightful)
Having used Windows, Linux and OS X (in that order chronologically), I have found that:
Re:Easy...Ninnle! (Score:4, Informative)
1) Windows hasn't always had a predictable UI (and IMHO still hasn't). Case in point: drag n drop a file between 2 folders on the same disk: it moves the file, do the same between 2 disks: it copys the file, do the same to the desktop: it links the file. This is unpredictable in the extreem.
2) X bashing is so last century, and today is not much short of trolling. X has never been slow, and when you use the proper video driver, and a (reasonably) modern machine (Athlon XP 1600 here) Gnome and KDE aren't eather. Personnally I've always found KDE more responsive than XP on the same config (Gnome has some lag, it's true)
3) You're 'nothing works' shows me that you probably haven't used slack since the version inflation, and in anycase it isn't the distro for you. I'm currently running Slack 10.1 and DLG 2.8.2 on my machine, and Mandrake 10.1 on my gfs, and, surprise: everything works!
4) Try real, quicktime, wmv, shockwave, flash: all work (yes, on my Slack!, without tweeking!)
5) Trying out apps (from source) is done either in
6) smb shares work out the box with modern DEs (XFce 4.2 found my Windows network at work all by itself, no problems , nothing)
7) Free software is about scratching your own itch, for some people it's KDE, for some Gnome, XFce or Screen, there is no war, each borrows from the other, tries to get an improved user experiance, and both improve. XFree in itself should show you why this is a good thing.
Oh, and 8) Win95 doesn't act exactly like XP, you're moving the goalposts there, and 9) A WinXP BSOD is either bad drivers or massive spyware infestation, that one doesn't work anymore either.
HTH
David
Re:Easy. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Easy. (Score:5, Funny)
Linux user:
"Soo.. bored of being 'productive'.. must entertain.. self.. I know, I'll recompile my OS with a test kernel again.. it'll only take.. a little while.. yea.. that's being productive!"
Windows user:
"Soo.. bored of being 'productive'.. must entertain.. self.. I know, I'll play solitaire for the next.. little while.. and then blow up a hundred monsters in Doom.. yea.. that's being productive!"
Re:Easy. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Easy. (Score:5, Funny)
MSDOS... seriously (Score:4, Interesting)
1)No www etc to eat away time.
2)I quite often need to write and test out code in a test-bed like environment for later inclusion into some other, typically embedded, software. The most productive way I've found to do this is Borland C with MSDOS. I can edit/compile/test small code bodies faster using MSDOS and Borland C than a cute GUI interface with mouse clicking etc. Bummer though when a bad bointer crashes the whole box. Still, a reboot only takes approx 20 sec. I can do almost the same thing under *nix, but it isn't quite as snappy. *nix does same me from nasty ptrs and give better core dumps etc though.
Re:Easy. (Score:5, Funny)
No my friend, thou had best be wary of the Terrible Time-wasting Triumvirate.
Doom, you say?
Half-Life?
Quake?
Nay.
Solitaire. Freecell. Minesweeper.
Hands-down the most destructive weapons ever wielded by the Hell-Spawned Demons of Computer Procrastination, these Three sit atop the Procrastination empire, answering only to Alcoholicus, Girlfriendlor and the Weed & Pizza twins.
Re:Easy. (Score:5, Insightful)
~X~
Re:Easy. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not even gonna read any further because everything that will be said has been said a million times before, every other time this jihad has been launched. Thanks
OSX and Linux are both wonderfully productive for me, I see no reason to have these two kindred spirits turn on each other in internecine strife when we all know who the one true enemy is.
Re:Easy. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Easy. (Score:5, Funny)
----
I feel a draft.
You are in Room # 2
Tunnels lead to 1,3,10
I smell a wumpus!
You are in Room # 1
Tunnels lead to 2,5,8
I feel a draft.
I smell a wumpus!
You are in Room # 2
Tunnels lead to 1,3,10
You are in Room # 1
Tunnels lead to 2,5,8
You missed. You have 4 arrows left.
You are in Room # 1
Tunnels lead to 2,5,8
I feel a draft.
