The BBC News has started the “Battle of the Operating Systems” as part of its coverage of the Windows Vista launch. What a subtle way to dismantle Windows. I read all the first-level arguments made by those who had emailed BBC News. There were 55 of them, but I’m not sure whether the count would continue.
I was kind of amazed by the points raised by the proponents. The Windows side prides in Vista’s being the best, and the large number of people using Windows already will surely like it. But the MacOS X lovers feel that Vista’s user interface sort of copied that of their favorite OS. And the Linux fans consistently emphasize the fun, safety and freedom in using Linux (surprisingly, most of the Linux proponents use Ubuntu). They were perfect mouthpieces of the free software and open source movements.
I consolidated the email responses and am glad about the output. MacOS has 22, Linux, 17, and Windows, 13. There were three responses that could not be categorized accordingly. One mentioned the advantages of each OS. Another just bashed Windows. The last one said Amiga OS came first before Windows and the rest.
Thanks to the BBC for its objective approach to helping launch Vista. Windows’ losing (was it the first round yet?) in the survey is definitely a “Wow”.
Great post, Dong. Thanks for pointing it out.