# Operating System Poll



## elgarak (Oct 22, 2007)

Since I recently switched to a Mac, I thought it interesting to find how many people are using which OS.

What's yours?


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## Fallingwater (Oct 22, 2007)

The poll needs a multi-vote option.
I have Windows XP and Linux on double boot.


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## jtr1962 (Oct 22, 2007)

Fallingwater said:


> The poll needs a multi-vote option.
> I have Windows XP and Linux on double boot.


Agreed. I'm running XP on my primary machine and '98 on my other one. I've even got computers with DOS 5.0 and Win3.1, but since I never use them any more I don't think they count.


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## PhantomPhoton (Oct 23, 2007)

Voted other. I use all 3. Unfortunately winblows gets most of my time, though I Prefer using Linux. I multiboot and so have OSX installed. But I rarely need the Mac suite of powerful programs so it sees far less use; maybe twice a month.


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## elgarak (Oct 23, 2007)

Frag, must've have had brain freeze; totally forgot about dual- and multiple boot systems and multiple comps.

So let's re-formulate: What's your _primary_ OS? The one you do most of the work under?


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## Fallingwater (Oct 23, 2007)

jtr1962 said:


> Agreed. I'm running XP on my primary machine and '98 on my other one. I've even got computers with DOS 5.0 and Win3.1, but since I never use them any more I don't think they count.


Heh, I forgot about Win98. My old Athlon has that exclusively, as my old-games box. Everything that doesn't work right on XP (I'm looking at you, Mechwarrior 2) gets played on that one.


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## greenstuffs (Oct 23, 2007)

Vista reminds me the Windows ME fiasco lol people with vista are not by choice but because now all new computers come with vista preloaded.


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## Kilovolt (Oct 24, 2007)

greenstuffs said:


> ... people with vista are not by choice but because now all new computers come with vista preloaded.


 
Yes it was a sad surprise finding myself with Vista after buying a new notebook. I was hoping for an improved OS....


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## LEDninja (Oct 24, 2007)

Mac OSX - new iMac

Mac OS 9.2.2 - 300MHz G3 - surfing CPF
Mac OS 8.6 - 300MHz G3 - everything else (none of my old hardware/software works on OS9)

Mac OS 6.0.7 Mac LC(III) & Classic


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## The_LED_Museum (Oct 24, 2007)

The poll needed multi-options; two of my computers use Windows XP and the other two use Windows 98.


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## MikeLip (Oct 24, 2007)

My home machine is XP, the spanking new machine at work is Vista. Vista makes XP *look* dated, but I'm not sure yet that I like it.


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## h_nu (Oct 24, 2007)

I have a multi-boot menu with XP and Debian but I don't go on the Internet in Windows anymore. Maybe the anti-virus, firewall, and other Windows utilities is too much load for my PC. Linux seems faster.


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## PhotonBoy (Oct 24, 2007)

My PC is about 2.5 years old. If I can't get a new PC with XP, I'll switch to Linux, probably Ubuntu. I'm planning on buying an Ubuntu learner machine to complement my current XP box. Macs are too expensive and I simply don't respect nor trust Steve Jobs.


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## electromage (Oct 25, 2007)

I've been using linux for about 6 years, starting with Red Hat, and trying out Mandrake, Suse, Gentoo, and Debian along the way. I mostly tinkered with it until Ubuntu came out. I put it on my laptop and one of my extra machines and was so impressed that I finally decided that I was in a good position to drop Windows completely. I've been using Ubuntu as my primary OS for three years now. I still have a few servers running Debian, and my router running Red Hat, but I'm planning on standardizing everything on Ubuntu very soon. I've seen quite a lot of progress in open-source software in the past few years, and I am happy to see it compete with what Microsoft and others have spent billions of dollars developing.

I also like to help people use and make the most of Linux, so if anyone is interested in trying it out, or switching, I'd be happy to help.


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## JimmyM (Oct 25, 2007)

Currently I use mostly XP, but in a week or so I'm switching to Vista-64. My new laptop will have 4GB ram, so I need a 64bit OS to propely utilize all the ram. I'm more than a little hesitant to go with Vista. I might dual boot with XP for a while.


