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What's Your Operating System of Choice? #55306 10/31/09 12:57 AM
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Az4x4 Offline OP
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Most computer users run some version of M$ Windows. Some have opted for Mac OS-X, whole others increasingly run one of today's modern Linux desktop OS systems.

My computing career began in the late '80s in the graphic industry on Macs. From there I migrated into early versions of Windows as computing at home caught on. I might have stayed with Macs for home use but they were too expensive for my pocket book, so small PC's were what I learned about computers on.

Time went by, hardware got faster, better, and at the same time less costly if you knew where to look. However Windows struggled as it sought to improve, and those improvements came ever so slowly. By the time XP hit the market, Windows was all pervasive yet universally disliked on many levels.

However Windows XP (I almost typed "XT"!) was a far better OS than its predecessors, and it came to dominate the market. Mac hung on but just barely, that is until Steve Jobs signed on once again as Apple's CEO. From that point MAC began to recover lost ground, and by the time Windows Vista was launched Mac had begun to dominate in many areas.

Steve Ballmer, who took over from Bill Gates as Microsoft's CEO, admits now that Vista was a complete public relations disaster for the company. However at its launch Vista was said to be (far too optimistically) the OS that would revolutionize computing. And in a way it did, because Vista, save for a die hard core of advocates, was as hated in its own way as Windows ME was back in the day. However Vista provided great emphasis to the continued and progressively improved development of Linux as a desktop OS, as well as paving the way for the Microsoft slamming Mac OS commercials we all laugh at these days.

Now comes Windows 7, and if we are to believe those funny Mac commercials nothing much will change. Windows will still be the chump system it always was according to Mac's commercial makers, and your only real choice will be Mac's OS-X in its latest iteration if what you're looking for is "cool" and "slick".

However, for whatever it's worth, I have two desktop machines that I use for graphic work running Windows XP Pro, an older P4 Laptop running Linux, and a newer core2 laptop running Windows 7 Ultimate. At this point I will say, without hesitation, that Windows 7 is a far better OS than Vista ever was, with a user friendly solid feel to it that's just plain fun to work with again. I hated Vista for many reasons, but Windows 7 has my vote as the OS that Microsoft has sought to offer us for years, but somehow, until now, failed to deliver.

I still love the relative simplicity of XP. My Linux Mint laptop system is the equal of any OS I've ever run, and clearly better in a great many ways. Nevertheless from what the word on the street is right now, it looks as if Microsoft scored big time with their Windows 7 offering, and while it may be too little too late for some, the vast majority will quickly fall in love with W7 as their OS of choice.

So, what's your OS of choice right now, and why?


..I'd rather have questions I can't answer, than answers I can't question.. Dr. Phil
Re: What's Your Operating System of Choice? [Re: Az4x4] #55307 10/31/09 03:39 AM
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George - I've run Windows systems going back to 2.1. As you are aware Xerox was the company that introduced the GUI point and click stuff. They, of course, were a copier company so the rest is history. No windows system I've ever used runs well. By running well I mean an O/S that works properly given all normal computing situations. Some theorize that computers and software have transcended man's abilities to manage and design with said technology. Hence the bug ridden software we eat, sleep and drink. Windows also put the small developers out of business too. Unlike Apple, windows O/S comes from one place and the hardware it runs on comes from another place. With Apple it's all under one roof. But some good software was able to be written for Windows early O/S systems. One that comes to mind was Aldus PageMaker 5. I spent thousands of hours with that program and never (and I mean never) did I see any bugs or issues. That product ran with perfection and everything worked as it should. Adobe now owns it. You would think that with the resources Microsoft has it would have been able to create a stable version of its windows product. It's had some 20+ years to evolve it. Enter internet automatic updates every day!! What gives with this. Some years back when companies distributed on floppies and CDs they thought twice about being careful to get it right.

This situation would improve when Microsoft no longer controls a captive O/S market. Freeware and open source software are these company's biggest nightmares. Let's hope it's a kick in the ass to make better products for everyone.

Going back further, Microsoft's C5.1 compiler and macro assembler was another perfect product. I'd run hundreds of thousands of lines of code through that compiler and it never ever crashed or generated bad executable files. DOS 5.1 was much simpler and it worked. So it can be done.

PHP and SQL have brought back a lot of small developers working on server based applications. This board is one such product. Really nice to see that. It might be the O/S sort of goes away as browsers begin to become more powerful. A PC can run a smart browser and be like the old dumb terminals were in days of IBM 360 mainframes.

Now my work station is a Rain Recording dual core notebook with a specially tuned XP Pro O/S and so far it runs well (relatively speaking). You can see some video HERE that was edited down on that system. It is truly amazing how far PCs have come. I remember back in 1978 working on an Imlac graphics PC with 8K or core memory and 8" floppies. I was developing a graphics system library using Fortran and PDP 8 assembly language. Small programs took 45 minutes to compile. Even with today's PCs bugs and faults it's almost a miracle what can be done on them now. Charles Babbage conceived of today's modern day computer over 150 years ago. He's best known for building his difference engine. Back then the machine he conceived of - something to read instructions automatically, process data and output results just couldn't be built with gears, levers and mechanical parts none of which were standardized. He was a professor of mathematics at Cambridge University. Anyway it truly is amazing what man can create. Would be interesting to see the looks on the faces of the people that will be digging us up after the flash in the sky.


Evolve & Simplify
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Re: What's Your Operating System of Choice? [Re: Muniac] #55309 10/31/09 04:20 AM
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Personally my OS of choice is XP Pro at the present.

I know many will have a passion for this one or that one, but, in the end a computer is a tool, and what is best, is what works best.

