which OS do you like most ?
 

please vote for your favourite Operating System.

Is such a poll on a Linux forum not simply pointless?

I suppose it is, but I do have a favorite OS and it's not Linux; it's OS/2, I still use it too. Another favorite that I use is OS X, waiting for the Lion to roar. :)

i didn't think that way....:)

Bit unfair poll since Linux and BSD is cost free and Windows and Mac is something to pay for(we all know people hate Win and Mac because of that not because they are badly wrongly made)..anyway my favourite OS is one that just works when needed.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in <General> and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Terrible question. It's like asking what's your favorite tool. My favorite tool is the one that does the best job for the specific thing I'm trying to accomplish at any particular moment in time.

None of them. Every OS have some kind of problem, so there are no favorites and you could say I dislike all of them. I use whatever gets the job done.

The one I'm using now.

Hey...

A bit obvious, but still. By the way, there is an OS/2 fan in here! Cool!!! I was into that when lose311 was around, I liked it for the pre-emptive multitasking.

Did'nt know that was still around :)

Cool

The only reason you included the poll was to make it harder to merge this into the Windows vs Linux thread, wasn't it.

BTW, I agree with the people who said the question is terrible. Linux isn't my favorite OS for playing games, for example.

My favorite is OpenBSD, linux second, then windows :P
Security first, then comes usability, last is gaming.

In all honesty, I actually claim Linux has my favorite, O/S.
The reason not being because we are on a Linux based forum but because of GNU/Linux's feature set and abilities.

Let's be honest, no one likes to be scammed by gimmicks, so why do other O/S developers charge money for features that a super user would use?

Linux's support for 32bit PAE (Physical Address Extension) mode for instance, well for a while 4 gigabytes of RAM has been the standard, so then why does Microsoft exclude this feature in Basic all the way to Ultimate edition? In fact you can only enable more then 4 gigabytes of memory on there server editions. I don't see how this option effects the price tag. I don't mind paying for software at all, but when developers do things like this it bugs me, because really there is no reason for it.

Linux can also run all binaries doesn't matter if there 4 bits, 8 bits, 16 bits, 32 bits or 64 bits, Microsoft claims when in 64 bit mode 16 bits can not be accessed...This is not true at all! The real reason is they simply dropped compatibility support. Why lie? Why not just tell people that support for 4~16 bit binaries as been discontinued.

Older protocol support is another plus on why I like Linux, doesn't matter what bit mode I am in I still have SLIP, IPX, TCP/IP, and a whole bunch more... these actually are useful for gamers that use DOSEmu or DOSBox because they can be used with TCP/IP to encapsulate whatever protocol might be used for older software. Allowing real Dukematchers to play the original Duke 3D the was it was meant to be played. :)


The bad parts of Linux are the lack of games that are commercially developed. The WINE project works wonders but is not perfect, has its bugs and those don't always get fixed as fast as possible. So yes Windows in this way is better, but that is not a deal breaker for me, most of all my software works within WINE or runs naively.

On the business end Linux suffers a blow on the desktop because of it's lack of exchange support. But that is not really and issue because with a willing boss the company can ditch exchange for something that is more friendly for Linux and friends.

Linux is best for what I do daily and I would never switch to anything else. It does everything I want it to and nothing more. :)

none of those are "operating systems "
they are platforms

There is NO OS called "linux"
-- there is RHEL,SELS ,Ubuntu, fedora ...--

There is NO OS called "Microsoft Windows "
-- there is 98, ME,XP,vista,7 ---

There is NO OS called "Mac OS X"

I thought that was supposed to be short for "Macintosh Operating System 10"… :scratch:

Besides that, I thought the underlying system of Mac OS X was called "Darwin"…and the kernel "Mach".

I'm no expert on OS X, so if anyone knows better, don't hesitate to correct me. :p

As for "which OS I like the best", I don't think it's really fair to vote; this is a Linux forum, after all. :p

Basically anything UNIX-like, as it interests me. :D

I disagree.

"Linux" is a kernel, and you can create different OSes around it, and that's what Linux distros are.

But Windows and Mac OS X are full OSes, not kernels. They are like Linux distros, not like the Linux kernel.

And finally, where did the user you were replying to ("-demo-", I assume) say that he thought that there was one "Linux" and didn't know about the difference of Linux and Linux distros?

Cost has nothing to do with it. You could say "What is your favorite mode of transportation?" and then say if someone chose "walking" that it would be because it is free, whereas it costs money to drive.

Windows was "free" to me- it came on my computer (Wasn't aware of the Windows buy-back then)...yet I choose not to use it, because Linux works better; allows me to do more; and doesn't drive me nuts and waste my time.

