Why do you use your particular operating system?

[Calum]

Here's the full document that my quotes are drawn from.

I was just wondering why people chose to use the OS that the chose. this is open to windows users, BSD users, DOS users, whatever.
Let's hear your actual reasons for using the software you use, or not using the software you don't use.

To let you know my reasons for using GNU/Linux, i will have to quote Richard Stallman:  

quote:Around the same time, another non-free GUI toolkit library began to gain in popularity. This was Qt, from Troll Technologies. Ultimately Qt was used in a substantial collection of free software, the desktop KDE.

Free GNU/Linux systems were unable to use KDE, because we could not use the library. However, some commercial distributors of GNU/Linux systems who were not strict about sticking with free software added KDE to their systems--producing a system with more capabilities, but less freedom. The KDE group was actively encouraging more programmers to use Qt, and millions of new "Linux users" had never been exposed to the idea that there was a problem in this. The situation appeared grim.

The free software community responded to the problem in two ways: GNOME and Harmony.

GNOME, the GNU Network Object Model Environment, is GNU's desktop project. Started in 1997 by Miguel de Icaza, and developed with the support of Red Hat Software, GNOME set out to provide similar desktop facilities, but using free software exclusively. It has technical advantages as well, such as supporting a variety of languages, not just C++. But its main purpose was freedom: not to require the use of any non-free software.

Harmony is a compatible replacement library, designed to make it possible to run KDE software without using Qt.

In November 1998, the developers of Qt announced a change of license which, when carried out, should make Qt free software. There is no way to be sure, but I think that this was partly due to the community's firm response to the problem that Qt posed when it was non-free. (The new license is inconvenient and inequitable, so it remains desirable to avoid using Qt.)

How will we respond to the next tempting non-free library? Will the whole community understand the need to stay out of the trap? Or will many of us give up freedom for convenience, and produce a major problem? Our future depends on our philosophy.

 

quote:The worst threat we face comes from software patents, which can put algorithms and features off-limits to free software for up to twenty years. The LZW compression algorithm patents were applied for in 1983, and we still cannot release free software to produce proper compressed GIFs. In 1998, a free program to produce MP3 compressed audio was removed from distribution under threat of a patent suit.

There are ways to cope with patents: we can search for evidence that a patent is invalid, and we can look for alternative ways to do a job. But each of these methods works only sometimes; when both fail, a patent may force all free software to lack some feature that users want. What will we do what this happens?

Those of us who value free software for freedom's sake will stay with free software anyway. We will manage to get work done without the patented features. But those who value free software because they expect it to be technically superior are likely to call it a failure when a patent holds it back. Thus, while it is useful to talk about the practical effectiveness of the "cathedral" model of development, and the reliability and power of some free software, we must not stop there. We must talk about freedom and principle.

The whole document is worth reading, but that sums up my attitude quite well. Anybody else?

[ May 12, 2002: Message edited by: Calum ]

[ravuya]

I like the Mac OS mostly because it was my first computing experience, and it's just so damned easy to use. That, and it seems to have user interface standards, installer standards, and it doesn't mask the system internals behind a layer of garbage from you like Windows does.

Only problem? Hm, can't think of one other than the lack of games, but, hell, I'm too busy to play games. My machine's working on making me money.

[psyjax]

I personalay use Mac OS X because I truely belive it is the best OS around. OS X is breaking new ground for GUI's amd OS's. It brings forth many new concepts in user interaction with the computer as well as adding an incredibly powerfull underlayer of Darwin. Ironicaly OS X is based on UNIX and manages to still be simpler and more intuative than the origional MacOS.

Apple has allways been a company I respected ever since I was a kid. Something about them, the honesty, and sincerity in their products. It has allways given me the impression that they actually care about what they are doing. Apple is allways moving forward to advance their cause, to make computers simpler, better, and more accesible to everyone.

Say all you want about Windows acomplishing that goal, It's the Mac they have to thank for every "inovation" along the way.

