As budgets and priorities for next year begin to take shape, companies of all sizes are looking to open source software to find ways to stretch software budgets without limiting innovation or productivity. We'll discuss the top strategies for using open source to get more done for less in our next webinar, Top 10 Ways to Stretch Your Budget by Using More Open Source Software in 2010. This webinar will be held on Wednesday, December 9 at 11:00 Pacific / 2:00 Eastern / 7:00 GMT.

In this webinar Kim Weins and Rod Cope will explore the process of enterprise open source software adoption from the perspective of three key stakeholders within the typical organization: developers, architects, and CIOs. We'll examine the unique challenges and goals of each of these roles, giving you tips on:

• How to overcome internal roadblocks to the use of open source
• How to meet the legal requirements of open source
• What are the hottest technology areas for open source that you should consider

Whether you're a developer or architect hoping to get more done with open source or a CIO looking to cut costs, this is one webinar you won't want to miss. Be sure to join us on December 9 and find out how you can make the most with open source in 2010.

In March of this year I switched to OSX, running on a shiny new 17” MacBook Pro. I wrote about it here. I prepared myself for the change, and I was committed to giving it a fair shot for my computing time.

The initial feeling of running OSX was one just like driving a brand new car. Everything was shiny, worked well, and it had the new OS smell. Oh, there were some unsettling moments early on, like when I realized that the OS was not case-sensitive. ( Leopard ). But, overall it seemed like it was going to be UNIX enough for me. Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of people who know UNIX far better than I. I am just saying that it is my preferred environment, and as such, I expect UNIX to behave in a certain fashion. Now that I have given OSX a fair shot, I feel that I can properly give the OS a proper evaluation.

The good part was the hardware. By far the MacBook Pro is the most solid laptop I have ever used. It is fast, the screen is bright and clear. I love the keyboard, and I also purchased an external keyboard, so I could have the feel of the laptop keyboard all the time on all my computers. I can not say enough good things about the keyboard. The touchpad is awesome, it is what touchpads should have always been. Click anywhere is great, response is great. Hardware grade : A-

What did I like about the software? Oh, oh… I got one.. I liked the office suite. I have not used MS Office for many years, I have used many open source alternatives, and have settled in on OpenOffice handling my day to day word processing and spreadsheet duties. When I got the MacBook, I also got a copy of iWork. I liked that it was very clean and uncomplicated in presentation and use. For simple word processing and spreadsheets it worked fine. Software grade : C+

Working in OSX always felt like something was missing. The context switching of the menu bar with the application drove me crazy. I want one thing that is for my Windowing environment and the context of my apps to stay with my application. Of all the idiosyncrasies that come along for the ride with a MacBook + OSX that is the one that I could not overlook. Have you ever heard a Mac guy say “It just works!”? Well, they are lying. A lot of stuff works out of the box, and the stuff that doesn't is a pain in the butt. The Apple faithful make a lot of excuses about what doesn't work, or they have a band of wood nymphs that crank out apple script to patch and band aid the OS. My biggest gripe about the OS is that it is not case sensitive. It is supposed to be UNIX!!! Unix is case sensitive. See how I typed the word Unix in the last two sentences? Unix can tell the difference, OSX can not. I know there is an option under Snow Leopard that if you wish to reformat your drive, it can be case sensitive now, but out of the shoot, nope…

Did my printer at home work with OSX? Nope. This is not Apple's fault, just an example of how things just don't always work.

I really like music, and I have a large digital collection of music. That should sum up why I dislike iTunes and refuse to use it.

Did I say that my biggest gripe was the case sensitive thing? I was wrong, the biggest issue is spinning beach balls. OMG!!! I am just trying to switch between one terminal session to another, and I get get a spinning ball. Click on firefox, spinning ball. Click on netbeans – beachball. Fair enough, netbeans is a big java app, switch to vim… beachball. You gotta be kidding me! I wait out the service pack 1, errr, I mean software update. Surely it will fix this beach ball mania. NOPE!! This is seriously impacting my work. I can no longer use the Macbook Pro as my primary work system. I switch back to my desktop system ( runing Linux ) for my day to day chores. I use the MacBook as my secondary system, reading mail, and web surfing. Guess what? I still get beach balls. I have an old 486 laptop with puppy linux on it that can handle email and web surfing. While we are in a big push at work to get a release done, I vow to hold out until there is time to remedy the situation. There is only a couple of weeks or so to go until the next version of Ubuntu is coming out, and I am ready to try it out, I can make it until then, I tell myself.

