OSX vs Ubuntu
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[edit] Search Capabilities
OSX includes a search function, Spotlight, which allows you to search almost instantly through file names and file contents. Although it is highly efficient and instantly indexes new and renamed files, it does not index files in the /System, /Library, or ~/Library directories where configuration and preference files are located. It does come with the 'locate' command line utility built-in, which does not index new changes quickly but can effectively search the directories not indexed by Spotlight.
The default (graphical) search capability in Ubuntu is much slower because the computer looks through the list of files each time you do a search. It becomes much slower still if you ask it to search file contents instead of just file names. In practice, this means that file search will be used much less often - since it is not as convenient to use, you're much more likely to try to find your files another way. 3rd party solutions are available however; for example DeskBar (with Tracker) provides quite similar functionalities to OSX's Spotlight.
[edit] Hardware support
Ubuntu offers great Hardware-support for a variety of platforms. Mac OS X only supports Mac products it is sold with. Ubuntu supports x86-32, x86-64, SPARC, PowerPC, IA-64 and ARM. Mac OS X supports Power PC, x86-32 and x86-64; however, the Power PC port has been abandoned in favor of the Intel-ports (x86).
On the other hand, you must be careful when purchasing new hardware for Ubuntu (external peripherials, modems, cameras...). All hardware manufactures supply drivers for Windows and most of them also check their hardware with OSX. However, Ubuntu users should check beforehand whether the hardware will work with Ubuntu (Linux). Almost everything is supported, but sometimes the open source drivers lack all the functionalities of drivers provided by hardware manufactures, e.g. your webcam will work under Ubuntu but you will not be able to change backgrounds or detect smiles.
[edit] Purchasing costs
Ubuntu is free open source software. You may make copies of the Ubuntu operating system at no charge, and you may install Ubuntu to any compatible machine. It is illegal to make copies of OSX, and Apple's license states that you may not install OSX on non-Apple hardware. The underlying System, Darwin, however is free open source Software.
[edit] Adding Software
OSX is compatible with much more commercial software than Ubuntu. Most of the software that is available for *NIX systems is also available for Mac OS X, either natively or by compiling it for Mac OS. Open source software can be downloaded and compiled automatically using Macports, a port system managed by Apple engineers and derived from BSD ports. X11, the gui API used by most Linux software, is available as an optional install for Mac OS X and allows most UNIX gui software to be installed, although support for UNIX windowing systems and desktop environments is weak. Both Ubuntu, based on Linux, and Mac OS X (based on BSD) feature POSIX-compliance and therefor support all kinds of POSIX-compliant Software. Precompiled binaries are available to both operating systems, either pre-packaged or via apt-get on Ubuntu (as in Debian) or via Fink on the Mac.
Most of the software available for Ubuntu is open source software available free of charge, but it tends to not be supported by major proprietary software vendors such as Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office. Open-source alternatives to those packages include LibreOffice (an Office suite), GIMP (photo editing), and Inkscape (vector graphics).
[edit] Supported APIs
Ubuntu supports POSIX, Linux-APIs, Single-Unix-Specification, X11 and OpenGL. However, POSIX-compliance of Linux has never been officially certified. OS X also supports these APIs and BSD, Cocoa, Carbon, OpenCL. Both systems have partial support for further APIs such as Win32-API through third-party software like Wine.
