[TriLUG] Why Linux For Me

Roadrunner mamiano at nc.rr.com
Tue Oct 30 21:13:19 EDT 2012


Not to be a fan boy but just to mention - while Apple does provide AppStore, there are community supported open source package managing suites with interesting features... Homebrew and Macports. Homebrew in particular is very sweet with recipes written in ruby available to peruse on github, which usually just work. There is also Rudix, a binary-only manager. 

In contrast to Linux system package management they all have far fewer packages available, don't have good GUIs and won't monitor for updates. On the other hand, App Store makes (some) developers money, which is a nice feature for establishing a viable commercial ecosystem. 

Sent from my iPad

On Oct 29, 2012, at 10:16 PM, Igor Partola <igor at igorpartola.com> wrote:

> For me the killer feature in the Linux world is the package manager. Even
> OS X doesn't IMHO have this ease of use. I'll give you two examples:
> 
> Example 1: A few years ago, when both my wife and I were in school, she had
> to do some work with molecule modeling for an advanced chemistry class. The
> professor printed out two pages of instructions on how to get a project
> called PyMOL to work. She got lost about half way into the first page and
> asked for my help. I ran $ apt-get install pymol on my Ubuntu box and about
> 3 minutes later she was using it. Mind you, she was an avid Windows user up
> to that point and did not want anything to do with Linux. That day she
> became a convert.
> 
> Example 2: Even to this day, OS X does not come with a decent package
> manager. True, there is now an app store, but if you want to download
> something like GIMP, or the latest drivers for a USB video card, you have
> to (a) find their source through Google and (b) go through one of those
> fantastic installation Wizards. Afterward, if you want to keep things up to
> date, you must either let each program remind you individually, or you must
> check all the websites yourself. So much for not having to play the role of
> a system admin... Like I said, the App store does make things easier, but
> it doesn't have everything in it.
> 
> On the plus side, I am happy to see that OS X no longer requires any
> removable media to upgrade.
> 
> Long story short, a system that knows where all the software is, how to
> update it, and when there are critical security updates to install is a
> killer feature for me. Oh, and Ubuntu's been getting more and more usable.
> 
> Igor
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