I’ve spent a lot of time using Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Windows XP and 7, and Ubuntu over the last year. It’s remarkable and amusing how similar and dissimilar they are in surprising ways. I think the main issue people overlook is what the core of the operating system is built on, or derived from.

Mac OS X is Unix based/clone

Linux is Unix based/clone

Solaris is Unix based/clone

Windows XP and 7 is WinNT based

Well, isn’t that lovely, but what does it mean or matter?

Operating systems based on similar systems tend to work in a similar way. To oversimplify this, I often use a tool “rsync” to update content from my desktop to my web server. I’m familiar with this tool. I booted up my Macbook and wanted to copy a large folder to it, but didn’t have Samba installed on my Ubuntu desktop… I used “rsync”! The desktop options are also similar (or identical) between Gnome/Linux, Mac OS X and Solaris.

Windows is a highly proprietary ”beacon” of sorts on the landscape now. Ubuntu is doing wonders for the Linux world in general. Mac OS X is pushing ever forward courtesy of Mr Jobs and his zealous band of fanatics. Solaris will probably remain a niche product and go the way of OS/2 eventually (die a slow and painful death).

This operating system selection is now giving me a headache.

I use Adobe Photoshop. I play World of Warcraft (yes, I said it. I actually admitted it). To get anything above Photoshop CS2 working AT ALL in Linux (courtesy of Wine), you need to pray the Wine developers find the time to develop their software further, or Adobe suddenly decides to release a Linux version. To get World of Warcraft working in Linux, you need a supported graphics card (most Nvidia cards, or modern ATI cards) with proprietary drivers. On this note, might I add I use an ATI X1250; Screw you ATI. Screw you. Apparently this chip isn’t modern enough to let me run the official ATI drivers.

If it wasn’t for my crap graphics card, ATI being bastards and needing more memory to properly virtualise Photoshop, I think I’d actually uninstall Windows now. The utility and synergy between my Linux desktop and Mac laptop are far more useful to me than kludging around with Windows integration with either, and aside from the two examples, the software available in Linux and Mac OS X suits my needs perfectly.

I find myself wondering, if hardware manufacturers spent more time supporting alternative operating systems such as Linux, would a lot more people switch? I know I’d have my grandfather on Linux if his random choice of multi-function printer was supported fully.

P.S. Take note ATI, if you’re too lazy to support slightly older graphics cards in your official Linux drivers, I’m too lazy to continue my 15 year support of you. Next purchase: Definitely Nvidia.