I smell a wumpus!
You are in Room # 2
Tunnels lead to 1,3,10
Not possible.
I feel a draft.
I smell a wumpus!
You are in Room # 2
Tunnels lead to 1,3,10
Aha! You got the Wumpus!
You Win!
Emacs (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Emacs (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Emacs (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Easy. (Score:5, Funny)
OS X (Score:5, Interesting)
For a long while, I had multiple systems on or under my desk, peaking at one time with an SGI Octane, PowerMac 9600, Windows NT, and a Linux box to perform my scientific work, serve a website, do graphics work and general productivity. All of that functionality now exists beautifully in one OS X machine freeing up considerable desktop space. Also, thank goodness for flat panel displays! I serve a couple of websites up on my workstation as well as use it for computational calculations, a front for distributed computing, writing papers, doing graphics for figures and illustrations, preparing presentations etc...etc...etc...
No other platform offers this degree of ease of use combined with flexibility and functionality.
Re:OS X (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:OS X (Score:5, Funny)
The question is: What the fuck are you thinking?
Re:OS X (Score:5, Informative)
So if you want to go to the beginning of a line, Control-A does it, and Control-E goes to the end of the line.
I love this because I don't have to take my hands off the home keys to make it work. It's a real godsend to die-hard emacs users such as myself.
(This works only in Cocoa applications, so Internet Explorer users are out of luck, but in most programs, such as Safari, Mail, OmniWeb, etc, it works great.)
D
Re:OS X (Score:5, Informative)
Anyway, what you want is Command+LeftArrow and Command+RightArrow. That goes to beginning of line and end of line, respectively, on OS X.
BBEdit (Score:4, Informative)
Simple: does the platform support BBEdit ?
BBEdit still doesn't suck. I write code on both the Mac and XP. I often mount a Windows share on my Mac so that I can edit the Windows code in BBEdit.
-S
Re:OS X (Score:5, Informative)
Create a file ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict with this content:
{
"\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLine:";
"\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLine:";
"$\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLineAndModifySelection:";
"$\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLineAndModifySelection:";
}
Re:OS X (Score:5, Funny)
Re:OS X (Score:4, Informative)
Here's an updated DefaultKeyBinding.dict file.
{
"\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLine:";
"\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLine:";
"$\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLineAndModifySelection:";
"$\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLineAndModifySelection:";
"^\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfDocument:";
"^\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfDocument:";
}
Re:OS X (Score:5, Insightful)
What's the problem here?
Re:OS X (Score:5, Insightful)
Again...what's the problem here? Isn't a powerful, usable, flexible OS what we're all after?
Re:OS X (Score:4, Funny)
Everything has its kinks.
Re:OS X (Score:4, Insightful)
Ctrl-A/Ctrl-E
Re:OS X (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: Click count and mindspace (Score:5, Interesting)
I regularly work with OS X, Windows, KDE, and WindowMaker, and here is what I think of the first three. (For the sake of disclosure, I was definite Mac hater three years ago, I have had vague feelings of annoyance with Windows going back at least 7 years, and I have never been a fan of Gnome or KDE - I use WindowMaker on my home PC.)
On Windows, it takes a lot of effort to do simple things. Even bringing up an extra Explorer window seems to take a lot of time, because I can't seem to find a good keyboard command or menu item for it. (If there are, Windows fails at making them easy to find.) Navigating the filesystem takes time, because there doesn't seem to be a way to make the places I go most accessible from anywhere. "My Computer" seems to be in a different place (sometimes the Start menu, sometimes the desktop) on every @#$@% computer in the office. Functionality is hidden in random places, and menu items seem to never be hidden under the most appropriate menu. I can't drag and drop things I think I should logically be able to drag and drop, and the alt-tab twitcher completely fails to allow me to switch between applications quickly and seamlessly. Worst of all, it pops up dialogs for things that I don't think should require dialog pop-ups - I hate it when I eject my USB key (which takes too many clicks) and go back to some task (which takes too many clicks) and am just starting to re-orient my attention when Windows throws it all away by throwing up a dialog that tells me my USB key has been unmounted and requires a click to close. The overall effect makes me feel like Windows is hell-bent on wasting my time a second or two at a time and slowly destroying my ability to concentrate.
