Why Mac OS X Sucks and Linux Rocks

As some of you may know, I had my very first taste of Mac a few weeks ago. I got a Macbook Pro (Penryn) which comes with the standard OS X Leopard. But for the sake of sanity, I immediately installed Linux, in particular Xubuntu “Gutsy Gibbon” on that new Apple hardware of mine with the aid of BootCamp.

Xubuntu works on my MBP, but not that well as there are still important hardware issues that need to be fixed. I decided not to repair the problems any longer and just wait for the release of “Hardy Heron”. So while I waited, I used Leopard more and more the past week.

At first, I enjoyed playing with Leopard. I used it like an ordinary computer user and didn’t want to set-up my coding and development tools yet. I surfed the web, wrote emails and blog posts, took some funny photos using Photo Boot, watched videos, and listened to music all in that glorified operating system called OS X. I find its new multi-touch function really handy, and extending my laptop display to a secondary monitor was no sweat. Its fast start-up time is also worth noting. I’m beginning to love that sleek and cool-looking OS and have almost forgotten my humble Xubuntu partition…almost.

It started with an audio problem. While playing my favorite tunes on iTunes (duh!), I heard this crackling and popping sound coming from my Macbook Pro’s built-in speakers. I was worried because I began to think that it was a hardware trouble, but when I searched for answers by reading posts from several Mac forums, I learned that this was after all caused by MBP’s sound card that automatically turns off (or is turned off by OS X) when the computer is idle to save battery life. So I assumed that that was just a software glitch which can be patched up soon, I hope.

Next up is the web browser issue. Because I don’t like using Safari, I installed the greatest and safest browser in the world which is Firefox. Several days later, while visiting a number of trusted sites including my own site, Firefox automatically downloaded a file and then opened a new window containing some weird codes and an animated links to some advertised sites. I thought this can be fixed by cleaning the cache or browsing history, but it didn’t. I also tried using Safari but the same thing happened over and over again.

The last thing that I’m going to complain about my Mac OS X adventure is speed. While Leopard booted really fast, it was slow to open an application and seemed always running sluggish. I would rather start slow and be the first to finish, than to start fast but ends up last. I’m really into speed and it's the main reason why I prefer using lightweight Linux distros.

For now, I decided to quit using Leopard (except when I want to take funny and distorted pictures), and I am more determined than ever in making Linux (Xubuntu) fully compatible with my Macbook Pro. You may ask why I think Linux rocks. Perhaps an article here, here, and here can somehow help explain my line of reasoning.

If you agree or disagree with me, feel free to comment.