[jtpenrod]

quote: Let's hear your actual reasons for using the software you use, or not using the software you don't use.

Here's what I use: Mandrake, Red Hat, Slackware. As to why; at first it was simply that it wasn't M$, there's no WPA, no spyware, no nagware. There was just no way that I was going to do XP. Since then, I have a system that's a good deal more reliable. I've yet to have any of the Linux OSs do a hard crash, and I think that I used XKill on perhaps three occasions since last November, as opposed to doing the M$ Three Finger Salute that many times in one day. Even more importantly, I've learned more in a few months with Linux than I ever learned in years with Winders.
_____________________________________

Powered by Mandrake Linux and Freedom

If software can be free, why can't dolphins?

[Scotty]

I have to admit that I used to be a long time winblows user. I can assure you guys/gals that my frustration and anger grew with every so called new release of winblows but I didn't have enought intrest to search for alternatives. Finally XP was the last straw on camels' back. I couldn't stand that Orwellian situation where m$ would actually own me, if I had used xPiss.

I had considered moving to Linux or Mac for a year before I finally did it.. never been happier    .  
For me linux is a breeze of free and fresh air and
I've been 'hooked'     ever since I installed it.  

The reason I won't use mickeyware anymore is that winblows isn't OS compared to linux,freeBSD or mac.

[ May 13, 2002: Message edited by: SingleMalt ]

[Master of Reality]

well... i have:
win98
red hat 7.2
red hat 7.3
slackware 8.0
had mandrake, debian, FreeBSD,  Linux From Scratch(and plan to put debian, Linux From Scratch, and FreeBSD back on a computer).

so really, i am trying out different OS's to find out which one i like the best. I figure that you cant just go by what other people tell you, I have to find which one suits me best and will perform the way i want it to.

[Kintaro]

I have:
Red-Hat Linux 7.2 (Full Boxed set)
Red-Hat Linux 7.1
Red-Hat Linux 7.0
Mandrake 8.0
TurboLinux 6.1
DragonLinux 2.0
GeekOS
GazOS
X11 DOS (Check my website)
Dr-DOS 7.3
Dr-DOS 7.2
MS-DOS 6.00
Windows 2000
Windows NT 4.0
Windows 98
Windows 3.11
Windows 3.1
Windows 2.03
Windows 1.01

Not many eh  

My Favorite: Red-Hat 7.2

(I might es well go into my software)
Web browsers:
Mozilla 1.0rc2
Mozilla 1.0rc1
Mozilla 0.99
Mozilla 0.80
Opera 5
Internet Explorer 6.0
Internet Explorer 5.5
Internet Explorer 4.0
Internet Explorer 3.0
Netscape 6.2
Netscape 6.0
Netscape 4.75
Netscape 4.00
Arachne 1.2+
Arachne 1.70

Games:
Quake I (GlQuake, X11 Quake)
Quake II
Quake III
Doom I
Doom II
Wolf3d
Blake Stone
UT GOTY
UT
GTA
GTA2
Half-Life (cstrike/pod-bot,TFC,DMC,PVK,SI)

Officeware/Productivity:
AbiWord Windows
AbiWord Linux
Microsoft Office XP (Never used)
Microsoft Works 2000 (Arrrgghhhhh)
Sun StarOffice (I LOVE EVERY BIT OF IT)
Gnumeric
Microsoft Office 4.2 (25 disks of fun)
Dreamhouse 3d (imsi)

Chat:
ICQ
ICQ JAVA (Window Winders)
ICQ JAVA (UNIX)
Trillian
Netscape Instant Messenger
MozillaChat
X-CHAT
Mirc

[ May 14, 2002: Message edited by: X11 ]

