Windows/Mac/Linux.

[Elektrolurch]

This should definitely be no war!

I just want to know why so many people use Windows, what's the advantage? Mac, yeah, I have one and it works wonderful. Linux... it's free and seems to be much better than Mac and Win together, but you have to know a lot, I guess that's why people don't really use it.

Other questions: What do you use/prefer? Do you have any problems? Blahblah

[Kemaweyan]

I prefer and use Debian GNU/Linux Also have WinXP SP3 as second OS for games (not all games work in wine)

[Elektrolurch]

Yeah I know. WoW worked a longer time ago.. but since I tried it with -- wine /home..../desktop/bubiwow/wow.exe -opengl -- It doesn't want to work at all.

I use XP, Vista, MacOs 10.6.3, Ubuntu 10.04 and soon hopefully MacOs 10.4.11. And my favorite is Mac.

[Kemaweyan]

I can't try Mac, because all my computers are PC's with AMD processors... But, as I know, Mac for PC can work only on Intel processors. But I can be mistaken...

[hawnuyuna'viyä]

This should definitely be no war!

I just want to know why so many people use Windows, what's the advantage? Mac, yeah, I have one and it works wonderful. Linux... it's free and seems to be much better than Mac and Win together, but you have to know a lot, I guess that's why people don't really use it.

Other questions: What do you use/prefer? Do you have any problems? Blahblah

I use Gentoo Linux because I get *a lot* of control over the system. Many of the others (yes Ubuntu, I am looking at you) have put a nice GUI installer on in an attempt to make Linux appeal to the masses, but that goes against the original way with Linux.

The package manager (Portage/Paludis) mean that you are building every package from source with your own choice of options - so every package is compiled against every other one, so no more linking problems (well until you try to upgrade).

It does require a lot of understanding of how the machine works though - I spent around 6 months playing with different Linuxes in VMs on Windows before making the switch. Even then I mucked up my first attempt at install, which resulted in me wiping the partition table of my main drive! (It was fun to rebuild I can assure you). In the end it only took me 3 attempts to get a base install system I was happy with, 6 hours to build KDE, 2 other window managers, and lots of time connecting via ssh to get the machine that I am currently using!

Oh, and to get my graphics tablet work I had to add some more C code to an open source project.

So, in short: If you can program, are a windows power user, and have plenty of time, try Gentoo!

[Elektrolurch]

This was a complicated story... Somehow I got MacOs 10.5.8 for AMD processors (iDeneb), and it worked somehow.. My PC: AMD 6000+ X2, Foxconn A74MX, ATI HD 5770, 3GB of RAM, 750W power supply.

I had problems installing it, but in the end it worked. I just had NO driver for my graphics card.. Apple just supports a few. Plus only one of the two processors were used, ... But it worked. I deinstalled it soon, because it's quite annoying to work with 1024x768 on a 24" monitor.

Ah, and I have a broken G5 Quad at home.. if I ever got it working... I'm sure it's nothing but awesome.

And I'll try Gentoo.

[Kemaweyan]

This was a complicated story... Somehow I got MacOs 10.5.8 for AMD processors (iDeneb), and it worked somehow.. My PC: AMD 6000+ X2, Foxconn A74MX, ATI HD 5770, 3GB of RAM, 750W power supply.

I didn't know about it... Thx. Maybe sometime I'll try it... And I too want to try Gentoo (my friends say what it's very fast system), but can't find the time

[Elektrolurch]

It took me sooo much time, the only system which is actually REALLY working, is my Mac and it's much to slow for my usual tasks ... Maybe a suitable graphics card or something.. and try the iDeneb again..

[Muzer]

Um, I think you would need to be more than a Windows power user to install Gentoo - a Linux power user more like

I've been putting off trying Gentoo for ages. I've used Ubuntu variants, Debian Etch and Lenny, SuSE (shudder), LFS and Puppy in the past, and I've preferred Kubuntu almost always. Sure, Debian is great, but I hate the fact that neither Lenny, Squeeze nor Sid can seem to get the perfect balance of stability vs cutting edge. Ubuntu seems to manage this rather better than Debian, even though there are often quite major cock-ups. Ubuntu also does not appear limited to me - I can do anything in it I can do in any other distro (with the possible exception of Gentoo and the definite exception of LFS).

[Elektrolurch]

Wow. That's a lot ..

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

[Kemaweyan]

I used Windows only almost 4 years. Then was Mandrake 10, Mandriva 2006 - 2008.1, but bugs in Mandriva 2009.0 forced me to go on another system (Debian). Also I tried OpenSolaris, but only to look

[Elektrolurch]

You are a few years elder than me.. so it's nothing special.

[Kemaweyan]

I got first computer when I was 14

[Elektrolurch]

I got my first one when I was nine. Well, I come from a computer-based family.

And this was a 27/40 MHz whatever thingy.
Quite a long time later: 333 mHz.
Then 2,5 single.
3,4 single.
3,0 dual, which I'm still using now. And I love it.

Somewhere inbetween, I got a 2,8 Quad. But I didn't want to use it, because the 3,0 does everything I want it to do.

[Niwantaw]

as far as I can tell...

Windows for games

Mac for most other things

linux for the rest

[Elektrolurch]

Yep right. But every game I play runs perfectly on Mac. Windows is just the s***..

And I hardly need Linux. Things will change.

[Niwantaw]

a lot of of games are not compatible with macs.

About 10 of the ones I own work on a mac so I use a windows computer. All of them work. (more or less)

[Elektrolurch]

Yeah, fine opinion.

[Kemaweyan]

As for me:

Linux for all (and also for games what work on wine)
Windows for new games (what don't work on wine) and sometimes for programming for Windows

I got my first one when I was nine. Well, I come from a computer-based family.

And this was a 27/40 MHz whatever thingy.
Quite a long time later: 333 mHz.
Then 2,5 single.
3,4 single.
3,0 dual, which I'm still using now. And I love it.

Somewhere inbetween, I got a 2,8 Quad. But I didn't want to use it, because the 3,0 does everything I want it to do.

My first PC was Athlon XP 1400MHz with 256Mb RAM and GeForce 4 MX440. Then I bought new computer Athlon 64 3500+ (2.2GHz) with 512Mb RAM and GeForce 7300GT. Later I bought more 512Mb and 1Gb (now there is 2Gb of memory). And in this year my videocard has burned and I bought new GT220. Now there are Athlon 3500+, 2Gb RAM, MSI K9N Ultra nForce 570 mainboard, GeGorce GT220 512Mb GDDR3, 160Gb + 500Gb HDD's.

And second PC is Athlon 3500+, 2Gb RAM, GeForce FX 5600 128Mb, 40Gb + 80Gb + 80Gb HDD's Model of mainboard I do not remember

[Elektrolurch]

Not bad.

What Windows do you use? I bet xp.