Post your OS

[Nexus]

I was curious as to how many folks on here don't run Windows on their rigs. I know myself I run one of the various flavors of Linux and was curious as to how many folks are non-M$ fans.

I know myself I just updated my Distribution of choice, Linux Mint 11 was released a couple of days ago. Since I installed it I've gone and swapped the stock Gnome 2.32 desktop manager for the latest Gnome 3 with the new Gnome Shell.

It's a bit different but it's beats that "Unity" thing Ubuntu is going with, not to mention it's the direction Gnome Desktops will be heading in the future, might as well hop on the train now.

So what non-Windows OS users are out there?

 

[Taylor]

I'm on an iPad atm. My wife's computer has Mac OSX; mine has Windows 7. I use both daily.

 

[Aran]

In the house is one laptop running Win 7 (mine), a laptop running Ubuntu (also mine), a desktop running XPMCE (also... mine), a netbook running Ubuntu (my fiancee's), a desktop running Ubuntu (also hers), and various older systems that have various uses or had at some point running everything from Win2K to randomLinuxDistroOutOfCuriosity. There's even a desktop (That still works and occasionally gets used for the hell of it!) running Windows ME in the house.

But mostly it's the Win7 laptop and Ubuntu netbook/desktop that get used the most.

 

[Cirno]

I use Windows 7 exclusively.
One of these days I'd like to get into Linux, but every time I've tried it, I've ended up needing to do something requires more learning than I can really afford to invest. Eventually I'll get a laptop, and I may set that up with a flavour of Linux, so I still have the Windows desktop for games and such, but I can get used to Linux on an optional system.

 

[Aran]

Dual boot. Or install Linux as a bootable second option on your Windows 7 computer, there's an installer available that basically just takes a chunk of hard drive (Your choice how much) and installs Ubuntu into it and functions the same as a true dual boot.

 

[Cirno]

I'm not really a fan of rebooting
Plus, if I boot into windows for something like playing a free MMO that uses something terrible like nProtect, then there is little point to then booting into Linux to do anything like writing up about it, because everything still works just as well in Windows.
Then, if I run into a problem in Linux that I can't spare the time for, then I have to boot back into windows, which begs the question of "why did I boot into Linux in the first place?".

To put it another way, I can't prioritise "Learning Linux" over "Getting stuff done", even though both are generally positive

 

[Cyphex]

Windows 7

 

[Nexus]

I use Windows 7 exclusively.
One of these days I'd like to get into Linux, but every time I've tried it, I've ended up needing to do something requires more learning than I can really afford to invest. Eventually I'll get a laptop, and I may set that up with a flavour of Linux, so I still have the Windows desktop for games and such, but I can get used to Linux on an optional system.

Try one like Linux Mint, you don't have to install a lot of the distributions these days to check them out, simply burn them to a CD and reboot to start up the "Live CD" of course nothing you do while using the Live CD is saved, but it gives you a chance to tinker around inside a Distribution without committing to anything. Reboot out of the Live CD, and remove the disk and go back to Windows if you want.

I say try Linux Mint because it comes with all the video and audio codecs that are common use, as well as having Flash plugin pre-installed in Firefox, something Ubuntu and many other distro's don't do. The Menu is more like Windows than some distros, they move the task bar to the bottom of the screen and when you open it, you find most your common program stuck to a "Favorites List" such as FF, T-bird, and a Video/Audio player. System Monitor (similar to Task Manager) right there, a click takes you to the different Application categories for you to browse through everything installed. Once you find something if you plan to use it regularly a right click on the launcher will bring up the option to pin it to Favorites as well. The newest release includes a function similar to "Aero Snap" which alot of Windows users like.

I installed a different Desktop Manager over my install of the latest release so for me things are a bit different.

 

[mtbrasher]

Windows 7, currently.

I've used various Linux flavors, Mac OS X, Vista, XP, 2000, OS 9, OS 8, 98, 95, etc...

 

[Capn Kranky]

XP/SP3 - outdated but stable. <shrug> Have used Windows since 3.1 on various systems. Hell, I still have DOS 6.2 around here somewhere. Oh well ... next OS will be Linux.

 

[Spiritless]

It's a bit different but it's beats that "Unity" thing Ubuntu is going with, not to mention it's the direction Gnome Desktops will be heading in the future, might as well hop on the train now.

Or, take the opportunity and hop off it.

