please keep in mind this was written in Spring 2008 - most of the information and analysis below still remain valid, but both MacOS X and Ubuntu improved since then

INTRODUCTION

As an heavy open source user and sporadic contributor, this page tries to find out why I stick with the proprietary operating system MacOS X at home instead of using the open source Ubuntu. As you’ll find out below, Ubuntu isn’t directly addressed but rather represents the open source operating system I could adopt. Even if I’ve been using Debian Linux at work for years and I consider having good computer knowledge, I am not the type who likes messing with makefiles or compile my kernel. I want my computer to work and be efficient with it (and why not, even have fun using it!). Here below is not a thorough review of differences, but elements that matters to me.

SOFTWARE

Integration

This is one of the elements why using MacOS X is so pleasant: several distinct software can “talk” to each other when appropriate. Examples include integration of Address Book, Mail, iCal, iPhoto, iChat, such as indicating the user if instant messaging contacts are available whether in Mail or Address Book, the automatic discovery of events in Mail’s emails that can be transformed into a iCal calendar event, the sharing of iPhoto photos and albums via Mail’s email templates or an iWeb page. As you can see from where this webpage is hosted, I’m using Apple’s .mac services which significantly expands integration with the Web, other macs and other computers. I don’t recommend to everyone since the yearly fees are somewhat significant and there are alternatives (I would recommend .mac only if you have the money and want your digital life to be very easy to share).

Email - Apple’s Mail

Email is an important component of my digital life. I want/need my email application to be as efficient as possible. I’ve been using Thunderbird for several years at work and still use it, but it’s no way near the maturity of Apple’s Mail. One significant capability of Apple’s Mail is to build advanced searches and get results instantly even with thousands of stored emails. Thunderbird’s default search is slow to use and very slow to provide pertinent results. Thunderbird’s search performances may be improved by using Beagle (discussed below) but I haven’t tested this myself. Additionally, let’s admit it, Thunderbird’s AddressBook badly sucks. I admit I never myself tried Evolution, the PIM software (email/calendar/addressbook) bundled with Ubuntu, so I might be missing something.

To be honest, though I’m of the plain-text kind, I don’t dislike using the MacOS X built-in templates for sending photos or other occasional special emails. There’s plenty of other minor features I like (e.g. diaporama of photos directly in an email). I confess I haven’t used much any other email app than Thunderbird recently, but I don’t think I’m wrong in believing they’re not up to par compared to Apple’s Mail. The day I’ll switch to Ubuntu, the email app will have to be rock-solid.

Spotlight

This single feature makes the purchase of a mac worth to me, especially with the advent of Leopard (MacOS X 10.5). Once you discover its power, you wonder how you could have lived without it. Spotlight lets me find mostly anything on my mac at the speed-of-light, whatever it is. This feature is a real time saver. I even use it to quickly launch apps. I confess my opinion of Beagle, the open source Linux equivalent of Spotlight, is rather based on readings than actual experience with it. In short, though usable, what I read clearly indicated that Beagle is lagging behind Spotlight over several areas.

Music management - iTunes

Believe it or not, I like iTunes as a whole. Easy to use yet powerful. I benefit from features such as smart folders, podcast integration, auto-recovery of album cover art, smart mobile music player syncing, aac as default format, etc. Is it perfect? Far from it: it can’t play many open formats directly, such as Ogg Vorbis, and this is a shame. Overall, despite its flaws, it is an appreciated user experience to me, though I admit I may haven’t messed enough with Ubuntu alternatives such as Amarok.

Photo library - iPhoto and Picasa

In our information-laden life, a good photo management software is important. Google’s Picasa is good in many ways, but iPhoto shines with it’s user interface and integration with other apps. Sending a bunch of pictures with one click on nicely designed webpages is appreciated. Creating custom calendars in iPhoto is fun and a nice personalized gift. The tagging capabilities are good enough. Photography power-users should use Aperture-grade software, but for my needs, iPhoto greatly suits my needs.

