Training, Open Source computer languages
PerlPHPPythonMySQLApache / TomcatTclRubyJavaC and C++LinuxCSS 
Search for:
Home Accessibility Courses Diary The Mouth Forum Resources Site Map About Us Contact
 
For 2023 (and 2024 ...) - we are now fully retired from IT training.
We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.

Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!

I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))
comparison of operating systems

Posted by revsjh (revsjh), 10 March 2006
With what I am reading about Windows Vista and the sample screen shots out so far.  Looks and acts much like MAC OS X Tiger – just with more glitz to the GUI and other graphics.



So, do you want a glitzy OS that will probably crash and still have all the bottlenecks and slowdowns (not to mention people already working on viruses, worms, and Trojans for Vista)  – or go you want the same features with a little less glitz in an OS that has proved itself for almost a year now, virtually virus free, and built on the stability of a Unix based kernel.



Wonder what Mac Leopard will look and act like, which is due to be released at the time Vista comes out??



OS  comparisons in short:



Red Hat Linux, Novell Suse Linux – Great lower priced Unix like OS’s for servers.  Much stability like Unix. Lacking in GUI (especially speed), functionality, and features for the desktop user.  Mostly being used for data warehouse servers, webservers, and to house applications that are run through terminal emulators.  Comes with a variety of programming languages built in  - C++, Java, Python, TCL (some versions do not include TCL), PHP etc.



Mandrake, Slackware, Caldera Linuxes – Virtually non existent in use anymore.  Maybe some hobbiest still use it.



Free BSD – While still out there, its native form is only really popular for hobbiest.  Free BSD is the basis for MAC OS X, which Apple revolutionized.



MAC OS  X – so far the best desktop version of a Unix OS – that combines some server capabilities (note, Apple also has server OS’s which are not really advertised as much), ease of Windows, much better graphic capabilities.  Availability of applications – this can be disputed both ways.  A lot of retail software is available for MAC versions (you just have to search on the internet for it), although since Windows is more popular, Windows has more readily available.  Good thing about MAC OS X – since it is a orm of Unix, a lot of the open source applications for Unix, Linux is compatible; and if you’re a programming geek – you can probably make it work to fit Apple’s hardware.  Also Virtual PC is available for MAC if you really need Windows to run something – although there are hints that Leopard may be able to run Windows applications.  Some think this may come from the base use of wine, but wine would have to be improved on.  Apple was already working on this, but put the project on hold until they were releasing the intel PC’s, Intel proved to be more functional and cheaper to develop for than powerpc.  Also, while Apple Hardware is more expensive, Apple still gives you your original disks – unlike HP, Dell, and the others that only give you a restore partition on your hard-drive.  The High-end production software (mostly for Disney type productions, recording studios, etc) is the top of the line, and better than anything windows has to offer – but is very expensive.  Application for the home user and office user seem to be priced lower than say Microsoft Office and some others. While Macromedia (now owned by adobe), Adobe products, and a few others are priced the same.  Also, for the programmer – you almost have to pay high prices for the programming language from Microsoft (.net products), or find and download an open source yourself (which open source were made more for the Linux world).  Some open source works great, others have major issues on Windows.  Since MAC OS X is a Unix base, most programming languages like C ++, Python, PHP, Java, etc are included.  Others like TCL can be downloaded.  Plus Apple also offers Cocoa – the native apple programming language and AppleScript for Automating – much like you can do with Windows Scripting.

Microsoft also writes applications for Mac.



Windows – Most popular, easy to use.  Has major issues with corruption, viruses, and security issues.  Majority of PC’s use it.  Lots of plications readily available.  Upgrades always seem to be a bear.  Some Windows applications (like McAfee) work fine on Windows XP Home and Professional – but lock up on Media Center.  Really do not trust for a corporate server, unless you install tons of security to deal with hacks, viruses, etc.  Tends to need to be rebooted and crashes more than a unix/linux OS.  Seems like you always need to search for drivers for hardware, while linux / Unix based ones have a compatible driver built in (although the compatible one may not be the most optimal – at least it works).





Now with many software applications having options to save in Microsoft office format, and having build in PDF creators and readers – Windows OS is really not a requirement anymore to share documents.



I played a little bit with the new intel Macs while at CompUsa.  While the applications that were loaded on these demo machines were limited, they are just a fast as any PC out there.  The built in isight webcam blew me away with its clarity,  some of the applications loaded were just as good if not better than Windows versions – the price of the most common applications (small office and home use) was key.  Under $100 instead of $500 or so for Microsoft office.  Even with all that Microsoft office has to offer, buying the apple applications separately to give you all the Microsoft office offers still came up $100 to $200 cheaper.  With Microsoft licensing, you must buy licences (in some cases cost as much as the original software) to install on other machines.  Where as, Apples, family pack licensing only costs $10 to $20 more to use on 3 to 5 machines.



In other things I am reading:



In the short term – you will pay a little more for apple hardware, but the hardware has been rated to last longer before it breaks, the software is cheaper, and upgrading the OS does not cause you as much grief on Apple as opposed to Windows.



So in the long run – Apple may in fact be the most cost effective and headache free way to go.





I think Apple does need to do more on the line of hand-held pocket PC’s (like blackberry, treos, ipaq, palm) if it really wants to compete with companies designing and in partners with Microsoft.


Message from / Edit by Moderator ... this article was so good that, frankly, I was concerned at its origin / copyright and aske the author for re-assurance which lead to the following conversation:


Posted by admin (Graham Ellis), 11 March 2006
Hello, and welcome revsjh.

