What flavor OS?

[w31n3r]

I never thought I'd say this but the appliance I can't live without is no longer my computer but my phone and it runs linux.

yet another example of making open source software user friendly. i don't get why desktop editions can't get around this, though SimplyMepis looks promising. users need something that "just works", yup i borrowed the apple USP to drive home the fact that they got a unix platform to make windows look and feel out dated. it can be done.

btw some linux distros look absolutely stunning! any idea how badly memory takes a hit, or is linux on par with win 7 on the memory management front?

[RACKnRAIL]

Not considering the votes in this poll, but it seems a lot of people are using Linux these days. Many corporations are now considering it an affordable option to Windows licenses. Plus online I've seen it grow in popularity in leaps and bounds in the last 5 years.

[Boomer The Dog]

Shango mentioned using Yellow Dog Linux, and I should have barked that there's a version called Puppy Linux http://puppylinux.org/ that's really light and useful for older laptops and desktops.

It's its own thing and not based on another foundation. Depending on your hardware it may or may not be as easy to install as Ubuntu, and there's more manual configuration to do, but it's way lighter on the system.

[HelenaP]

... Maybe you're still using XP...
I'm also curious about Win7 users. What do you like about Win7? If you're still using XP, I'm curious why??

Windows 7 on his laptop and my new machine. XP on my old desktop (which he has fixed. It got sick) and Vista <*poscough*> on my laptop and his desktop.

If I had my way, I'd still be on XP. Vista sucks and Windows 7 is actually quite nice. The word that comes to mind is seamless.

[RACKnRAIL]

If I had my way, I'd still be on XP.

I've only been using Win 7 only for about a month. The more I use it the more I like it. I do enjoy Linux as a learning curve. It's actually not as hard as I once thought. The many Linux forums and communities make it much easier.

[sygreenblum]

I've used Linux a lot in the past for specific tasks. Web server, network server and home entertainment system. Very reliable but never very friendly to use. Whatever task I was using it for usually took a day or two to get working properly. The upside is its free and it never crashes.

My feelings on desktop are different. Browser, plug-ins, drivers, apps and games are not nearly on par with Windows. They've made huge improvements since the last time I had a dual boot system but they still aren't there yet.

[fred_anon2000]

I have 32 bit xp. That in turn was installed when Microsoft shafted me when they decided it wan't their problem if nothing else by microsoft would work on my 64 bit xp. So i'm a dual booter

When the updates stop i will try Linux because Microsofts vindictivenes will force me to wipe my hard drive as part of any upgrade.

[RACKnRAIL]

I have 32 bit xp. That in turn was installed when Microsoft shafted me when they decided it wan't their problem if nothing else by microsoft would work on my 64 bit xp. So i'm a dual booter

When the updates stop i will try Linux because Microsofts vindictivenes will force me to wipe my hard drive as part of any upgrade.

You're not the only one that M$ has pissed off. Check out this article:

Ernie Ball and Linux - Three Years on...

Ernie Ball, a company that makes guitar strings, switched to using Linux three years ago after the Business Software Alliance publically embarrassed the company to promote software sales for Microsoft. At the time, Sterling Ball, who took over management of the company from his father Ernie Ball, vowed he would never use Microsoft again and made the transistion to Linux. He now admits that the decision was based on emotions at the time, but three years on he can't thank Microsoft enough for encouraging his company to use Linux.

CNET has an interesting interview with Sterling Ball in which Sterling gives some background on why they switched and why the decision has been so beneficial for his company.

• How has the transition gone?
  It's the funniest thing--we're using it for e-mail client/server, spreadsheets and word processing. It's like working in Windows. One of the analysts said it costs $1,250 per person to change over to open source. It wasn't anywhere near that for us. I'm reluctant to give actual numbers. I can give any number I want to support my position, and so can the other guy. But I'll tell you, I'm not paying any per-seat license. I'm not buying any new computers. When we need something, we have white box systems we put together ourselves. It doesn't need to be much of a system for most of what we do.

[moneoa]

It doesn't need to be much of a system for most of what we do.[/COLOR][/LIST]

Nor does it need to be for 99.9% of casual computer users. Bigger, faster, better was all a marketing ploy by intel and M.S

This is why windows 7 can run on netbooks that have the same hardware specs of computers from over 5 years ago even though it is a vista core O.S when Vista could not even do that.

It is because Vista was designed to push people on more powerful hardware and fork out another grand on a new PC or upgrades.

[RACKnRAIL]

Nor does it need to be for 99.9% of casual computer users. Bigger, faster, better was all a marketing ploy by intel and M.S.

I'd say there's a bit of a difference.

If you want to run Windows 7 on your PC, here's what it takes:

• 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Ubuntu System Requirements


Before installing ubuntu, you should also check your computer against the hardware requirements. The system requirements for Ubuntu are as follows:

• 700 MHz or better processor
• 3GB of available disk space
• 256MB of memory (RAM)
• CD-ROM drive
• Ethernet interface
• VGA graphics interface