Re:Ask HN: What's your favorite OS and why?
by beloch on Tuesday August 21, 2012 @11:41PM
(#4415935)
OS's I use in order of preference:
#1. Linux with KDE: For work, this can't be beat. KDE has insanely good virtual desktop support. You can multitask heavily and still be very efficient. I grew up with CLI's, so I view a good one as a pleasure to use, not a hindrance as some do. Customizability is nearly infinite. It's generally less work for me to get a Linux box set up to acceptable productive levels than a Windows box.
#2. Windows 7: This runs my HTPC and I use it for games, movies, etc.. There's pretty much no decent Bluray support on any non-MS OS, and I do like bluray! Win7 still has some bugs, but it's a very livable OS.
#3. Windows XP: Yup. Ancient! However, a lot of our lab gear has drivers that won't work in anything else. I use it because I have to.
OS's I have used and am glad not to anymore:
OSX. I had OSX on my laptop for most of last year. It's nice in that it has better interoperability with Linux software than Windows thanks to it's BSD roots, but if you want to use Linux you might as well use Linux!. It technically has virtual desktops, but management is primitive. I've never liked the OSX dock (Give me KBar or even the Win95 start-bar any day!). Bluray support (one third-party app that does key management over the internet!) is dodgy and gaming is still not so good, so it's not really a viable HTPC OS. Lion was also very buggy. Much worse than Windows 7. Customizability is the worst of any modern OS. Apple tries very hard to force you to do things their way. Oh, you can change things, but it's usually more trouble than its worth. I expect the OS's I use to be capable of adapting to me rather than forcing me to adapt to them. OSX is ahead of the game when it comes to trackpad gesture support, but hopefully other OS's will catch up fast.
#1. Linux with KDE: For work, this can't be beat. KDE has insanely good virtual desktop support. You can multitask heavily and still be very efficient. I grew up with CLI's, so I view a good one as a pleasure to use, not a hindrance as some do. Customizability is nearly infinite. It's generally less work for me to get a Linux box set up to acceptable productive levels than a Windows box.
#2. Windows 7: This runs my HTPC and I use it for games, movies, etc.. There's pretty much no decent Bluray support on any non-MS OS, and I do like bluray! Win7 still has some bugs, but it's a very livable OS.
#3. Windows XP: Yup. Ancient! However, a lot of our lab gear has drivers that won't work in anything else. I use it because I have to.
OS's I have used and am glad not to anymore:
OSX. I had OSX on my laptop for most of last year. It's nice in that it has better interoperability with Linux software than Windows thanks to it's BSD roots, but if you want to use Linux you might as well use Linux!. It technically has virtual desktops, but management is primitive. I've never liked the OSX dock (Give me KBar or even the Win95 start-bar any day!). Bluray support (one third-party app that does key management over the internet!) is dodgy and gaming is still not so good, so it's not really a viable HTPC OS. Lion was also very buggy. Much worse than Windows 7. Customizability is the worst of any modern OS. Apple tries very hard to force you to do things their way. Oh, you can change things, but it's usually more trouble than its worth. I expect the OS's I use to be capable of adapting to me rather than forcing me to adapt to them. OSX is ahead of the game when it comes to trackpad gesture support, but hopefully other OS's will catch up fast.