Which Operating System(s) Do You Run on your Desktop Computers?

[lpetrich]

Let's see what you like to run.

This is what some of the options can be; I've listed DOS and MacOS Classic as "Other OSes", though they may plausibly be called predecessors of Windows and MacOS X.

Older Windows: Windows 2000, Me, NT, 98, 95, and 3.x
Other Unix: xBSD, Solaris, Irix, AIX, Tru64, HP-UX, etc.
Other OSes: DOS, MacOS Classic, AmigaOS, BeOS, OS/2, VMS, OS/390, etc.

You can choose more than one, like if:

Your computers run different OSes.
You can boot into more than one OS on a computer.
You run some OS inside of virtual-machine software (VirtualPC, Parallels, VMWare, ...)

[Don Alhambra]

My work computer has XP. My home desktop, which I hardly ever use any more, has Mac OS X Panther and my laptop has both Mac OSX Leopard and Windows XP, which is damned useful.

[Barbarian]

Main machine: WinXP dualbooting with Zenwalk Linux. Then, inside virtual machines, I have and sometimes use Win2k and DOS 6.22. Old programs are old; they don't behave well on newer systems.

[pSimon]

SuSe 10.3 on all machines, dual booted with XP for games use (only on non-server machines.)

[Monad]

2 running XP and one with Linux (Ubuntu but have tried others)

Daughter has laptop with Vista - it's horrible.

[Comfortably Numb]

We have 3 computers in the house. One runs XP, one Vista and the one I use 99% of the time dual boots XP and Ubuntu.

[Goldie]

Vista on my laptop
XP on my PC

[Gooch's dad]

I was a Mac fan for years and years, but I use an XP laptop, to be compatible with the computers at school. And also, I still have a copy of Solidworks, an excellent 3D mechanical design suite, that I occasionally use to design stuff. I used it to lay out my sister's patio a couple of years ago, and it came in really handy for that. Solidworks doesn't run on a Mac, nor is there a Linux version.

I'm not enough of a geek to dive into Linux, although if I have to set up a new computer network at a new teaching job next year, I might try to tackle it.

[seebs]

NetBSD, OS X, and Linux... Plus XP for games about once every month or two.

[Alethias]

I have cable internet. The computer that that gets the cable internet is a linux computer; currently it has the suse 10.1 distro. I'm a bit of a linux fan for multiple reasons. I like the customizable security settings and i'm using that machine as a firewall for the rest of the house. My other computer, my wifes and my daughters computers all have Windows XP. I have XP on this computer because it's what I use for Gaming. I play world of warcraft. world of warcraft is playable on linux; I used to in fact do that. But patch day was always hell, and sometimes the problems didn't quickly or readily go away. I have no problems with world of warcraft and other games on windows. I'm gonna buy bioshock soon, and am looking forward to playing it, but wouldn't even consider it on linux.

I'd rather play games on linux; I believe it to be a more stable platform for gaming, but the software producers don't produce it built and compiled for linux for the most part.

My wife and daughter use windows simply because of the relatively steep learning curve for linux at first.

I'd love to do Macintosh computers, but my main beef with mac right now is that there are not enough games for it right now. I game and do email and forums mostly, with a little open source coding on the side, and I wouldn't use a mac enough for that to justify it.

[Zebulon]

A desktop and a laptop with Windows 2000. My fiancée's laptop runs XP, which I've never liked. Being cheap, I won't buy a box with Vista until my current computer dies. If I don't like Vista, I'll probably switch to Linux.

My daughter has a desktop machine running Windows 98, as older games won't run properly on 2000 or XP. That one isn't on the wi-fi network!

[lao tzu]

OS X (with Ubuntu and XP running under VMWare).

[Vill]

I got a old desktop running XP at home and my older laptop runs the same and for the most part, both machines run problem free - until earlier this year when my laptop died one night while downloading a music video - this forced me into getting a new notebook, so I ended up with Vista, which I wasn't too impressed with at first, but now I've poked it around a bit, tweaked it a bit (particularly turning off that damn User Account Control thingy that kept asking me "are you SURE you want to do that?" 500 times a bloody day! :D ) etc, I'm quite a lot happier with it...

[ninewands]

I have not had a Windows license since Win 95a crapped out on my dual-boot Pentium 166 box. Nowadays I use Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 on my work machines and Fedora 8 on the computers (including my wife's computer) at home. The only things I own that say Microsoft on them are a joystick (Sidewinder 3d Pro from about 1997 )and an X-Box (first gen).

