What is your operating system of choice?

[benzss]

Just wondering what CD.com's preferences are. Insert cursory arbitrary poll.

Personally I use ubuntu on my PC (dual boot with XP just 'cos) which I find is very satisfactory because a) it's free, b) it's far easier to get a hold of non-gaming software than with XP, c) I guess I'm a sucker for the philosophy, but I'm not sure if that's because I genuinely believe in open source software or because I'm cheap. Furthermore, in a strange way it can handle my mixed age hardware better than XP (on average it takes longer to set up a fresh install of XP on my PC than it does a fresh install of ubuntu, and ubuntu will outperform XP in the end anyway). This is not to say that I think XP is a bad OS - I still use it happily on my laptop - but in this instance linux just serves my needs better. All the games I play run very well on wine also, so I'm a happy linux user.

Recently however I've been thinking of changing distro, possibly to straight debian because there are some aspects of ubuntu that really piss me off (why they keep buggy drivers in their default packages I don't know) but I dunno if I have the knowledge to get away from the spoonfed nature of installing shite on ubuntu.

What about you knobs?

[SneeBeezums]

XP on my desktop that I built. Until I do a big upgrade in components (more memory, new vid card) I probably will never put Vista on it.

On my laptop I have Vista. Tried downgrading(upgrading) to XP but I couldn't get the drivers working. It's running alright I guess but I still think XP is way better.

[chinkecheese]

Vista for sure. I game alot and I like to have the top end shit. So Vista is no problem for me for my system

E8400
8800gt

Runs crysis on highest -no AA. 30 fps.

Also.. anyone hear about windows 7? Its like windows Vista +++++

Kind of like Windows Me to 2000

[lolturnip]

I used various flavours of linux on my laptop but always found myself returning to trusty XP due to lack of decent (usable) drivers. Annoyingly, the drivers in linux are all Intel supported and open source, but the simply suck major ass.

I also use server2003 on my media PC and its stable as a rock!

edit

Voted XP as there's no server option.

[Harner]

I can't get enough of Linux when I'm at work. At home, I use XP on my laptop, but I often think about making the switch.

[Absolution]

XP is great and reliable but I can't stand to look at it anymore, OS X just makes sense (not to sound like an advertisement) and is refreshing to use; my only grudge is how you have to pay 130 dollars for an os upgrade which I believe to be bullshit.

[MBok]

Vista on the desktop I just built. It was meant for gaming so gotta have Windows on it otherwise I'd be running ubuntu or xp. On my laptop, I run ubuntu. Gotta say the linux OS's are pretty good for your average PC user and I guess I'm a fan of the open source world.

my only grudge is how you have to pay 130 dollars for an os upgrade which I believe to be bullshit.

I also find that to be utter bullshit.

[ChedWick]

XP for me. I haven't had mac experience in almost 12 years. I've only ever seen the command prompt interface of Linux and have little time to tinker with more of it. Vista has no home around me and the PC's I work with; none of them can handle it enough to make it an enjoyable experience. I may make the switch to vista in the near future with my new rig but who knows.

[ephekt]

Vista on the desktop, OSX on a laptop, Solaris for storage.

XP is great and reliable but I can't stand to look at it anymore, OS X just makes sense (not to sound like an advertisement) and is refreshing to use; my only grudge is how you have to pay 130 dollars for an os upgrade which I believe to be bullshit.

You're not really getting an update though, their versioning system is just wonky.

[hedgerow]

Vista mostly, currently. I bought some new hardware a while ago and decided the draw of DX10, though small, was enough to make me give Vista a try. I still don't really see any real need for Vista, but I also see no real reason to switch back to XP.

I've got Debian on another, somewhat older machine. It's a nice distro and has a decent mix of depth and ease of use, at least when compared to the slackwares and gentoos of the world. How long have you been using Ubuntu? I switched from that to Debian after six months or so and didn't find myself with any major problems.

[sudo]

At home I use XP and at work I use AIX / Linux

[linkinkampf19]

I marked XP as my choice, but I actually dual-boot XP and Vista. I should try and toss on Ubuntu at a later date, but for now it's pretty stable. I am using XP more than Vista, but about a month ago I really tried to get used to Vista. It's okay, but nothing more than flashiness to me so far. You gotta love Dreamscenes though. Some are so hypnotic.

[CharlieDaniels]

I use Gentoo on most of my machines. After moving away from Windows it is pretty frustrating for me to go back to, although I technically dual-boot a couple of my machines with XP.

[defaultAZN]

i use vista on my laptop. tried ubuntu for a short while, and i guess it just never grew on me. don't get me wrong, there was nothing bad about the ubuntu OS, just i find that i'm more comfortable using vista.

