Favourite OS

Insectoid · **Posted:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 7:21 pm

Well, I just thought it would be interesting to see what the most popular/least popular OS is according to the users of this site. Are you a Mac? PC? Linux? BSD?

Well, I wanna lay down some rules for this poll, to even the odds up.

-no voting for an OS you haven't used before
-no voting for an OS just because you think it'll win
-no lying Rolling Eyes

Dan · **Posted:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 7:25 pm

Gentoo Linux! Becues compling EVERYTHING from source is fun and it's what compsci.ca runs on!

Tony · **Posted:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:37 pm

insectoid @ Wed Oct 22, 2008 7:21 pm wrote:

-no voting for an OS you haven't used before

I think the rule should be -- no voting if you haven't used every OS on the poll. Though to make it more accessible to larger audience, lets say 2/3 ? I don't want to hear any of "the only OS I ever used is the best".

Dan · **Posted:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:49 pm

Tony @ 22nd October 2008, 8:37 pm wrote:

I think the rule should be -- no voting if you haven't used every OS on the poll. Though to make it more accessible to larger audience, lets say 2/3 ?

But what defines use? If it is simply to have used the UI or run some comands? Then i would have used them all. However if use is day to day use for an extend period of time then i would be down to 3 or 4.

Also if it is day to day use, what does that entail? Is simply using the OS for the most basic operations and not touching any settings use? If so then BSD, Liunx and Solaris would be about the same for a user that just uses nano and a complier as whould be Windows XP and Windows Vista for a user just using word. On the other side some one who installs there operating system and goeses threw all the conifarution settings and has to deal with hardware drivers/settings and such on a daily basies is going to have a very diffrent expericen. Also some of thess operating systems are commanly used only from the comand line or shell well some users install a desktop evneriment on them, in such a case would they not be excperinced with KDE, gnome and others more then there OS?

In any case my point is that defining use is not so easy.

btiffin · **Posted:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:58 pm

I polled Linux on this one, but to be honest, OpenVMS/Vax is still my favourite. Probably always will be. Built by engineers for engineers and only $10,000 per machine or upgrade.

Cheers

rdrake · **Posted:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:22 pm

...operating system for doing what?

md · **Posted:** Thu Oct 23, 2008 7:20 am

rdrake @ 2008-10-22, 11:22 pm wrote:

...operating system for doing what?

For uperating, duh!

Personally I prefer linux in most cases, followed closely by BSD and then OS X.

Insectoid · **Posted:** Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:53 am

I think people will decide for themselves which is their favorite. The point is, I don't want people voting for an OS just because they were told it's the best. If you've only used Windows, vote Windows. It is your favorite and your least favorite at the same time. They're more guidelines, really. Honesty is key here. I've only used OS X for a month and a half, and I already hate going back to Windows (for school).

andrew. · **Posted:** Fri Oct 24, 2008 9:13 am

I voted Mac OS X because I've been using it for a few months now and I love it. If I hadn't gotten a Mac, I wouldv'e voted Linux.

rizzix · **Posted:** Fri Oct 24, 2008 2:51 pm

I voted BSD, because it's the only OS I've used that performs like the beast it claims to be.

However I like linux and OS X too. And of the 3, linux is the easiest to administrate (archlinux ftw).

Clayton · **Posted:** Fri Oct 24, 2008 4:07 pm

I voted Linux, because I find it's easy to use, can so what I want it to do, is fully customizable, and has a large community behind it. Of Linux distributions, I prefer Debian-based distros, but Arch is starting to show some things I like Smile

Unforgiven · **Posted:** Sun Nov 02, 2008 12:42 pm

Linux here. The only operating systems I've used are Windows 3.1-Vista, Linux in a few flavors, and very briefly and minimally, Solaris of some sort of version.

I'm just a huge fan of Linux, for all the usual reasons. I have Vista on my laptop (dual-booted with Linux as well, of course), and use that just for the occasional time when I'd like to or need to use something that's strictly windows-only.

delparnel · **Posted:** Sun Nov 02, 2008 11:16 pm

Mac OS X is my favourite. I have no plan to ever go back to anything else. I like it because it's very clean, supported, and functional, and it has a lot of the capabilities that Linux has.

It's a great environment for programming.

ecookman · **Posted:** Tue Nov 04, 2008 8:08 am

lol compsci work on linux

Insectoid · **Posted:** Tue Nov 04, 2008 12:34 pm

*Post with substance*

Spam is not appreciated. I do not see anything in your post that would warrant laughing, you have not explained why you do comp sci work on Linux, and I would like to know, specifically, what flavor of Linux.

OT, I recently found a linux distribution called 'Damn Small Linux'. (yes, that is the name). It only takes up a few MB.

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