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Mac OS X "Tiger" vs. Linux, Introduction PDF Print E-mail
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Written by Michael Salsbury   
Friday, 23 September 2005

This article is intended to serve as the beginning of a comparison of Mac OS X vs. Linux (specifically, Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" vs. Red Hat Linux Fedora Core 4).  The point of the comparison is to help answer the following question: "Could an artist, designer, or other creative professional employ the Linux platform for their work if it were necessary or economically required to do so?"

Because there are a variety of Linux distributions (distros) out there, along with a wealth of additional open source software applications that don't necessarily ship with a specific distribution, readers should recognize that this comparison is by its very nature incomplete.  The point of my work here is merely to take a sort of "snapshot" of both operating systems in their default configuration and provide feedback both to Apple and Linux developers on where their offerings might fall a little short of one another.  I'm not here to insult, degrade, or otherwise malign either operating system and I won't intentionally do so in these reports.  However, I will try to be "brutally honest" when it comes to comparing functionality.

Toward that end, we begin with a list of the functionality found in a complete installation of both Apple Macintosh OS X 10.4 ("Tiger") and Red Hat Fedora Core 4 ("FC4") Linux.  I've tried to include functionality that should encompass everything that 90% of Mac OSX and/or Linux users employ in their OS.  Therefore I acknowledge that it isn't an exhaustive or 100% complete listing.  However, it should give a pretty good idea where the two operating systems differ at a general level.  In the chart below, where you see a link on the right, that link goes to a later article in this series which discusses that functionality in more detail, or (if the functionality is something not bundled with Red Hat FC4) it's a link to the project working on that functionality.

Currently the following articles in this series have been released:

As additional articles are published, they'll be linked here as well, to make this page an easy one to bookmark in order to keep up with the project as it continues.
 




Mac OS X
Feature/Component/Functionality


Red Hat FC4 Feature/Component/Functionality

Activity Monitor


System Monitor

Address Book


KAddressBook, Evolution Calendar

Calculator


Calculator

ColorSync


Not done at OS level, but some apps manage color, such as Scribus

Dashboard


No equivalent built-in but there are similar tools available for Linux

Dictionary


Dictionary

Disk Utility


Disk Management (mount/unmount), Logical Volume Management, various command line tools

DVD Player


Totem (bundled with Gnome)
Ogle and others are available free of charge

iTunes


CD Player, Helix Player, Music Player, Sound Juicer CD Ripper

Mail


Evolution, Mail

NetInfo Manager


At least some of the non-Mac-specific functions are present in the Authentication Configuration and Users and Groups GUI tools

Network Utility (incl. GUI ping/traceroute/etc.)


No GUI tool found but command-line tools are available through Terminal and there is probably a free tool that functions similar to this.

ODBC Administrator


KDict

Printer Setup Utility


Printer configuration tool which supports locally connected printers, CUPS/IPP printers, UNIX LPR/LPD printers, Windows SMB printers, Novell NCP printers, and Networked JetDirect printers.

Sherlock


"Search for Files" function for local files and network mounted volumes, nothing specific for the other kinds of Sherlock searches

Spotlight


<not available, though some applications provide a similar functionality for their data>

Stickies


<not included> Comparable functionality is under development in the Gtknote project on Sourceforge

System Preferences Panel


Desktop->Preferences Menu

System Profile


Hardware Browser

TextEdit


TextEdit

Apple Menu


Red Hat Applications menu, similar to Windows Start Menu

Dock


Gnome Panel, similar to Windows Task Bar
KXDocker is a clone of this functionality

Software Update


Red Hat Update Agent

Graphical Desktop/Finder


Graphical desktop and file explorer

Go To Server...


Connect to Server...

Desktop icons for mounted disk volumes


Desktop icons for mounted disk volumes

Drag and drop file movement


Drag and drop file movement

Terminal


Terminal

Support for HFS+ disk format (Read/Write)


Not included but currently in alpha testing

Support for NTFS disk format (Read-only)


Read-only NTFS support included
(R/W option available)

Support for FAT16 disk format (Read/Write)


Support for FAT16 disk format (Read/Write)

Support for FAT32 disk format (Read/Write)


Support for FAT32 disk format (Read/Write)

Preview for viewing PDF files, other graphics


KPDF, Kwikview, KGhostView

Grab (screen capture utility)


Ksnapshot

<no such software built into OS X 10.4>


OpenOffice.org (office suite similar to MS Office)

<no such software built into OS X 10.4>


KcolorEdit (color palette editor)

Character Palette in the Finder

Character Map

<no such software built into OS X 10.4>


KDVI viewer for TeX DVI files

<no such software built into OS X 10.4>


Kfax G3/G4 fax viewer

<no such software built into OS X 10.4>


Kooka scanner interface

Safari


Firefox, Konqueror

UNIX-style security model


UNIX style security model

UNIX shell scripting capabilities


UNIX shell scripting capabilities

VNC-based Remote Desktop


KRDC Remote Desktop (allow others to remote control your machine across the network or Internet)

<some similar functionality in Mail and iCal>


KOrganizer PIM application

<no such software built into OS X 10.4>


KGpg encryption tool for email and files



Dia Diagrams (diagram drawing tool)

<no such software built into OS X 10.4>


Karm time tracking tool

<no such software built into OS X 10.4>


KhexEdit hex file editor



KpalmDoc (Palm Pilot synchronization tool)

<no such software built into OS X 10.4>


Inkscape (drawing tool similar to FreeHand)



KolourPaint (paint tool similar to MS Paint)

<no such software built into OS X 10.4>


Kruler (on-screen ruler)



IM (instant messaging client)



IRC (internet chat client)

AirPort tools


KwiFiManager



Video Conferencing

QuickTime Movie Player


Totem (bundled with Gnome)

Keyrings


Keyring Manager

 

It should be obvious from this list that there are no significant functionality deficiencies between Red Hat Linux FC4 and Mac OS X "Tiger" from an operating system standpoint.


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Last Updated ( Saturday, 01 April 2006 )
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