O/S survey

[Cry_Wolf]

Tell us what operating system you use and how you feel about it

 

[Styx]

For what machine

Server #1 It has to be linux it is a 133MHz ARM board with 32meg of RAM (like hell you would get windows on that) NSLU2 is the product, very nice

Server #2 (main server) it is linux and it is up 24/7 acting as home NAS,HTTPD,FTP,SSH,... like hell I would trust windows for my server or with my Data

Desktop: Has Gentoo Linux as the OS cause well its too damb configurable and fun to work with. Why linux tho? because
1) stability
2) I want to use MY hardware for MY usage and NOT feed an inneficient OS ( I mean FFS you need 2Gig of RAM for Vista to start to become Usable and while I do have 4Gig of RAM only 100Meg of that is for the OS - Openbox FTW meaning the rest of the RAM and CPU-time can be used for gaming and simulations)
3) Customisation
4) If something goes wrong I can repair it (short of a filesystem corruption/harddisk crash). If a tiny bit of windows dies BOOM, re-install

This machine also Dual-boots to Windows-XP (more for those what-if cases and the odd couple of games that I can get working well in WINE)
Also on this machine there is 4x Virtual machine
#1 = Window2000 (I like this OS, nice and small and efficient so good for me to test windows things while still in linux)
#2 archlinux - More for a buildhost for my server #2 (which is arch )
#3 Ubuntu - more because I support a few friends and family on ubuntu so I kinda need to have it avail for those few specific ubuntu things
#4 Fedora - like above but for the work machines I support.
VM's are good for nice sandboxed testbeds

Laptop #1: eeePC - it boots in 5sec to the SLiM login screen for linux. Too nice

Laptop #2: Dualboot XP and Ubuntu (mainly XP for wife)

 

[Torben]

Main work machine (laptop): Dual-boot Ubuntu 7.10 and Vista, but Vista hasn't been booted in months. Also currently runs Red Hat Linux in a VM.

Studio machine: dual-boot Ubuntu 7.10 and Windows XP.

Work servers: various flavours of Fedora and CentOS.

O/S Ratings:

Windows Vista: Garbage.
Windows 2000/XP: Good.
Ubuntu: Good.
Fedora: Not bad. (I'm a Debian fan, what can I say?)


Torben

 

[dknguyen]

WHere is "I use Linux and hate it?"

 

[blueroomelectronics]

I don't love any operating system, I just want something that runs my apps.
I think XP, MAC OS & Linux desktops are all fine but XP runs the software I use.
Vista is bloatware, who's it for anyway?

 

[Cry_Wolf]

WHere is "I use Linux and hate it?"

Lol Nice point out.....(did you really hate linux)

Well i dont think any body can give a reason to hate linux

 

[Torben]

I don't love any operating system, I just want something that runs my apps.
I think XP, MAC OS & Linux desktops are all fine but XP runs the software I use.

Agreed...except that at the moment, Linux runs the software I use. XP runs the studio software I use, so when I'm in recording/music mode I use that more often.

Depends on the job at hand. OS zealotry is just as annoying as religious zealotry, except fewer people die. (Disclaimer: I am a rehabilitated OS zealot myself).

Vista is bloatware, who's it for anyway?

I think it was *supposed* to be good for Microsoft, and to hell with the rest of us. XP is an excellent upgrade from Vista.


Torben

 

[hackableFM]

Well I voted for "I use Windows and Hate it a lot.. " I just hate most things because I'm a bad tempered and an awkward sod. I have Windoze XP on this machine and the kids's two computers, I tried Vista on the laptop but hate it. I just can't be bothered to change it back to XP.

I like the sound of Linux but I fear the hassle involved in acquiring all the necessary drivers etc for my hardware, It's the monopoly thing here for me, I hate windows because of the price and the fact that you just don't get an option when buying a new PC from 'PC World', But I'm just too damned lazy to research which other operation system will do all I want it to do after I have got used to using windows for so long.

If there was a version of Linux that installed and looked and worked like windows which had all the relevant settings in the same place then I'd pay for it just to pee off Microsoft. I'm just lazy and can't be bothered to look if I am honest, Maybe there is a version out there!

FM.

 

[Cry_Wolf]

Have any one used "Wine" in linux. It runs most of the the windows application in Linux..Cool

 

[Torben]

Lol Nice point out.....(did you really hate linux)

Well i dont think any body can give a reason to hate linux

I disagree--there is much about Linux that is not perfect. For one thing, I hate how the Gnome folks treat their userbase like a gaggle of idiots. I still (mostly) like and use Gnome, though. And I've been using Linux since 1993. It's amazing, don't get me wrong, and I used to think it was perfect--until I realized it isn't. It just suits me better most of the time than anything else available.

That said, Linux isn't for everyone. Neither is any other OS. It's good to have a valid choice these days, though. Ten years ago it looked like there might never be a choice again.


