Windows verses Mac verses Linux? What do you use?

So I’m writing this quick little post from my favorite Starbucks, on my Mac Book Pro. Do you think I’m a Mac-preferred User?

Well, Mac OS X is BSD (Unix) based, if you are a programmer you probably already know this, but I wonder how many normal users actually do, or even care?

The first computer I owned was a Commodore 64 in the early 80’s. Which is the first computer I learned to Program on when I was 7 years old (See Commodore BASIC).

I started using MS-DOS in the late 80’s and Windows in the early 90’s. I still occasionally run FreeDOS using Virtual Box for virtualization on Windows.

I first installed Linux on my home PC, RedHat 5.1 in 1998.

I’m actually a late bloomer in the Apple world. I never even touched a Mac until I was being interviewed by Apple at their HQ in Cupertino (Yes, I actually have been to One Infinite Loop) and they asked me to program (I won’t give the interview question away out of respect to the team), but it was a component that had to implement a pre-defined interface, designed to watch me in real time write the code for a Producer-Consumer, which they ran using a Multi-Thread test driver program they already had prepared.

Here’s a picture I snapped an entrance to One Infinite Loop:

Bragging Rights: I did it in record time according to the team.

And yes, I did get the job, but I had to turn it down for personal reasons.

Here’s me studying the night before my Full Tech Interview at Apple’s Campus:

Anyway, back to my original point, on the Apple Interview, I told them this is my first time programming on a Mac, they said that’s ok we don’t care, but you are going to love it, and just told me the difference for copying and pasting using the Command key instead of the Control key.

Truth, is today, I have multiple Windows boxes, a couple of Linux Servers, and even embedded Linux single-board computers, and a Mac Book Pro at home.

This post is not an argument for or against any one particular Operating System. I now think the common argument over which is better Windows or Mac, is as irrelevant as the arguments I had in the early 90’s over which Gaming Console was better, Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis.

None of them are better! They are all just different and each have pluses and minuses. Each have their own cool features and each have some ways to do thing that suck, and make you ask yourself “WHY?”. Each have their benefits, and finally each have their own vulnerabilities.

If you really believe whatever OS you use do not have any vulnerabilities, you are fooling yourself.

So my take on it is, why not have one of each! If you are a professional software developer, you should be trying out different Operating Systems, and since developers make decent money, why not buy one of each.

In my case, I mainly run three OSes at home: Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux (currently Ubuntu, Fedora, and Angstrom Distros).

So what Operating System does an Enterprise Programmer use? All of them…

Just Another Stream of Random Bits…
– Robert C. Ilardi
This entry was posted in Randomness. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.