KDE and GNOME aren't much better. In fact, they're worse - they feel a lot like Windows, only even more disorganized, less consistent, and less logically arranged. The file managers are all half-implemented, and drag-and-drop is barely given a nod. It doesn't help that I find myself constantly dropping to the command line to do simple things that should have an easy GUI equivalent - kill and ps, for example.
OS X isn't perfect, but it's shangri-la compared to the rest. I love that document-oriented apps give you an icon in the window's title bar that acts as a proxy for the file that is open in that window, meaning I can send a document I'm working on to someone else via e-mail without having to waste my time hunting for it in the filesystem. There are keyboard commands for EVERYTHING, and it is easy to find them, I love that. The shelf is a thing of beauty - I think that it is a bit half-implemented, but it's far and away better than anything that any other popular GUI can provide. Expose took some getting used to, but now I can say that it rocks my butt off, and I miss it when I am using other OSes. (I used to use Codetek VirtualDesktop. I still run it, but I rarely use it unless I decide that I need to grab a clean sandbox real quick.) The Dock isn't without its problems either (its handling of placing files in the Dock is just completely broken), but it crams a lot of useful information into a small space, and takes a lot less staring and thinking to figure out what you want to know from it than a taskbar. It doesn't tell you about individual windows, and I have grown to like that - when I work, my mental state tree goes application first, window second, and OS X follows this mental flow. Besides, the window I want is usually on the top of the display after I click on an app's icon, because it is usually the window in that app that I was using the most recently. By contrast, the Windows Taskbar feels like it is jumping the gun. And when I want a window instead of an app, I use Expose, and it's easier and faster than having to deal with the taskbar, which gets real cluttered real fast.
I second that sentiment (Score:5, Interesting)
Right now its probably right the best marriage of the two worlds and it helps that Apples iLife suite make using my music, digital photos and movies enjoyable to use (although an elegant its missing a Tivo PVR solution). The other factor I enjoy about Mac OS X is its ease of software installations, simple security updates and very little maintenance. I don't have to struggle to find drivers for my hardware and I can plug and play without wrestle the operating system to cajole it to work. Apple's elegant aesthetics and well thought out operating system (but not perfect) pretty much was the deal closer for me.
P.S.
Little things like the pervasive spell checker where I don't have to use another application to check spelling of my Slashdot posts are some of the niceties that help me be more productive. Also not having to dual boot Windows/Linux also helps when both applications from different worlds can coexist on one operating system.
For Mac OS X fans out there. I stumbled across this gem of a plug in the other day. GMAP [farha.com] plug in for Addressbook.app [mac360.com] to invoke Google Maps and automatically get directions from your home. The script can be modified to work with Firefox (which it originally did). Very Cool!
Re:OS X (Score:5, Interesting)
You make an interesting point, but it sounds to me like you have a fixed idea of how an interface should behave and are going to roundly criticize anything that doesn't conform to that.
Personally, I wouldn't like my Panther system to have ANY of the features you regard as critical:
Treating these choices as "utterly asinine" and "engineers have a track record of making really stupid decisions" really just demonstrates your own point of view.
If you want that flexibility, that's really one of the great strengths of LInux. I think you've answered the Slashdot topic's question!
Which hat am I wearing? (Score:5, Interesting)
As a scientist, where I do most of my work in MS Office, I am much more productive in Windows. I basically have to use MS Office because I need to interoperate with my peers and coworkers. Furthermore, Excel (every scientists best friend), is still far and away the best spreadsheet application and to me is Window's so called "killer app". MS Office for the Mac is still wildly unstable, and although it's an option, it's not a very good one.
As a hobbiest or a general user, I'm more productive in Mac OS X, which sort of bridges both worlds. Because Macintosh enforces a pretty strict interface guideline, all the general purpose apps are easier to use on the first go. This is not really critical for stuff I use every day (as a programmer or a scientist) but is really useful when I'm trying out a new chess app or whatever.
