macOS Sierra vs. Ubuntu 16.04: Which operating system is better?

Yes, we know, comparisons are hateful, but they will never stop being made. Last April, Canonical released the latest LTS version of its desktop operating system, Ubuntu 16.04, or what is the same, the latest version with support for more than 9 months. This month, Apple has released the first version with the name change of its own, MacOS Sierra. Which operating system is better? We will never all agree on the answer, but in this article we will try to assess the pros and cons of the two operating systems to try to find a winner.

Before starting I have to clarify that, although there will be some less subjective point, what is written in this article has been written taking into account the author's impressions. At no time do I pretend to be a single judge capable of handing over the winner's belt to one of the two operating systems. Yes indeed, I will try to focus on how both systems are as soon as I install them. I would also like to say that we have used the version released in April because it has more support and is basically almost exact to Ubuntu 16.10. Let's go with the comparison.

macOS Sierra and Ubuntu 16.04 share much of the previous versions

Last February, I wrote a similar post, but on that occasion we spoke a little above Ubuntu vs. Mac in pretty general terms. Both macOS Sierra and Ubuntu 16.04 share a lot from previous versions, so I am not going to extend too much in some points.

Integrated

This is undoubtedly the most subjective point of all. As you will know if you have read me on any occasion, I have never said nor will I say that Unity be a graphical environment to my liking. It seems very simple to me, but with the bad sense of the word, and that simplicity makes me feel that the system is heavy, although that does not mean that it works slower than macOS.

On the other hand, macOS Sierra, like previous versions, has a much more careful design in which you can see that they have focused on all the details, so this point is clear to me.

Winner:macOS Sierra.

Ease of use

In the post I published in February I said that there was a tie between both Mac and Linux operating systems, but that was a personal feeling. Although I have said that much of what is written in this article will be subjective, I can't ignore comments from acquaintances who have used both operating systems and have told me something like "Linux is for geeks", in the sense that only the most geeks we can do something with it. I disagree, but like I said, I can't ignore what the average user seems to feel when using Ubuntu.

Of course, at this point I would like to comment on something that I do not understand how Apple has implemented so badly: the split screen. In addition to being able to divide it only into two parts, to divide the screen in two it is necessary to click and hold on the button to maximize the window. Once this is done, we can choose another window for the other side of the screen, but we will not be able to have a window with the size of half the screen if we do not put another next to it, unless, of course, we edit the size manually.

Winner:macOS Sierra.

Features

As I said at the beginning of this post, in this new comparison I will only talk about how the systems are when performing a clean installation. Here I will also have to put the umbrella for criticism, but I think that macOS Sierra wins again, and it does so because it includes a pile of tools that any user can take advantage of without having knowledge of software. As I said in its day, Preview is an image viewer that also allows us to edit them, although it is quite basic. On the other hand, Ubuntu 16.04, as in previous versions, does not offer us a fast and intuitive way to resize several images, which, if you are a new user, can become desperate. I comment on this as an example.

macOS Sierra also comes with some interesting news, such as Siri virtual assistant or the universal clipboard. With Siri we can ask you practically anything and a Mac will do it. The universal clipboard is part of the Apple ecosystem and will allow us to copy something on one Mac and use it on another without having to take another step.

And since we are talking about the ecosystem, we have to mention other functions such as:

Unlock your Mac with your Apple Watch.
Apple Pay on the web.
iCloud, which now allows us to have our Documents folder in the cloud.

I won't count the ecosystem as part of macOS at this point, but I think with a fresh install Apple wins again.

Winner:macOS Sierra

Performance and stability

Here's where the good stuff for linuxers begins. I put these two points together because I also believe that there is a common winner, but they will count as one each. Here we can do two things: talk about the feelings we have when using an operating system or provide data, that is, Insights. What I will do is a bit of both.

Although I also like macOS, I have to admit that when I use Ubuntu 16.04 or any previous version I feel like everything is more smooth. I'm not going to say that macOS is going bad, but in Ubuntu everything works faster, even if it is not by much. This in terms of performance. In terms of stability, I can also say that I see more of what was previously known as a "beach ball" in macOS than some similar problem in Ubuntu. That said, below you have the Benchmarks.

These Benchmarks have been the result of a clean installation on two similar computers, both from Apple, and it has achieved them Michael Larabel.

Although Michael seems to be a diplomat and says that the results are even, I believe that there is a clear winner here.

Winner: Ubuntu 16.04 (x2)

Where each can be installed

At this point, I think there is also a very clear winner. Although you can also install macOS Sierra on some PCs, the truth is that it is not officially. In fact, macOS Sierra cannot be installed on Apple computers older than mid-2009, and Apple does not care if they can move it with solvency or not.

On the other hand, we have an Ubuntu 16.04 that has still been released in 32-bit version, in addition to the 64-bits already required today. Although I do not recommend it because the performance can be much lower and I would recommend installing a lighter distribution on low-resource computers.

Winner:Ubuntu 16.04.

Price

This also seems important to me. Although both operating systems are free, it doesn't cost the same to use Ubuntu 16.04 as macOS Sierra. Officially, the cheapest computer that macOS Sierra can be used on is a Mac mini which is priced at € 549, and we all know that a team with the word "mini" is not characterized by its power. If we want to use macOS Sierra on a fairly decent computer, we will have to spend more than € 1.000.

On the other hand we have the Canonical operating system. We can use it in practically any computer in the world and, although I say again that I would not recommend it, it can be installed perfectly in small computers that have a price of around € 200.