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Poll: What is your primary operating system

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Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#141

Post by drewcrawford »

mitsche wrote: post #130
Spyro7 wrote: post #11

Every day, I start up a computer running OS X. Then, I proceed to fire up virtual machines for two Linux distributions, Windows XP, and Windows 7. I occasionally play around with a headless system that I have running FreeBSD. Then I may power up my iPod Touch to test recent changes to my mobile site. I also do a significant quantity of work while I am logged into a remote debian server via ssh. I doubt that I am the…

Yes. I use OS X for browsing the web, web-development, graphic design, video editing, and writing. I use Windows 7 for music production and playing video games. At some point I want to start dabbling in game development, in which case I'll probably go with Windows for that, too. I ssh into various Linux servers privately and at work. In my spare I sometimes play around with Linux distros on my desktop just to learn a…

> I use Windows 7 for music production

I am fascinated by this claim. The last time I looked at Windows for music production was a long time ago, but back then CoreAudio beat the pants off of ASIO for real-time work. Is that not still the case?

What software do you use? Two packages that I use heavily, Logic and DP7 are mac-only.

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#143

Post by richurd »

I was forced to choose "other" since my operating system (GNU) was not listed.

What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it.

Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run.

The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#144

Post by ramblerman »

blhack wrote: post #126
ramblerman wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Can you elaborate on that? I have never ever noticed a difference between putty and iTerm.

putty is great. But I was talking about terminal into your own system, as an interface to your local files

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#145

Post by replax »

mitsche wrote: post #130
Spyro7 wrote: post #11

Every day, I start up a computer running OS X. Then, I proceed to fire up virtual machines for two Linux distributions, Windows XP, and Windows 7. I occasionally play around with a headless system that I have running FreeBSD. Then I may power up my iPod Touch to test recent changes to my mobile site. I also do a significant quantity of work while I am logged into a remote debian server via ssh. I doubt that I am the…

Yes. I use OS X for browsing the web, web-development, graphic design, video editing, and writing. I use Windows 7 for music production and playing video games. At some point I want to start dabbling in game development, in which case I'll probably go with Windows for that, too. I ssh into various Linux servers privately and at work. In my spare I sometimes play around with Linux distros on my desktop just to learn a…

Out of curiosity, since you sound not like a fanboy of any particular os and just want to use one: What keeps you using osx over windows for browsing the web, webdev and graphic design? Are there any special advantages or is it just software which is not available for win?

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#146

Post by merijnv »

derrida wrote: post #113
Osiris wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>> "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.

I disagree, he's not stating that there's a correlation between free-ness and usability. Just that what he (and maybe most "normal" people?) consider usable is not currently available in free form. As a result they end up with a choice between "better usability" and "worse usability" and it just so happens that the entire former category happens to be non-free.

Now I know a lot of linux fans disagree and say that linux is just as usable as OSX/windows, but I personally disagree and the markets appear to be backing me up on this. Unless you are supposing there is some other important reason for people not to switch?

Theoretically linux and the important applications can be made just as usable, but it hasn't happened yet...

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#148

Post by bliss »

jurre wrote: post #102
rshm wrote: post #86

I could not leave Windows for photoshop and Excel. Now that the photoshop runs smoothly in VM and Calc is comparable, made a switch to ubuntu.

OSX also has both of those, although I'm not sure if you have VB support in osx, but I'm guessing that if you're using calc you don't need it anyway. If this set up works for you that's great of course!

VBA on OSX is fine, a little slower than on windows (yes, it can get slower!) - couple of funnies around file system access, but well written code will work with no changes

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#149

Post by jsolson »

slowpoke wrote: post #79
Osiris wrote: post #25

I'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 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.

Freedom also carries a cost. At the end of the day, the best OS for any given individual is the one that gives them the largest net increase in utility, for their personal utility function.

My experience suggests that a Free OS isn't worth it to me, but it's been about six years since I gave it a go full-time. The last time I gave Linux a good go round (as in using it as my primary OS for everything I did), I still had to invest time in getting my touchpad to work correctly with X or getting decent sub-pixel anti-aliasing. All of the freedom to tinker in the world is worthless to me if I can't get the basics sorted without a significant investment of my time.

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