Windows/Mac/Linux.

['Oma Tirea]

Wow. That's a lot ..

I just grew up with Windows.. and I don't know THAT much about all the Linux systems...

As did I.  I prefer the style and flexibility, even if it is a bit buggy.

As for the others:

• Haven't used linux at all.
• Used mac in Elementary school, but that's about it.

[Elektrolurch]

Well... It's pretty complicated to make me happy in terms of styles. Mac is PERFECT. No frames, just a sharp edge. And just a simple colour, no exhausting extra-animations ... And it's been the same for ten years now...

Spoiler

This is MacOs 10.1, released in 2001.




And here we have 10.5, released in 2008. 10.6, the current one, looks the same.

And now just THINK about Windows. 95 and 98 looked okay. xp .. the same. Vista.. had just graphical improvements.. all this Aero-s***. WHAT FOR? And 7 is the same in british racing green

[Tompa'Ivong]

I think in terms of things, Mac seems to be more form and function oriented, as Windows has focused more on looks and redundancy.

[Elektrolurch]

That's right.. another important point is that.. Windows is more or less monopol. So they are the ones who have to bring tons of new products, hardware, software, ... to the people. Of course, everything's just commercialized. And.. I've never, NEVER seen any "updater", "install wizard", "registrator", "registry cleaner" or whatever on a Mac or Linux

Spoiler

Installing and deinstalling a program on a Mac is funny

You download the *.dmg file which is .. let's say 100MB large. When you double-click it, such a window appears.



You just drag and drop the symbol to the place you want to copy it to.

"Copying .. of 300MB", and after about 2-3 seconds, the program is installed.

And to deinstall it, you just move it into the recycle bin.. And it's COMPLETELY gone.

Mac only supports about 100 graphics cards, maybe 50 mainboards, 60 processors, 10 RAMs .. but, yeah, what do we need more for?

But whatever you connect to it; Printer, scanner, camera, webcam, microphone, w-lan card... it knows everything without even thinking..

And... gaming is nothing for a Mac ...

[Niwantaw]

XP is more powerful than 98&95
Vista was bull**** 7 is supposedly the best windows operating system as it's not quite as bloated, more powerful than vista, less glitchy ect ect

I miss XP...

['Oma Tirea]

XP is more powerful than 98&95
Vista was bull**** 7 is supposedly the best windows operating system as it's not quite as bloated, more powerful than vista, less glitchy ect ect

I miss XP...

I have Windows 7, but my school still uses XP.  Even Windows 2000/ME isn't completely down yet....

[Elektrolurch]

http://www.guidebookgallery.org/screenshots

Check this out.

[bommel]

Win2k support will end next week (i.e. July 13th) if I remember right...

[Sіr. Ηaxalot]

http://www.guidebookgallery.org/screenshots

Check this out.

WHY did Microsoft drop the theme used in the pictures of the Win XP beta? The theme I used for most of my Win XP time was an exact ripoff of that theme!
The Windows XP default theme must be one of the ugliest ever imho... It makes me sad that people have created replacement themes for Widnows 7 that looks exactly (well, as close to as possible) like the XP theme.

[Kìte'eyä Aungia]

Installing and deinstalling a program on a Mac is funny

You download the *.dmg file which is .. let's say 100MB large. When you double-click it, such a window appears.

You just drag and drop the symbol to the place you want to copy it to.

"Copying .. of 300MB", and after about 2-3 seconds, the program is installed.

And to deinstall it, you just move it into the recycle bin.. And it's COMPLETELY gone.

Not quite. Many programs will leave user data or the like around the system (the Library folder is one such location), but it's usually pretty easy to clear it all out.

Having a program carry around all its stuff in one location is very nice. It means, among other things, that if you have a friend with a mac you can usually drag and drop applications straight onto the other computer's drive and have them work.

Mac only supports about 100 graphics cards, maybe 50 mainboards, 60 processors, 10 RAMs .. but, yeah, what do we need more for?

But whatever you connect to it; Printer, scanner, camera, webcam, microphone, w-lan card... it knows everything without even thinking..

This is another benefit, if you choose to look at it that way. If the team who creates an application knows exactly what hardware and software their program will be interacting with they can make the end product a lot more stable and smaller to boot. And since Apple knows exactly what hardware and software will be running on your machine, they can make their OS very standards compliant and plug-and-play friendly.

[Muzer]

Software management in most Linux distros is ridiculously easy - you don't even need to bother downloading it from their website! All software is installed, removed or updated from one place - the software repository (about 30000 packages in Ubuntu, the second largest repository after Debian's). The only issues occur if you need something very obscure or new that isn't in the repository or a PPA - in which case, you have to compile it from source, but this usually goes pretty smoothly. Then you can simply use checkinstall to turn it into a regular package that you can easily remove.


Also, pretty much every driver that exists is included with the kernel, so no need to go hunting for drivers usually.

