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Poll: What is your primary desktop OS?

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Re: Poll: What is your primary desktop OS?

#71

Post by Zigurd »

Ubuntu, here. I use it for software development, so I'm not much of a Linux connoisseur. I have used it for developing J2ME apps, developing a Linux-based OS for VoIP phones, and for several years now, Android development.

I started using Ubuntu back when the quip was that it's the Swahili word for "Can't install Debian." I used LXDE for a while while Unity was in its bumptious youth, but I like Unity now.

BUT if I know I won't have to use an IDE for a meeting, I'll take only an Android tablet. With the latest updates it is within spitting distance of being a complete office work machine. Offline editing of Drive documents would complete the picture.

Re: Poll: What is your primary desktop OS?

#72

Post by heidar »

AhtiK wrote: post #55
jvzr wrote: post #40

Why would you follow our recommendations? Just try for yourself and make an opinion.

Not following, just curious to see how many find Win adequate to their needs and if Linux is worth the conf hassle for others. I'd love to try all out but OS X with a MBP is a rather expensive for just trying out. Borrowing for a weekend is out of question, it takes more time to see if one can settle and hate to see the face of my friend after returning his reconfigured MBP :-)

There are ways of getting it running in Virtualbox if you just want to give it a shot.

Re: Poll: What is your primary desktop OS?

#73

Post by Tmmrn »

AhtiK wrote: post #22
christopheraden wrote: post #10

It depends a lot on what you do for work, I bet. I'm in sort of a similar situation as you--Windows at work, Linux at home, but I also have a mac. I run a pretty bare-bones setup on my Linux desktop (#!: an OS for those who got frustrated trying to learn Arch and still like APT). The lack of extra stuff makes me less prone to messing around, so it's great as a GSD system and when I want to dedicate my CPU and memory…

I'm mostly doing java, eclipse rcp, python and web stack work so Linux would be fine. But occasionally I need to work with color-calibrated monitors for photo processing and I have yet to try out if Linux and ICC get along fine and if there's a chance to hook my Spyder calibrator without booting to Win or Mac. Also need to check if CR2 raw files in Gimp is something that I can build my workflow on. Additionally, with…

Well, I haven't really tried it with a real color calibrator, but I have heard from someone who has used that argyllcms stuff successfully. Should be pretty straightforward to use. I don't really know how it is related, but there is dispcalgui/dispcal that automatically put themselves in ~/.config/autostart and load color profiles.

Also there is this relatively new colord stuff which gnome seems to support (I think only loading profiles)...

VST... well, it's a "standard" but it uses compiled native code. What can you expect? There are some projects like festige/fsthost/dssi-vst that try to integrate with wine. When I tried it I got very mixed results but then I did not try with a realtime kernel and additionally I only tried it with the default priority of jackd run as user. I was told it would work much better on low latency systems. Ubuntu Studio is apparently still a thing, so there are probably an number of easy to setup distribution with this stuff enabled. But yes, the VST situation is bad.

Re: Poll: What is your primary desktop OS?

#74

Post by venomsnake »

Windows. Stayed on it because of the games. If someone makes decent VGA pass trough or gaming layer on wine will drop it in a second. Everything I need runs better and faster on Linux. And with linux taking over the server world (or took over depends on who you ask) it makes a lot of sense to have your work environment closely resembling your server one.

Re: Poll: What is your primary desktop OS?

#75

Post by neurotech1 »

sdfjkl wrote: post #54

I'm using OS X for all my desktop needs, which are coding, network- and sysadmin things, along with the occasional writing and whatever else a single-person developer shop needs to do. Here's why: 1. OS X is the clear choice for a desktop system that just works and has all the power of Unix underneath. I've used various Unix desktops in the past and they all had one thing in common: You had to spend a lot of time to…

I agree that OS X is a more polished on the desktop, but I think some of your specific issues are not quite accurate.

I use Skype on Ubuntu 12.10 32-bit version (Metacity like 11.x default) it works pretty well without having to manually fix drivers etc. It does work for voice chat without issue.

LibreOffice works well on Ubuntu, Windows, and probably OS X for those pesky .doc files.

Re: Poll: What is your primary desktop OS?

#77

Post by sljd »

lucb1e wrote: post #27

Linux at home, Windows and Windows Server at internship. Makes me remember everything I disliked about server administration. Let's just say the commandline is really my thing. Edit: Oh and I got an Android phone that also runs Debian. Perhaps it's interesting to add iOS, Windows Phone and Android to the list? You can vote multiple options anyway.

Why you do not control your server by Powershell then?

Re: Poll: What is your primary desktop OS?

#78

Post by Osmium »

eagsalazar2 wrote: post #69
obviouslygreen wrote: post #46

Linux user here. Aside from being free and running on just about anything, the fact that you're familiar with Linux means you're likely to end up frustrated with UI shortcomings or (intentional) system limitations that you can't get around (by design) in OS X. Of course, if you just happen to love everything Apple has baked inextricably into their OS... then awesome, and you'll certainly be happy! For the rest of us,…

I recently switched to OSX after being exclusively on Linux for 14 years (Redhat 6.0!!). My employer gave me an awesome laptop and I decided to give it a shot. After hearing for so long how great OSX was I was shocked to find out how poor the experience was compared to Unity. Go figure. I'd switch back _today_ but all distros have very bad support for the latest retina MBP. A few years ago I might have done it anyway…

> After hearing for so long how great OSX was I was shocked to find out how poor the experience was compared to Unity. Go figure.

OS X is (in my opinion) miles ahead of Unity at present, which is unsurprising considering Unity is so new -- I imagine some of your discomfit may just come from unfamiliarity. OS X is definitely not for everyone, but I certainly wouldn't say it's poor! Just different, and I appreciate the GUI is frustratingly inflexible if you're used to Linux--but at least that gives it a sense of consistency, so you do get something for it.

If you'd like to give Linux a try on your MBPR, you do have options, e.g. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MacBookPro_Retina Agreed that support isn't great right now, but it's getting better all the time.

Re: Poll: What is your primary desktop OS?

#79

Post by JEVLON »

OS X may not be as reliable as advertised. Most people don't have issues. But my mac has significant issues with any software that needs to be installed. Drag-and-drop installs to the applications directory are fine, but anything like Mac app store, Adobe update manager, or Office Mac installers will not function correctly. My apps also frequently crash. I have lost hours in the double-digits to my unreliable mac. Never had these issues on Windows. Now I'm stuck and unsure about any future mac purchase.

Re: Poll: What is your primary desktop OS?

#80

Post by zarify »

sdfjkl wrote: post #54

I'm using OS X for all my desktop needs, which are coding, network- and sysadmin things, along with the occasional writing and whatever else a single-person developer shop needs to do. Here's why: 1. OS X is the clear choice for a desktop system that just works and has all the power of Unix underneath. I've used various Unix desktops in the past and they all had one thing in common: You had to spend a lot of time to…

I really wish X11 wasn't a factor for OSX anymore. I keep running into software I'd like to run but their "OSX" version requires you to fire up X first. From a speed and a visuals perspective it's pretty terrible.
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