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## Marduke (Oct 25, 2007)

JimmyM said:


> Currently I use mostly XP, but in a week or so I'm switching to Vista-64. My new laptop will have 4GB ram, so I need a 64bit OS to propely utilize all the ram. I'm more than a little hesitant to go with Vista. I might dual boot with XP for a while.



You might want to look into XP-Pro x64 edition. I dual boot that on a Mac Pro at work.


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## JimmyM (Oct 25, 2007)

Marduke said:


> You might want to look into XP-Pro x64 edition. I dual boot that on a Mac Pro at work.


I was looking into that, but driver support is atrocious. So it's either Windows Server 2003-64 or Vista-64. I'll try both to see what works.


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## meuge (Oct 25, 2007)

elgarak said:


> Since I recently switched to a Mac, I thought it interesting to find how many people are using which OS.
> 
> What's yours?



I am very impressed that Linux is at 8%. I would say that 2-3 years ago, I'd be amazed if ANYONE would be using it as their primary desktop OS, other than a few-and-far-between diehards. 

It's getting up there with MacOS!


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## electromage (Oct 25, 2007)

JimmyM said:


> Currently I use mostly XP, but in a week or so I'm switching to Vista-64. My new laptop will have 4GB ram, so I need a 64bit OS to propely utilize all the ram. I'm more than a little hesitant to go with Vista. I might dual boot with XP for a while.



I'm running Ubuntu 64-bit with 4GB of RAM


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## LaserFreak (Oct 25, 2007)

jtr1962 said:


> Agreed. I'm running XP on my primary machine and '98 on my other one. I've even got computers with DOS 5.0 and Win3.1, but since I never use them any more I don't think they count.



OMG...DOS 5.0. Ah the good old days...the days where nobody knew what the "Blue screen of death" was. I learned how to use a REAL computer (I'm comparing Apple IIe's with 8086 and 286 systems) back when 286's were top of the line. Honking huge 50 MB SCSI drives.....the list goes on.


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## jzmtl (Oct 26, 2007)

Win XP, no particular reason. It hasn't done anything catastrophically yet so I'm sticking with it.


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## VidPro (Oct 26, 2007)

one of each, as i have aquired licences for the MacroHard operating system, the older puters use those older licences.


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## DanielG (Oct 29, 2007)

Still not enough options 

Linux on laptops at home, Solaris on the UltraSPARCs, a couple WIN machines just to remind myself why I don't use Windows as well.


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## James S (Oct 29, 2007)

> Solaris on the UltraSPARCs



Do they still make those? 

heh. I used to manage a whole array of those back before OSX when they really were the best unix solution. Had some really nice hardware and spent a long time working with Oracle and other database solutions. Heck, that was even before PHP I think that we were about 75% perl and 35% C for talking to it.

_yes, I know that adds up to more than 100%  There was always more work to do than would fit into only 100%..._

I really like that they still make their own chips though, gotta keep from getting ourselves stuck with only 1 or 2 major chip makers!

I was sad when HP bought and killed the Alpha chip. I used an Alpha machine up until just a couple of years ago running FreeBSD as my firewall. Being an unusual chip made it that much more difficult for anybody to hack or inject code into. Monoculture is baaad...


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## Zigzago (Oct 29, 2007)

I dual-boot Windows XP and Linux (Mepis). 

My usage at home is about 20% XP and 80% Linux.


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## RA40 (Oct 29, 2007)

XP here and that will be it for these boxes. 
Maybe the next system built will have Vista at SP2. So one more year approx.


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## Bushman5 (Oct 29, 2007)

I have never had nor will i ever infect my computer with the bilious pus that is Microsoft......

LINUX "GUTSY GIBBON" all the way!