[bommel]

Software management in most Linux distros is ridiculously easy - you don't even need to bother downloading it from their website! All software is installed, removed or updated from one place - the software repository (about 30000 packages in Ubuntu, the second largest repository after Debian's). The only issues occur if you need something very obscure or new that isn't in the repository or a PPA - in which case, you have to compile it from source, but this usually goes pretty smoothly. Then you can simply use checkinstall to turn it into a regular package that you can easily remove.


Also, pretty much every driver that exists is included with the kernel, so no need to go hunting for drivers usually.

In general I agree. You already mentioned that non-repo software can lead to trouble (and I hate that sometimes the software in the repositories is outdated!).

As far as drivers are concerned: That is true but I must admit that I had some major difficulties with Linux drivers in the past, especially with graphic drivers...

[Lisa]

Ubuntu on my laptop & work desktop, CentOS on most of my servers.   I have a Win7 computer for two programs that won't run under Linux, but I remote connect to it when I need to use it.

I've been using Linux for about 13 years.... started with Redhat 4.2 and never looked back.   

[Kekerusey]

Keke rubs hands together in a sort of glee, HRH:

I'm Windows all the way for several reasons:

• It's my job
• It works
• It has the best software
• It has the best supported hardware
• Did I mention it works?

The whole house is hard networked (gigabit) used to be centred around a Windows Server 2008 domain but now just has an LG NAS, every member of my family has their own PC and I have 4. I use Windows 7 Pro primarily, my youngest uses Win 7 home, my oldest XP Pro and my wife has Vista Business. I also have two XP based media PC's, a Vista based work laptop and two AMD based laptops in a drawer (more on those later).

I have no problems with other OS's and have had a long time love/hate relationship with Linux ... I download loads of distros, I know how to do lots of things, I've had it running as my primary OS for weeks at a time (once even did it for 6 months) but no matter what I do I always go back to Windows because, quite simply, I can do everything I want to ... it works. The problem with me & Linux is probably me ... I can do anything I want to in Windows and if I don't know how to I can easily figure or find it out ... when I am trying to do Linux I spend virtually all my time on Linux support forums asking questions (about OS, drivers, applications etc.), getting obtuse answers and eventually getting nowhere. It winds me up something chronic that Linux enthusiasts think their OS should be there, at the No. 1 spot, when their idea of support is to give a few suggestions then eventually throw up their hands in disgust and walk away (it happens to me every single time I try) and the rest of the time I spend fielding all those stupid "Windoze" insults.

Mac's I have no real time for primarily because their aficionado's tend to evangelize (more, if that is possible, than Linux enthusiasts) ... truth is I don't know all that much about Mac's but it's equally true that they are expensive, they don't have the software support Windows does, and their smug evangelistic attitude generates little interest in trying to find out about them. At least with Linux you can see why they are enthusiastic ... it's like a pet project, HRH (and like I say, I find Linux fascinating & infuriating in equal measure).

As to which is the best OS ... I suspect the answer is none, that they are all inherently good OS's and that people love or hate or just use them for various reasons.

Someone mentioned AMD ... another one I am personally passionate about. I have tow AMD based laptops in a drawer. They are in the drawer because I have a deep hatred for them ... on paper I know I shouldn't but I do. Whenever I have serious PC issues (the kind I can't make any sense of) that PC will have an AMD processor ... I can't explain that but it's true. I spent days on the two laptops trying to rebuild at least one of them to a workable state .. I failed, they would always lockup no matter what Windows variant I put on them. I couldn't make Linux work because there were no drivers fr the wireless. So yeah ... every working PC I own has an Intel CPU and almost certainly always will do.

Ironically however, my favourite graphics chip is ATI (owned by AMD) ... oh well!!!

Keke

[hawnuyuna'viyä]

Someone mentioned AMD ... another one I am personally passionate about. I have tow AMD based laptops in a drawer. They are in the drawer because I have a deep hatred for them ... on paper I know I shouldn't but I do. Whenever I have serious PC issues (the kind I can't make any sense of) that PC will have an AMD processor ... I can't explain that but it's true. I spent days on the two laptops trying to rebuild at least one of them to a workable state .. I failed, they would always lockup no matter what Windows variant I put on them. I couldn't make Linux work because there were no drivers fr the wireless. So yeah ... every working PC I own has an Intel CPU and almost certainly always will do.

Ironically however, my favourite graphics chip is ATI (owned by AMD) ... oh well!!!

Keke

The only problem I have ever had with AMD on Windows was caused by intelppm.sys (the Intel drivers!)

[Kemaweyan]

I never had problems with AMD...

[bommel]

I never had problems with AMD...

Me too - except of some legacy graphics driver bug: My X850 has trouble with the DVI connector when I use the official drivers
but that's OT

[Kemaweyan]

I use only nvidia graphic cards

[hawnuyuna'viyä]

I use only nvidia graphic cards

They are no better. It always used to be that Nvidia had to have the high performance cards to make up for their really inefficient drivers.

[Kemaweyan]

This is holy war

But with nvidia there are no problems in Linux. However I often get requests of help from AMD/ATI users (I'm moderator at one russian Linux forum).