Chiriquí Chatter

I realize that most of my recent posts have been of a technical nature as opposed to Panama related. That is because I am still checking out all of the technology I brought back from the US. This post is related to the Mac Mini I brought back and its OS versus any other PC running UBUNTU Linux.

I now have about a week’s experience with the Mac Mini running OSX. It is a sweet little box and will do what I bought it to do which I haven’t done as yet (hook it up to my TV so I can surf the Internet lying down ).

In that period of time I have been able to observe and evaluate the Apple OS related to the UBUNTU OS that I have been running for a couple of months.

There is no perfect operating system. Certainly Microsoft XP wasn’t perfect and the reviews of Vista are not raising the profits of Microsoft. I no-longer need Microsoft compatibility for work and there has been no application type that I have needed that I haven’t been able to find a counterpart for on Linux. I will keep a Microsoft XP box around for the one exception I have found, but I have no plans for using it on a daily basis anymore.

The advances in Linux, since I started playing with it about six years ago, are truly amazing and more so than the advances in the Windows OS in the same time period. Apple’s OSX, which is UNIX based, and UBUNTU Linux, which is also UNIX based, are very similar in structure, in design for security and even operationally.

OSX has some advantages and Linux has another set of advantages. For me the biggest disadvantage of Apple is the price. While the cost of the OS itself is pretty reasonable, you do have to put it on a Apple box, which drives up the cost for the average user. I was able to pick up a new Mac Mini for $710 delivered on eBay and another $100 to have it run with 2 gig of memory. That is as cheap as it gets if you want to run an Apple.

The biggest advantages of Linux are the enormous amount of free software to use on it, the stability, security and large support base throughout the world.

While I was in a Walmart in Austin, I saw this PC on sale for $450. I really wanted to buy it and bring it back and put it up as my primary PC. However with my other purchases I just didn’t know how I could justify it and how I would get it back. I would still like to have it.

I would have gotten rid of the Windows Vista that it came with and replaced it with UBUNTU Linux for a 64 bit processor. I do consider Windows Home Premium Vista a throw away package and no better than UBUBTU Linux.

Each day I become more impressed with Linux. Linux does take some time to learn for a long time Window’s user, but now that I have Apple OSX, I can say the same for it.

If you are looking for an inexpensive yet very stable and secure operating system I would encourage you to take a look at UBUBTU (any of the versions - UBUNTU, kubuntu, edubuntu or xubuntu). You can either download it or you can request them to send you free CDs. I downloaded it and also asked them to seen me some free CDs for backup and so that I could pass them out for people to try. If you live in Chiriquí and want to try out UBUNTU, let me know and I will give you a copy.

If you know nothing about Linux and specifically the Mark Shuttleworth versions mentioned above, then I will direct you to a few URLs.

You can check out the emagazine “full circle magazine“. It currently has four down-loadable issues and each has good tips and experiences by users of the UBUNTU systems.

You might also enjoy learning about Mark Shuttleworth and follow his blog. As you can tell I am a convert.

P.S. An article in one of the issues above was on dual booting the Mac Mini with OSX and UBUBTU. Guess what has been added to my project list!