[Master of Reality]

quote:Originally posted by X11:
I have:
Red-Hat Linux 7.2 (Full Boxed set)
Red-Hat Linux 7.1
Red-Hat Linux 7.0
Mandrake 8.0
TurboLinux 6.1
DragonLinux 2.0
GeekOS
GazOS
X11 DOS (Check my website)
Dr-DOS 7.3
Dr-DOS 7.2
MS-DOS 6.00
Windows 2000
Windows NT 4.0
Windows 98
Windows 3.11
Windows 3.1
Windows 2.03
Windows 1.01

Not many eh      

My Favorite: Red-Hat 7.2

(I might es well go into my software)
Web browsers:
Mozilla 1.0rc2
Mozilla 1.0rc1
Mozilla 0.99
Mozilla 0.80
Opera 5
Internet Explorer 6.0
Internet Explorer 5.5
Internet Explorer 4.0
Internet Explorer 3.0
Netscape 6.2
Netscape 6.0
Netscape 4.75
Netscape 4.00
Arachne 1.2+
Arachne 1.70

Games:
Quake I (GlQuake, X11 Quake)
Quake II
Quake III
Doom I
Doom II
Wolf3d
Blake Stone
UT GOTY
UT
GTA
GTA2
Half-Life (cstrike/pod-bot,TFC,DMC,PVK,SI)

Officeware/Productivity:
AbiWord Windows
AbiWord Linux
Microsoft Office XP (Never used)
Microsoft Works 2000 (Arrrgghhhhh)
Sun StarOffice (I LOVE EVERY BIT OF IT)
Gnumeric
Microsoft Office 4.2 (25 disks of fun)
Dreamhouse 3d (imsi)

Chat:
ICQ
ICQ JAVA (Window Winders)
ICQ JAVA (UNIX)
Trillian
Netscape Instant Messenger
MozillaChat
X-CHAT
Mirc

[ May 14, 2002: Message edited by: X11 ]

and you have all these OS's currently on computers?
well.....
i actually have these OSes:
redhat 5.X (actually bought by someone)
redhat 6.X (actually bought)
redhat 6.X (the next version above the other RH6.X)(bought this one)
redhat 7.2
redhat 7.3
Mandrake 7.X (this was a bought CD, i think its 7.1)
Mandrake 8.1
Debian (whatever the newest version is)
Slackware 8
FreeBSD 5.0
Win NT(i can get this CD from an "associate" within minutes)
Win XP(i have access to this cd)
Win 2K(its not in my current possesion, but i can get the CD)
Win 95 (the actual CD, i didnt buy it though)
win 98
win 98SE
win 3.0 for logitech
win 3.1
win 3.11 for workgroups
And my uncle has a very early version of Linux i can get.
MS-DOS
X11-DOS
DOS 4.X? (i have an old version on floppy, not sure which version it is)
-------
you have win 1.01 and 2.03????? I want those.

[ May 14, 2002: Message edited by: Master of Reality ]

[Calum]

and i'd be well happy if you could see yr way clear, X11, to doing me a copy of this win/DOS CD you mentioned once it's finished, not sure what i can do in return, but there's bound to be something...

Also, back on topic, what with all those operating systems, the question on everybody's lips is "why?" do you use one over the other?

[Master of Reality]

i have no reason for why i use these OS's, i am trying out them all, to see if i can found out why i want to use a certain one.

kind of the opposite of yer question.. but, i have found out why i dont like i windows, its slow, memory leaks, doesnt like to support my hardware (a lot worse than linux), made by a cruel monopoly, and a lot of other reasons.

[Kintaro]

quote:Originally posted by Calum:
and i'd be well happy if you could see yr way clear, X11, to doing me a copy of this win/DOS CD you mentioned once it's finished, not sure what i can do in return, but there's bound to be something...

Also, back on topic, what with all those operating systems, the question on everybody's lips is "why?" do you use one over the other?

Ok why i dont use Windows 9x based os primarily:
Unstable... Annoys me, no good hacking type tools no good communications... doesnt even have a customizable UI.

Why i dont use dos primarily:
Dos is faster than anything else, but sorry no reliable multitaskiing.

