posted on Feb, 10 2004 @ 08:42 AM
I am not the average casual user... So Linux is great for me.
I still administor PCs and servers running MS Windows (NT/2000/XP), but I find them so annoying. From a development point of view, it sometimes seems
impossible on MS Windows.
I have one web server running MS Windows (I know it's a bad choice, but it's not a production server), and I like to compile and build my own web
server software - Apache. It can be quite a task under Windows using Visual C++, as there are so many tools and libraries that Windows just doesn't
have - so you have to go and download them.
Of course, Linux has everything you could possibly need for this. And if not, is easy to find.
But I would still say MS Windows has the edge on "User Friendly Home Use"
Mikomi said a really good quote... Windows has things Linux wants, and vice versa - this is very true.
For a really stable and secure OS though, and especially for servers of any kind, I would say either Linux Slackware, or FreeBSD. Maybe even a SunOS
system.
As opposed to MacOS... I think it is really good... I think it has better support for development than Windows, especially the new MacOS Jaguar, which
is *based* on Unix! (Like Linux, FreeBSD, etc) while still being very user friendly for the home user.
So... In colnclusion, here is my oppinion of suitable OSs for certain taks:
Servers - Any Unix, Linux, FreeBSD, SunOS, etc.
Home Use - MS Windows XP, MacOS - Any version. Linux Mandrake 9.* and Linux Suse 8.*
Software Development* - Any Unix, Linux, FreeBSD, SunOS, etc.
* Of course if you were making Win32/64 software, you would need to use MS Windows, same goes for MacOS. But development is done more on Unix still.
Oh speaking about Windows development... What do people prefer... .NET or the Java Platform? I prefer the Java Platform, as it's portable.