There may be no perfect OS...but Linux is as close as we have to that!
I used Windows for 10 years....it was driving me crazy and requires ever newer hardware just to do half of what it did 10 years ago. The EULA is ludicrous and I hated booting up my computer and hearing the fan screaming and the hard disk moaning and straining while Windows loaded it's gigabytes of bloat.

Switched to linux 1 year ago, and never looked back. Now I'm Linux-only.

Actually I disagree because x86, ARM, SPARC, ALPHA are platforms.
Microsoft Windows is a line of Operating Systems. The reason behind this is Win32/64 API has been the same since NT came out. The binary formats, software IRQs, etc have been the same forever.

One other thing I thought about is that it depends on how you define an OS. It can be anything from a kernel, userspace, and applications (such as a Linux distro), or just a kernel (which can do stuff on its own without userspace processes).

linux
windows 3.1 (nostalgia)
mac os 6.x,7.x,8.x,9.x
mac os x
ms-dos

Hi,

Semantics??

Windows 98 ;)

a better question would be "what is your second favorite O/S "
mine would be DOS 6
even with a GUI I spend a lot of time on the terminal (most of it as root)
so much so that more often than not I'm booting to run level 3 and using startx&

the INT 21 API gateway from DOS is still there and still 16bit

BeOS is my favorite OS.

Linux
MacOS
Windows

That's my ruling...

An INT and API are not the same... Application Program Interface has nothing to do with an INT (which is just a set of functions designed to be called via soft interrupt. It's not really a gateway... A20 is a gate... INT21 is a set of functions that may be called when AX,EAX or RAX as different values in it (usually low bit, as in ah, al) (I do code in assembly language)

API's have nothing to do with the instruction set, while INT's do.
Software interrupts are implemented as instructions in the instruction set, which cause a context switch to an interrupt handler similar to a hardware interrupt. This has nothing to do with API's at all!

"Where" is it exactly? Userspace programs can't call interrupts, NTVDM emulates them. For most practical purposes int21 doesn't exist since win2k.

There's nothing "unfair" in that; the question, as I understand it, is simply about which one of them you like the most, not whether or not you can afford to use or even buy one. A person might think a skyscraper penthouse was "the best home", even if that person couldn't reasonably afford one :)

Because the "OS" was not restricted to any PC operating system, then I assume it can mean any system that sits between me and hardware and allows me to operate the device. Based on this assumption, the "other" I vote for would be my calculator "OS" which never glitches on me, doesn't require security updates, boots very quickly and can do some very basic numerical integration ;) Next would come the two obvious ones.

why is "Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No" not visible in this thread ?

Because this thread is in a general forum, you will not find that here.

The older versions of NT didn't give driect access to the hardware either.

yeah...i recall that now...
in general forum,post are not counted and reputations are disabled.
thanks !

Oh yes it does when it comes to hate not choice..you can choose whatever you want but face fact - if Windows had free version or wasn't popular(second reason why it is hated) plenty of Linux hardcore fans would use it at least in dual-boot mode. Wrong example too. Speaking about walking and driving you forget some important details:
- Walking on foot and driving car has same goal - get from point A to point B and yes having car is better suited for this task if road is long and it gives comfort(just sit and enjoy music). Walking is better in park or when need breathe fresh air or similar tasks but for long journey or fast travel? Not in this life..
- If you don't have car you don't have it and can't have it + if you decide to steal you be very fast catched but when you speak about OS you already have hardware for it so you don't need steal it and when you decide about software again it is easy to get one and use from internet.
Conclusion: Stop comparing different things since they don't share properties.
Again..if you live in enough good house and surroundings it may be true but try asking this to bum or poor people or people with specific taste..i think answer is obvious..some stuff that costs actually is better in task when compared to same stuff for less money.
Conclusion: Don't say "Piece of cake!" before jump from one edge to other where big fall is between them.

Windows does have a free version doesn't it? I've always been able to find one. Even given that and the fact that windows came bundled with my laptop, I still don't use it anymore.

Linux is best IMO

You're joking, right?

Of course that was a joke. I would never encourage anyone to avoid any of the licensing mechanisms that MS employs because that would be against the rules and very naughty.

I would always recommend the dumping of windows and the use of Linux.

If you get it with your prebuild one, no, you have paid for it.
If you have pirated it, no, it costs your conscience.

They could PAY me, and I still wouldn't use Win-D'ohs!

You might say that… :D

In all seriousness, though, it's nowhere near a drop-in replacement.

actually i think you're both wrong
x86, arm, sparc, alpha etc... are ARCHITECTURES
windows, mac os, palm os, etc.. are operating systems
platform if memory serves me is a combination of operating system and architecture such as win32, linux x86_64, 32 bit solaris etc, windows xp arm etc...

and yes there IS an operating system called mac os x

Linux is a kernel. OS is GNU/Linux. There's android/Linux, for example - Linux kernel, non-GNU internals, so John VV has a point.