Is Linux Really A Better OS Than Windows Or OS X?

In an enlightened world is there such a thing as too much free speech? Take Linux founder Linus Torvalds. Please.

His latest point of view is that parts of Mac OS X are ‘utter crap.’ Guess what? He doesn’t like Windows Vista, either. Surprised?

I suppose we could toss aside Torvalds recent remarks as ‘his opinion’ and recognize that he’s the head of the Linux religion, which isn’t making much headway on the desktop against the heathen Windows and enlightened Mac OS X.

Having been a very long time Mac user, a Windows user, and a Linux user, along with various flavors of Unix here and there, I’m willing to defend Torvalds’ position against the entrenched opposition.

Without getting into the nuts and bolts of one kernel vs. another kernel, or Open Source vs. commercial, Torvalds, I would argue, is a non-pragmatic purist in an impure world where pragmatists live and prosper. That includes both Windows and Mac OS X, both of which have prospered mightily.

What of Linux? As a server operating system, Linux appears to do quite well in terms of market share, even mindshare, but simply doesn’t prosper in the rest of the computing world—the desktop.

The varied Linux desktops and application suites as computing environments attached to the operating system, admittedly not Torvalds’s domain or responsibility, are pretty much a joke compared to the vast richness available on Windows and Mac OS X.

But Torvalds may be right from his perspective. After all, he said, “I don’t think they’re equally flawed - I think Leopard is a much better system.”

Then he called Leopard’s file system ‘utter crap.’ Maybe so, maybe not. Let me not argue the fine points of file systems as they’re a dynamic anyway, and it appears that Apple is moving toward the highly touted ZFS file system, and besides, does it matter? To a purist who wants the world to see everything his way, perhaps. For the rest of us? Not so much.

Without really understanding exactly what he stumbled upon, Torvalds identified the real banana behind the skin. His view is that Linux is a real operating system, and Leopard and Vista are not. They’re environments. I agree. Here’s what he said:

“An operating system should be completely invisible… To Microsoft and Apple (it is) a way to control the whole environment… to force people to upgrade their applications and hardware.”

At a very basic level, he’s probably correct. Windows Vista and Mac OS X are really computing ‘environments’ more than they are mere operating systems, as Torvalds purports Linux to be.

Only the very geekiest among computer users look forward to an upgrade of the Linux kernel, while Mac users by the millions throng to Apple’s synagogues to tithe and worship, purchase and upgrade.

Torvalds, the OS religious purist, will have none of that crass commercialism. We should thank God that Torvalds toils away on Linux and not on OS X. Microsoft and Apple actually have customers who pay money for products and service and have expectations that go beyond a free lunch, beyond a mere OS.

Torvalds’ success in the business world simply doesn’t match what cash-paying customers require. Glitz, glitter, shine, leather seats, climate controlled GUI, sometimes questionable functionality blended with infinite and sexy chic.

Yes, Linux may well be a better operating system than what is hidden in Windows Vista or Mac OS X, but it doesn’t matter. Linux is a very poor desktop solution, a weak computing environment to handle the personal computing requirements of the great unwashed masses of the developed world.

I say, let him have his purity, his hand crafted kernel updates, his anemic selection of Fisher-Price GUIs, and his barely half a percent desktop market share. Give me the cake and icing of OS X Leopard. Maybe it’s not a man’s manly and macho OS, but Leopard, like a Lexus, or Mercedes, or BMW is a better ride than the Tata Group’s People Car (the Nano).