Your favorite OS ?

If you can say "why", that would be lovely. Thanks for your time.

It seems to be alright for the environment it is meant to perform under.

But I have several comments that need to be made regarding any operating system you chose to run on your machine/s.

An operating system is nothing more than a set of instructions that provide a graphical interface on your computer. As such, I have no emotional tie to any particular system; all it must do is provide a platform to run programs that I use for productivity and/or amusement. It must also enable access to the hardware I own such as printers, external drives, scanners etc.

It's not difficult to mind-read those in charge of developing new versions of Windows. The market is the lowest common denominator; they unashamedly wish to generate an OS loyalty by seeming to predict what the computer user might like to do with their machine. These days that means little in the way of productivity and much in the form of light entertainment. As an example Steve2470, read the down-home, folksy language on your screens of Win 8.

XP will probably be the last version that we can tweak, refine, hone down to run as we like it to run. Win 7 already makes that more difficult or impossible; subsequent versions of Windows will only be worse. Defaults will be set to accommodate the drones who panic if they can't access Hotmail or Gmail or youtube.

The OS you use is dictated by the programs, hardware and peripherals you use, not the other way around. It amazes me to read anti-corporate rants on DU and then see the same people roll over like puppies wanting their bellies scratched whenever a new piece of tech is on offer.

Having said all this, my true favourite OS is probably the Mac classic 7.6 - 9.

I saw a little preview of Windows 8, and it made me dizzy. I make my XP as bare bones as possible and despise these interfaces that look like a damned checkout aisle stuffed with crap for impulse buying.

I've never used a Mac at home. Apple hardware is overpriced, and always has been. I was thinking about trying out their OS back when it was briefly made available for x86, but they ended that practice before I got around to trying it.

I did use a Mac back in school in the early nineties, but it was on those machines that had tiny little monochrome monitors. I remember one day that I got to use a Mac, with a big! (must have been 20 inches) color monitor, for a few minutes. I was impressed with that. But I had to give it up when a more senior student, working on a multimedia project, came around. (Well, technically, I didn't have to give it up. But he needed it more than I did, and I tried not to be a 'hole. So I went back to the tiny little mac.)

Windows 95 was a huge improvement over 3.1, and 98 was better still, aesthetically, but it still locked up constantly.

The last version of Windows I used on a regular basis was 2000, based on NT. It crashed less often than the DOS-based Windows versions, but it still crashed a lot.

I've still got XP installed on the computer than I'm posting this from, but I literally never use it. It came with the computer, and I keep it there "just in case" I ever need it for something. I haven't needed it yet.

I like Linux, because it never crashes... unless I run code that I know will likely crash it. Also because I can tweak it to my heart's content. The source code is there for all to see. If I want to change it in some way, I can do it myself. Or if I don't know how to, I can post on any of countless message boards, and someone will tell me how to do it.

And linux is tweakable in superficial ways too. While I'm using the defaults on Ubuntu currently, I have dozens if not hundreds, of window managers and desktop environments, not to mention countless desktop themes to choose from. I can make my computer look and behave the way I want it to.

And linux, or any POSIX-based system, is more easily automated than Windows, in my opinion.

So I vote for Linux. But it's not personal for me. If someone prefers another OS, that's fine by me. Whatever helps you get your stuff done. That's what computers are for... getting your stuff done.

...having a system (64 bit) that's fast, easy to upgrade is essential.
With a 1200 watt PS and 12 gig of memory with a quad core processor and Asus board, I never get the dreaded
"Stutter" or Delay that a lesser system could exhibit.

I COULD have used XP 64 bit but Ultimate was more available.

Windows 95.

Damn that was a nightmare. Seemed like all I was doing was reloading software with it after it crashed and needed to reformat the HD and begin from scratch. It was just about an every other day occurrence. I was spending more time on the phone with Gateway tech support than I was spending with my wife. Just about drove me to give up on computers. That bad.

Then Windows 98 finally came out and that was light years better than 95.

Don

I've been following the development of this OS for two or three years. It's still in alpha stage and progressing slowly.

http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html

:)

got a couple older machines laying around.