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Poll: What is your primary operating system
111–120 of 472 posts
Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would just like to add that there is a valid reason why Linux or the *BSDs are superior to Windows or OS X - they are Free. As in Speech. And I'm sad this doesn't even warrant a mention.
I agree with you. That's certainly a 'pro' on the side of Linux. I stated that every OS has it's pros and cons, but my goal wasn't to list what those are. To say unilaterally that it's better for all people at all times in all use cases is, at the very least, an overstatement. While being free is a top concern for you and many others, for some (perhaps many) usability might be their top concern and they may be willin…
>usability might be their top concern and they may be willing to sacrifice freedom for usability
While some argue that this is the current situation, I want to point out that's a false dichotomy. Freedom and usability aren't orthogonal concepts like some make them out to be. I fundamentally disagree with the idea that we need to lock everything down to make it "usable".
Also, Freedom of software (and hardware) ultimately has greater implications on society as a whole, which is why I raised the issue. It's not merely a feature, a pro or con, it's something which at least people like here on HN should be greatly concerned about. Computers play an incredibly important role today, and will only become even more important in the future. It's important to retain control over them on a fundamental level, and that requires Open Standards, Free Software and Open Hardware.
Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would just like to add that there is a valid reason why Linux or the *BSDs are superior to Windows or OS X - they are Free. As in Speech. And I'm sad this doesn't even warrant a mention.
I agree with you. That's certainly a 'pro' on the side of Linux. I stated that every OS has it's pros and cons, but my goal wasn't to list what those are. To say unilaterally that it's better for all people at all times in all use cases is, at the very least, an overstatement. While being free is a top concern for you and many others, for some (perhaps many) usability might be their top concern and they may be willin…
"To say unilaterally that it's better for all people at all times in all use cases is, at the very least, an overstatement."
Yes. Just better for hackers who want to alter anything about the code they are working with.
"While being free is a top concern for you and many others, for some (perhaps many) usability might be their top concern and they may be willing to sacrifice freedom for usability"
False dichotomy.
Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system
#114So it's true, Microsoft is dying: http://paulgraham.com/microsoft.html
This is obviously an excellent representative sample to make that claim literally.
Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system
#115I use OSX and love it. For personal use its awesome and feels a lot like linux when I need it to, but when I actually need linux for work, I can just ssh through the terminal and its awesome!
I love how its very easy to develop on OSX because it comes with a lot of dev tools preinstalled. Not that it takes any effort to get your own personal environment set up, but its just nice how they package that all together.
Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system
#116For desktop use I'm migrating back to Windows after having used Ubuntu almost exclusively for the past five years.
It's a shame, because Ubuntu was soooo close to surpassing Windows from a "I just want to get stuff done without mucking with the machine" standpoint. But then Windows got much better with version 7 and Ubuntu took a nosedive into crazy UI fantasy land.
The final straw was when text started randomly disappearing and reappearing in emacs and xterms in Unity. I don't know why it happened, just that it was too much trouble to diagnose some weird bug for the millionth time. If I can't trust my desktop to run emacs(!) without glitching, see ya.
I'm getting older, and after about 15 years playing around with config files, I just want something that's stable and consistent, and OS X was never to my taste. Windows is leaps and bounds better than when I heavily used it last.
And Linux runs fine using Xfce in a VM where you can count on the host to have all the hardware working.
Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system
#117Linux user since 2002.
Now I have multiple machines running linux. I use linux at work too. I am an embedded developer and use Linux in most of the projects. Using linux machine makes life a lot easy.
Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system
#118Debian to work, OSX to procrastinate
Heh exactly the opposite for me. OSX for work and Linux to customize all day.
Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system
#119I've been using Windows pretty much since version 3.1 (though will some time on OS/2 as well) as my primary OS. I have, of course, used Linux, though mostly for servers and not a full-time primary OS. I also have a Chromebook running Chrome OS. Recently, I switched jobs and my team uses Macs so over the last few months my primary work OS is now Mac OS X, while I still use Windows at home. One thing I have discovered…
I disagree. You are entirely correct that fanboism is detrimental to any healthy discussion. But sweeping any discussion under the rug as fanboism isn't much better.
I use all three operating systems, and one major argument for me when doing development is the terminal. I know there are emulators on windows, but I have had moderate success with them. Ubuntu and osx give me much more power in that area.
Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
My way of thinking is that being free does not really to me, a lambda user, make it superior but otherwise just add pros and cons. By using mostly Windows I trade the inconvenient and risks of non-free with other advantages. It is a informed choice. RMS may hate me though :)
Are you able to explain the term "lambda user"?
Sorry it's a very bad translation from French, it's Monday morning ...
I think something like "non-power-users", or "random/average user" would be a better term ?