Torben

 

[Torben]

Have any one used "Wine" in linux. It runs most of the the windows application in Linux..Cool

It's pretty cool all right but doesn't solve all problems. Many games are problematic; Google Sketchup doesn't work properly, and so on. But for many things yes, wine does the job just fine. Not high-end studio software, though. Not yet, anyway.


Torben

 

[3iMaJ]

I'm thinking of setting up a dual boot on one of my laptops but I have a few questions, but let me explain why first.

I use matlab almost exclusively for work, and I run it on a windows vista machine. I don't have any complaints it'll handle some fairly big simulations in a reasonable amount of time. But if changing to a dual boot and running matlab in linux would allow me to run larger simulations faster, even a 20% time savings would be huge. A time savings like 50% would be more motovation though.

So my question is, would matlab run any faster in linux and be able to run larger simulations? I generally run into memory constraints, I have 2gb of ram, but its apparently not large enough to handle a 900x600x300 complex matrix. Although, I haven't found a machine that could. I would be willing to add more ram to my laptop if that would help linux (or windows for that matter) in any way.

 

[Torben]

I'm thinking of setting up a dual boot on one of my laptops but I have a few questions, but let me explain why first.

I use matlab almost exclusively for work, and I run it on a windows vista machine. I don't have any complaints it'll handle some fairly big simulations in a reasonable amount of time. But if changing to a dual boot and running matlab in linux would allow me to run larger simulations faster, even a 20% time savings would be huge. A time savings like 50% would be more motovation though.

So my question is, would matlab run any faster in linux and be able to run larger simulations? I generally run into memory constraints, I have 2gb of ram, but its apparently not large enough to handle a 900x600x300 complex matrix. Although, I haven't found a machine that could. I would be willing to add more ram to my laptop if that would help linux (or windows for that matter) in any way.

More memory! It's the single easiest and cheapest way to speed things up in many cases. Of course, you have to make sure your motherboard and OS can handle more; not all can. If yours is relatively decent the mobo should be fine, and Vista can handle more than 2GB RAM. So can Linux.

Also, Vista wastes memory like nobody's business. With Linux you can run a much more lightweight interface, and kill almost everything not matlab-related if you need to. You might also have better luck just by switching to XP or 2000, but Linux is cheaper and more configurable.


Good luck!

Torben

 

[Cry_Wolf]

Have a look at this
https://www.metacafe.com/watch/434675/windows_vista_aero_vs_linux_ubuntu_beryl/

 

[Hank Fletcher]

I have 2000 on my home desktop and XP on my work laptop. For my interests, I find the differences between the two to be inconsequent. Adobe Audition and Sibelius work fine on both, as do the drivers and mic interfacing equipment I use. No problems with my USB ICD2 or MPLAB, either.

I think it was *supposed* to be good for Microsoft, and to hell with the rest of us. XP is an excellent upgrade from Vista.

I noticed recently (two weeks ago or so) that XP had returned as an option for OS on a new Dell computer, after a hiatus during which Vista was the only choice. I guess Vista's reputation must really be effecting the market? I know I've been reluctant to upgrade from my PIII-1GHz because I couldn't find somewhere that would sell me a computer without Vista. I can't justify buying a computer that's incompatible with everything else in my life!

 

[dknguyen]

I realy do hate Linux. The machines in the upper floors of the university's electrical building use them and I hate it. Most of the time I have to fire up VMWare and run Windows XP to do what I need to do.

 

[theinfamousbob]

Have a look at this
https://www.metacafe.com/watch/434675/windows_vista_aero_vs_linux_ubuntu_beryl/

My friend uses Ubuntu with Beryl. It makes me drool.

I did vote for the "other" -- I have a Macbook dual booting OSX and WinXP. I do not like XP at all, but have to use it -- it runs all of the programs I need to use on a daily basis. The one thing that makes it bearable is all of the ported Linux programs. I use Pidgin, The GIMP, Open Office, etc. and they all run perfectly well. The one time I tried to dual boot on my desktop computer ended up writing over my data. Which was not fun. The bootloader decided that I didn't need my Windows partition any more. Oh well.

I do create backups often now. Wish it wasn't the special Microsoft backup program, but I didn't feel like looking around.

 

[shaneshane1]

I use windows(xp) and except it, because i don't know any better, it does everything i need it to do, so i cant see the point in using anything else?

 

[Brian Hoskins]

I realy do hate Linux. The machines in the upper floors of the university's electrical building use them and I hate it. Most of the time I have to fire up VMWare and run Windows XP to do what I need to do.

I've tried to give Linux a fair go but I have to agree with dknguyen, and for the same reasons too. Also I find that software development environments are better in Windows - and I expected that to be Linux's strong point but it wasn't.

Brian

 

[rjvh]

i use vista for my work laptop (forced to do so) and xp at home
had a go on the macs (like the computer styling much more but auto cad is not running on it)

vista does what it needs to do but have som problems that things drop out (calendar) and other of those small help programes

XP used always fine but need to get the service packs in order to get auto cad latest version running smoothly (don't know why)

mac not realy experianced it but the time i went on it the learning curve whas much quicker than XP (more logical for my mind i think)