Why not NT BASED (XP, 2000, NT4) primarily:
Unconfiurable, poor security, more viruses than goosenburys mum. More backdoors than darkminion.cjb.net (DONT GO THERE)

Why not freeBSD:
To "criptic" for my IQ, my webserver will run it
but sorry, not a good workstation.

Why linux:
Well where to start, Stability linux is stable and secure. And despite rumors Linux does not involve "Criptic commands" the linux command line is just as easy as CMD.EXE how many people know how to use it??? Linux is not a criptic liabary of commands,
or it was. My nan could use Linux!

[Calum]

top cool!

well, it seems so far that people have been citing usability as their main reason to choose either MacOS or Linux as their preferred platform. This surprises me a little, since, this being the "fuckmicrosoft.com" forums, i expected some more political answers.

As i say, my reason for preferring the idea of linux/GNU/BSD and so on is down, in the first instance, to the proprietary software model being what it is. Non-disclosure licences are not good as far as i can see, and there are a lot of those even amongst the MacOS and Linux camps.

Basically i reckon that if somebody comes round to your house and sees you using a program that they like, they should be able to ask for a copy, you should be able to copy it for them, and they should be able to go through the code, modifying it to their own requirements. And all this should be perfectly legal. Anything else is an annoyance and a hindrance to progress and involves people constantly performing the same task as each other because they are legally prohibited from sharing their work. For this reason, it gives rise to much needless incompatibility too.

I do reckon people should have the right to create software and release it under a different type of licence than the one i mention here, but i also reckon that people are not made aware enough of the intrinsic importance of a freely distributable type licence versus a proprietary one, even if the software concerned is"free" (as in free to buy, but not to modify or redistribute).

Anyway, i'm on my high horse again but i just wanted to make my own reasons heard. As it happens, myself, i find windows just as easy to use as linux at the moment, excepting windows' habit of crashing, freezing and generally failing regularly (but after a few more weeks of using linux, i think the 'ease of use' worm may turn, especially now i am also using BSD and SunOS via my shell accounts). However i certainly prefer GPLd software as an idea to any other type of software.

To me, proprietary unices, while much more stable, portable, reliable, versatile et c than windows, are just as bad (as Microsoft/windows) on a political front.

[ May 15, 2002: Message edited by: Calum ]

[Seeking000]

I've been trying to get off the 'crack' for some-time now.

The learning curve for Linux is steeper; I get the impression that I have to be fluent in a bazillion languages just to use the stuff *shrug*

Also, *frown* *big frown*  ...  Direct Draw, Direct X and (as mentioned earlier) music composition software.  VMWare is an option, dual boot is an option..

I also notice Lindows off in the horizon and wonder how that will shape the scene..

I just hope it gets 'better' in the near future..

-Seeking000

[Calum]

i wouldn't bother with lindows. All the people who want to use linux with windows software come here and say "i heard about lindows, maybe that's the saviour for me", well don't count yr chickens. They are half a year late with their release version, they charge you 99 bucks so you can debug their OS for them, and all the stuff is available elsewhere anyway. I reckon you should look into wine, wineX (for your directX stuff) or, for blowing money, VMWare.

Use KDE as your desktop, and you should not need to know that much more than if you were using windows. Of course, unlike windows, anything more that you do learn can be put to good use.

Also, GNU/Linux is free, so you can dual boot and not lose anything, be aware though that Microsoft doesn't provide support (such as it is) for an installation of windows if you also have any other operating system installed on your computer. Nice guys, eh?

[Seeking000]

One thing that just came to mind ...

I have read quite a bit lately (and not being an expert, cannot parse truth from fiction)..

Aparently, Linux has terrible anti-virus support and trojan support? I can't remember the exact articulation I found this issue at .. maybe the Happyhacker hmm..  (without source, this is basically a heresay troll)

Anyways, I was wondering how Linux would react to a virtual machine (Windows for example) that caught a virus..

-Seeker000