Windows, because I can throw together a simple app in a day, and know that almost anybody in the world is going to be able to use it.

Example: in one day, I made a SQL database of lists of words, a program using mci to record and trim audio, LAME to encode it to .mp3, and presto! After one day's work (well, okay final version took 2 or 3), I had a full set of phonics resources on my homepage, and an app that I could install straight off my homepage and let teachers run on our work computers to record even more words.

This would simply not be possible in any other environment.


My #2 would be Android, because it's so ubiquitous, but that's not one of the choices for this thread.

(March 11, 2017 at 12:34 am)Sterben Wrote: They perform better over all and they don't cost a lot of money (Unlike Macs), which are way over priced and under powered. The lack of options is something that is concerning. I'll give Apple credit, they do make a nice looking product, but the OS is the major problem with them.

I used to feel the exact same way. Then I needed to learn the mac OS for work so I bought a mac. Actually I take that back. I felt the same way for a while after I bought the mac and started using it. It took me a month or two to get comfortable with the OS but once I learned it was I fine with is as an OS and I realized part of the reason macs always seemed to be under spec'd was because the OS runs great and does just as much just as fast on less horsepower than would be required to achieve similar performance from a windows box. However like you, I still felt the machines were way overpriced for what you got. 


It took about six years for me to change my opinion on that. Because six years later my wife handed me her 14 month old laptop and said its running like crap and won't charge. I dug in and found the power port was eff'd and needed to be replaced which is a job I could do myself if I wanted. But the time it would take to fix hers was time I would not be able to do work on paying client machines. By the time you factor in the lost client billable hours, it was more cost effective just buy her another new machine. I say another new machine because this was a recurring theme. Buy her a machine, 14 to 18 months later, its time for a new machine. 

Meanwhile I was still  using the macbook I'd bought 6 years earlier and it still ran just as fast then as it did when I'd bought it and I'd had to invest nearly zero hours in maintaining it over that time.

When I added up what we'd spent on my macbook vs what we'd spent on keeping my wife in working laptops over the previous six years, suddenly my macbook didn't seem so expensive anymore. In fact it actually MUCH cheaper.

The next day we went to best buy and bought her a macbook air. That was six years ago. She's still using it. We would have spent double the money in that time had we tried to keep her in working PC laptops.

Linux >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Android>>>>>>
Windows >

(March 11, 2017 at 11:28 am)johan Wrote:

(March 11, 2017 at 12:34 am)Sterben Wrote: They perform better over all and they don't cost a lot of money (Unlike Macs), which are way over priced and under powered. The lack of options is something that is concerning. I'll give Apple credit, they do make a nice looking product, but the OS is the major problem with them.

I used to feel the exact same way. Then I needed to learn the mac OS for work so I bought a mac. Actually I take that back. I felt the same way for a while after I bought the mac and started using it. It took me a month or two to get comfortable with the OS but once I learned it was I fine with is as an OS and I realized part of the reason macs always seemed to be under spec'd was because the OS runs great and does just as much just as fast on less horsepower than would be required to achieve similar performance from a windows box. However like you, I still felt the machines were way overpriced for what you got. 


It took about six years for me to change my opinion on that. Because six years later my wife handed me her 14 month old laptop and said its running like crap and won't charge. I dug in and found the power port was eff'd and needed to be replaced which is a job I could do myself if I wanted. But the time it would take to fix hers was time I would not be able to do work on paying client machines. By the time you factor in the lost client billable hours, it was more cost effective just buy her another new machine. I say another new machine because this was a recurring theme. Buy her a machine, 14 to 18 months later, its time for a new machine. 

Meanwhile I was still  using the macbook I'd bought 6 years earlier and it still ran just as fast then as it did when I'd bought it and I'd had to invest nearly zero hours in maintaining it over that time.

When I added up what we'd spent on my macbook vs what we'd spent on keeping my wife in working laptops over the previous six years, suddenly my macbook didn't seem so expensive anymore. In fact it actually MUCH cheaper.

The next day we went to best buy and bought her a macbook air. That was six years ago. She's still using it. We would have spent double the money in that time had we tried to keep her in working PC laptops.