KDE seems to be headed in the most sensible direction if you're looking for a full DE right now, it's a very nice environment. Worth trying.

 

[Nexus]

Or, take the opportunity and hop off it.

KDE seems to be headed in the most sensible direction if you're looking for a full DE right now, it's a very nice environment. Worth trying.

I have used KDE, but I have to jump through hoops to get ALSA that comes with every KDE desktop working right with my sound card. Not to mention it eats into my system resources quite a bit more. Because of this I find it easier to use Gnome. If E17 ever manages to get a consistent support team I'll take a look at it, have you seen it before it's pretty slick looking.

 

[Nexus]

I'm on an iPad atm. My wife's computer has Mac OSX; mine has Windows 7. I use both daily.

I try not to touch Apple products, actually one of my hobbies is trying to make the hipsters at the Apple Store drown in their own sorrow after I point out how uninspired and unoriginal all apple products are. I don't think Apple has innovated once in any area the entire time the company has been in existence.

Innovating goes against Steve Jobs personal philosophy.

[YOUTUBE]CW0DUg63lqU[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Spiritless]

I have used KDE, but I have to jump through hoops to get ALSA that comes with every KDE desktop working right with my sound card. Not to mention it eats into my system resources quite a bit more.

Well, ALSA is the standard sound system in 2.6 kernels regardless of desktop environment so your issues were likely elsewhere, probably in how Qt's multimedia API (Phonon) interacts with the sound server (PulseAudio for Ubuntu and derivatives.) It's fairly trivial to adjust how Phonon works within KDE, or to disable PulseAudio/make Phonon work with it, but if you were using a sensible distro (i.e anything other than Ubuntu or a derivative) sound would probably work out of the box!

I've never used Enlightenment. I actually use Fluxbox on my main desktop running Debian Squeeze, KDE on my Slackware box. Some random screens:

[imglink]http://uppix.net/d/0/5/56264d49fe6181fab0041d7955d54t.jpg[/imglink] [imglink]http://uppix.net/7/6/4/4ef269722b305415b96719955ad0ct.jpg[/imglink]

[imglink]http://uppix.net/0/9/1/06a4cc5203e8d3df1b3d2f491e87ct.jpg[/imglink] [imglink]http://uppix.net/d/7/4/bf770cd1868240eda0c52e8d85433t.jpg[/imglink] [imglink]http://uppix.net/4/6/a/ae28209daf8361ead48c900ab3bc6t.jpg[/imglink]

 

[Nexus]

Well, ALSA is the standard sound system in 2.6 kernels regardless of desktop environment so your issues were likely elsewhere, probably in how Qt's multimedia API (Phonon) interacts with the sound server (PulseAudio for Ubuntu and derivatives.) It's fairly trivial to adjust how Phonon works within KDE, or to disable PulseAudio/make Phonon work with it, but if you were using a sensible distro (i.e anything other than Ubuntu or a derivative) sound would probably work out of the box!

I've never used Enlightenment. I actually use Fluxbox on my main desktop running Debian Squeeze, KDE on my Slackware box. Some random screens:

[imglink]http://uppix.net/d/0/5/56264d49fe6181fab0041d7955d54t.jpg[/imglink] [imglink]http://uppix.net/7/6/4/4ef269722b305415b96719955ad0ct.jpg[/imglink]

[imglink]http://uppix.net/0/9/1/06a4cc5203e8d3df1b3d2f491e87ct.jpg[/imglink] [imglink]http://uppix.net/d/7/4/bf770cd1868240eda0c52e8d85433t.jpg[/imglink] [imglink]http://uppix.net/4/6/a/ae28209daf8361ead48c900ab3bc6t.jpg[/imglink]

I've tried a couple of distros, Gentoo, Fedora, etc. biggest thing that gets me coming back to Linux Mint is it really a more complete setup out of the box than anything I've seen.

I installed Fedora 15 a couple days ago it lasted about 4 hours, as soon as I found out that they only have 64-bit builds of WINE available for the 64 bit version it went, Mint uses 32 bit builds of WINE on it's 64 bit repos, which work with much more software. Too much hassle for me to have to do several work arounds just to get UOAssist to run, not to mention getting LOTRO working.

But seriously my soundcard isn't only the list of those supported by ALSA, having the Pulse overlay fixes it, and I enjoy not having to add it and getting it setup myself. Generally what happens when I install a KDE desktop, I can get sound but I can't use a mic, this is no good for me when I'm recoding videos or using Mangler to join a guilds vent channel.

