What is the Operating System you loved to use the most?

This may shock people but vista, it was one of the most powerful and flexible OS MS made. That was when a lot of things were working, WMC was best in the Vista era, I think xbox controllers just worked. Windows 7 is great too but that was when MS started their downward spiral of removing features in favor of xbox. Windows vista ultimate has the live back ground built in, pretty much did it all. It was the modern OS. It received a huge bad rep because people brought in under powered machines to a completely redone OS that obviously was built for the future. And MS learned just how lazy developers were and how they would just sit around not fixing drivers or software issues.
 
My favorite of all time was MS-DOS 5.0

It was a major upgrade. It allowed parts of DOS to load itself in the high memory area and certain device drivers and TSRs to run in the unused parts of memory.
 
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wonderfield said:
What OS I'm using at any given moment doesn't particularly matter to me: an OS is really just a means to an end. I don't have any 'favorite'.
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But if you don't spend all your time tweaking the OS, changing hidden options and trying undocumented tricks, preferably till you break things irreparably and have to reformat, instead of actually using it to run apps and get work done, then you are not a real power user and your opinion doesn't count :D
 
rudy said:
This may shock people but vista, it was one of the most powerful and flexible OS MS made. That was when a lot of things were working, WMC was best in the Vista era, I think xbox controllers just worked. Windows 7 is great too but that was when MS started their downward spiral of removing features in favor of xbox. Windows vista ultimate has the live back ground built in, pretty much did it all. It was the modern OS. It received a huge bad rep because people brought in under powered machines to a completely redone OS that obviously was built for the future. And MS learned just how lazy developers were and how they would just sit around not fixing drivers or software issues.
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To me Vista was probably one of the most problematic versions of Windows I've ever used. It just always felt slow and clunky. The Dreamscene background stuff was a nice toy but always seemed to make a system a little unstable. My first touch capacitive touch tablet PC was a Vista machine and it never worked well with touch, much of that was HPs not so great hardware but touch implemented at the driver level in Vista.

But the architectural changes in Vista were great, especially the security model and 7 was very much a fit an finish of Vista.
 
FreeBSD for servers and network infrastructure. Probably one of the most well thought out UNIX-like systems out there.

For workstations, I like Windows 7. Its a good solid productivity operating system.
 
MrCrispy said:
But if you don't spend all your time tweaking the OS, changing hidden options and trying undocumented tricks, preferably till you break things irreparably and have to reformat, instead of actually using it to run apps and get work done, then you are not a real power user and your opinion doesn't count :D
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Wait, you mean you can do other things with an OS besides tweaking and running benchmarks? :eek:
 
Amiga OS. I've owned pretty much every Amiga (Even a Toaster 4000), except the 1200. Way back in the early 90's when I first started using the Amiga OS it felt like a REAL, WHOLE, USEFUL and FUN computer, if that makes sense. This was after coming from DOS and the first versions of Windows. Spent most of the time trying to get those to work right.

I put BEOS on every computer I could, I loved it so much. More of an OS as candy though. I installed it on a quad ppc Mac clone just to watch the fps of the star field simulation, while I had basically every app it had open at the same time. Not very useful in the real world but fun. Really hoped it would take off.
 
j8x said:
Amiga OS. I've owned pretty much every Amiga (Even a Toaster 4000), except the 1200. Way back in the early 90's when I first started using the Amiga OS it felt like a REAL, WHOLE, USEFUL and FUN computer, if that makes sense. This was after coming from DOS and the first versions of Windows. Spent most of the time trying to get those to work right.

I put BEOS on every computer I could, I loved it so much. More of an OS as candy though. I installed it on a quad ppc Mac clone just to watch the fps of the star field simulation, while I had basically every app it had open at the same time. Not very useful in the real world but fun. Really hoped it would take off.
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Now that is what I am talking about. :D I only had an Amiga 500 with a 68030 add on board. I also placed a 50MB harddrive and 4MB ram upgrade in a enclosure off the bus slot on the left. I did then place both the 1.3 and 2.04 kickstart roms on an adapter board and place a physical switch on the back. I played a ton of games on that system and loved having both Amiga OS 1.3 and 2.04 available when I wanted them.

