Best Operating System?

[B3astinSnipes]

Linux?? U serious people windows and mac are a million times better.also i prefer mac cuz i get the best of both worlds windows and mac.( but windows is still number 1

)

 

[Sausage Head]

windows is easy, and the market leader
linux distros are open-source, secure and customizable
mac is

with a iTouch to the iSystem with iShiny iApple iLogos iAttach?ed to it in iWhite iColor

 

[axioanic]

I go for Linux, but Bluetooth management for keyboards seem to suck with all the distros I've tried, so lately I've been running windows.

and netflix can't work with linux because of Silverlight, so that's a big deal too ..

 

[skateboard34]

Microsoft>Mac.
Take that, Steve Jobs.

 

[jargus]

Using a Mac is just irritating. I don't like its interface at all. Windows has always worked for me. Eventually I'll try Linux when I have the time and the disk space to mess with it.

 

[blackrider]

Every time I've owned a computer that worked like shit with windows Linux fixed the problem. Windows gets all fucked up after running it about a year. If you don't have antivirus you're totally screwed. I don't trust windows to conduct any business on line not after the development of the development of viruses that can't be detected by any software.

 

[MakiManPR]

Windows>Mac
Android>IOS>Windows Mobile

 

[JonthanD]

All OS's are great, the real question is what do you want to do with your hardware? After that the OS to use becomes easier to pick.

The one exception is Mac since you have to either buy a whole machine from Apple or run it hacked.

My personal preference is Windows 7 right now on hardware that can run it, then on lower end hardware Linux of a flavor depending on how out of date the hardware is.

Windows 9X-XP is to be avoided like the plague, even Vista is better then XP these days (Although at one point in time I swore I would resist switching to Vista as long as possible. Then I was forced to use it at home so I could better support it on my job... All I can say is it grew on me.)

Edit: Another great question is 32 or 64 bit? My preference is 64 bit even if you do not have over 4GB's of RAM the sole reason for that is most virus's or malware has trouble with the added security of 64 bit memory management. Vista and 7 share a great feature called ASLR fantastic for people like me who have to clean up machines...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Address_space...t_randomization

 

[Nujui]

It's between Windows and Linux for me. I especially like XP,and I found Ubtunu(I can't spell it) to be good as well.

 

[Deleted-236924]

I have no aversion to Linux, I just find it very time consuming to find everything I want for the system. Windows is just simple, if not a bit rigid, and I don't have to spend all day trying to figure out how to make some obscure piece of hardware play nice with the OS, or how to make some crappy video format to convert to another one without compiling a program that's not in the repository, and I have no clue whether or not it will actually run on the version of Linux i'm running.

/rant

Example: trying to install Firefox 4.

 

[Yu-Gi-Oh 100]

"Best Operating System?"

the one im using now...xp is the only operating system.

 

[Nimbus]

Freaking Arch Linux!

I freaking love it....

Everything I want and need...

Of course I have to work for a bit on it, sure the installer isn't as user friendly I have to install xorg and quite a few other things before I get a GUI, sure I have to install alot of stuff separately, but I'm not being force-fed things I don't want.

Best part if, for me, everything just works!

Of course, there are Linux Distros out there that are new-user friendly.

I apologize, I just cant seem to grasp why some people don't try something new. I try a new distro every time I get the chance. Heck, Linux was the reason I was able to stop using Windows..it gave me something different...something I apparently enjoy.

 

[Ikki]

Never touched a Mac.

Performance:
1.Linux
2.Windows

Windows is easier to use though.

Design:
1.Windows
2.Linux
3.Mac

MacOS' GUI is fucking ugly. I guess for Linux it depends on the distro. And Windows' are pretty good looking.


As for Laptops, I dunno.


[/opinion]

 

[paul1991returns]

I have no aversion to Linux, I just find it very time consuming to find everything I want for the system. Windows is just simple, if not a bit rigid, and I don't have to spend all day trying to figure out how to make some obscure piece of hardware play nice with the OS, or how to make some crappy video format to convert to another one without compiling a program that's not in the repository, and I have no clue whether or not it will actually run on the version of Linux i'm running.

/rant

Example: trying to install Firefox 4.

Uhh...
sudo apt-get install firefox

I'm not really sure what your point was. Installing programs that are already in the repo is easy. No searching for exe's. No sifting through "Free trial" or "Shareware" crap.
If it's not in to repo, there is probably a .deb, or at least an install.sh (Like exe) on the developers site.

BTW, I use linux. I've been a registered linux user for nearly 4 years.