That's a very well written piece and must have taken an age to research - thank you.  Is it your own writing?  Are you in that profession?

Additional note - as I haven't head back after some 24 hours, I've temporarily withdrawn most of the text of this article into "quarantine" to protect both the forum operators and the poster from any issues with regard to copyright.  I have left a "short extract for critical comment" which I am allowed to do under copyright law. I hope to get a clarification of source at which point I will be able to restore the article.

Posted by revsjh (revsjh), 13 March 2006
Graham,

I replied to your email - you should be getting it shortly.  The article is based on my research, and my bias.

I have been in IT for almost 20 yrs now and have used a variety of OS's (including the old dos days, Open VMS, Some Unix, Some Linux, and other antiquated systems - by first programming experience was on an Atari and Commodore 64 while in High School).

I  am researching which OS is best for my next upgrade, as my laptop is over 5 years old.  Still serves the purpose - just getting too slow for my needs.

I always have many people ask me what they should buy,  my first question is "What is it for, and what are your future plans as you will probably be using it (or stuck with it) for the next 2 - 5 years?"

You would be surprised how many people buy a computer based on someone's advise only to find they either spent too much money for what they intend to do with it, or bought something that "well, may I say - way beyond there intellect and experience to get the most used out of it", or worse - find the machine does not live up to their needs; thus spending more money on software and upgrades.

As for myself, Right now I have a Windows Media Center Desktop, which is mostly for enterainment purposes and converting my old cassettes and VHS to CD/DVD.  I am finding it is a little to slow for development (that I blame on the OS, as it is an AMD64 with 512 ram, and a 200 GB hard drive).

My laptop is a 5 yr old celeron running Xp Home edition, also running virtual PC so that I may have Linux up and running at the same time. I recently upgraded it to 512 ram and 100 gb hard drive.  Since this is my work and ministry PC which I take everywhere, I have 20 gb of documents and manuals on it, plus some programming languages.  Thus my reasearch on whether I need to stick with Windows, Go with Apple, or Linux.

If I may get a little more biased -  So far because of Virtual PC will give me multiple capabilities, my programming needs, graphics & presentation needs, writing / authoring needs, and the amount of time I spend on the internet - I am leaning more towards Apple.  I am getting a little tired of all the security issues with Microsoft and the unstability.  Linux is just too server based and the Gui is really too slow to get any real used out of applications - thus Apple being the "hybrid - if I may use that term" is looking like my best choice for my needs.

Sorry it has been more than 24 hrs on my response... I tend not to read my emails over the weekend.  I am to busy in my other passion, which is the Gospel Ministry.

Posted by admin (Graham Ellis), 14 March 2006
Many thanks for your follow up, revsjh;  you'll find that your original post has been restored (and you'll also be pleased, I'm sure, that this forum is running on a Linux server and updated mostly from a Mac or Fedora laptop!).

As one of the moderators, I occasionally have the unenviable task of making decisions on matters that effect the legal standing of the board - copyright, spam, articles that incite, etc - and that go way off topic, are posted to the wrong area, or include personal attacks and such decisions inevitably have to be made at short notice and without as much background information as I would like.    More usually than not, my initial "gut feelings" get things right but once in a while, it'll turn out that a post which raised questions is 100% clean.  This looks very much like it's the case here, and I apologise for having to ask for confirmation, and for temporarily pulling the post.

I too have been brought up on a huge variety of operating systems ... I've implemented applications on Unix (SunOS), on MsDOS and on other long since gone such as RSX11 and Sintran.

Take me back 10 years, and I was running Solaris training courses and working on / developing code there too. My home "PC" was running Windows, but my main system / server / workstation was a Sun IPC that was so small it would pack into a flight bag and I could travel with it!

"Seal" still has a place of honour in my slighly dusty cupboard or hardware I can't quite bring myself to throw away, but it's a while since it was retired;  I moved on to "otter" which was / is a trust Laptop, running Linux in the days that everyone told me that I couldn't possibly run a server on such a tiny little computer ((and I prove them well wrong !!))

A need to run both Windows applications (such as dial in to AOL!) and meaty servers, and a wife who's a big Apple fan, persuaded me to take a big gamble and buy "coffee" - a 12" powerbook - stepping out of the Linux / Solaris comfort zone, and out of the Windows comfort zone too and onto something that was quite off the wall and almost a bizarre decision at the time.   But I haven't looked back.   I'm writing this post from "fire", which is a 17" powerbook and quedruples up as my own "pc", my WORKstation, the server that's used of the training courses that I run, and my travelling system.

Any issues?   Yes - a couple.  I'm NOT running virtual PC so there's a couple of the applications (such as tax calculators) that I leave to Lisa and Leah to run on their second systems in the office (both have Macs too!).   I do run Word and Excel on here when I need, which is mostly when someone emails me a document of data in one of their damned formats!   And I have a couple of issues with streamed video from a security camera in a Microsoft format, mini-DVDs that jam in the full size, front-slot drive, and a few browser compatability issues for sites that are IE6 only.  But for each little issue there's an unequal and opposite benefit for me in running the OS X system.




This page is a thread posted to the opentalk forum at www.opentalk.org.uk and archived here for reference. To jump to the archive index please follow this link.

You can Add a comment or ranking to this page

© WELL HOUSE CONSULTANTS LTD., 2024: Well House Manor • 48 Spa Road • Melksham, Wiltshire • United Kingdom • SN12 7NY
PH: 01144 1225 708225 • FAX: 01144 1225 793803 • EMAIL: info@wellho.net • WEB: http://www.wellho.net • SKYPE: wellho