I loved that machine and wish I had never gotten rid of it. It was probably the most fun I ever had with a computer as far as computers themselves go. :) On the PC side, OS/2 Warp 3 was fantastic and fun to use and tweak. I even purchased Object Desktop for it back in the day.
 
I really really really really love Windows 8, not sure why lots and lots and lots of people hate it. Everything is fast and nice and easy to find.
 
Windows 2000 was my favorite. It was functional, light weight, efficient, fast. The only reason I stopped using it is beause some apps were starting to no longer work in it. I don't get why MS did not follow the path of win2k and simply improved it by adding support for newer tech, make it 64 bit etc... instead they had to come up with XP which was super bloated for it's time. But that's another topic.

I'd say my second favorite was win3.1, but mostly for the nostalgia factor. It was the first operating system I ever used. I did not know much about computers though so everything was super obscure, but there was a sense of adventure to this obscure world, such as when I'd find myself in the command prompt, or see someone else use it, and think they were a genius.
 
itsgettingcold said:
I really really really really love Windows 8, not sure why lots and lots and lots of people hate it. Everything is fast and nice and easy to find.
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I've been extremely impressed with this Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet. For what this thing costs, its size. weight, battery life, performance and capabilities it's best low cost PC I've ever owned by a good bit. Whatever the failings of Windows 8 these kinds of devices make the hybrid and tablet argument well. If these things were just cheap conventional laptops/netbooks there'd be nothing interesting about them.
 
ManofGod said:
Now that is what I am talking about. :D I only had an Amiga 500 with a 68030 add on board. I also placed a 50MB harddrive and 4MB ram upgrade in a enclosure off the bus slot on the left. I did then place both the 1.3 and 2.04 kickstart roms on an adapter board and place a physical switch on the back. I played a ton of games on that system and loved having both Amiga OS 1.3 and 2.04 available when I wanted them.

I loved that machine and wish I had never gotten rid of it. It was probably the most fun I ever had with a computer as far as computers themselves go. :) On the PC side, OS/2 Warp 3 was fantastic and fun to use and tweak. I even purchased Object Desktop for it back in the day.
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Ironically, the Toaster 4000 was at the school that I started working for (in the TV studio) in the mid 90's after the Amiga was on it's way out. Before that it was a long road of small upgrades to my A1000, 500 and a couple A2000s. That was the fun of it. Always looking out for good deals on 1 or 2 megs of RAM. That first time I got an '030 accelerator and put it in the A2000? Felt like a supercomputer. Then got 8 megs and I could run anything I wanted AT THE SAME TIME.

The last thing I did to the Toaster was put a new fast IDE drive in it 14 years ago. It finished booting before the screen warmed up. Seemed virtually instantaneous for the time.

I liked Warp and even bought a few copies. Unfortunately I tried to run it on 4 meg machines and was underwhelmed to say the least and moved on. Wasn't until a few years later I loaded it on a computer with 32 megs and got to see it really shine. Too late though, I was totally into BEOS at that point.

I don't like to live in the past but can appreciate where it all came from.
 
I was given an A500 with SCSI hard drive and a few mods about 1/2 a year ago, completely forgot about it.
I'll have to power it up and see what its made of !!
 
It's a mixed bag I liked XP the most

95 98 ME were a pain to install

But I like Windows 8 for ease of install

but hate a lot of stuff that Microsoft tried to push on the public with 8
 
Windows 2000 was my favorite for the longest time. For me it was the most stable OS I've ever used especially coming after Windows 98 ugh. I tried to keep using 2000 for as long as possible. Now I'm a fan of Windows 8.
 
I like Windows 7 for its UI, but windows 8 for its responsiveness and boot up times. Rumor has it that Windows 8.2 is bringing back the start menu. At any rate, on my next graphics card upgrade, I'll get a UEFI GOP compliant card so I can take advantage of Ultra-fast boot and make the upgrade to Windows 8.2
 
Closed Source:
I just wrapped up a one year gig as a Sun Solaris admin and man, is that OS great. I'm moving into RHEL administration but it's incomparable to the Solaris stuff I've been doing.

