What OS do you use?

[Redundant]

The only real answer to this question for me is yes. I currently use mac, windows, and linux on a regular basis, although most of my time is in mac and linux (Ubuntu 11.10)

[mic]

Since I'm no gamer (besides go) and do a lot of software development (as a hobbie and for work) I use Linux excusively for maybe ten years now. Although, from time to time I have VirtualBox open for synchronizing my Garmin Forerunner.

Michael

[hyperpape]

Even default applications in Ubuntu had tons of inconsistencies. A quick example: would Ctrl-Q work in any given application? Probably, but you might also need to try Ctrl-W or even Ctrl-Shift-Q.

Malformed dialogue boxes are another source of trouble--it is rare that you should use "yes" or "no" instead of descriptive choices.

Most of what I might complain about is specific to particular applications, dialogues, etc., rather than system level issues, but they're pervasive. When most applications that you use on a daily basis have crappy usability, it becomes harder to justify the effort to make yours better, or you even lose an eye for problems because you never see better examples.

Of course it's not the case that Apple is perfect: right now I have iTunes open on Windows and there is no keyboard shortcut to close the application. *facepalm*

[kirkmc]

Of course it's not the case that Apple is perfect: right now I have iTunes open on Windows and there is no keyboard shortcut to close the application. *facepalm*

Control-Q doesn't work?

[Toge]

Not wanting to worry about keeping virus protection and firewall up to date might be one.

- Security is easy to handle. Disabling common sources of troubles like remote control have usually been enough. Half of Windows updates are about fixing security issues in remote control that never sounded a good idea. Viruses aren't nearly as big thing as they were ten years ago. Bulky virus scanners automatically running and updating themselves, hogging system resources makes me wonder are they any better than what common malware used to be in the past. What concerns me most about security is privacy. Sites like Facebook just hoard personal details of all your 'likes', names you search and sites you visit. Who knows where this all ends up.

[Laman]

Win 7 / Kubuntu 11.04

i have used mainly Linux for 3 years or so, but since last upgrade it has started overheating my notebook (fan is screaming most of the time), and i didn't bother enough to solve the problem (any tips? downgrade should work ), so i mostly came over to win. and Visual Studio 2010 is slightly better than MonoDevelop

my desktop has some HW issues with linux, and family is not so enthusiastic about lin, so again win

otherwise, philosophically i support linux 100%. am i going to pay $100 for windows? no. do i choose unofficial copy of windows or do i choose linux, that comes with equal functionality* for free?

*oh yes, i said it has issues with my HW and not all software is suited for it. but i can always blame HW&SW producers for their limited support

PS: writing this post again gave me some motivation to return back to lin. thank you

[jts]

I primarily used Ubuntu for four years. There were a lot of minor irritants, but the glaring problem was that Word is still the fastest, most convenient, and most compatible word processor. I tried AbiWord, KWord, and OpenOffice, but they're all so slow and so irritating. When you have to make plans to use XP or a Mac for anything that matters, it sort of ruins the point of "primarily" using Linux.

One thing I originally disliked about Windows is that it would perpetually pester me to update this and update that. By the time I switched back, Ubuntu was even worse.

Anyway, there were things I liked about it, but I wasn't getting more comfortable with Ubuntu or using it more efficiently as time went on. I eventually stopped using it because CGoban was intermittently not working, Easier just to switch back to XP full-time.

[hyperpape]

Of course it's not the case that Apple is perfect: right now I have iTunes open on Windows and there is no keyboard shortcut to close the application. *facepalm*

Control-Q doesn't work?

Nope. But it turns out that Ctrl-W does work . However, it isn't listed in the file menu along with the Exit command, so I don't feel too badly embarrassed.

[nagano]

How could you make a poll like this with only one choice?

I thought about allowing multiple choices, but I was more interested in what people prefer to use as their primary OS, not to list every OS they use. And for that reason I didn't include mobile. The only thing I use Windows for anymore is games and Blu-rays, but if I were to include Windows as my choice as well that would artificially inflate the numbers.

[ez4u]

How could you make a poll like this with only one choice?

I thought about allowing multiple choices, but I was more interested in what people prefer to use as their primary OS, not to list every OS they use. And for that reason I didn't include mobile. The only thing I use Windows for anymore is games and Blu-rays, but if I were to include Windows as my choice as well that would artificially inflate the numbers.

So games and video aren't real (are artificial)? Go is imaginary? What are you doing here? Or are you even here? Maybe it is all just a hallucination!

[amnal]

It is difficult [...] to replace the window manager with something more powerful.

I am not sure what you mean by window manager. The shell can be replaced by, for example, the PowerShell (if you like a DOS-like GUI). The task manager can be the Sysinternals ProcessExplorer.

The window manager is the program that manages window placement and appearance. For instance, as a trivial example, the mac window manager places the 'close window' button at the top left of the window whereas the Windows wm places it at the top right. Much more significant differences can be seen if you compare tiling window managers with floating window managers, or even the flashy effects of modern wms compared to windows 3.1

I like using xmonad, which is a tiling window manager. Windows does not offer this functionality out of the box, though it is possible to get similar results with third party add-ons. I don't think it's possible to simply replace the wm with xmonad, though, which is (for me) a point against windows. This probably also imposes a minor performance penalty, but whether this matters is a matter of opinion and circumstance.

I'm not saying that windows doesn't have tools available to do stuff any way you want to, including in power user terms, but I think linux lets me do it better and more easily. In part, because it's generally more designed to do so. Of course, this backfires for new users when it comes to the common 'why isn't there just one good distro?' question, but that's just not the point .

[amnal]

Ubuntu 10.04. I will upgrade when 12.04 comes out.

Even though I use Linux, I don't delight in changing my OS every six months.

You might be interested in a distro like Linux Mint, particularly the new(ish) debian based version that's rolling release. In principle, that means you never need to actively upgrade, as everything is incrementally upgraded when the update is available. Mint also is very well thought of as a competitor to Ubuntu's user-friendliness.

Depending on how you have ubuntu installed, you wouldn't lose any data, and could possibly even keep your current program settings etc. in the same way that ubuntu does when you upgrade. Though depending on how you have ubuntu installed, this also may not be possible.

[Chew Terr]

Going to school for computer science taught me (among other things), that I really, really don't want to spend my free time customizing computer systems and such. As such, I use windows because it came on my laptop, and I try to mess with things as rarely as possible.

[Joaz Banbeck]

Win 7 / Kubuntu 11.04

i have used mainly Linux for 3 years or so, but since last upgrade it has started overheating my notebook (fan is screaming most of the time) ...any tips? ...

Have you checked your battery pack? If the batteries are getting old, the internal resistance may rise enough to overwork your batter charger, then the fan has to work harder to keep it cool.

[Marcus]

Going to school for computer science taught me (among other things), that I really, really don't want to spend my free time customizing computer systems and such. As such, I use windows because it came on my laptop, and I try to mess with things as rarely as possible.

I will echo these sentiments.

Now, as an ambitious programmer-wannabe (and as a sysadmin), I dream of being in complete control (can I has ATCA chassis w/ blade servers all running multiple VMs of various flavours, plz? I haz netwurk sk1llz, mebbe?). The reality is, though, I don't have the time to learn what I need to learn to make Linux (any flavour) my go-to OS (or OSX, for that matter). My company works on Windows, and my netbook came with Windows. That's what I use.

As a side note, my home PC is on for less than an hour a day (on average), so I'm not exactly the typical user. I have no cell phone (we have one flip-phone for the family), so I don't have a mobile OS either.

Yay for outlier data points?