 

[Nimbus]

I have no aversion to Linux, I just find it very time consuming to find everything I want for the system. Windows is just simple, if not a bit rigid, and I don't have to spend all day trying to figure out how to make some obscure piece of hardware play nice with the OS, or how to make some crappy video format to convert to another one without compiling a program that's not in the repository, and I have no clue whether or not it will actually run on the version of Linux i'm running.

/rant

Example: trying to install Firefox 4.

Uhh...
sudo apt-get install firefox

I'm not really sure what your point was. Installing programs that are already in the repo is easy. No searching for exe's. No sifting through "Free trial" or "Shareware" crap.
If it's not in to repo, there is probably a .deb, or at least an install.sh (Like exe) on the developers site.

BTW, I use linux. I've been a registered linux user for nearly 4 years.

Heck yeah! Love seeing a fellow Linux user, what distro do you use?

I've only been a Linux user since late 2008, but I so love it.

Oh and that's what I mean with your post, what part of

sudo apt-get install insertprogramhere (Ubuntu/Debian/Mint/Direvative)
sudo yaourt install programgoeshere (Arch)
sudo pacman install programname (Arch)
sudo yum install programzorz (Fedora)


do people not grasp? Is it that they are afraid of the command line, it's not that scary. Heck when you learn to use it, the power...oh god the power is so incredible!

 

[ZeWarrior]

Performance: OS X / Windows 7
OS X - You can easily multitask on OS X and keep plenty of apps open with little to no slow down, and it is just a snappy OS in general.
Windows 7 - Same as above, not as quick with some things (boot up/restart) but it's still good!

Design - OS X / Linux
OS X - Snow Leopard is just beautiful.. 'nuff said.
Linux - Compiz Fusion is sexy too!

Laptops - OS X
OS X - IMO, Apple by far makes the best looking laptops, Macbook Pros are just too awesome to look at, though some other Windows laptops look great too.

My take on them..

 

[pokefloote]

I finally made the full switch from Windows 7 to Ubuntu 11.04. I have an old system so the Unity 2D works for me, and runs way better than 7 ever did. When I want to play a windows game I just use my old laptop, everything else can be done with Ubuntu.

Programs are easily installed, people are just afraid of the terminal. Or they just don't want to use Banshee over their precious iTunes or something like that when they do the same thing, PLAY MUSIC.

 

[kamins]

I've been using Windows for almost 8 years and Linux almost for a year now, never touched OS X. Currently running Arch + Xfce4 on my desktop and it is in perfect balance between performance, usability and eye candy.

 

[Ringo619]

ive used ubuntu before and i did't really like it was confusing , win7 is just simple and yet it has so many things you can do with it.

 

[Nimbus]

This biggest merit with Linux in my opinion is

99% of the time (Mostly when it doesn't deal with propriatary drivers or whatnot), you have access to the source code.

This is the biggest tool in existence, having the source code to an application or utility means you can literally do anything and everything you would want to do with it. I mean sure it's not got much purpose if you don't do alot of programing or coding, but it's still there.

The only exceptions to this rule are proprietary drivers and whatnot, such as Broadcom Wireless drivers, and even some of those are being released under free and/or OSS licenses.

You do have to adhere to the license that the code is made available under (Eg GNU GPL V2/3 or any varients of it, CCL, etc), but it gives you so much control.

I'm not saying Windows is bad and nobody should use it (Although I personally detest using it for any reason, "*cough* slowclunkyarchaictoomuchpropriatarycrapnotenoughsourcecode *cough*. I don't even do native install), but I do believe people should broaden their horizons once in awhile in terms of OS use, even if you're a Linux user. It never hurts to try another distro or whatnot.

Mac OSX is just a BSD based unix system, and personally I'm not entirely keen on it either. It doesn't mean it or BSD is bad, I just don't like the way BSD and OSX handle things. This is coming from someone who runs on a Mac just as a heads up, kind of ironic maybe? No, not really, I do enjoy GPT support and EFI bootloading (BIOS's FTL)

I hardly use Mac OSX except for mucking with my Jailbroken 2nd gen iPod touch (Which might be getting replaced soon). I agree the interface is nice, but too over-polished and unthemable without breaking stability for me. Again, not saying that it's a bad OS, I don't wish to imply that. I'm sure it works for many people it's just not my cup of coffee.

All in all, I prefer variety over being forced to use a certain dock or set of programs, it gives me something to fall back on in case something breaks. Heck, I use Debian as a fallback distro in case Arch completely breaks (Never had it happen, but you never know). I'd use Gentoo if their documentation was a bit better (Never been keen on having to untar the actual system files manually to install it. Gonna try to install it in a VM sometime and see how it goes.