If I have to mention a closed source, Windows distro it would be Win XP, the first really good Windows version. It was stable, if not secure.

Open source... Probably CentOS or Red Hat. Gentoo was an old favorite but too much of a pain to say I really enjoyed it.

By far, my favorite is still Solaris.
 
I know I've posted already, but I just wanted to say the more I use Ubuntu, the more I love it.
Been having massive headaches with Vista, Win7 64 bit and Win8 64 bit and my HP 3051a Deskjet (used wireless via my ASUS router).
For some odd reason, on all 3 versions of Windows, when the HP Software updates or Windows updates I can no longer use my printer, have to uninstall everything HP related, then download and reinstall everything most up to date off of the HP website.
Ubuntu has given absolutely NO problems with my printer, it took 4 clicks to set up and run a test page and no matter how many updates it receives still works.
Its still pretty crappy for gaming, but for the standard daily stuff like email, youtube, shopping and browsing it works fantastic.
So...
Now Ubuntu is moving up the charts to a very close #2 behind Win7 64 bit.
 
XP interface was the most straight forward. Windows 7 with a classic start menu is alright also. XP i think was the best overall interface wise. After XP they started hiding features and making you click more to the get to the same areas as XP. The UAC in newer windows constantly asked you if you want to give a program permission and all that garbage. I know it can be disabled but by default without modifications XP had it solid. I still install XP at my work on many machines. Older people want XP still. XP will be around till like 2018-2020 most likely. Only when you can't install a basic printer and when you can't install any new hardware people will upgrade. Will be awhile.

Looks like XP is still second place right now. I don't see it leaving that place for awhile.
http://www.cooldezine.com/12-years-...d-most-popular-operating-system-in-the-world/

We could go into 2020-2030 with windows XP still :p. I bet microsoft will back down from that april date of canceling support. There will be extended extended support most likely. After-life post production extended support maybe to 2025 ;)
 
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heatlesssun said:
I don't how you're defining a close #2 but that certainly isn't the case when looking at market share.
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The same way Microsoft defines being "#3 in mobile" in constant press releases, even though its a two horse race dominated by iOS and Android, and MS's "market share" is a drop in the bucket relative to them.
 
This makes absolutely no sense and has nothing to do with the statement that Ubuntu is a close #2 after Windows 7.
 
Conker said:
XP interface was the most straight forward. Windows 7 with a classic start menu is alright also. XP i think was the best overall interface wise. After XP they started hiding features and making you click more to the get to the same areas as XP. The UAC in newer windows constantly asked you if you want to give a program permission and all that garbage. I know it can be disabled but by default without modifications XP had it solid. I still install XP at my work on many machines. Older people want XP still. XP will be around till like 2018-2020 most likely. Only when you can't install a basic printer and when you can't install any new hardware people will upgrade. Will be awhile.

Looks like XP is still second place right now. I don't see it leaving that place for awhile.
http://www.cooldezine.com/12-years-...d-most-popular-operating-system-in-the-world/

We could go into 2020-2030 with windows XP still :p. I bet microsoft will back down from that april date of canceling support. There will be extended extended support most likely. After-life post production extended support maybe to 2025 ;)
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It is cool that you love XP and that is fine since this is the topic of the thread. However, the security model of being full on administrator at all times and XP not even able to take full advantage of even todays hardware is telling. UAC also does not constantly ask for anything at all, even on its highest setting.
 
heatlesssun said:
This makes absolutely no sense and has nothing to do with the statement that Ubuntu is a close #2 after Windows 7.
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I think you missed SGA76's response to your original question. He was saying "close #2" within the context of this thread - that is, it's his second favorite OS, after Windows 7. ;)

EDIT: And I have no idea what DPI was talking about, probably just another jab at Microsoft. :D
 
jbltecnicspro said:
I think you missed SGA76's response to your original question. He was saying "close #2" within the context of this thread - that is, it's his second favorite OS, after Windows 7. ;)

EDIT: And I have no idea what DPI was talking about, probably just another jab at Microsoft. :D
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Der... Thanks and Merry Christmas!
 