 

[Aran]

one of my hobbies is trying to make the hipsters at the Apple Store drown in their own sorrow after I point out how uninspired and unoriginal all apple products are

Wow. How edgy of you.

 

[Nexus]

Wow. How edgy of you.

What that I don't think people should make purchases based on misinformation and false truths some company spews out?

Like when the Mac-Defender thing hit Apple users, the Tech Support guys were specifically instructed to deny it's existence and refuse the help customers with it because "Apple computers don't get virus'"

 

[astonix]

I personally have Windows 7 on this laptop. I then have a spare PC which runs Debian. It's basically just a storage PC though, or sometimes a web server. On top of that, I have a Mac as well as I prefer it for design. There's something about Apple's marketing which means unless you have one of their products, you're not cool.

I don't see why so much focus is set on Steve Jobs. If I remember correctly, it was Steve Wozniak who was the brains and built the first Apple computers for Homebrew Computer club, whilst Steve Jobs was the business side.

 

[Aran]

I don't see why so much focus is set on Steve Jobs. If I remember correctly, it was Steve Wozniak who was the brains and built the first Apple computers for Homebrew Computer club, whilst Steve Jobs was the business side.

Of the Steves, which one is still at Apple, which one isn't? There is your answer.

 

[njwCSUS]

Currently on Win7, but I've gone from Apple ][-e's to DOS through most versions of windows. Win7 is quite a stable OS and I've been very satisfied by it throughout.

 

[Nexus]

I personally have Windows 7 on this laptop. I then have a spare PC which runs Debian. It's basically just a storage PC though, or sometimes a web server. On top of that, I have a Mac as well as I prefer it for design. There's something about Apple's marketing which means unless you have one of their products, you're not cool.

I don't see why so much focus is set on Steve Jobs. If I remember correctly, it was Steve Wozniak who was the brains and built the first Apple computers for Homebrew Computer club, whilst Steve Jobs was the business side.

Jobs has proven time and time again he's a jerk, he's shameless about stealing ideas, there are a few features that were demoed for the next iOS that were blatantly ripped off of apps that people developed for their app store, right down to the icon. Oh yea that was after their app was removed for including features that "Apple didn't approve of" when Apples included version will have those same features.

Lets see things people herald as innovative that Apple has put in their Operating systems that were stolen...

1. The Dock- Arthur (eventually evolved as RISC OS) had a dock in 1984, 2 years before NEXTStep (the foundation of OSX) had a dock.
2. App Store - Some Linux Distributions had this for years before Apple. Ubuntu's Software Manager is a good example.
3. The GUI - Jobs stole the idea from IBM
4. Multi-Touch Interface - Apple patents on this are not legal, Multi-Touch was displayed as working in 2006, by Jeff Han at a TED convention. 2 Years prior to Apples patent claims.

In all honesty Microsoft is no better, the bulk of true innovation in operating systems comes not out of the Apple farm, nor out of Redwood. They come out of some geeks basement for use on a Linux system. But what Apple does that irks me so much is they are very quick to sue companies that implement similar technology, they claim to have come up with, even when said technology really wasn't theirs to begin with.

 

[yars]

mac OS leopard with bootcamp partition, XP sp2.

 

[curlybeard]

Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 2 (Stability be damned!) with the Unity Desktop Environment. Unity panel is super, though dash needs some work. Tried Gnome Shell and didn't like all the wasted space on my netbook, even with a compact theme.

Edit: I just did the opposite switch that Nexus did. I went from Ubuntu 11.10 to Linux Mint 11. Some of the recent focus group driven changes to the Unity DE were just plain silly.

 

[steamcoal]

I am using Windows 7 and this is one great OS to work on.

 

[aoaoo0]

Has been using WIN XP

 

[Valfelan]

I am using Windows 7 x32 bit on my older pc's, x64 bit on my newest build, i also have a couple still running windows XP home 2002 not on my network

 

[curlybeard]

I am now using webOS 3.0.2 with a VNC client (remmina) that runs through my Ubuntu 11.04 Chroot on a $99 HP Touchpad tablet to connect to my Mac Mini running OSX 10.5.8. The Mac runs UO via WINE 1.3.27. *Mouse controls provided to the tablet by Synergy.