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## MacTech (Oct 30, 2007)

Commodore 64 

seriously though, OS X, my PowerBook's running 10.4.9 (10.4.10 was a tad buggy), and my G4 Mirror Door is running both 10.4.2 (The Sims 2 won't run in anything higher) *and* 10.5 Leopard

the MDD actually is a pretty cool setup for outdated hardware, four internal hard drives configured thusly;

120GB; my Sims 2 drive, running 10.4.2
2 160GB hard drives set up as a Mirrored RAID, running 10.5
1 250GB drive set up as the Time Machine backup drive

Why, because I can, and it's cool!


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## VidPro (Oct 30, 2007)

hey anybody need an amiga ?
got a $10,000 fully upgraded one here genlock software and everything, i am willing to sell cheap.
its probably worth at least $200 now. and to think i coulda bought a Mac instead.

it uses Kickstart 1.3 and workbench 2.0 does what a mac OR a pc will do and for 1/100th the program size, software fits on a floppy not a cd


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## LaserFreak (Nov 3, 2007)

MacTech said:


> Commodore 64
> 
> 
> 1 250GB drive set up as the Time Machine backup drive



I hope you have the Flux Capacitor up to par.....I've used GoBack before. Great backup system that runs independently from Windows. Not sure if you're talking about GoBack or some other similar program......

I forgot about Commodore 64. I had one of those. BASIC driven OS (if you want to call it that) I remember annoying my parents with a simple tweak of a BASIC demo program that peaked the system speaker of my 386 system to super high pitch tones. Yeah...got in trouble for that one............


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## The_LED_Museum (Nov 3, 2007)

I used to run a *demo group* for the C=64. It was fun, but I could not do that any more.


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## LaserFreak (Nov 4, 2007)

VidPro said:


> hey anybody need an amiga ?
> got a $10,000 fully upgraded one here genlock software and everything, i am willing to sell cheap.
> its probably worth at least $200 now. and to think i coulda bought a Mac instead.
> 
> it uses Kickstart 1.3 and workbench 2.0 does what a mac OR a pc will do and for 1/100th the program size, software fits on a floppy not a cd




Uhh..huhu...huh?


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## mossyoak (Nov 4, 2007)

i run vista on my laptop that i use for everything, so thats how i voted, but on ym home computer that i basically use for music and video storage i run xp. 
i want to try ubuntu but i dont know how to get it on my laptop.


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## Newuser01 (Nov 7, 2007)

Live cd is the answer for you. (That is assuming your lappy can boot from cd?).
Download the iso and boot from it. It will run from cd with out installing so you can see how you like it.

You can also install from the same ISO disk. 

We are talking about ubunto.

Regards.
Noob


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## Tempest UK (Nov 7, 2007)

Running Vista Home Premium on my laptop (Acer 5920G), XP home edition on my desktop. Considering ditching windows (at least on my laptop) and going for a MBP. 

Regards,
Tempest


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## bobisculous (Dec 3, 2007)

When I voted on this weeks ago, I was Windows XP. Since then though, things have changed. 
Ubuntu! So much nicer. Still working on customizing it the way _I_ like it, and really like the way its turning out thus far. Got some nice themes, icons and such going. Looking great and clean. 

-C


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## dulridge (Dec 4, 2007)

Actually an assortment.

This box is MacOS X10.4

1 MacOS 9.2.2 box (About 9 more of these in the loft)

1 XP box - in for repair, with an axe if it carries on the way it has been.

1 Windows 2000

1 Solaris 8 server. Far too loud, power consumption scary, parts prices terrifying.

1 Solaris 10 box, needs updating badly.

1 Ubuntu 7.04 DVD player in the living room.

1 Suse 8ish server which is dying - a pity since its best uptime was 3 years, currently 8:09pm up 3 days, 3:42, 1 user, load average: 0.07, 0.02, 0.00. It has a K6 processor in it and has been powered off for a fortnight in total since new.

1 ancient Mac IICi running a sort of BSD on a Mach kernel. Assorted System 5.3 - 9.2.2 Macs in loft.

Assorted laptops, mostly some flavour of Windows - my Apple laptop died after 6 years of hard use. Rarely use laptops and tend to be work Toshibas running XP.


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## mechBgon (Dec 4, 2007)

elgarak said:


> Since I recently switched to a Mac, I thought it interesting to find how many people are using which OS.
> 
> What's yours?