If I had only one choice, I would use Mac OS X. At work I have both a Linux computer and a Windows computer on my desk (it's a pretty big desk). At home I use my iBook. I don't have to make that choice.
Re:Which hat am I wearing? (Score:3, Insightful)
And, if you do science with any math, MS Office is totally worthle
Re:Which hat am I wearing? (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyway, back to the main topic, I am a recent convert to OSX, and as an OS I love it (in a way that I find a little alarming)
When it comes to coding frankly, the Kate/Kdevelop is just *way* better than anything Xcode can do (even if Interface builder is truly lovely). We're trying to port our code to OSX now, so probably my perspective will change once OSX is really as usable as Linux (for us)...
But what it boils down to: OSX is the best OS I have ever used. It is simply wonderful... and even though I still miss a few tools/functionality the closeness to *NIX means that this isn't an issue (apart from the APPLE-C / CTRL-C mess that I sometimes get in when running X apps in OSX)
Bottom line: I cannot imagine ever buying a non-OSX machine again (and two years ago I'd have laughed in your face if you told me I'd ever say that
Re:Which hat am I wearing? (Score:5, Interesting)
He's undoubtably a biologist of some sort. The kind of analysis needed in biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, etc is not anything like that in physics. Basic stats are often all that's needed. Unless you're into things like protein folding, Excel is pretty capable. The integration with powerpoint is especially nice. Not that *I* use it, I prefer R and LaTeX. But I don't know anyone else who does.
Science's dependence on MS Office (Score:5, Informative)
Learning LaTeX (Score:5, Informative)
It isn't difficult to learn & becomes much more powerful when you eventually ditch the GUI & either use a quality TeX-focused editor like KILE [sourceforge.net] (KDE), TeXnicCenter [toolscenter.org] (win32), TeXShop [uoregon.edu] (OS X) (all F/OSS) or your favorite multi-purpose editor. I prefer vim [vim.org] with LaTeX-Suite [sourceforge.net].
The best way to learn is to look at other code. Either get some from peers, from the net, or make some in either the GUIs or the friendlier editors. Then just write.
If you need a reference, you can usually learn to google for how to do something (or post to comp.text.tex). I maintain a list [del.icio.us] of www links. You might find something useful, but I can't suggest the best starting point from that list. The best introductory book I've used is Guide to LaTeX [amazon.com]. The other books in LaTeX Companions [amazon.com] are also excellent for reference, particularly The LaTeX Companion [amazon.com].
Re:Which hat am I wearing? (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, I did. I tried binding a key combo to "cd ~/web/pics/ && find -name "*.jpg" | xargs -l1 -ifoo convert foo -geometry 128x128 foo.thumb.jpg && scp *.jpg $site/pics/ && rm -f *.thumb.*", so I could thumbnail and upload some images with just a couple of taps, but it didn't work under windows :(
It worked in linux, so what did I do wrong?
Re:Which hat am I wearing? (Score:5, Funny)
Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
Any OS (Score:5, Funny)
XP wins. (Score:5, Funny)
Not typical /. response (Score:3, Funny)
None of the above (Score:5, Funny)
Re:None of the above (Score:3, Funny)
Re:None of the above (Score:5, Funny)
In Mac OS X I just stare slack-jawed at the purty eye candy.
You don't even have to be using Mac OS X to be hit by its productivity penalty. I'm a Windows user, but one day in a school lab I saw someone using Expose. That was enough to make me drool and lose concentration.
Please, invite a flamewar (Score:5, Insightful)
Serious research is one thing, trolling for a flamewar is another.
