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  • #2186358

    Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

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    by cactus pete ·

    In ten words or less, complete the following sentence: “I choose an Operating System based on _______”

    OK, I’ll open it up a bit: use as many words as you can!

    typo

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    • #3161042

      You’d be better off with ten words.

      by apotheon ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      Opening it up to “as many words as you can” makes it difficult to distill a response down to the most important points.

      By the way . . . what’s your answer?

      • #3161028

        My answer

        by cactus pete ·

        In reply to You’d be better off with ten words.

        …is reserved for later.

        I’m first attempting to see if everyone who simply ranted about why they hate a particular OS actually know when certain tools are better for certain jobs.

        Of course, that’s my philosophy, which can pretty much tell you my answer.

        But the ten words limit doesn’t really lend itself to a good answer in this case, IMHO.

    • #3161017

      …whatever my employer/editor is using.

      by Jay Garmon ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      My first job out of school was an ad agency with an all-Mac network. I couldn’t do much of any work from home (I had an old Win95 PC), so that meant the deadline crunch was spent in the office.

      TR is an all WinXP/Office 2K3 shop, so when I bought my latest computer two years ago, I made it a point to buy software that would run the approved VPN client. That meant WinXP, and MS Works.

      I write as a big part of my job. That means non-negotiable deadlines, so being sick/snowed in isn’t doesn’t always result in a a sick day/snow day, so I must be able to minimally link in from home. It also means I’m one of the rare guys that uses almost all the online collaboration/templating/document tracking features in MS Word. That means I have to run true word, not a ported facsimile or open source equivalent.

      • #3160999

        Maybe…

        by jellimonsta ·

        In reply to …whatever my employer/editor is using.

        TR should provide laptops so you can take that home and not need any influence on what OS/ software is utilized on your personal PC?

        Besides, it would be more secure to only allow corporate VPN access from ‘corporate’ owned systems. IMHO. 😀

        • #3160464

          Corporate provided laptops …

          by too old for it ·

          In reply to Maybe…

          … are the standard here. As is everything else, nothing gets added to the environment without engineering and testing followed by QC.

      • #3160981

        “have to”??? Isn’t that a bit overly emphatic,

        by sleepin’dawg ·

        In reply to …whatever my employer/editor is using.

        I can understand why you might want to but there are other options, surely.

        [b]Dawg[/b] ]:)

      • #3160199

        That’s me

        by charliespencer ·

        In reply to …whatever my employer/editor is using.

        A little corporate slave who installs what the boss says.

        We discuss it as a department, but I’m in implementation. It’s his decision, not mine.

        At home? I run whatever version of Windows came on the system. I’m comfortable with it, it’s already installed, and what little existing software I have is compatible.

      • #3160120

        ah gee, that’s no fun…

        by dawgit ·

        In reply to …whatever my employer/editor is using.

        It’s more fun to use OO (sory George) and save to Word.doc than zip it to _____. I love it when they can’t see those revisions that they expect. ;\ it makes life interesting.
        (edited to fix what big fingers on those little keys did)

      • #3160570

        Right you are

        by rob mekel ·

        In reply to …whatever my employer/editor is using.

        Employer determines my choice of main OS.

        Rob

    • #3160980

      Whatever the application requires, unless it’s a standalone.

      by sleepin’dawg ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      To many apps require Windoze.

      • #3160691

        Apps

        by juleslt ·

        In reply to Whatever the application requires, unless it’s a standalone.

        You’re stuck in a vicious circle; if you start with a different OS, you end up with different apps, but the same functionality.

        There is nothing you can’t achieve functionally on a Mac that you can’t also do on Windows; there is nothing you can do on Windows you can’t functionally do on Linux – the only place the platforms differ is in performance for different tasks, and the quality of specific applications.

        While knowing how to use an application to it’s best is a good idea, getting your skills tied to a single app isn’t a good idea.

