Is Linux faster than OSX?

[One Sick Puppy]

I'm interested in running Open Office on my iBook. I'm a "native" windows user, and I'm rather frustrated with MS Word 2004 so unbelievably slow, and after trying various other word processors for the Mac, I'm thoroughly unimpressed. I've also tried installing X11 and that crashed on me shortly after I got Open Office installed, so I ditched it.

Now then, I'm thinking that perhaps an installation of some flavor of Linux + Open Office for Linux would be practical.

Can someone advise on this idea? Is Linux faster than OSX? I'm thinking maybe Mandrake, or Gentoo or Yellow Dog, as I've seen these suggested around the net. None of which I have any experience with whatsoever. In fact, I have little or no Linux experience... but I learn quick.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Yellow Dog Linux is by far the best PPC distro of Linux, IMO. Very easy to install, and is based upon the tried-and-true RedHad distros.

Yes, it's faster than OS X. Simply because, again IMO, Linux looks like crap and doesn't have the "polished" look and feel that OS X has. Sure, you can spend a few hours customizing a Linux install to look decent, but it's not that way out-of-the-box, so to speak.

I would suggest a dual boot setup with OS X and Linux, and Yellow Dog's site has plenty of FAQs and tutorials that teach you how to do this easily.

Good luck!

[nixgeek]

I would have to agree with ElDiablo. Linux would be faster when using X Windows as opposed to OS X's Aqua interface since X Windows doesn't (yet..will change in X11R6.8 from what I hear) have all the cool GUI enhancements and accelerations as Aqua does. However, I don't think it's because the interface looks like crap. Of course, that's all subjective.

You would have to find some benchmarks online to see which is faster, or conduct them yourself. As ElDiablo also mentioned, a dual-boot setup would probably be your best bet so you can try Linux but not lose the safety of OS X.

Stay away from Mandrake...they haven't kept their PPC version on par with their x86 version, so you will have older apps compared to "Lintel" users. Gentoo is also good from what I hear, and their emerge software is supposed to be great for keeping Gentoo fresh. Mind you, it's not for the faint of heart, but if you are determined, it wouldn't hurt to try.

If I were you, I would stick with Yellow Dog Linux for now, and move on from there (if you desire) once you are more familiar with Linux.

You could also try one of the BSDs out there, or OpenDarwin which is the open-source part of OS X. Each of these has the same desktop environments as Linux does (KDE, Gnome, WindowMaker, etc.). I'm considering dropping OpenDarwin on a "WallStreet II" PowerBook G3 that I got from work only because OS X Jaguar is dog slow on it, even with the ATI hack I found online.

Good luck!

[Viro]

My experience with Linux on PPC has been that the speed increase is actually in perception. Because it doesn't have all the eye candy that OS X has it feels faster. However when you get down to numbers, it is actually slower. I've run some numerically intensive code on it just to see the difference in speed and I've found that Linux is about 10 - 20% slower than OS X on the equivalent machine.

If you're interested in Office documents, just use MS Office for the mac or if you feel the performance to be sluggish, get a cheap PC to run Office. OpenOffice is pretty much a joke on OS X. On Linux, its much better, but it doesn't handle exporting MS Office documents well. If you're looking to handle complex layouts and stuff like forms, forget it. Use MS Office.

[RacerX]

Originally Posted by One Sick Puppy

and I'm rather frustrated... but I learn quick.

I can imagine. I've been looking at your past posts and have to say that you are definitely NOT going to be a Mac user. From the start you tried to make your system a, well, Windows PC. And you have displayed an extreme resistance (I call reinstalling the software on a system you had for a couple days extreme) to using your Mac and a preference for the Windows way of doing things.

Please don't take this as being negative, but reinstall your system from the restore disk so it is back to factory settings, put it back in it's box and sell it on eBay or something, and buy yourself a Windows laptop.

You are a Windows user. Remember this. Why people didn't tell you this when you started asking how to maximize applications to take over the screen is beyond me. That is a red flag. Windows users can't multitask, it isn't the Windows way. Mac users need to see that other things are happening, running two, three, four things at once. Seeing the other applications and even the desktop is a natural thing for Mac users. Windows users need blinders. If they see around an application they get distracted. That is why most Windows apps are rooted in a main (full screen) window.