      I watched a lot of videos on the many mac OS's over the years. I could not see the purpose of the lack flexibility in the OS in it self. All of my PC's I've never had a issue with them. Maybe it's because I know how to maintain them so well; monthly defrags, good anti-virus software, opening up files I don't know in VM's before I open them in my real OS ect. I hate the UI on macs, the lack of third party support and them charging for updates which changes nothing. I'm also tired of Mac users  saying "We don't get viruses, and were harder to hack". I've always called a Mac user out of those claims. If you access social media sites on a Mac, Windows, Android, or Linux based O/S you are prone to infections.

       My moms email was getting hacked a lot, I looked at her Windows computer and ran the scans. Nothing was found, I dumped her DNS and she was still getting hacked. It turned out that her Ipad was infected with malware, boy was that a pain in the ass to remove! Ever since then her email is fine now. I double checked all my devices just in case the malware was spreading through her email. I'm standing firmly that her Ipad was infected from facebook. Even before she signed up for it, I warned her not to use social media. But, no one listens to the person who knows what they are doing, till you get trouble.  Why is that always the the case?

---

(March 11, 2017 at 7:38 am)Alex K Wrote: And patronizing and unprofessional. I can'd do shit in Windows without something popping up or it deciding to spontaneously restart while I'm in the middle of something. I would never use it on stage for instance. With Linux, when it's running, it's running, and does what it is supposed to do, one month nonstop if necessary. Not to mention that I write almost everything in LaTeX, and that's just no fun under Windows.

       Do you run Linux on a VM, or are you dual booting?

MacOS for everyday use.
Linux for programming.

Windows because I sometimes have to.

(March 12, 2017 at 12:19 am)SteelCurtain Wrote: MacOS for everyday use.
Linux for programming.

Windows because I sometimes have to.

       Ah, I was waiting for Mac person to enter the battle field. I give you props for programming in Linux, but why Mac for everyday use? I'm going to be an adult about this and not use the typical Mac attack style most people use when they talk about Mac and PC's.

Ahem. When I started programming, it was a monochrome monitor, once we got past the PUNCH CARDS.   I've used IBM360s, PDP11/XX, VAX750/780/XXXX, CRAY Y/MPs, etc., and some other systems that I can't think of right off the top of my head for number crunching. Then there were weird data-acquisition forays into FORTH. I just rolled with whatever the operating system demanded in the way of maneuvering through it. My one experience with a MAC was a TEMPESTED unit that I was doing some programing in FORTRAN on. That thing came up with the little cry face so many times a day that I got to the point of saving after entering every line of code. Once I got that program entered, it crashed with astonishing regularity, with a different error message for what turned out to be the same problem, and it wasn't my code. I wouldn't have another Apple product unless I could give it back to Steve Jobs without lube, at re-entry speeds.

If I wasn't so old now, I'd go with LINUX. But Windows is my interface now, and I guess I'll just keep it that way.

I prefer the Mac's speed and the way that I don't have to roll the dice with upgrades/updates. My windows machine has had 2 catastrophic updates that I've had to roll back because of some fatal flaw since I upgraded to Windows 10.

I have never had an issue like that with OSx. It's not perfect, but it works nearly all of the time.

Also, I need a bash shell readily available.

(March 12, 2017 at 1:09 am)SteelCurtain Wrote: I prefer the Mac's speed and the way that I don't have to roll the dice with upgrades/updates. My windows machine has had 2 catastrophic updates that I've had to roll back because of some fatal flaw since I upgraded to Windows 10.

I have never had an issue like that with OSx. It's not perfect, but it works nearly all of the time.

Also, I need a bash shell readily available.

       Is your systems hardware newer? I've heard a lot older boards and chip sets are not set up to run Windows 10 properly. If you had bought a stock Windows 8 or 8.1 computer, you would been generally fine. If you had a hardware made for Windows seven, and upgraded to ten. A lot of users had issues. I do miss Windows Seven though, she was a great O/S. She has the look and feel of Windows XP in a modern power sense. (I call a lot of software and hardware by a female gender specific, I even call all my Electronics by female names. Sarah, Emily, Jessica, and Sophie. Those are my girls who keep me happy generally.). But, Windows seven is gone sadly.

(March 11, 2017 at 12:34 am)Sterben Wrote: I'll give Apple credit, they do make a nice looking product, but the OS is the major problem with them.

Spoken like a person who hasn't used OS X for any sufficient length of time. The OS is an almost perfect combination of the power of UNIX and a decent GUI.