Poll: What is your primary operating system • Hacker News Board

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#301

Post by amishforkfight » Mon, Apr 02, 2012, 3:01 PM UTC

kbutler wrote: post #269

[deleted] wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

I recently purchased a I'm deciding laptop ergonomics are really important (but $1000 important? cringe )

The three laptops I had before my MBP were all from different companies, ASUS, Gateway, Dell, and I hated the hardware on all of them. There was always something going on. The case didn't close right, the battery life sucked, the trackpads were awful and so itty bitty, the wifi cut in and out, the power cord needed to be jiggled just right to charge, or wouldn't charge at all unless held in place with tape just so... between the three laptops and six years there was always SOMETHING going wrong. So you could say that I originally purchased my MBP because of the hardware. I expected to install Windows on it (didn't, but that's a different story).

I swallowed the extra cost when I did the math. I use my laptop about 3000 hours a year. Day in, day out, I'm on it in some way. They usually last me 2 years or so before I get the itch to upgrade or they fail. I did the math and found that the ~$1000 laptops I bought cost me $0.003 per minute over the course of those two years. A $1300 MBP cost me $0.004 per minute. I decided that I would rather pay $0.001 more per minute to enjoy the hardware I used. I'd rather be in a rage over the fact that my code isn't doing what I want than if my battery isn't taking a charge again.

An added side benefit has been how much tougher the MBP is. I've had it for two years now and it shows no signs of needing replacement. I probably won't upgrade until I see how Apple's Retina display transitions to their laptop line. The upgrade then will probably be out of lust than necessity.

We're talking about the primary tool of our trade. I make my living using this device. If I was repairing cars again I'd be buying Snap-On. Yeah, it's expensive. But goddamnit if I break a wrench they replace it for free. The guy drives to my house and gives me demos. I don't need my tools giving me grief, I need to get work done with them.

Just my thoughts on the 'Apple tax'.

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#302

Post by Nux » Mon, Apr 02, 2012, 3:02 PM UTC

GNU/Linux for everything (CentOS).

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#303

Post by Argorak » Mon, Apr 02, 2012, 3:02 PM UTC

jiggy2011 wrote: post #297

Argorak wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use something like: "OS X is my host operating system. I develop on Linux."

I have tried similar to this but always find the experience of running desktop software on a VM to be lacking. Just things like resizing windows or minimising things becomes clunky enough that I prefer to just native boot into whatever I plan to use.

I can't comment on that. I don't develop anything that requires a GUI on the machine. I just ssh into the machine and do my thing there. All editing/browser viewing is done on the host.

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#304

Post by OriginalSyn » Mon, Apr 02, 2012, 3:02 PM UTC

jasonkostempski wrote: post #265

Windows at work, Linux at home. I voted Windows but if I weren't working on .NET I wouldn't be running Windows at all. I wouldn't have said that a month ago, I really like what's been done with Ubuntu 12.04. Windows is basically just a Visual Studio host for me. Once I figure out how to get paid to work with node.js Linux will be my primary OS and Windows will just be a virtual machine running VS. Unless I start work…

I'm the opposite. Linux at work. Windows at home. Windows is a gaming and HTPC with Netflix support platform for me.

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#305

Post by herrwolfe » Mon, Apr 02, 2012, 3:03 PM UTC

riledhel wrote: post #262

skore wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is clearly the best of both worlds.

But what about the battery life under linux? Have you experienced any kind of problems with that?

I'd be interested to know this as well - are you experiencing decent batt life dual booting into Linux on your macbooks/airs?

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#306

Post by thatjoshguy » Mon, Apr 02, 2012, 3:03 PM UTC

celer wrote: post #280

slowpoke wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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) ultima…

For the virtues of locking everything down, I would switch from free v not to mac v windows. These are the two dominant operating systems, dislike it as I think we do. Apple locks down everything. Apple hardware, on the iphone Apple Software, Apple plugins and addons, everything, to the greatest extent possible, is controlled by Apple. This yields benefits. Driver installs giving you problems? Not with Apple. Screen…

OS X is not really that locked down. There is quite a lot you can go through and change and customise and tinker until your heart is content.

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#307

Post by kenrikm » Mon, Apr 02, 2012, 3:06 PM UTC

davidw wrote: post #224

jsolson wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 h…

You would hope that on a site like Hacker News, there would be a good percentage of users who would get a lot of utility out of being able to tinker with their operating system in ways not sanctioned by the creator of said OS.

Yes, if it's your hobby. If you need to get something done (time = money) but have to stop to fix something in your free operating system then it is no longer "free" (as in money) I'm not talking about the openness of the system in relation to code etc..

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#308

Post by steverb » Mon, Apr 02, 2012, 3:09 PM UTC

abraham wrote: post #123

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…

In my experience I've found OSX somewhat better suited for development and Windows somewhat better suited for gaming but otherwise the main differentiator is hardware polish. The unibody Macbook Pros/Airs is just levels above anything I've experienced in the Windows world.

Agreed on the hardware. This is why I bought a MacBook and installed Windows on it. I still hate the damned keyboard, but I hate all non Model M keyboards, so I've learned to live with it.

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#309

Post by saturdaysaint » Mon, Apr 02, 2012, 3:12 PM UTC

mitsche wrote: post #264

conradfr wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Reaper on Win7 as well. It is available on OSX though. Mac is a better platform for audio but the difference is getting smaller. It's true that they are a lot more freeware (vst) plugins on Windows. Great one like http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com for example.

How is Mac a better plattform for audio? This is not a rhetorical question. I keep hearing this, and some say it's because of CoreAudio. But so far I haven't been able to find a thorough explanation that's not based on biased assumptions. The Variety Of Sound stuff is what I'm missing on OS X. I use those a lot .

Many musicians say this because Windows systems can, for a variety of reasons from hardware drivers (certain Firewire chipsets and motherboards) to bloatware, become very glitchy and finicky when it comes to low-latency recording. It's very difficult to predict if new hardware will work or not and it can be very time intensive to troubleshoot when the problems arise. Unless you buy from a music PC specialist, you're unlikely to encounter sympathy from support desks.

Alternatively, every Mac comes with Garageband and is built from the ground up for reliable recording - if you buy a system and you hear glitching in recordings (which I've never heard of), you can take it to the Apple store and have a technician troubleshoot the problem.

I don't think most PCs face this problem (although prevalent hardware like HDMI ports is often problematic for smooth audio recording), but musicians tend to recommend Macs because the certainty that it will work out of the box has a lot of value.

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#310

Post by sxcurry » Mon, Apr 02, 2012, 3:17 PM UTC

Long time Windows user and developer, switched to OSX a few years back, now can't imagine working without it. Love the terminal access to Unixy stuff. Running Windows in Parallels for the remaining Windows only software. As I tell people, my MacBook Pro is the best Windows laptop I've ever owned.