WRONG!! The wireless networking on the MacBook Pro has stopped working. Now it is not even good for email and web surfing. I have an expensive aluminum hand warmer now. Stupid Mac.

I think that it must be the hardware, but how can I tell? I hook up and external drive and do a time machine backup to it. ( Oh, just so you don't think I am a complete hater, time machine is awesome. )

Then I prep the system to dual boot. I start here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro

But, decided that I needed to wait for Karmic Koala. I got a secondary partition created, and installed Windows 7. In the spirit of competition and fair play, I installed Windows 7 on another Dell laptop and in a VM on my Linux desktop.

In a head to head evaluation of OSX and Windows 7, Windows 7 wins. Once I installed my tool chain on Windows 7, it worked well, without any issues. I did have to install a few more things, but the installs were clean, fast and simple. I installed the same tools that I had on OSX, and they all worked.

Did you catch that? I installed… how you might ask? The wireless refused to work under OSX, it claimed that my wireless at home was more foreign than that alien network that Jeff Goldblum hacked in Independence day. Windows 7 seems to think it is fine. The hardware is quite obviously fine. I do a quick test. Reboot to OSX. No network. Stupid Mac. Reboot to Windows. Works.

If I were on the TV commercial where the lady is going to OSX from XP, I would tell her to run to the store and get Windows 7. She will be much happier in the end. If those were her only choices, I would leave it there, but there is another choice. I am a supporter of Open Source. While Windows 7 has a pleasing look and feel, and is better than OSX, it is still… windows. It has a lot of the issues of it's predecessors and a few new problems of it own. The only real choice at this point is which Linux distribution should you use. Ubuntu.. ( I really don't want to hear from you BSD guys… really. )

Karmic Koala is out. The day it became available, my torrent client was humming. ( ktorrent )

I bypassed all the dual boot, how to's, and stuck the install disk into my MacBook Pro, and told it to take over the whole disk. Guess what? IT JUST WORKED!!! Hahahahahahaha…

Ok, one confession. The hardware version of the MacBook Pro that I have (5,2) has an issue with the sound driver that Karmic installed. I have it fixed now, by installing the latest alsa driver. Yes, it took some time and research ( 2 hours ) and I know, you Grandma would never do that. I would never suggest to your Gran that she go pay the Apple tax for the hardware, and then put Linux on it. I leave that to geeks like me. I would tell your Granny to buy a Dell, or HP and install linux on that. She will be happy, and it will all work.

I now have Ubuntu 9.10 running on my MacBook Pro. Gnome-desktop, kubuntu-destop, xubuntu-desktop are all installed. I like desktop options, but prefer KDE 4. I can switch between apps, terminals, connect to the network and print. I have not seen one spinning beach ball. I am much more productive. I am so happy to have Amorok back to manage my music, and KDE to manage my desktop, and konsole as a terminal application, and, and, and… I am just so much happier.

The summary. 9 months on OSX were not wasted, but they were not as productive. If I was starting the “switch” experiment today, I would try Windows 7 for 9 months rather than OSX.

Would I buy another Mac for myself, just for the hardware? No. While the trackpad is cool, other companies have caught up on the piece of hardware. The keyboard may be enough to make me come back to the hardware, but I doubt it.

I did buy a Mac ( iMac ) for my wife, and she loves it. But, I think I do as much systems administration task with her on Mac as I did when she was on Linux. My kids still use Linux at home, and Mac at school .

Will I try OSX again? Maybe. Never say never. But, they will have to make some big changes, or, release a cool Mac Tablet. :-)

Final Thoughts.

Linux is a better operating system.

KDE 4 is the best looking window management system.

Linux makes me happy.