[Infernus]

i have windows xp media center edition


not sure why

[benzss]

i have windows xp media center edition


not sure why

I use that on my laptop and honestly I don't know what's so different

[coldfyre]

Windows XP x64 on my machine.

[Rainmann]

I use Windows XP on my laptop, and I also use Linux because of school.

[Atmosfear]

I use Vista.

No complaints

[SilentBob]

On my old desktop I have XP Home as the primary OS, it is currently set to dual boot with Gutsy Ubuntu but that will come off once I have cleaned it up and restored it to factory settings.

My new custom desktop has Hardy Ubuntu 86-64 as the primary OS with XP Media Centre for dual boot.

I am trying to switch away Windows for security and cost reasons, plus the degree I am doing now needs C compilers which are free on Linux and expensive on Windows.

Windows XP x64 on my machine.

I have an XP x64 Pro SP2 licence that I eventually want to swap with the XP Media I have on my new desktop but the thought of finding all the drivers is putting me off. How did you get round it?

[llFidoll]

Vista 64 on my desktop.

Can't complain either.

[Nadia]

I have Vista on my laptop and then xp media edition or whatever at home on my computer.

I kinda like them both almost the same.

[fried chicken]

vista is gay and it loads slow

[Atomic]

I am now running Ubuntu Linux. I love it most of the time. I don't like it when companies forget to add support for it. Like the Microsoft Zune. All we ask is to make it be like a removable drive. Game companies often make a server of the game on linux but not client. That pisses me off.

[boinam]

Just switched from 32bit XP to 64bit. Also downloaded Ubuntu today so I'll be dual booting that here shortly.

[coldfyre]

On my old desktop I have XP Home as the primary OS, it is currently set to dual boot with Gutsy Ubuntu but that will come off once I have cleaned it up and restored it to factory settings.

My new custom desktop has Hardy Ubuntu 86-64 as the primary OS with XP Media Centre for dual boot.

I am trying to switch away Windows for security and cost reasons, plus the degree I am doing now needs C compilers which are free on Linux and expensive on Windows.



I have an XP x64 Pro SP2 licence that I eventually want to swap with the XP Media I have on my new desktop but the thought of finding all the drivers is putting me off. How did you get round it?

Honestly I haven't had any problems finding drivers for anything I own.

[Infernus]

I use that on my laptop and honestly I don't know what's so different

i dont either it came with my machine

[Narcowski]

I like UNIX-based OSes better, but I'm using Vista on my laptop at the moment. Some of the software it shipped with I don't want to lose.

[jojo]

Voted other. It depends on what i'm doing as to what I want to use. I have xp on one desktop, xp and PCLOS dual boot on the second desktop, the laptop dual boots vista and Sabayon linux. Also could you have not grouped all the windows together?

Provided my fucking wireless would work I would mostly always use Sabayon on my laptop, I have really grown to like it.

[ephekt]

vista is gay and it loads slow

My Vista install loads just as fast as the XP install on the same machine.

[ChedWick]

vista is gay and it loads slow

You just don't know how to vista. Geez, learn to vista.

[MrTroy]

vista is gay and it loads slow

I bet you do not even own Vista. Vista boots as quick or quicker than XP as long as there is no bloatware starting up with it.

[monkey]

hey guys
get trolled more, ok

[DaiTengu]

I spend all day, every day working with Linux. This is why I run vista on my desktop. It's fast, I love the DX10 support, and it does what I want/need it to. While I love tinkering, I really get my fill doing that with my job. I'm at the point right now where I want something that "just works".

it's the same for my HTPC. I'd love to run something like MythTV, but I don't want to put the time into setting it up. I use SageTV right now and that's enough of a pain for me, especially trying to figure out different codecs for different videos.

Maybe tomorrow I'll make an [ASK] Thread about HTPCs, and tell you all about my setup.

[Atomic]

Quit being lazy and run slackware.

[djwolford]

XP/Red Hat

[no_brains_no_worries]

Since I'm a fat white guy I am naturally scared of change...that's why I use XP, and not vista.

[Kal El]

Windows XP since it's basically the operating system i've used for the last 8 years practically...

[fried chicken]

My Vista install loads just as fast as the XP install on the same machine.

You just don't know how to vista. Geez, learn to vista.

I bet you do not even own Vista. Vista boots as quick or quicker than XP as long as there is no bloatware starting up with it.

you are all correct thank you

[SneeBeezums]

Wow 20/20 on the Vista/XP debate. Kinda interesting.

If I do a full rebuild when Intel's Core i7 comes out and I can afford it, I'll probably take the 64bit Vista plunge. Although if Microsoft's claim that Windows 7 is going be > Vista maybe I'll wait till then.