KISS (Score:5, Interesting)
It depends (Score:5, Insightful)
Multiple desktops in windows (Score:3, Funny)
You're not stuck with one desktop if you're using Windows XP. Go
here to download the Virtual Desktop for Windows XP which allows your to manage four desktops.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/po
Window managers (Score:3, Informative)
This can go a long way, but switching between applications less can actually make a lot of people more productive, so you may overstate the importance
Fantastic feature, but this is hardly unique to Fluxbox.The advantage of Linux is that you have tons of window managers to choose from, as opposed to Windoze of OSX where you are limited to
Re:It depends (Score:4, Informative)
Windows (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Windows (Score:5, Interesting)
Nintendo. (Score:5, Funny)
Mac OS X (Score:5, Insightful)
OSX vs Linux (Score:3, Insightful)
Where do you feel more productive?? (Score:5, Funny)
Behind a firewall that blocks port 80
Unpopular opinion (Score:5, Insightful)
The funny thing about comparing operating systems is that frequent users of each OS are blind to the failings of their own, and are driven insane by the failings of others. For example, I find scrolling in even the latest OSX to be painful, but I love it on Windows. People get driven nuts by explorer pausing when it tries to find things that aren't there, but I don't notice it and instead go batty when Finder wastes time panning to the right in column view.
On Windows, I have a small set of utilities (notably strokeit [tcbmi.com], trip [glenmurphy.com]* and remote desktop) that I rely on heavily, and while other platforms have their equivalents, I just don't find them anywhere near as good (remote desktop, in particular).
Now don't get me too wrong - I would rather use default OSX over default Windows, but give me a customised Windows, and I'll take it over any other OS. It's the same reason I use an IE shell (iRider [irider.com]) over FireFox - one may be the technically 'better' solution, but the other just does exactly what I need it to, and lets me do it faster.
I guess my point is the obvious - people are most productive in whatever they're used to, and whatever suits them.
Mac OS X has been a dream come true for me. (Score:3, Interesting)
"Feeling productive" is not productivity (Score:5, Insightful)
OS X - Panter Hand Down (Score:3, Interesting)
Although the biggest thing for me on a mac is still a one-button mouse. While most functionality is on the left button, if you plug in a two+ button mouse into a mac you'll find that the right mouse button behaves more or less like how you would expect it to, and not having it makes you feel like you're missing something, even though you can control-click still. Seeing how many mac users hook up PC mice to their Macs now I don't see why Apple can't just start shipping Macs with two-button mice.
Well that's a silly question (Score:5, Insightful)
However, generally, people are the most productive in the environment they are the most comfortable in. They know it, understand it, and thus can use it effectively. So Linux people will be the most productive in Linux, Mac people in OS-X, and so on. I'm also willing to bet that any of those people, properly retrained and acclimated to a new OS, would be basically equally productive, provided the new OS provided the same quality of tools.
For most jobs, a computer is just a tool that gets things done. When you get down to it, the OS holy-wars don't matter since most of what is talked about doesn't affect normal user productivity in a noticable way.
It's different than saying what OS is the best technical solution for a given problem. For example UNIX/Linux have a better text-mode remote access soltuion. An SSH terminal is nearly as good as being at the console. Not so with Windows, you need a graphical remote desktop session, there's a lot you can't do command line. Thus if text mode access is technicly better for a soltuion (perhaps bandwidth is extremely limited), then clearly a UNIX base is a better idea, for that factor at least.
But trying to ask which OS is generally more productive is just flamebait. All the zealots are going to say their OS is the fastest/easiest/most powerful and will probably have irrelivant personal anecdotes about how they can't deal with other OSes. In reality they are all different ways of doing thigns, with good points and bad points, and it's mostly just learning one and becomming proficient with it.
Riding a bike isn't a natural activity. You don't just sit down and do it. None the less, once learned and practised, it's literally second nature. Likewise no OS is so intuitive that all people can use it isntantly as though they'd been doing it their whole life, in part because what is intuitive vaires by person. However once you are used to the methods, you can get quite productive with all the majors.
Console mode Linux. (Score:3, Interesting)
Grab three O'Reilly books, fire up the console, and get codin'! I did cheat a little bit, keeping a virtual console open that I used for:
- `man strncasecmp`
- telnet localhost 1390 (was working on, and debugging, a network app)
- ssh @ for the occasional pine session
- lynx http://www.google.com/ (for digging for sample code when I got stuck)
Just finished a "estimated time: 1 week" piece of a project this morning. Five hours. Console mode.
*That's* productive.