As for why X11 didn't work, well you have spent a lot of effort to distort your system you to this point, and X11 and the apps that run in it require everything to be in the correct places to work... you started customizing your system within a couple days of having it, so it is not surprising that you are having these problems.

I'm sorry I didn't see your posts until now. You really need to get back to what works for you. You have proven that you had no intention of trying to learn how to use a Mac like a Mac, so my advice is to cut your losses and go back to Windows. Computers are things that people work with, you have been working against your Mac from just about day one, so your best option is to go to a system you are willing to work with... Windows.

Unlike many Mac users, I completely understand that not everyone is (or should be) a Mac user. Some people really need the Windows way of doing things... and you are absolutely one of those people.

Best of luck.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Cheers. Macintosh is most definitely not Windows, and if you're having this much trouble adjusting to the "Mac way" of doing things, then you're going to want to slit your wrists trying to understand Linux.

RacerX is right -- it's extremely backwards and stupid for an OS called "Windows" to allow you to get rid of all those... well, windows by going into "full screen mode." I suggest you give the Mac and Mac OS X another shot, and approach the situation as if you had never used Windows before. Play with the red, yellow and green window buttons and figure out by experience what they do. Some people claim that they don't work, but they just don't understand what each does -- the buttons are EXTREMELY consistent, and you should be able to tell exactly what will happen to the window before you even push the button -- there's no randomness to them. They're pinpoint accurate if you know what they do.

Try using your applications as you would anything on a physical desk. If you want to use a sharpie, you don't collect all the pens and pencils and notepads and hide them in drawers, then pull them back out when you're done with the sharpie (ie, fullscreen mode in Windows). You still have access to and can see other writing instruments (applications) while you're using one of them.

Also, when someone hands you a folder full of papers, you don't go and start rearranging them before you go through them and know what's in there (ie, the temptation to move things around or remove things in the Applications folder). What's the difference if iChat is in the Applications folder, or you move it to your own "Internet" folder? Typical power users don't access applications directly anyway -- they either place them in the dock or make an alias to them somewhere convenient. Mac OS X has all the built-in tools you need and makes it extremely easy to customize your system greatly without diving into the guts and folders and files of the OS and start ripping stuff apart and moving stuff around.

Give Mac OS X another chance, and try not to expect it to work one way or another. You will catch on to how it works with experience and usage over time, and it'll happen quickly. Don't try and use your Mac like a Windows machine, and don't expect it to do the same things your Windows machine does. I think you'll find the Mac OS X experience far superior to your Windows experience -- you just have to remember that you're not using Windows at all.

If it makes any difference to you, I don't want you to think I'm a Mac zealot. I started off in the days of DOS 3 and worked my way through Windows 95 before I really got an interest in Macs. I knew Windows machines far better than Macs, even though I grew up using both. Today, and for the last 11 years, I much prefer the Mac way of doing things to the Windows way.

Good luck.

[RacerX]

Originally Posted by ElDiabloConCaca

Try using your applications as you would anything on a physical desk. If you want to use a sharpie, you don't collect all the pens and pencils and notepads and hide them in drawers, then pull them back out when you're done with the sharpie (ie, fullscreen mode in Windows). You still have access to and can see other writing instruments (applications) while you're using one of them..

Nicely put. I'll have to remember this illustration.

[One Sick Puppy]

The major reason why I bought an iBook was because all I needed was something small to take notes during class. On a 12" LCD screen, in a bright classroom, it's very difficult to read text and I require a text editor with enough viewing flexibility that I need not use 16pt font just to see the text only to have to shrink the font back down when I hand in my paper.
OpenOffice seems accomodate, but doesn't seem to work particularly well under X11.
Appleworks does not seem to have the flexibility I need.
Mariner Writer looks promising and I'm still evaluating it.
I look forward to trying WordPerfect if there is a Mac version.
bla bla bla. I've tried several others, too.
I've decided to continue using MS Word 2004, for the time being, but obviously I'm looking for alternatives and still getting used to my Mac.

Finding a 12' LCD PC laptop in this price range and quality is surprisingly difficult. Even despite the fact that the first iBook I bought had a defective cooling system or graphics chip, I'm still quite impressed with the hardware. And, the truth is I like the OS too, and much of the software that the computer came with.

Anyhoo... I'm going to try Mandrake 9.1 since it's free, and maybe Yellow Dog.

Thanks for the replies.

PS. Why does it seem the Mac community has so many fanatics?