        • #3160409

          Depends on the apps

          by nitra matsoc ·

          In reply to Apps

          If I could get all the apps running on the different OS, then I would have a choice. But as far as I know there is only WIN running AutoCAD.
          So, there is no other choice, I’m stuck with WIN

    • #3160977

      lets see…

      by jaqui ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      1 Stability
      2 Security
      3 Customisable
      4 Cost
      5
      6
      7
      8
      9
      10

      • #3160118

        a work in progress?

        by dawgit ·

        In reply to lets see…

        or, out of coffee?

        • #3160048

          neither

          by jaqui ·

          In reply to a work in progress?

          the idea behind the ten word is ten words or less.

          so I used less. 😀

        • #3160488

          Ah yes

          by cactus pete ·

          In reply to neither

          Mr. Efficiency!

      • #3160462

        I’ll go you 3 of 4

        by too old for it ·

        In reply to lets see…

        But the absolute last thing I want in a environment with upwards of 10,000 users is an OS that anyone anywhere can customize any way they want.

        And if we deploy the OS locked so that it can’t be tinkered with, what’s the customisable point? I surely would not wake up some morning, hack the OS, then push it out to the same 10,000 users who are just trying to use the OS to make a buck for the company.

        just my 2 cents.

    • #3160968

      I can settle this with one word

      by mjwx ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      Needs,

      My needs
      Client needs
      Company needs

      As an old mechanic always used to tell me “use the right tool for the right job”. He used to tell me this every day (I once worked at a petrol station).

      I use Linux 1. Because I am a geek 2. Because it doesn?t fall over if set up properly. I use windows for games (Mainly because I haven?t had time to try cedega).

      As for client’s, I give them windows mostly (I try to convince them to get XP Pro) but I will give Linux to an adventurous client with an instruction to install it on a separate computer/HDD.

      And finally for work, were an MS partner (AHHHHH) but I am trying to bleed in some Linux.

    • #3160960

      The best

      by jdclyde ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      for the job at hand.

      If it is a web server, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that linux will always be your best bet for dependability, scalability, security, performance, and price.

      If I am setting up a workstation for one of my (l)users, for now it will be winXP. Because of system requirements for Vista running Office, you can bet the bank that we will be on linux workstations. Throw that much hardware at an OS just to have a word processor? Have they bummed their friggen heads?

      Application servers. Depends on the application. If I am required to run a windows application, it MAY run on a windows server. I currently have two windows applications running under SAMBA on a Redhat server.

      For our Symantec server, it is on Windows because that is all it runs under. In another month with that contract runs out, we will be switching over to AVG corporate.

      Cost is a factor all the time.
      Dependability. A *nix server, you put in place and forget about it until there is a patch or update of software/hardware.
      Security. Only a complete fool will still believe that linux is more secure because it isn’t a target, as it has always had the biggest footprint on the net for webservers.
      System requirements.

      For now it is *nix for 95% of the server applications and Windows for about 90% of the desktops. That is changing.

      • #3160117

        Target yes, but…

        by dawgit ·

        In reply to The best

        It can be as secure as one can get (thinking about SEL here)

    • #3160948

      I choose my Operating Systems based on…

      by sir_cheats_alot ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      1. Reliability/Stability
      2. Ease of Use
      3. security
      4. what my needs are at the time
      5. Cost

      Yes i dual boot:
      WinXP Pro for games(live check to check, so no extra $ for Cedega)
      Linux for everything else…too bad Neverwinter Nights Diamond edition doesn’t work under linux, i’d consider ditching Windows completely.

    • #3160928

      Compatability

      by mjd420nova ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      That’s an awfully long word and encompasses
      a lot of ground. Having programmed in just
      about every language, COBAL et al. The first
      consideration has to be the end users needs
      and what’s the best platform for those needs.
      Functionality then becomes the buzz word, and
      sometimes multiple OS has to be available to
      allow for the best reliablity. There are no
      hard and fast rules as each platform is very
      unique, right down to each driver and patch
      required for each slight change in hardware.