Whatever you know... (Score:5, Insightful)
In absolute terms, I think the best productivity would be whatever OS or environment where the tools are forgotten about and your attention is solely focused on the task you are trying to accomplish. I think this might also be tempered by how long it takes to become an expert on the system (and how much effort is required to maintain that status).
Probably command line Unix type environments used by experts who really know the system are the have the highest level of productivity (most useful results for the least efforts). However, it takes a long time and lots of effort to become extremely proficient on the Unix command line.
Plus, comparing them like that is only valuable if you have no experience with computers or else want to maximize your efficiency in the long term at the cost of learning a new system.
The OS isn't relevant (Score:5, Insightful)
Who cares what OS you use?
It seems to me that most users choose their applications first and then find an OS that supports them, not the other way around.
Have used many; prefer MacOS X (Score:4, Insightful)
I started on 360s and have run the gammut since then. I've worked extensively on LINUX, Solaris, DOS, Windows (all), MacOS since 1985, and many, many more. I can say without hesitation that MacOS X has been the most productive non-programming environment for me.
Development environments vary and, of course, it is impractical to do Windows development on anything other than Windows. But, for development where you really do have a choice, like with Java, you can see a strong gravitation towards MacOS X. In fact, a couple of JavaONEs ago there was such an observation in the daily rag put out by the conference: WHERE DID ALL THESE POWERBOOKS COME FROM?!
Apple did what many said could not be done: making a UNIX that could be used by mere mortals. They put a GUI on UNIX that even covers all the nasty sys admin stuff. And, it isn't just functional, it is beautiful. When you spend 12 hours a day on something, having it be beautiful goes from optional to manditory. JMHO.
-- Scott
Not sure I buy all of these arguments... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not sure I buy all of these arguments... (Score:5, Funny)
Love my Mac, but ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Neither machine crashes very often. Neither has required maintenance voodoo. Each has certain OS features that I prefere over the other. [I hate window-in-window style of Windows applications. I prefer Windows Taskbar to the Dock.] The work machine has some weird remote access settings that IT occassionally tweaks when they modify our network.
I don't use Linux. [I know, what am I doing on Slashdot?
OS X by far (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm a switcher, (Score:5, Interesting)
1)No popups from background windows poping up in the front, like in firefox or safari. If there is a popup in a different tab's page, it will not popup in front if im not focused on that page.
2) Faster bootup time.
3) when I shut down my computer, I can just click shut down and go away. In windows sometimes there would be a popup waiting for me to click. So I can't leave unless I the blue windows screen.
4) Expose..enough said
5) I have been using this for more than a month now and my Mini only got stuck once. Once! take that windows!
6) No need to install anti-virus software (yet)
7) No worries about the registry hell!
8) I donno why but all the programs (not just apples) works the way they are suppose to work! This is a very strange feeling. In windows world, I never expected programs to run the way they are suppose to.
9) this is just a small thing I noticed, but in real player ( sorry I have to use it), suppose I'm watching a video and shut it down in the middle. The next time i start that video I will see a mark where I left off the last time. This is a small thing but, if you are regular video watch like I, this is very very helpful.
I can keep going and going and going, but seriously, I can't imagine why I did not switched sooner . I'm planning on getting imac pretty soon (and give my mac mini to my dad or something)
This is a bunch of BS (Score:5, Insightful)
Second, the majority of the issues she complains about with Windows are settings. That means, if you don't like the way it's set up, you can just change it. Since many people obviously don't share her (somewhat bizarre) preferences, this can only be a good thing.
Lastly, I think I'll simply mention the fact that she refers to GUI design choices (which happen to align with her own ideas) as "logical." What a joke.
It so happens that the very features she's so gleeful about annoy me to no end. I wouldn't give up GNU/Linux running XFCE 4 for anything, but I certainly wouldn't spew a load of crap onto the internet about how "logical" the design choices in XFCE are, because that is, in itself, illogical.
OS/2.... (Score:5, Interesting)
By far, OS/2 stays out of the way the most so I can focus on how to do the job within a particular application or task.
OS/2 is equally comfortable and useable either by pure command-line or pure GUI. Currently all the *NIX really suck if you wanted to go pure GUI.
