What is your operating system of choice?

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No preference really. Whatever meets my needs/wants. Right now, that's Windows XP/Vista. I like Mac OS, but at the same time, I like to game a bit and unless things have changed a lot recently, Macs have never been too flash in that area. Same goes for Linux.

I've had a long battle of being torn between Windows and Linux. In the Windows world, everything just works, and there's never a fight to get things the way I want them. Windows Vista's Aero GUI is beautiful, and I can run all sorts of programs on it. All the games I want to play are Windows-only, and I'm really sick of the hardware compatibility issues associated with Linux. I have two massive external hard drives that for many reasons cannot use FAT32, so I'd have to either use a Linux filesystem on them, in which case, they'd be useless for moving onto another computer, or use NTFS, in which case, Linux couldn't use them.

On the other hand, I really love the free nature of Linux. Free as in I don't have to pay for it. Free as in I can do whatever I want with my own copy without having to worry about things like activation holding me back. Free as in I can choose what software is in it and what software isn't, instead of being forced to include all sorts of things I don't need. I'll take the arrogance of the Linux community over the appalling greed of Microsoft any day, and with Linux, I really feel like I'm a part of something good. There are even compatibility reasons for me to be using Linux. My favorite image editor, instant messenger, personal information manager, browser, and text editor are all Linux only, because they're KDE apps.

So what I've been doing is simply using an EasyVMX-generated virtual machine with VMWare player. This allows me to run Windows Vista as my true operating system, but run Linux in a window. The virtual machine, from a software standpoint, acts like a separate computer in that I can network it like one. I can also enable it to access my external hard drives without it having to properly understand NTFS, so I can sync my data between the two no problem. Compatibility is no issue if I'm running both of them at the same time, unlike a dual boot, where you must close everything and wait 20 minutes for Vista to boot if you need to play a Windows game. I found I hated VMWare Player's interface, however, so I got a program for Windows to minimize the VM window to the system tray. I then use NoMachine's remote access software to see the GUI in a more pleasant window. I actually have two Linux VMs in my system tray, though the other is a server so I don't access it graphically. For the server, I installed Ubuntu Server. For the workstation, I also use Ubuntu, but rather than getting one of the predefined software choices, like Ubuntu Desktop, Kubuntu, or Xubuntu, I use the Ubuntu Alternate install CD to install a basic command line system, then only install the stuff I actually want. This results in a much faster and more stable system.

I'm currently playing with the Alpha builds of KDE4 for Windows. At this point, I've only found a singe app stable enough to actually function, but the fact that most of these applications do start means that KDE on Windows is now finally a tangable, inevitable outcome. Ubuntu doesn't get a new release every day, meaning I either have to deal with the hassles of compiling things, or use the out-of-date software that comes with the distro. When KDE 4.1 comes out (which will apparently be the first to officially support Windows), there will be much less of a need for Linux, and running KDE on Windows will actually be a better experience because I'll be able to get newer software than on Linux with a simple installer. We'll see though. I really do like Ubuntu, and I want to keep it around.

I'm also a bit surprised at the popularity of Windows 98. Windows 98 is now a 10-year-old operating system. Support for Windows 98, even in the form of vital security updates, was discontinued by Microsoft in 2006. Most modern software does not run on Windows 98, and even the new Firefox, due to the porting of the graphics library to Cairo, won't support 98 either. Windows 98 has a reputation for being extremely stable and reliable, but that's really only in relation to other DOS-based versions of Windows like Windows 95 or ME. Windows 98, when compared to something like Windows Vista or Linux, really doesn't do well. 98's compatibility with older apps is now pretty irrelevant because of DOSBox, which does a much better job than DOS running overtop of the Windows GUI running over top of DOS. I respect people's choice to use what they want, but I really am puzzled over this from a logical standpoint, and I'd like to know more about why people continue to make this choice. Perhaps it is something I'm just too ignorant to understand.

Windows XP however, studying Debian (because I hate updating every six months like Ubuntu)

XP Pro at home, Ubuntu at work.

I have 2 desktop pc's (one is for personal stuff and the other is my server) and 3 laptops (all are really old and are complete POSes... but hey, they were free) at my house, 2 pcs and 2 macs at my dads house. My personal computer at my house is running Windows XP and Mandriva 2008, my server is running Mandriva 2007, of the 3 laptops I only use one of them and it is running Mandriva 2006, my pc at my dad's house is running XP and used to run Mandriva 2008 (but not anymore), the other pc is supposed to be my grandmothers but nobody uses it and it is running windows 98, and my mac is running os 10.4 (I only really use it for video editing), my other mac is an old centris(i think thats what its called) 650 so its usless. In the past I have tried Redhat 6.2, Fedora Core 4, Mandrake 9.1, Windows 3.1, NT4, 95b, Memphis, 98SE, 2000 Pro, ME, XP (home and pro), Vista beta, and DOS 6.2. Of all of them I have to say the one OS that I have had the least problems with is Windows XP Pro.

I use XP on my older computers and vista on my better ones. I also have a ubuntu in my basement.
By the way, XP runs great on my 8 year old laptop. (500mhz 450 megs of ram)

If my computer, a Dell Optiplex with 256 MB of ram and 400 MHz Intel Celeron, could run Ubuntu, than more than likely, I would kick Windows XP Professional SP2 out. If there was a certain version of Windows that Microsoft still cherished, Windows 98 SE, I would use that too. Whenever React OS is in beta stages... Oh how I might just leap on that. Windows...nice track record...like a roller coaster. Mac OS X: Not seen in action ever. Last I saw was system 8 or 7. Linux: 100,000,000+++ versions to choose from...so does it have my name in it? Is it Pokémon oriented?

My OS of choice these days is Solaris 10 on Sun hardware. (SunBlade 2000)

Solairs has been my main desktop OS since Solaris 2.6 was current. although I did use IRIX 6.5.11 side by side with my tadpole back then as well. (and I really wish SGI would open source more of IRIX like the package manager they had and the indigo magic desktop which really puts things like gnome and KDE to shame. I mean XFS is cool and all but I think they could have given away more particularly now when they are no longer making IRIX or MIPS hardware anymore sadly)

Next after Solaris and IRIX I would put BSD particularly FreeBSD.

after that I would say Slackware Linux.


I use all of the above plus a mix of NetBSD and OpenBSD in my work and at home.

I unfortuantely need to run windows in a vmware to use stuff like quickbooks and IE and to use the vmware machine as a gateway to networks that have windows only vpn client support.

Mac OS X

winxp and ubuntu (gutsy gibbon). hoping to eventually migrate over to not needing windows though that doesn't seem to be in the near future yet.

Minerva