I have been a computer tech long before the PC existed. I have worked on many huge systems and my first usable home computer whas the TRS-80 Color Computer I (the CoCo 1) from Radio Shack. smile

That's right! A power house with 16kb of memory and a .5 Mhz 8-bit CPU, the 6809 series from Motorola!

For an interesting read of the history of the Micro Computer take a look at this: http://www.timtaylor.net/tech/History%20Of%20The%20Microcomputer%20Revolution.htm

A truly great piece of history that the author (Frank Delaney) kindly let me post on my site! smile


Last edited by OhioTim; 10/31/09 04:21 AM.

OhioTim
Re: What's Your Operating System of Choice? [Re: OhioTim] #55311 10/31/09 05:42 AM
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XP Pro is what I use all day long on the job. XP on my personal desktop at home. Mac OS-X on my Powerbook. Don't remember the Mac OS version on my Mac IISi!

For the most part, I detest Windows. Nothing is ever simple -or constant -with Windows.

Now that Macs use Intel chips and can run Windows along with OS-X, my next desktop will be a Mac also. Simple, and oh, so dependable! Years ago I used my wife's Apple IIE; the very first computer I bought for myself was a Mac IISi in 1991 - got it out of a pawn shop in Reno! A powerhouse for its time - 5 megs of ram and an 80 meg hard drive. 18 years later that thing works just fine! It is hooked up to an Apple Imagewriter dot-matrix printer (remember those??) and I use the setup occasionally when I need an impact printer. Yes, Macs are more expensive. But they last forever and me, I hate changing to a new computer and having to transfer everything over from the old one and then putting up with all the incompatibilities that need to be ironed out. Never have had an anti-virus program installed, and never had a virus. So I have to say my operating system of choice is anything Mac.


Worshipper of sun and wild country.
Re: What's Your Operating System of Choice? [Re: Deserteagle56] #55313 10/31/09 06:12 AM
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Mornin' Guys n Gals,

I'd been a home PC user for about 10 years or so and found that, no matter which product I used, that the systems 'ground to a halt' after around 2 to 2.5 years. At this point they'd go back to the repairers and I'd be told it would cost £**** to fix and I'd be better off buying another! I gave up on my third PC, saved up my hard earned dosh and bought an Apple Imac. Since then I haven't had a single problem. OK the transfer was a shock to my brains OS but I'm glad I've changed. I'm not the most computer literate person on the planet but I found the change over to be one of my better decisions! Let's hope this situation continues for years to come.


Reggie

Team Cabra, Brazilian XT225, Team Ukulele, Japan import XT225, a 250 to be named and loads of 2 stroke Kawasaki AR's!
Re: What's Your Operating System of Choice? [Re: Reggie] #55315 10/31/09 06:24 AM
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I've been a Mac man, myself, Reggie, for quite a few years. I have been doing most of my work on a MacBook for the last two years, but we have two old Macs, here at home. One (OS 9) has been running since 1995, and the other (first generation OSX has been running problem free for five years. I've used Microsoft operating system computers in various settings, but have never owned one. We looked for a laptop for one of my daughters this last summer, the PC's had lower base costs, but were no bargains when you take into account the cost of virus software over a couple of years.


LRJ Take time to play. / '07 xt225/'00 TT-R250
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Re: What's Your Operating System of Choice? [Re: LRJ] #55317 10/31/09 06:39 AM
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Hi LRJ,

I'm hoping the longevity of the Mac will far outweigh the initial costs. When I asked for recommendations, at the time of replacement, the Mac kit won hands done, so I hope this democratic decision proves to be the right one.


Reggie

Team Cabra, Brazilian XT225, Team Ukulele, Japan import XT225, a 250 to be named and loads of 2 stroke Kawasaki AR's!
Re: What's Your Operating System of Choice? [Re: Reggie] #55319 10/31/09 11:03 AM
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I'm using the latest version of Ubuntu Linux (9.10) on my old PC (1.4 Athlon and 1mb ram). No issues with speed and no spyware problems with the usual precautions. It's free so give it a try - you can even download a 'live' CD to try it without touching your current OS. Goes much faster when installed though. You can even run the live CD with no working hard disk in your PC so it's a handy backup anyway.

http://www.ubuntu.com/


Colin
Re: What's Your Operating System of Choice? [Re: Colin Reed] #55320 10/31/09 01:09 PM
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I started with IBM in 1968 as a system engineer on mainframes. The first system I installed was a IBM 360 model 30 with 12k of memory so I have seen a lot of changes. It had a 2k operating system.

We use to sell a $5 million dollar (1980's dollars) computer room full of hardware that you can now blow away now with a $300 PC.

When we finally got a one mega byte system we could rule the world.

Now I have a ASUS Eee running some kind of Linux and my wife has a new ASUS Eee running some kind of XP. I really don't care what operating system I run since our requirements are simple. That said, what we are doing now with our note books was not even imaginable back in 1968.


Vince - 2009 TU250X
Re: What's Your Operating System of Choice? [Re: Barnone] #55321 10/31/09 02:13 PM
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I have been a Mac fan like Reggie since our kids learned on the old Apple 2C. I currently am on my third iMac OS 2004 vintage and with Windows for Mac, I can convert all types of Appleworks files to Windows XP for sending to clients I consult for. Laptop is a PC as is wife's desktop which continually has problems. Someday, MS will figure it out and it will have a system as good as Macintosh.


2005 XT225 Dunlop 606 front Kenda 760 rear fuel screw 3 turns 130 main 42.5 pilot Z1 mod 1/2 snorkel, UNI filter. Bill's footpeg
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