      • #3160279

        Amen!

        by dangi ·

        In reply to Compatability

        I totally agree with you. I have had users with Solaris, because their main app used it. they used Citrix for most of their other stuff. I have never had users with Linux, because there are no user apps that are Linux only. If I see any Linux only apps that my users need, then they’ll have to use Linux. If my users, as it is now, use mostly programs that are Windows only and there are other programs that can be found on *nix but are also available on Windows, then they’ll have to use Windows. It’s simple, really, whatever OS has the most apps, wins. Windows is that app right now. If that changes, I’ll change with it. I just hope someone comes up with a decent installer for Linux before then.

    • #3160924

      the needs of the situation and skills of

      by deadly ernest ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      those using and maintaining it. Then I look at the security.

    • #3160899

      I choose it based on

      by jmgarvin ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      Security, stability, and scalability.

      / I also choose it on price for home use and for hardware support as well, but that whole mess didn’t fit into 10 words…ya so I’m over, wanna fight about it?

    • #3160277

      I’ll answer, finally — in alphabetical order.

      by apotheon ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      Administration Tools
      Availability
      Community Support
      Cost
      Customizable Installation
      Documentation
      Enjoyability
      Flexibility
      Freedom
      Hardware Support
      Performance
      Price
      Productivity Enhancement
      Quick/Easy Installation
      Scalability
      Security
      Software Availability
      Stability
      Standards Compliance
      System Requirements

      There’s probably more, but that’s what occurs to me off the top of my head.

      • #3160148

        …forgot 1

        by dawgit ·

        In reply to I’ll answer, finally — in alphabetical order.

        It just works.!.

        • #3160096

          Reliability

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to …forgot 1

          Yeah, I should have included “reliability” in that list.

          Like the Energizer Bunny, it just keeps going and going and going and going and going and going and going . . .

    • #3160247

      I buy what I know

      by aaron a baker ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      Ever Since Bill and the boys began handing out floppies with all the little games and so on, it’s always been Microsoft. I started when Microsoft was just Dos and have always stuck with it. That’s why I’m still there, although now you’re left with the impression that Microsoft is trying to move you on. On to what? With the advent of Vista, you need and entirely new Computer [At least I do] I’m only 2.8Gb AMD CPU and 2Gb DDR PC133 400mgz RAM, not six months old. Do they really think I’m going to spend even more of that kind of money in order to have the pleasure of forking out another ton of money for Vista itself? They must have us figured for fools.
      I’m not at all impressed with Microsoft right now and am thinking of moving on and they can stick thier bloated, top heavy, toyish looking piece of extravagant over the top XP where the Sun doesn’t shine.
      I’ll live my little XPPro till I die. 😉
      Regards
      Aaron 🙂

      • #3160183

        There is NO WAY your computer won’t run Vista

        by ajole ·

        In reply to I buy what I know

        Here’s your link to the Vista requirements.

        http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista
        /evaluate/hardware/vistahardware.mspx#EAB

        But with XP, you’ll be fine! Unless you NEED Vista, don’t get it! Wait 12-18 months, let them sort out the bugs, and then IF it is something you gotta have, buy a new 64 bit go-fast upgrade of a box, (you know you’ll want to!) and be happy!

        BTW, PC133 RAM isn’t 400MHz unless you are WAY overclocking it….maybe you meant PC3200? Or 266MHz? No biggie….

