What makes Microsoft and Apple better than UNIX Linux and DOS?

Answer

There are many people who would disagree that Microsoft and Apple are better. One's perception is guided by one's experience. The popularity of Microsoft is more because of it's ease of use and features, as well as higher availability of software. These factors are what have allowed it to become the predominant end-user operating system in use today. It's popularity has also served to make it the largest target for virus developers because they can cause far more widespread trouble by targeting Windows than any other operating system. Mac OS (Apple) shares some of the ease of use as well, but it's predominant strength seems to be in graphics and many graphic designers use Macs exclusively. DOS was originally the foundation over which the Windows interface was built, but has faded from use in modern Windows systems.

Linux and other Unix variants are more preferred by many system administrators because much of the work performed is done directly within the operating system itself, rather than through programs running on top of the OS. It's more difficult to administer a -nix system, much is still done via the command line instead of the graphical interface. The admin can usually secure a -nix machine better because he sets the security parameters directly, instead of allowing the system to set it's own defaults, which may not always be known to the user. Since it's used on far fewer systems, virus programmers rarely bother to target -nix machines.

All in all, what operating system is "better" is determined by your own needs and abilities.

• The reason they're better is because 96% of all programs made are for Windows and Apple which is not very good because it has less programs made for it. Linux and DOS has 0.5 % of some programs made for it. Linux is made from programers for programers. DOS is very old like 1980's it was out. UNIX is the same as Linux all most.

There are 100's of reasons why microsoft windows is better then the rest.

• Obviously, the person above is a little misguided, Unix and Linux are better than Microsoft or DOS because Linux and Unix fall under the Open Source license setup by the GNU group. This helps reduce spyware and virus problems on *NIX platforms. About 99% of all viruses target closed source operating systems, such as Microsoft. Also, on Unix or Linux, the user has more of a say so of what goes in the system, and what goes out of the system. Also the user is not stuck to one desktop environment, such as the case on Microsoft. For *NIX theres choices such as KDE and XFCE(requires GTK+). Also Unix and Linux are more protected by standards set by the SYSOP theirselves. Such as setting a SuperUser password(root) and such. Also Unix and Linux comes with a lot of compilers for a lot of different programming languages, such as PERL and C and offer better ways of compiling them

Saying Apple is better than UNIX is saying that Apple is better than itself. OS X is a true UNIX, and with the X11 foundation install, POSIX-compliant. Some parts of OS X are closed source, such as the Aqua interface, but it's built entirely on Darwin, or Apple's (semi) Open-Source BSD operating system. OS X has a number of compilers for different programming languages, and there are a number of projects to bring more unity with branches of Linux and other open operating systems.

Hardware-wise is where people differ on Apple. I'm from the school that believes that the companies that build their own hardware and make their own operating systems have the best computer packages. While most people that get a kick out of building their own Core2 or Opteron gaming machine will laugh, I ask them how many times have they had to go in and tweak BIOS settings to get the most out of their new PCI-E graphics card. And while you technically can build your own Mac (with the right software tools, peripherals, and plenty of patience), you'll never get the balance out of it that a true Mac has between software and hardware. A better example of this is building a Solaris/X86 system versus buying one from Sun. Out of the box, the Sun will blow the doors off of the one you built.

"Mac OS (Apple) shares some of the ease of use as well"

• That's a little off key. Without Apple to copy from, Microsoft would be just as difficult today as it was during the 3.x era for system management (Mac also had Plug and Play expansion long before Plug and Pray was introduced with Windows 95, and it didn't really make it's way into NT until Windows 2000 came out). Apple had the GUI (which it stole from Xerox PARC) before Microsoft did TWICE (Lisa was first, then the Mac came out; as for some trivia that you can use at a party, GS/OS, Apple's 3rd GUI O/S, was the first truly modern GUI that Apple and Microsoft are still taking ideas from today, and it was released nearly 20 years ago). Even though Microsoft can be credited for bringing the Point and Click explosion of the 90's, Apple gets the credit for taking point and click from the nerd underground and bringing it mainstream in the 80's. Speaking of ease of use, I've sat down in front of Vista and can say that some parts are easier but most parts are harder than Windows XP; neither can match with OS X's ease of use on tasks from changing screen resolution to finding your IP address to connecting to a wireless network.

"The reason they're better is because 96% of all programs made are for Windows"

• Just because the majority of software is made for one operating system doesn't mean that it's any better than another. If you take a deep look at Windows software versus software for Mac OS X, Linux, and other Unixes, you'll find that 95% of Windows software isn't worth the $10 you paid for it at Walmart, 3% of it is all software you need so you can try to keep your system virus-free, and the other 2% are split between the good software, the open-source software, and the different versions of Windows. A better percentage of software for Mac OS X is either good software or open-source software, but the bad is starting to catch up since this platform is gaining in popularity. As for the different Unixes, there are some real gems in the open source field that make programs costing thousands of dollars not so great (GIMP vs Photoshop, for instance - I have visited publishing houses that are slowly changing over as they upgrade from older Macs to newer Macs). As for the people that make the assumption that software available means a good operating system, don't assume anything.

"Obviously, the person above is a little misguided, Unix and Linux are better than Microsoft or DOS because Linux and Unix fall under the Open Source license setup by the GNU group. This helps reduce spyware and virus problems on *NIX platforms."

• Not true. The only reason that Windows has the malware problems is because people will go after the biggest one first. While issues might be patched up faster in UNIX than in Windows, a virus programmer could just as easily go after SCO as he could go after Windows. Speaking of SCO, they're even more closed about their software than Apple and Microsoft are, combined.

Having typed all of that, the decision of what computer you're going to run is up to you.

The reason M$ is the biggest isn't quality,it is chronic predatory and sometimes illegal business practices.

First answer by ID1096623006. Last edit by Hheitman. Contributor trust: 39 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 63 [recommend question]