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

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#391

Post by masklinn » Mon, Apr 02, 2012, 8:45 PM UTC

amishforkfight wrote: post #301

kbutler wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ..…

> 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.

MBPs are not that tough though, I've a colleague who really shouldn't be left alone with machines, his MBA (which he brings everywhere and takes little care of) did suffer quite a bit, it's horribly dirty and has quite a few dents. A Dell half the price would probably be dead already, though. But he'd probably benefit from a Toughbook C1, that's a step up in ruggedness, MB's aluminum is nice but not that solid.

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#392

Post by ronik » Mon, Apr 02, 2012, 9:09 PM UTC

I used Windows for over 10 years and moved to a Mac in 2009. There is no way I am going back anytime soon. Amazingly, I only realized the problems with Windows after using the Mac for a while and then switching back to Windows for a day to fix an urgent issue. The usability issues lit up like lights on a christmas tree.

Here is what happened. I tried to install a tool on Windows, which required an updated version of the .NET Framework. So instead of doing what I wanted to do, I started doing what that little app wanted me to do. When I tried installing the .NET framework, it wanted an updated version of the MSI (Microsoft Installer). So now, instead of doing what the app wanted to do, I started doing what the .NET installer wanted me to do. You get my drift?

In the 2 years I have been using my Mac, I have not once come across words like virus, anti-virus, drivers or seen any avoidable alert boxes pop up. I am no Apple fanboi. Really, OSX is my preferred OS simply because it does not get in the way and let's me do what I want to do.

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#393

Post by kfcm » Mon, Apr 02, 2012, 9:12 PM UTC

Depends. For servers, FreeBSD and OpenBSD hands down.

Desktops are two different systems--Windows and Ubuntu Linux. I need direct access to the hardware for development (CUDA) on both, so I can't VM. Windows is needed simply because Linux has always failed to provide me with the business apps I need to successfully work with the outside world. Not trying to start a flame war; it's just my experience.

Laptop is Windows, with Linux as a VirtualBox VM. Simply because I want to GSD.

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#394

Post by niels_olson » Mon, Apr 02, 2012, 9:38 PM UTC

I waffle between OS X and Linux. They're both running at my house, more Linux than OS X, but when I got a new Verizon iPad with 4G, I finally set down my Cr-48 running Ubuntu (love Unity on that machine, btw), and picked up my old 2008 MacBook again. Hacking: I find linux more pleasant. If I bought a new computer today, it may well be a Lenovo tablet, in the old, swivel-screen definition of the word, because I really miss the high input resolution of resistive touch.

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#395

Post by flomo » Mon, Apr 02, 2012, 9:48 PM UTC

grandalf wrote: post #329

I'm curious about those using Windows. I can see four main reasons to use it: - You are a "business type" and prefer some app/workflow that you are already familiar with and don't want to change. - You used to work at Microsoft and you know it way better than other OSes. - Your target userbase has strong Windows lock-in so it makes the best business sense to use it. - You are really into gaming and don't want to dual…

- You want to buy inexpensive hardware and use familiar commercial software.

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#396

Post by sbuk » Mon, Apr 02, 2012, 10:09 PM UTC

nosse wrote: post #374

grandalf wrote: post #329

I'm curious about those using Windows. I can see four main reasons to use it: - You are a "business type" and prefer some app/workflow that you are already familiar with and don't want to change. - You used to work at Microsoft and you know it way better than other OSes. - Your target userbase has strong Windows lock-in so it makes the best business sense to use it. - You are really into gaming and don't want to dual…

It's only OS that can do serious CAD. That's it. Would use linux if I could.

By "serious CAD", what do you mean?

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#397

Post by lifeisstillgood » Mon, Apr 02, 2012, 10:30 PM UTC

emidln wrote: post #219

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #163

I'm giving up FreeBSD today. I've built Departments and platforms on the old faithful OS, I even blog about it - but my contracts demand skype or even Oracle and whilst you can sort of get those things working I no longer can afford the extra time to make it work Ubuntu just managed to auto install X on a chipset I could not get working manually, and so I am going to Linux land for my workstations. The contracts will…

You might try PC-BSD for a Ubuntu-like experience with a FreeBSD base. I know it autodetects graphics/sound during its installer and can setup stuff like Skype/Flash for you pretty easily. That said, I did the same thing and now use Ubuntu on my laptop and workstation. The only apps I really want are a terminal and Skype since I can run Konsole+tmux/Firefox/Chromium/Okular/etc remotely displaying locally via X.

Thanks. I may be giving up too easily. I think I will upgrade to core i7 laptop and run virtualbox soon too.

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#398

Post by moystard » Mon, Apr 02, 2012, 10:33 PM UTC

silasb wrote: post #233

celerity wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, the terminal on OSX is incredibly buggy. Keeps incorrextly coloring commands, randomly failing... Perhaps it's because of the outdated bash they use?

Look at using iTerm2-beta.

iTerm2 is clearly a great terminal. I find it buggy when using zsh however.

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#399

Post by eli_gottlieb » Mon, Apr 02, 2012, 10:34 PM UTC

tseabrooks wrote: post #208

slowpoke wrote: post #79

Earlier 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.

Maybe I'm the only one... But as a professional developer working on everything from device drivers, embedded systems, up to your average LAMP stack and other web frameworks the "Freedom" of the operating system is worth exactly bupkis to me, ziltch, zero, nada. There are a whole host of reasons to use one OS over the other but this "Free as in Speech" is simply not a very good one. I'm far, FAR, more concerned about…

>Maybe I'm the only one... But as a professional developer working on everything from device drivers, embedded systems, up to your average LAMP stack and other web frameworks the "Freedom" of the operating system is worth exactly bupkis to me, ziltch, zero, nada.

And Linux is the top system for ease of acquiring development tools. Compilers, debuggers, IDEs, version-control systems, scripting languages... you get it all on Linux.

Re: Poll: What is your primary operating system

#400

Post by moystard » Mon, Apr 02, 2012, 10:36 PM UTC

matwood wrote: post #328

silasb wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OT question for you: I'm a developer that does a lot of web development, from Perl to RoR. When I end up starting more than 1 VM with 4 GB RAM, my computer literally dies with Mac OS X. Now this is all with VirtualBox, which I suspect isn't the best all around VM application. For some reason I feel that it is the crappy memory management with OS X that is killing me. Other than getting more RAM do you do anything spe…

More RAM, period. Going from 4GB to 8GB on my mbp made a huge difference running VMs. Also, get Fusion. For working in VMs all day Fusion has worked better for me over VirtualBox.

You should try out Parallels then, as I find it much snappier than Fusion. After having tried Virtual Box, Fusion and Parallels, I kept the last one as it provides the best experience of the three imo.