 
64-bit Windows Vista Ultimate. I technically have a dual-boot with 32-bit WinXP Pro, but I can't even remember the last time I booted WinXP (or why).


Oh, and I have a Win2000 Pro system that I use exclusively to hunt viruses/Trojans/exploits with. Unusual hobby, but quite interesting


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## Closet_Flashaholic (Dec 4, 2007)

Fallingwater said:


> The poll needs a multi-vote option.
> I have Windows XP and Linux on double boot.



+1


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## raggie33 (Dec 4, 2007)

im about to go back to winblows cant find drivers for my printer on linux other then ones ya have to buy


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## coloradogps (Dec 5, 2007)

I'm using Mac OS X Leopard 10.5

It's running on my Black Mac Book and my Mac Mini.


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## HarryN (Dec 5, 2007)

New HP 6515b laptop - vista bus. 32 bit. Took a while, but now I really like it. Yes, I have used a variety (dos 1 to 6 plus almost every version of win, plus mac plus linux.)

Daughter has Mac (only because school pushed it. It is ok, not that different, and I personnally don't like the UI, but she does.

Win XP - Old laptop has it. Still like it, but I like the room to grow.

BTW - according to the manual, the HP with vista 32 can access almost all of the 4 GB, with the last 500meg will go to the video ram use.


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## Marduke (Dec 5, 2007)

HarryN said:


> BTW - according to the manual, the HP with vista 32 can access almost all of the 4 GB, with the last 500meg will go to the video ram use.



This is why I don't like Vista, as it wants a solid half of that 4GB to run full out as designed.

I've recently themed my XP machines with Vista-based themes (including aero glass), but they still run XP underneath. All of the eye candy, none of the bloated crap and incompatibility.


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## elgarak (Dec 5, 2007)

coloradogps said:


> I'm using Mac OS X Leopard 10.5
> 
> It's running on my Black Mac Book and my Mac Mini.



Hey, another Leopard! Gets a lot of undeserved bad press, it seems.

I upgraded to it shortly after I got my MacBook, and installed Apple's first update, so have 10.5.1.

Sure, not as stable as Tiger, but beats my last Windows XP experiences a boatload.


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## HarryN (Dec 5, 2007)

Hi Marduke - far be it from me to promote one os over another - when it comes to that, I am pretty much an agnostic.

There are a couple of specific features that make Vista interesting to me:

- It does appear to have better immunity to virus attacks than xp (not an expert here, but from what I am reading)

- I really hated the aspect of xp requiring me to go on line in admin mode to do some s/w upgrades (esp. turbo tax). This just seemd like a disaster waiting to happen. Vista lets me stay in user mode, and just do the specific action needed to do a particular upgrade. I solved the turbo tax problem by changing tax software.

- Playing DVDs. Vista will play DVDs that XP would not play in user mode. I refuse to allow sony to install its virus programs on my computer, which is very much wanted to do, and actually considered buying a computer with no CD player, as I never use it under normal condition. Being able to actually play a DVD made the DVD player interesting again.

- I use vista bus 32 with all of my older s/w programs, including some games. So far, I have not run into backward compatibility issues, probably because I chose to wait a bit for the os to settle in.

- The memory challenge is interesting. When I bought the xp laptop, it came with 256 meg, and I upgraded it to 756. Recently, I upgraded that to 1 GB, and this really opened it up. Frankly, price of ram was the issue, and I had to wait for it to drop.

I bought the vista based laptop with 1 GB, but really wanted more - price was a major challenge for me to do this jump. You are correct, that it would be better to have 2 GB for vista (and the fact that the graphics chip on this laptop really wants its own 500 meg). The problem as I see it, is not the price of ram itself, but the fact that the laptop only has 2 memory slots, so I have to throw away what I have and totally replace it. Nonetheless, I am bouncing hard up against the 1 GB - very hard, as I add more programs to my daily life.

At some point, and I think it is somewhere in the XP / Vista / or Tiger / Lep for mac people, you wind up having to trust your software provider with your computer. No matter which one you pick, they are constantly releasing updates that pretty much are needed to keep things level. 