Other software

Microsoft Office: not for me, I use OpenOffice, but having the capacity to install and use Microsoft Office is to many a significant advantage of MacOS X over Ubuntu. The same could be said of several other professional software: unavailable yet for Linux. Time Machine: I admit I started using it. Why? Well, so easy to setup and use. Agreed, it does not have advanced features, but it suit my backup needs at home. Garageband: not that I use it, but it’s there if I feel I want to play with it or start using it more frequently (and I want to). KeyChain: it became surprisingly useful with the multiplication of passwords across the board. Security: since both Ubuntu and MacOS X are Linux / Unix, I guess the performance in stability and security are more or less the same. These other software: for various reasons, probably mostly not good reasons, several “small pieces of useful software” run better on MacOSX than Ubuntu, such as many official device drivers and Internet plugins (e.g. Flash). Not all are important, but it’s easy to become directly impacted by these little annoyances.

The devil is in the details

Ultimately, it’s not necessarily one single feature that makes the whole experience pleasant, it’s a sum of details. Amongst the innumerable occurrences: the ability to directly save to .pdf anything that can be printed on your computer, easily take custom screenshots (command-option-4), convenient and system-wide consistent keyboard shortcuts, screen color inversion (cmd-opt-ctrl-8), etc.

HARDWARE

It does matter, but not as much as the software to me. Several little considerations sum up to practical advantages: the ability to instantly go in sleep mode and wake up the OS, a longer than average battery life, a multitouch trackpad, MagSafe power connector, etc. These little things matter. Apple have it easier than competitors because they control both their hardware and software. Other Apple hardware, such as the Airport router, is a charm to setup (with mediumly advanced configurations) and use. Most devices “just work”.

THE FUTURE IS HERE, IT’S JUST UNEVENLY DISTRIBUTED

Progress is exponential

I found this interrogation from one of my colleagues, «will MacOSX forever stay more advanced than Ubuntu?». I tend to believe the answer’s no and as a consequence, you’ll eventually see me use an open source operating system on my primary computer at home. We’re not just there yet.

Microsoft Windows

But I haven’t mentioned Microsoft Windows? Right. Asking people who regularly use multiple operating systems about what they think of Windows may be insightful. Sure you can do what a personal computer is meant to do with Windows, but too many of the nice little features that make the MacOS X experience more pleasant as a whole are simply not implemented in Windows. Inertia keeps many people not using the best tools available to them mainly because of lack of knowledge of the better alternatives. Even there, as Linus Torsvald said, sometimes «better is worse if it’s different». If you really need to run Microsoft Windows and are considering a Macintosh, then virtualization is for you: you can easily run Windows at full speed (no emulation) for some Windows-only software such as MS Access or games, directly within MacOS X. Additionally, any recent mac can directly boot in Windows. Both these options require to shell out money for the Microsoft Windows license. Since I don’t need it, I don’t personally use virtualization or dual booting.

CONCLUSION

My time is valuable. I spend so much time in front of a computer, be it for good reasons or not, it’s important to me to be efficient and have the best software tools for my needs. At the moment, this means using MacOS X, but I’ll keep an attentive eye to what’s happening to Ubuntu, especially since improvements happen at a fast rate in computer sciences. MacOS X is far from perfect and my knowledge of Ubuntu’s capabilities is limited, but I believe MacOS X is still the best solution for me at the moment.

Feel free to share your comments and corrections.

Published 080517

and never updated

Additional reading

1. -Usability testing of Ubuntu 8.04
   

Followup remarks - 080524

I got some interesting feedback from readers. (1) As much as I’m eager to switch to a fully open source operating system, several acquaintances with extensive experience with Ubuntu somewhat confirmed Ubuntu engenders more troubles to users than MacOS X at the moment. (2) A friend wrote to me underlining the fact that I forgot to mention QuickLook as one of the interesting features of MacOS X. (3) The text above is not a thorough comparison of features, it’s a personal assessment based on my limited (but not that bad ;-) knowledge with a focus on my personal needs and use of a computer. (4) I also got a friend who wrote back, probably without reading this text, telling me he does not understand why people use something else than Microsoft Windows. This friend obviously don’t know Jack about alternatives. The reason people use other operating systems, it’s because they believe they more successfully correspond to their needs. I don’t consider myself an Apple fanboy, I use MacOS X for the time being because I believe it’s the best OS out there to make me an happy and efficient computer user. The day a competitor will do better, I’ll gladly switch.