(Go ahead, try one week without ever opening up a command-line prompt in *NIX and see how far you get).
WinXP, on the other hand, is a bitch when I go command-line, for whatever reason. Mostly because most of the tools, and Billy, don't expect the user to go there. Or something.
If I had to jump ship, I'd go OS X.
From a Java developer... (Score:5, Interesting)
One of the most telling factors is that I find myself trying to use my Exposé gestures on my X86 platform...
Ugh (Score:5, Funny)
It's not the OS - stupid! (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course if the application only runs on one OS, and that OS has other problems that make it less than reliable or that demand time over and above the absolute minimum to get the system functional in the first place and back up application data ongoing, then that's another thing altogether.
My favourite application over the past 20+ years is one called filePro (16+) which started off as Profile on Radio Shack micros, notably the Model II (8" floppies and a Z80 with 64K RAM)
Over the intervening years I and my customers have migrated applications written with this system as well as data entered into them from TRS-dos to Xenix on RS model 16, to Xenix on Altos to Unix on Altos to Unix on x86 PC, to Linux on i686 and not had to re-enter anything or (with the exception of a couple of records in one customer's database that got missed in a record expansion) lost any records (or even worse, had to re-input them). One customer has records dating back to 1983 and still has access to them from his multi-location business now served by a Linux box - same data, same screen layouts, same back-end processing.
The point is that the application is fast, useful, keyboard oriented, easy to use and modify, works on everything from old hardware to the latest (including DEC Vax) and even runs on Windows of various flavors if you are truly perverse ;)
But the really great thing about it is that IT DOESN'T USE A GUI - it is text based.
I recall another (accounting) application many of my customers have used for years - that shortly after Windows 3.1 came out added a GUI version - and has pretty much dropped all pretext of being backwards compatible with the older text "shortcuts". It used to be that you could sit with a pile of receipts and bang them into the program without even looking at the screen - never taking your hands off the keyboard.
Now you have to take a hand away from the keyboard, grab the mouse and navigate to a button to store each and every transaction - getting only 10% or less productivity.
Now that DOS compatibility is pretty much gone from Window they can't even run the old code (not supported though it is); except - - hey - - is dosemu [dosemu.org] still around on Linux????
Tough question - here's a shot at it (Score:5, Insightful)
So I'm a MacOS X person by choice and preference. But, with a little tweaking I can feel comfortable and productive on whatever OS I need to sit down with. For me, I think a more valid statement is "I use MacOS X because it lets me use less of my brain on the computer, and more on the task at hand". But if I'd been using Windows as my primary OS for my whole career, I'd probably feel the opposite way about Macs.
MacOS X, absolutely! (Score:5, Interesting)
I record shows, process audio, edit HTML, and even serve files from this eMac here and two older iMacs.
I not only have all of the Mac software available, but almost all Linux/BSD/Gnu programs can be compiled and run under MacOS X, and I do a lot of that. Plus some C development.
OS X ... hands down (Score:5, Interesting)
I can do anything from run an Windows AD to run nessus in Gtk. It is as close to perfect as it gets. And my wife and 5 year old son can use it and never notice all the "tweak" stuff it can do.
And, look I know this isn't a popular sentiment but it's really pretty.
Productivity is highly variable based on task (Score:4, Interesting)
All I have to say is... (Score:5, Funny)
Try doing that in Windows without cygwin
Re:DOS? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:DOS? (Score:3, Funny)
There is no shame involved. It is just another chemical imbalance... like diabetes.
Cheers,
Adolfo
ideal if you want to get 0WN3D (Score:3, Interesting)
I can't believe you actually recommend XP for web and mail - what a way to increase the number of zombies and spam-bots on TEH INTARWEB than to set people up with an insecure operating system, an insecure web browser, and an insecure mail client. Smooth move, ex-lax.
For web access, e-mail, and writing documents, a l
Re:Duh (Score:3, Informative)
I would prefer a Mac-mini. Seriously, for such a limited set of tasks, why is Windows XP ideal? Linux could handle such tasks easily as well.
Re:command line and windows management (Score:5, Insightful)