This is very unsettling to me, but reality is that every one my my family's laptops (XP, Vista, Mac) seem to need these updates to keep them tuned up. I have decided that as an experiment, I would just let MS be in control of this laptop, and do its thing. If / when it crashes out, I will reload, just like I have had to do for years. Of course, now I run carbonite backup, so recovery is easier than in the past.


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## Sub_Umbra (Dec 5, 2007)

I selected "Other." I've been using FreeBSD (UNIX) for six or seven years now. I dual booted W2k for a little while. OSX has FreeBSD 5 under the hood.


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## NA8 (Dec 7, 2007)

Still running win2k, but I tend to milk systems for a long time. Got a knoppix DVD around here someplace too.


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## Lynx_Arc (Dec 8, 2007)

running 98SE here, my computer is not worth trying a more bloated OS on with less than 200 megs of ram and an underclocked 500mhz cpu. 
building an new system that will probably run XP pro with 2 gigs of memory unless I can figure out if it will use 3.5 gigs of memory if I buy 4 for it.


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## tazambo (Dec 8, 2007)

Powerbook G4 running 10.4.11
& iMac G3 running 10.3.9

Regards
Dave


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## meuge (Dec 8, 2007)

Lynx_Arc said:


> running 98SE here, my computer is not worth trying a more bloated OS on with less than 200 megs of ram and an underclocked 500mhz cpu.
> building an new system that will probably run XP pro with 2 gigs of memory unless I can figure out if it will use 3.5 gigs of memory if I buy 4 for it.


Try Xubuntu 7.10 (Ubuntu Linux with the light XFCE desktop manager). It should be much better, given the older hardware.


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## Lynx_Arc (Dec 9, 2007)

that would be fine if I didn't play a few old PC windows games on it too and have a database program for movies that isn't supporting linux.
I gotta use windoze still Linux just cannot do everything I need to do.


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## mechBgon (Dec 9, 2007)

Lynx_Arc said:


> running 98SE here, my computer is not worth trying a more bloated OS on with less than 200 megs of ram and an underclocked 500mhz cpu.
> building an new system that will probably run XP pro with 2 gigs of memory unless I can figure out if it will use 3.5 gigs of memory if I buy 4 for it.


 
It will depend on the hardware being used (expect somewhere in the range of 3.5GB on modern hardware). In the big picture, 2 x 2GB of quality DDR2 is about $100 nowdays, and even if you don't use it all with 32-bit Windows, you may move on to a 64-bit OS later and be glad to have 4GB and room for more. I remember paying almost $400 for just 256MB back in the Win2000 days, so keep the cost of RAM in perspective here  It's VERY affordable, and should not be a reason to use one OS versus another IMHO. 

Vista in 64-bit would give you support for DirectX 10 and beyond, all the RAM you could cram into your system, better security architecture, and starts at the same price as WinXP, so keep that option in mind as well if you're planning on cutting-edge gaming, e.g. _Crysis_ and beyond.


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## Marduke (Dec 9, 2007)

Lynx_Arc said:


> that would be fine if I didn't play a few old PC windows games on it too and have a database program for movies that isn't supporting linux.
> I gotta use windoze still Linux just cannot do everything I need to do.



Thats what dual boot and/or emulators are for.


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## Crenshaw (Dec 10, 2007)

i hate vista for crashing my ext hardisk, will NEVER use it on my own computer if i have a choice, good thing the lappie i bought is pre installed with xp pro...

Crenshaw


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## AnalogDog (Dec 12, 2007)

I am currently running Windows XP at home and the office, but I would rather be running Ubuntu Linux or Free BSD.

Microsoft products stink. Unix is easier to run, and more satisfying to use.

And no, I am not a computer jockey. My money comes as a geologist.


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## Catapult (Dec 13, 2007)

Good ol' Windows 98SE. I am straining every last bit out of it to maintain a useful life cycle of my aging system running in today's world.


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## HarryN (Dec 20, 2007)

Just a quick update - I purchased a wireless network printer for the house that can run all of our current OS's (XP Pro, Mac Tiger ?, and Vista 32 bit). 