        • #3160714

          According to Specs I Read

          by aaron a baker ·

          In reply to There is NO WAY your computer won’t run Vista

          In accordance with the specs that I had “Only Read” about, it would require at least a 3.G CPU and 2Gb DDR Ram.
          I thought this was outrageous.
          I hope you’re right. I’ll visit the site you’ve so kindly included.
          But you ARE right on two other counts,
          1- I misstated my Ram; Sorry :0 I did indeed mean PC3200 400MHZ.
          2- And your “Absolutely right about the second,I will not ever resort to Vista.
          What I saw has not impressed me and I see a “gazillion” patches and updates coming out right after they release it.Not for me, thanks.
          Thanks for pointing out my Ram error,”A little tired”
          Both eyes in same socket syndrome 😉
          Regards
          Aaron

    • #3160149

      I just have to say this…

      by dawgit ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      It’s only because of those cute little stuffed Penguines :^0

    • #3160093

      The software I need to run

      by oz_media ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      Screw anyone else, I’m in it for myself.

    • #3160090

      Customer or software/tool support

      by mark miller ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      If the customer uses it, I’ll use it (or something close). If it’s my option, I choose it based on application support for the OS and tool support for what I want to do. Software compatibility is nice too.

    • #3160083

      Personal or Corporate?

      by gdoc ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      Personally I try to get my hands on as many OS’s as I have platforms to support them…study, study, study…OK and play too!

      In a corporate environment you have to consider the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) over the life cycle of the product. This includes the up front HW and SW as well as the ongoing support cost including but not limitted to: Pricing, expandability, supportability, training (both for administration as well as users), reliability (downtime cost $), legacy support, product support (applications), vendor support (over the life cycle), compliance with industry standards (clients industry), and security.

      The Microsoft and Apple proprietory offerings as well as the *nix offerings are mature enough in a stand alone, or near alone environment, but the inclusion of a new OS into an established environment can be a complex decision based upon supportability and inter-operability and is not to be undertaken lightly.

      Just my ten cents if not words worth…..

      • #3159033

        Either or Both

        by cactus pete ·

        In reply to Personal or Corporate?

        Not everyone here has pull in the IT department, so they don’t control what they pick other than at home.

        But nice post. I’m not sure there’s an OS I haven’t touched…

    • #3160685

      stability, security and availability

      by dhafer ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      I Choose an Operating System based on stability, security and availability of programs and applications that run on it.

    • #3160684

      OS’s for all occasions

      by pheck ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      I love my Mac (use it every day because it’s cool, a snap to use, well integrated and seems lke it was designed by users for users), use Linux (various flavours because it’s fun to explore new stuff, see where there are overlaps with other OS’s and to see what it might do better) when I want to feel nerdy and find Windows OK for the drudge of work (because they supply one at work and I have to use it and don’t get all pedantic ’cause I used more than ten words):-)

    • #3160668

      Simple

      by uglycelt ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      Ease of use and flexibilty

    • #3160577

      Whatever I can find. . . . . .

      by maxwell edison ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      ….at the flea market.

    • #3160554

      It Works

      by jim ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      Because it works!

    • #3160489

      OS X

      by dlmeyer9 ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      Security
      Reliability
      Ease of Use
      In that order
      (ten words)

    • #3160482

      Ten words – rather less.

      by doneros ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      Intuitive with all the bugs out and hardware friendly.

    • #3160469

      .. whatever is pre-installed on the system.

      by too old for it ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

    • #3160463

      Maturity

      by james.macaulay ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      I choose an Operating System based on maturity: that is, it’s been around a long time, was always stable, dependable, robust (now I sound like a Microsoft Press text book), flexible, forgiving, well adopted by developers, by now bug-free, and the icing on the cake: no validation required, copy as many time as you want, install as many times as you want, still get current updates, and it’s as reliable as an old hunting dog. Of course I mean NT5, also known as Windows 2000, I just blew away my XP installation and put this back on after having several applications blow up on me.
      Can’t be beat!

    • #3160452

      by ibanezoo ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      …it meets the needs of whatever I am trying to accomplish.

      Duh

    • #3160393

      Compatibility Requirement

      by tig2 ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      Because I shift between Contract W2 and Contract 1099, I frequently have to provide my own equipment. I use a Dell D600 with XP Pro and Office XP. That doesn’t mean that I like it- just that I use it because my clients use it.