I also have an Ultra 10 running Solaris 10 on my desk and a couple of servers running Solaris in my office (hope that changes soon, the fan noise is irritating).

[llanitedave]

I'm on Kubuntu at home, primitive Windows 2000 at work.

I'm surprized and gratified to see how many linux users there are here.

[Nialler]

Various flavours of Windows, but recently I got my dream app on my laptop.

I now have Hercules running on it and have a virtual mainframe running Z/OS 1.4.

It works beautifully.

[Wordy]

WinXP on all but dual boot up able to chose Linux if I hit a key within time.

My main desktop says explicitly on their support page that it only works with windows xp and vista. And that seems very true. Each time me try Linux on it it breaks down and need to be rescued with the original CD rom.

I would like to have linux on all of the for security reasons but have only tried it on one out of me a tech and soft noob. to high learning curve when linux don't work

when Ubuntu Linux works it is fairly easy to use for us who are used to MS Win though with the modern Ubuntu gui.

[hecaterin]

Mac OSX, home and work. Most heavily used applications: X11, Mail, Firefox.

[DrLight]

SuSe 10.3 on all machines, dual booted with XP for games use (only on non-server machines.)


he forgot Windows 95 on the pc for very old games

[pSimon]

But only you use that one...

I didn't include the "Sharp" version of Linux the Zaurus runs, not the Xandros the eee runs either.... :)

Nor Win2k in various VMs either....


... but you get the point... :)

[BracesForImpact]

I have Vista Basic on one desktop, and XP Home on my other.

[Wordy]

Would not surprise me if I have Windows 95 on one or two and Windows 98 on another in the Cellar. I inherited old used computers from a job. Very small HDs on them. 10Gb or so. Slow machines. Used a Modem 14.400 with them so no need to be fast. For text emails and no games at all. 640x480 in resolution and 16 bit bus? I guess the battery to the cmos clock is out if juice so could be tricky to set it up not knowing Cylinders and such on drives.

Nostalgic reasons for to not scrap them to heap?

[slideyfoot]

I don't have enough geekpower to run anything but Windows, though it would be fun to try. I would have kept my old desktop with Windows 95, but it got stolen (though I guess lucky they took that, but not my brother's brand new computer across the way). Still, much more of a pain to get old games working now: DOSBox and stuff helps, but haven't quite worked it out yet despite some front end thing I downloaded that makes it much easier.

[Plognark]

Win XP on my rig, XP at work, Vista for the wife, and Win2K on my infrequently used TV rig.

[umop apisdn w,I]

WinXP on all five computers (mine, my wife's, the one in the arcade cabinet, my daughters, and my work laptop).

[Jet Black]

pics of the arcade cabinet plz.

[A Dead Relative]

I have XP on my computer and my girlfriend's laptop. I'm getting a new laptop with XP on it, too. When I get my new computer, I want to dual boot this computer with Linux.

What is the best version of Linux, for beginners?

[umop apisdn w,I]

pics of the arcade cabinet plz.

I gave it its own thread (http://www.talkrational.org/showthread.php?t=1525)...

[llanitedave]

What is the best version of Linux, for beginners?

Probably Ubuntu. But not certainly.

[Wordy]

Several forums on Linux have people knowing Ubuntu so that could be helpful.

[A Dead Relative]

There are support forums for everything, with all sorts of knowledgeable people, so that's not really a factor.

[JamesBannon]

Linux - Fedora in my case. Been there since about Release 4 but have tried others at various times: Gentoo: Mandrake; CentOS; and a few others that I have forgotten.

[Teshi]

I have XP at home and OSX at work.

My PC is my fun compy and my Mac is my work compy. Take that, stupid Mac commercials.

I'm not going to change to Vista until I'm forced to. I don't see any reason to change now; I've never had a problem with XP.

[Gladrags]

I'm using Vista. Only had it a month or two it replaces Windows XP. Took a bit of getting used to but I love it now.

[FrnchDp]

Vista at home on my desktop. XP on two separate laptops, an old desktop and at work.

[retrow]

1. OpenSuse 10.3 on my desktop
2. Ubuntu 6.06 on old desktop (2003).
3. Xubuntu 7.10 on my laptop (circa 2003-04) w/ XP dual boot.
4. Ubuntu 8.04 on my lab computer (was 7.10 until 3 days ago)

ETA: Just voted in the poll. My heart warmed up when I saw that (at present) Linux users exceed Vista users.

[JamesBannon]

I wouldn't put any kind of Windows anywhere near a machine of mine. Recommendations to other people, however, is a different matter.