What O/S Do You Use & Why ???

[the whole cake]

While Win7 is much more secure than XP, I think the public just isnt interested anymore, All they can see is differently arranged icons/menus and animated window management. The geekier & geekier you become the more you appreciate the upgrades in Win7.

Theres 2 issues I have with win7: The paradigm is all the same. Still the same computing experience dolled up. Lots of fundamental computing issues not addressed. Still the same need for additional tools just to make it safe.. Still the same vendor-lockin approach to APIs etc etc..

The other issue I have is the digital restrictions management. Who wants an OS that obeys copy-protection flags in files and wont unencrypt stuff it otherwise could? Bah humbug.

Its the approach I dont like. Users of software should be in total control. Not software vendors telling people what they can n cant do.

 

[i0nwr1t3r]

While Win7 is much more secure than XP, I think the public just isnt interested anymore, All they can see is differently arranged icons/menus and animated window management. The geekier & geekier you become the more you appreciate the upgrades in Win7.

Theres 2 issues I have with win7: The paradigm is all the same. Still the same computing experience dolled up. Lots of fundamental computing issues not addressed. Still the same need for additional tools just to make it safe.. Still the same vendor-lockin approach to APIs etc etc..

The other issue I have is the digital restrictions management. Who wants an OS that obeys copy-protection flags in files and wont unencrypt stuff it otherwise could? Bah humbug.

Its the approach I dont like. Users of software should be in total control. Not software vendors telling people what they can n cant do.

Excellent points,DRM (digital rights management) is bobbla & there is a lot of GUI animation which while ppl might appreciate the looks of it (shiny is good for sales) is unnecessary for ppl who want to do genuine computing.

The networking side of it is not as clear as under XP (at least not on ultimate) but it was supposed to make it easier for non-tech savvy ppl & there is something new called HomeGroup which is associated with networking that I haven't figured out yet.

But it is alleged that win7 fixes memory leaks that were in XP (dunno about Vista) but User Account Control ROFLMAO. enough said really.

 

[the whole cake]

Shot ion.

Yeah I'm on your side dude. I've been following the linux/unix desktop computing scene for about 10 years now. It used to be 'is linux ready for the desktop?' or 'Is there enough graphical flare to compete with OSX?
It hit that stage about 3 years ago on both counts. Today I ask 'is Windows ready for the desktop?' because the franchise is starting to go downhill. How do you keep making the exact same product new every 3 years?

Especially when all around you, there has been a 100 fold increase in production of mix-and-match operating system components to the point that youre the odd one out with incompatible APIs and so forth.
It used to be that I always dual booted with XP because there was always some need for it with something. Now its only a hinderance because it supports almost nothing I want it to. Everything requires a 'tool' or 'application'.

Everyone else just accepts that tools/third party things make up the entire system. Like how everyone uses Ubuntu these days - most of the content of that installation disk is made by uncountable numbers of independent vendors. Canonical engineers the software and provides support contacts.

Thats real compatibility, and a real scientific approach to computing. I think its a more healthy computing model than a single company making the rules. Its the future.

To all the fanboys: Compatability wars arent with operating systems. They fight with APIs. If you write a program using an API that runs on multiple architectures, you win. Thats where the battle is. For example Direct3D/OpenGL. Its the real scene of the battle.

 

[noobItUp]

DRM is evil. That is all.

Also cake, I agree with you on cross platform portability of apps. Just yesterday here at work I was trying to do something with sharepoint & it wouldn't work. A colleague then pointed out that you have to us IE to do that function. M$ go out of their way to do the OPPOSITE of what they should be doing (supporting other browsers). I suspect they make sure sharepoint doesn't work with other browsers.

M$ make noob angry noob.

 

[nelots]

M$ make noob angry noob.

Don't worry noob I'm here!!!
Now turn to stripper noob for some dong $$, be sure to bring G along for my happy ending :)

 

[noobItUp]

Speaking of dong, I haven't seen any sign of your dong yet. I sent you my dignity ages ago.

Should have done COD I guess.

 

[jok3r]

Windows XP SP3

Been using this for ages, was gonna upgrade to Vista but then everyone was having a cry about it. So i didn't. I was thinking of getting Windows 7 but atm XP is doing me fine, so i thought id just chill with it.

 

[the whole cake]

Personally I dont think XP will ever die. At least in emulation.

Sure MS will stop selling it etc etc and it will become unsupported on modern computers. But look at NT4. NT4 was meant to be gone...but then someone thought up virtualization and now NT4 will be around forever. On the server front it was always about network services anyway, so Win32 runtime isnt such a big deal.

In the future, say 5 or 10 years - XP wont be viable for a main operating system on the desktop but I reckon everyone will have it emulated like in that mode that comes with Windows 7.

I like to think back to MSDOS. These days, the MSDOS machine that comes with Windows hardly runs anything since its primarily used as a console interface to windows. Everyone uses DOSBOX which is both an OS and CPU emulator. Except its reverse engineered with no support from MS. I reckon WINE on Windows will end up taking over for 'Legacy XP titles' but only after a long long time and only when XP is used as legacy support, and everyone has another Windows version in use. Mainly because its flexible & doesnt require emulation, and in the future MS support for Win32 could be as crap as their MSDOS support is now.

I commend MS for end of lifing IE6 though. Im glad that is finally dying. Thats my $0.02