      The next machine I purchase will be a Mac running OS X. I can partition the drive to contain a Linux install if I want or just open the terminal window, su to root, and play all I want. I prefer a Unix/Linux environment over Windows. The value for me is that I can also use Boot Camp and run an install of XP on the same machine.

    • #3158919

      Only need one word…

      by curlergirl ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      Color. Lots of color, cute icons, neat scrolling bars, pretty wallpaper…really, that’s all that matters to me. Who cares if programs crash, screens freeze and pointers careen wildly from one side of the display to the other? As long as it’s pretty.

    • #3158871

      Bread & Butter

      by onbliss ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      .

    • #3158832

      what I want is not always what I choose

      by whiterr ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      Well, I choose my OS on how few times it does something to annoy me. So at home where I have complete authority we run Mac OSX in 10.4 variety. And YES we do have to dip out on some applications from time to time.

      BUT at my business we run Win-XP desktops and Linux servers … and the Win-XP systems are by far the worst behaved machines in my life. Interestingly it is the MS Office apps on those machines that exhibit the worst behaviour and if you drill down that rat hole further it is in fact Word and IE that together seem to throw the most errors especially when under large file size conditions and or when OLE etc etc is invoked

      So in our world MS remains the kep player or the must have even our MACS run Office and employ Entourage (we use Exchange at work and POP Server at home) It is my feel that until something breaks the MS Office monopoly (as distinct from the OS) The game will not change substantially and MS will remain in acendence.

      So lets ask the real question … which Office productivity suite do you choose based on ….?

    • #3158780

      WinXP – Coz of the whole gaming thing

      by desmodeus ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      I choose which OS to run based on what I want to do with the computer and the computer’s capabilities (hardware wise). So at home I run WinXP because I primarily use my computer to surf, listen, watch and play (the web, music, movies and games) and while I’m pretty sure doing the first three on linux isn’t going to be a problem the last one is clearly much easier under windows.

    • #3159667

      answer to the question

      by mikel_1722 ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      > I choose an operating system based on specification.
      > based on speed of the processor
      > based on compatability of the hardware
      >based on other component harware support
      > based on the type of the processor

      • #3147834

        Er?

        by apotheon ·

        In reply to answer to the question

        Since when does an OS come with a processor?

        You’re talking about choosing hardware, not software. Are you just saying that you buy hardware, and accept whatever software comes with it?

    • #3156864

      Security

      by duane.wills9 ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      It’s why there’s no M$ in my house.

      …Getting malicious code from images and documents… $#|+!!!

    • #3156623

      depends on needs

      by ken coe ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      At home it is a Debian Fork, period

      At work, in order
      1- Apps – I match the Apps to the customers work flow and function
      2- Stability/Maturity
      3- Ease of use / Training – a company with a higher turnover is not going to want to completely retrain each new employee
      4- Support pool – apps and OS
      5- Ease of Administration

      Security/Failover moves up and down the list depending on the role of the machine. I don’t want to put a raid 5 and tier-1 firewall into a machine that’s going to play solitaire, but I might not consider ease of use as important to security on a CAD/CAM or Accounting system.

    • #2814325

      why i choose my OS

      by jazzderry ·

      In reply to Ten words or less: I choose my Operating Systems based on ________

      I choose my operating system for more than one reason. ease of use is one main reason-and windows has always been my choice in that area. i am a tinkerer with my pc at times also so i have a dual boot set up with a linux os sharing my hdd with windows xp.In my opinion ubuntu has taken the lead in my mind overall-very user friendly,very little trouble shooting oob, sound and video working for me on fresh install,nice gui and all the basic pkgs you need-office,graphics editor,3-d editor;etc. The range and quality of free software has gotten large enough to use Ubuntu by itself. Ease of use,software available-no matter the os i guess there is always that one software package to die for, you just gotta try.eyecandy would be 3rd reason i guess. The way i feel now ubuntu will be my main os and I’ll occasionally log into windows if i feel the need.

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