Windows vs. Linux vs. OS X: CIO John Halamka Tests Ubuntu

In Ubuntu, Halamka found a well supported, intuitive operating system that offered great flexibility and a solid update management system. Though he went into the evaluation with some concern that Ubuntu would prove too consumer-oriented and wouldn’t be robust enough for his rigorous needs as a knowledge worker, the OS met all of his criteria and exceeded his expectations.

“It may not have all the enterprise management tools that SUSE has, but Ubuntu is not just a play-games-and-listen-to-music operating system,” says Halamka.

Ubuntu is an African word that awkwardly translates to, “I am what I am because of who we all are.” Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu project, was born and raised in South Africa.

Like Apple developers, Ubuntu software engineers focus heavily on usability. The result is an intuitive graphical user interface that features just three menu offerings: applications, which is where you find all your software programs; places, which opens your hard drive and any peripheral drive you may attach; and system, which consists of all the utilities you need to maintain your computer system, including libraries of available applications. Ubuntu looks and feels more like a Mac, and Halamka certainly grew fond of his MacBook.

SUSE, by contrast, looks and feels more like Windows. It features a Start button, which, when you push it, shows the applications you used most recently and a control panel. Halamka preferred Ubuntu’s user interface to SUSE’s because it was simpler and more straightforward, but he notes that SUSE might be more appropriate for workers used to Windows.

Halamka was also impressed with Ubuntu’s Synaptic Package Management System, a graphical tool that allows users to search from three different catalogs—or libraries—of software. Ubuntu automatically installs any software you select.

The OS is particularly cognizant of the distinction between proprietary and open-source software. An Ubuntu menu selection called Restricted Driver Manager lists the non-free software running on a user’s computer and provides management tools for specific proprietary applications that do not adhere to the free-software principles. And if you choose proprietary software from one of the catalogs, the OS notifies you that you’re doing so.

For example, when Halamka installed the Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 ABG wireless card, the Ubuntu installer told him that the wireless card required a non-free Intel driver and asked him if it was OK to install it. He clicked the Yes button, the computer installed it, and his wireless card began working immediately. The reason his computer prompted him—and the reason he might not have wanted to install it—is that even though the software may not cost anything to install, the intellectual property behind it may be proprietary so the Ubuntu project can’t automatically bundle them with the operating system software. Also, the Ubuntu community doesn’t support proprietary software. (For more information on what it takes to install Ubuntu and extra applications, see 10 Steps for Installing Ubuntu.)

Halamka preferred Ubuntu’s Synaptic Package Manager and Update Manager to SUSE’s Yast approach to system preferences and administration for a variety of reasons. For one thing, he says, Yast isn’t as easy to use as Synaptic. “Yast is supposed to search Novell's preconfigured repositories, but it did not seem to work for me,” says Halamka. “I received update notifications on existing packages but did not find the same rich application repository that I found with Ubuntu.”

To be fair, the CIO adds, Yast’s functionality may be more limited because SUSE is designed for controlled, corporate implementations, in which it’s important to have a more locked-down computing environment.

What’s more, when Halamka wanted to configure software on his Lenovo laptop running SUSE, he didn’t always find the tools in Yast; sometimes they were filed under the Utilities menu. In Ubuntu, all systems tools are in one menu, he says.

Ubuntu’s update manager also allowed Halamka to run older software versions without constantly pestering him to upgrade to the most recent version. While using SUSE, he had to downgrade his version of Evolution to apply a Novell patch that would speed the application’s startup time. Unfortunately, whenever he launched the older version of Evolution, he was always prompted to upgrade to the most recent version. Halamka found these recurring prompts, which he couldn’t disable, annoying.

Finally, when Halamka removed programs from his Dell, Ubuntu figured out all the dependencies between applications and automatically removed other, shared programs that were no longer necessary. “I never saw that on SUSE,” he says.

In addition to Ubuntu’s user-friendly interface and management tools, Halamka was taken with the “amazing amount of support” the community provides online. Desktop and laptop support is a key part of Ubuntu’s mission.

Halamka had noted the stability of some operating systems, such as Mac OS X and SUSE. They worked so well, he said, because they were configured to the hardware on which they were running. The not-so-great experiences he had with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora could in part be chalked up to the fact that the operating systems hadn’t been configured to the Lenovo laptop he was using at the time.

Even though Ubuntu wasn’t preconfigured specifically for his Dell laptop, Halamka had the same smooth user experience with Ubuntu that he had with OSes that were preconfigured to hardware. He experienced no lockups or crashes when he “woke” his computer from sleep mode, as he had with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora. His computer also reconnected to wireless networks without a hitch on waking from hibernation, which was an initial problem with SUSE. He had no problems using his laptop or any of the applications on it, except for Evolution, during his month with Ubuntu and even while he traveled in Japan.

All in all, Halamka gave Ubuntu a big thumbs-up for its user interface, management tools and support. He felt the Ubuntu community had done a bang-up job developing an OS that was easy to install and required little configuration.

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