New to Linux. I'm not impressed : 4145

Noah Roberts

No, that's silly. Mac OS X is Unix based, so it's just as capable of doing as much real work as any Linux box. The major difference is that you don't have complete control of your OS, and even that isn't box" Mac users aren't going to bother with that. Then again, many "out of the box" Linux users aren't going to do anything beyond "up2date" or "yum" either.

You can't really "use" a Windows system. You can't control it, you can't even necessarily find explanations for things it does. I've said Windows is like public transportation: "Where do you want to go today?" is really a short list of places that it CAN go, but a Unix box can "go" just about anywhere.

Windows folk will sometimes say Unix is hard. I have my own opinion on "easy" is part of what has made Windows so vulnerable to viri and spam, and I'm not sure I want to see Linux or Mac's heading down that path. Some things should be hard, or at least should have hurdles to slow you down. For example, some Linux systems use pamconsole ( for ordinary users - I am very conflicted over whether that's a good idea. Sure, make it something that can be turned on if you want, but I'm not convinced that it should be the default condition.

Anyway, Mac's are more like Linux than they are like Windows. The OP wasn't "using" his Mac any more than he uses his Windows machine.

-- Tony Lawrence