Windows 7 SP1. Didn't have a single non-recoverable crash / freeze. Often over a week uptime.

Windows 8.1: 3 hard freezes in under a month... but at least BF4 works.. oh wait :rolleyes:
 
I love 'em all.

And I love particular things about all of them.

Windows has simple installs for the most part. And there are tools like "Everything Search" that are fantastic at filtering files.
"Charles" sees a lot of development love on OS X. iTerm is a beautiful console emulator.
Linux is just hands down reliable and fantastic with its customizability (take a look at the variety of Windows managers there)
 
Shurane said:
Linux is just hands down reliable and fantastic with its customizability (take a look at the variety of Windows managers there)
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There's indeed lots of window managers to choose from, but that doesn't do me much good, since the only two I've ever liked are KDE and LXDE (can you tell that I'm a Windows user yet?). It also yields the annoying practice of forking distros just to offer a different window manager (Ubuntu, I'm looking at you) instead of just encouraging users to switch out the window manager if they want a different one. OpenSuSE does this in a user-friendly way, so I don't understand why nobody else can. I think it's thanks to the choice of window managers alone that we now have about 60,000,000,000 more distros than we need.
 
8, I can reformat my pc and load up ninite in less than half an hour, I hardly have to touch the damn thing!

That plus I actually like 8 and its general 'theme' if they just dumped the hot corner crap for normal buttons I would be happy :)

EDIT: and if they organized that stupid metro thing, seriously it looks too messy for me to actually use, if they just did a column per 'folder' as a straight replacement for the start menu I'd like it.
 
lilfiend said:
EDIT: and if they organized that stupid metro thing, seriously it looks too messy for me to actually use, if they just did a column per 'folder' as a straight replacement for the start menu I'd like it.
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The Start Screen in 8.1 is as messy or organized as one wants. Beyond the initial tiles the Start Screen only displays what one actually puts there, like shortcuts in the Start Menu, but unlimited in size. The Apps Screen is highly organized, the list is one of four different views.

What throws some off is the flat structure and no folders. I think that folders would be a nice addition to the Start Screen and necessary to help alleviate issues for some desktop users especially for something like the mini-Start Screen that's been rumored to solve the Start Menu dilemma.
 
heatlesssun said:
The Start Screen in 8.1 is as messy or organized as one wants. Beyond the initial tiles the Start Screen only displays what one actually puts there, like shortcuts in the Start Menu, but unlimited in size. The Apps Screen is highly organized, the list is one of four different views.

What throws some off is the flat structure and no folders. I think that folders would be a nice addition to the Start Screen and necessary to help alleviate issues for some desktop users especially for something like the mini-Start Screen that's been rumored to solve the Start Menu dilemma.
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Yep, add organization, possibility to customize and folder support and voila! You have the old start menu again.
 
XP, 2000, Vista 64, Win 7, Linux all did/do what I needed them to do.
 
Conker said:
XP interface was the most straight forward. Windows 7 with a classic start menu is alright also. i think was the best overall interface wise. After XP they started hiding features and making you click more to the get to the same areas as XP. The UAC in newer windows constantly asked you if you want to give a program permission and all that garbage. I know it can be disabled but by default without modifications XP had it solid. I still install XP at my work on many machines. Older people want XP still. XP will be around till like 2018-2020 most likely. Only when you can't install a basic printer and when you can't install any new hardware people will upgrade. Will be awhile.

Looks like XP is still second place right now. I don't see it leaving that place for awhile.
http://www.cooldezine.com/12-years-...d-most-popular-operating-system-in-the-world/

We could go into 2020-2030 with windows XP still :p. I bet microsoft will back down from that april date of canceling support. There will be extended extended support most likely. After-life post production extended support maybe to 2025 ;)
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Thats like saying people still use Windows 95. People just dont.
 
Personally my favorite would probably be windows 2k, ran it from beta 2 > beta 3 > RC1 > final... only upgraded to XP when they came out with SP2 for XP...

currently run 7 and it does what I need it to...
 
PCunicorn said:
Thats like saying people still use Windows 95. People just dont.
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people don't but I am sure some applications will, hell I still support some boxes running NT4
 
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