(It is this one in case you are wondering) http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...1=$200-300&product_code=CC567A#ABA&catLevel=2

I am not promoting this all in one printer, it just happens to be the one we bought, and it works. We run it wireless from laptops that are both wired and wireless.

Anyway, the real challenge was convincing my daughter that her Mac really would need drivers to make this work, but after she installed them, it works great, as well as on the other computers. The drivers are BIG - almost 200 meg for a full set. It slowed down the macbook (1 GB ram) noticeably, and the Vista laptop (also 1 GB ram) too much. I upgraded the Vista laptop to 4 GB ram - wow, what a difference. It hardly ever goes to disk now, and really moves along. $160 for 2 x 2GB ram at Crucial.

The Mac ram is in a box for Xmas. (uses the same ram as the HP vista laptop, but max is 2 GB) The XP machine is maxed out at 1 GB, so I just loaded the reduced size driver set to avoid issues and it is fine.


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## Minjin (Dec 21, 2007)

meuge said:


> I am very impressed that Linux is at 8%. I would say that 2-3 years ago, I'd be amazed if ANYONE would be using it as their primary desktop OS, other than a few-and-far-between diehards.
> 
> It's getting up there with MacOS!


Look at your demographic here. These are flashlight-using computer geeks. Then consider the portion of that demographic that is likely to respond to the thread... :shrug:

Linux is nowhere close to 8% market share for all consumers.


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## gadget_lover (Dec 22, 2007)

Minjin, where are you getting your facts? I've not found a single "market share" site that does not have a flaw in it's measuring method. Even polls like this one fail to take into account people with multiple systems. How do you count people like myself who handle multiple OSes every day?

I can tell you that my preference is to use the system with Linux for my desktop, not the Xp. I own both.

Daniel


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## AMD64Blondie (Dec 22, 2007)

Windows XP on my main system... but I've got OpenSuse 10.3 installed on my backup PC. Main PC is running a Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 motherboard,AMD Phenom 9500,nearly 2TB of various hard drives,2GB of OCZ DDR2-800,an EVGA 8800GTS..as well as a Bluegears b-Enspirer soundcard powering Logitech Z5500 speakers. The whole setup is housed in a Gigabyte 3D Aurora 570 case and powered by a PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750. Backup PC runs a Gigabyte K8NF-9 motherboard,AMD Athlon X2 3800,2GB of Mushkin DDR400,a 80GB Western Digital Caviar SE 8MB cache hard drive..a EVGA 7800GT,and a Chaintech AV710 soundcard powering Logitech X230 speakers. This box is powered by a PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 510SLI,and housed in a Raidmax case.(Assembled from leftovers..) One final note:Both PCs use 1991 IBM Model M keyboards.


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## Minjin (Dec 23, 2007)

gadget_lover said:


> Minjin, where are you getting your facts? I've not found a single "market share" site that does not have a flaw in it's measuring method. Even polls like this one fail to take into account people with multiple systems. How do you count people like myself who handle multiple OSes every day?
> 
> I can tell you that my preference is to use the system with Linux for my desktop, not the Xp. I own both.
> 
> Daniel


I'm not sure exactly what you're responding to here. What facts are you talking about? A little less anger, please.


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## mechBgon (Dec 23, 2007)

AMD64Blondie said:


> One final note:Both PCs use 1991 IBM Model M keyboards.


 
IBM Model M!!! :bow:


(they'll tear mine from my cold dead fingers, producing delicious mechanical clicking sounds in the process!)


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## bruddamoke (Dec 23, 2007)

Chose XP as best 2 of 3. Use XP at work and on my laptop, use Vista on home desktop.


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## 3rd_shift (Dec 23, 2007)

Windows Xp Pro for me.
Solid as a rock now with latest service pack 2x and updates.
Running on an athlon64 3200+,
4 Seagate 300 megabyte sata drives running raid "0" with a 5 inch fan in front of them all,
a gigabyte of dual channel ddr memory that has yet to ever be completely used all at once.

Vista can wait for a few more improvements imho.


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