Which operating system do you prefer?

[pocaracas]

Windows 7 because it works just about flawlessly and it's beautiful.

Ahahahahahahahahahahahah! Hahahahahahahahaha! Hahah...oh, you were serious?

Depending on what you want to do... it does work... well enough.

Paraphrasing a friend of mine: "These things are only good for one thing: watching porn! That always works!"

[Tiberius]

Depending on what you want to do... it does work... well enough.

I'm in total 100% agreement, however including those caveats don't even come close to mean "flawlessly" and "beautiful".

By the way, I'm not saying OS X is flawless either (though IMO it's one of the more beautiful operating systems out there). If you *really* want a flawless OS, you're going to have to go with some tiny server version of Linux. Strip away all the graphics crap and your little Linux server can run for decades with no problems.

[pocaracas]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

It's best not to argue over it, for I know I'm right and you know you're right.

As for the flawless part... well... windows 7 works much better than any previous version of windows... And can run for days without any problem... just like a linux machine.
Then come the updates requiring a reboot

[JuliaL]

I've been a spectator of the OS wars since the monster IBM and its pet monster Microsoft used the unreasoning influence given them by their lemming customer base to kill CPM, Commodore OS and pretty much all the other (TI, HDOS) fledgling OSes for the PC.  Subsequently Microsoft was able to backstab IBM and establish essentially a monopoly position with Apple OS picking up the scraps.

For a while, there was actually some competition to give customers better products at better prices, but as Microsoft crushed their competition (and the US Justice(sic) Department) we were left with the sole choice of buying their crap again and yet again every few months.  I've never liked paying more than once for a significant capital good unless the 'upgrade' actually provided better performance.  As far as I can tell, in the basic applications: Powerpoint, Access, Excel and Word, no such improvement has been possible once feature creep pegged out and their programmers were reduced to simply moving the controls around in order to justify their paychecks.  My move has been to buy obsolete OS licenses as part of obsolete computers and re-install them on faster machines giving primo performance because the newer machines are designed in conjunction with obese operating systems. (Possibly apocryphal quote from Intel designer, "If we didn't bring your system to its knees every few years, why would you buy a new one?)  For a while, I also held Microsoft stock to play on the non-customer side of the game.
As a side benefit, there are very few virus programmers still interested in W98 or XP. 

There have been a couple of new applications for the desktop: Microsoft crushed Netscape to steal the browser market in the '90s and Google has gotten rich selling their customers information to other ginormous companies, but by and large the only changes have been in menu arrangement.  This provides a benefit to newcomers because they aren't saddled with knowing how to use a piece of software that, as everybody can plainly see, is obsolete and inferior   Hence they can be every bit as expert as operators who've spent years becoming adept.   It gives HR people an endless supply of cheap labor rather than having to pay for experience.

I'm not sure where streaming (that is monetizing in a small way the intellectual property of content producers who would otherwise have it stolen by bit-torrent thieves) is going to end up, but I expect it to fail similarly to open air broadcast media: old re-runs and reality shows that don't cost much to produce.  


But I'm not bitter.

So I voted for XP. It is the last OS from Microsoft where I have full CDs are available for re-installs.  It is where I got off the treadmill and I don't stay current.
I have XP on half a dozen machines on my home network and have never paid more than $30 for a desktop with OS or $40 for a  laptop.  Several of these machines are dual boot Linux because Microsoft has armies of programmers whose job it is to defeat my non-payment for use  of their software and I want an alternative.  It is also because I have adapted LinuxCNC to run a CNC mill I own and to hack a Cricut stencil cutter (from another evil, customer hating company, Craft Edge.)

[AFTT47]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

It's best not to argue over it, for I know I'm right and you know you're right.

As for the flawless part... well... windows 7 works much better than any previous version of windows... And can run for days without any problem... just like a linux machine.
Then come the updates requiring a reboot

I sit in front of my computer virtually every minute I'm home and I don't recall a single hickup with the OS in the 6 years I've been running it.

[Tiberius]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

It's best not to argue over it, for I know I'm right and you know you're right.

There's not really any "right" way of thinking when it comes to operating systems. They all have a purpose, and depending on the way you rank them, a different operating system will come out on top each time.

As for the flawless part... well... windows 7 works much better than any previous version of windows... And can run for days without any problem... just like a linux machine.
Then come the updates requiring a reboot

The "working much better than previous versions" rule applies to pretty much all of Microsoft products though, and most products in general. There are of course exceptions, but generally speaking functionality improves with each version number.

I'm also aware it can run for days without problems. My point was, can it run for years (as servers have to) without problems of having to restart services / the entire OS at multiple points. My experience would be that it cannot, or at least that when compared to Linux based servers, the downtime is far less with Linux.

So I voted for XP. It is the last OS from Microsoft where I have full CDs are available for re-installs.  It is where I got off the treadmill and I don't stay current.

That's just incorrect. When my company bought a copy of Windows 7 a few years back we got a CD with the OS on it. Are you talking about buying a computer from scratch and receiving the OS install CD, because that's not the fault of Microsoft, that's generally the decision of the computer manufacturer (e.g. Dell).

I have XP on half a dozen machines on my home network and have never paid more than $30 for a desktop with OS or $40 for a laptop. 

If you are still running XP then you are really asking for trouble. Microsoft aren't releasing updates for XP anymore, and that's been the case for over a year now.

I sit in front of my computer virtually every minute I'm home and I don't recall a single hickup with the OS in the 6 years I've been running it.

Then you either have bad recall or are one of the exceptionally lucky few.

[Cato]

DOS





Seriously, I'm a chameleon when it comes to operating systems and will adapt to whatever platform I'm given.

[dyresand]

I put windows 8.1 i'm torn between that and my own custom build of Linux with native windows support.

[AFTT47]

I put windows 8.1 i'm torn between that and my own custom build of Linux with native windows support.

Native Windows support? How?

[pocaracas]

As for the flawless part... well... windows 7 works much better than any previous version of windows... And can run for days without any problem... just like a linux machine.
Then come the updates requiring a reboot

The "working much better than previous versions" rule applies to pretty much all of Microsoft products though, and most products in general. There are of course exceptions, but generally speaking functionality improves with each version number.

I'm also aware it can run for days without problems. My point was, can it run for years (as servers have to) without problems of having to restart services / the entire OS at multiple points. My experience would be that it cannot, or at least that when compared to Linux based servers, the downtime is far less with Linux.

On windows, most updates don't require a reboot... but some do... and it's pretty much abusive towards that requirement.
But that's windows for work or home computers...
There are windows for servers that work differently... Also windows embedded can work for years without a reboot...

So I voted for XP. It is the last OS from Microsoft where I have full CDs are available for re-installs.  It is where I got off the treadmill and I don't stay current.

That's just incorrect. When my company bought a copy of Windows 7 a few years back we got a CD with the OS on it. Are you talking about buying a computer from scratch and receiving the OS install CD, because that's not the fault of Microsoft, that's generally the decision of the computer manufacturer (e.g. Dell).

No, that is also incorrect... you got a DVD with windows 7, not a CD!