What computer operating system are you using at this very moment?

[payasam]

On PCLinuxOS right now, though I have Windows 98 on the other side and need to go there when I want to use my scanner.

 

[mac_wt]

A pleasant surprise to see so many of us on Macs!

This might reflect a few things:
1) this site is directed towards creative and gear headed people. This might influence the number of Mac and Linux users.
2) this subject came up in the weekend. I suspect a lot of RFF users visit the site from their office computer; which is most likely a Windows machine.
3) most statistics show the Mac market share as being about 3-5%. These numbers however include every PC sold. Even those that are used as a cash register in your local supermarket. These machines will probably not be used to visit RFF.

But I agree: a pleasant surprise.

 

[arky]

OSX on a few years old iMac G5.

 

[sienarot]

Four hours ago I was on WinXP.
At this very moment, I'm on my G4 iBook with Mac 10.4.8.
In about 4 hours, I'll be on my Gentoo Linux box.

 

[Johnmcd]

Started in 1984 with a Amstrad 64 with tape drive (I can't believe I waited 15 mins for a program to load. Then,

Commodore 64 with disk drive
Amiga 1000
Amiga 500
Amiga 600
486 PC - bought it for the raw power and 2 speed CD
Every PC up to my current AMD powered one. All built from scratch. More power half the price.

Love the Mac's elegance and industrial design but am put off by the lack of software. It appears fine if I want to just do multimedia but I'm a gamer from way back and I love the proliferation of Win software. If you want it no matter how specific, somebody will have written it. Of course that includes viruses and such but that is more a result of its popularity than anything else I suspect. So I don't sweat it and keep the virus protection up to date.

I did dabble recently with a 800mhz imac for my daughter. Fantastic form factor which she and I both loved - but parts started failing and could not be replaced relative to the low cost of the machine. A problem that would not have happened with a more modular PC of the same vintage. I just would have ripped it apart and replaced the item that had failed. But that is what you get for beauty and form factor I suppose.

I think windows has moved on a million miles from the Win95 'blue screen of death' reputation. I can't remember the last time one of my PC's crashed but I think its fun for some to perpetuate the myth.

Boot Camp is interesting though. The death of Mac or the saviour?

Cheers,

John

 

[Johnmcd]

Oops, too busy ranting. Forgot to say which operating system. WinXP. Installed Vista on a machine yesterday for a mate. Nice. But will be nicer in about a year when all drivers etc catch up.

John

 

[robert blu]

xp now, because I have not yet installe modem and connection to internet and mail on my new Mac, which will be Tha computer for me in a few days
rob

 

[c.poulton]

Windows XP (64) right now at work, windows XP at home. I don't mind too much which OS I use - Mac, PC, or LINUX (I've used all three extensively in the past few years before settling down in bed with Microsoft) as long as it get's the job done without too much annoyance on my part.

 

[conradyiu]

ibook G4 with OSX 10.4.x for 2 years

 

[doitashimash1te]

Currently working on my main machine, a 20" (intel) iMac running OS X Tiger 10.4.10. My business machine is a HP/Compaq notebook, dual-boot with XP (for work) and Ubuntu Linux (to be replaced, later this month, with Sabayon Linux 3.4).

My computing history:

1983-84 Sinclair ZX-81 (all in basic ROM + 2 Kb RAM... yeah those were the days)
1984-88 Sinclair ZX-Spectrum
1988-92 IBM clone XT / MS-DOS 3.3 -> 4.0 -> 5.0 (who remembers WordPerfect 4.2?)
1992-98 Big tower 486 PC running Windows 3.1 -> 3.11 -> 95
1998-99 Self-built Pentium PC running Windows 98, which I immensely hated (video editing was a torture)
99-2002 Same PC but running SuSE Linux 6.1 -> 7.0 -> 8.0
2002-04 Self-built & much faster Pentium running SuSE Linux 8.0 -> 9.0
2005-06 Mac Mini G4 / OS X Panther though still mainly using the Linux Pentium
2006-now iMac 20" (intel) / OS X Tiger 10.4.10

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

XP Pro at work, Linux & Windows 2000 at home. I also have an old Mac Quadra 650, which runs Mac OS 8.1, but of course I don't use it for anything serious nowadays.

 

[wlewisiii]

MacBook I86 running OS X 10.4.10. I was a sysadmin/DBA of a Windows shop for most of a decade and I want something that actually works.

William

 

[dexdog]

I'd rather not say, because I am likely to be accused of subversion, or something I guess that I should be really outraged that I am forced to use software not of my choosing by my employer. What will it be next, uniforms or even jackets?

Yes, just having a little fun bleeding another thread into this one.

 

[beethamd]

Mac OSX on the laptop, but GNU/Linux on the big computer. GNU/Linux is so nice to use - and that's on a PC that is about 11 years old.

 

[Thardy]

I'm using an aging windows machine, but will probably be buying a macbook in the next few months for school.
Say, what can I expect?
I helped a friend buy a mac recently, an older fellow buying his first computer. It was sure easy to get it working for him, but I wouldn't say it has run flawlessly. We've had trouble with Safari just up and shutting down, also Safari failing to show links. Were it mine I think I'd run Firefox instead, but maybe I'm missing something.
On one occasion the computer flatly locked up, after loading software from Konica Minolta for a scanner. Getting rid of the software seems to have solved the problem, but that experience shook the Mac's bulletproof reputation for me.
I ask as an engineering student- will I have to run the thing on windows to get software to work in the future? I don't even know what sort of software I'll end up needing yet, but I need a laptop now and would like for it to serve my needs for at least a couple of years...

I have KM software as well as Vuescan installed on an iMAC for dimage iv scanner. No problems noted. I don't think notebooks are as robust as desktops. But that's just my 2 cents.

 

[Socke]

An Ubuntu Gnu System on OpenSolaris, so I voted Unix

 

[ballfresno]

GNU/Linux everywhere (office, home, laptop). Nothing else!

 

[iml]

OS X on a Macbook at home, any number of different server OSes at work.

Ian

 

[ddutchison]

Hummm, no die-hard OS/2 users as yet?

I was hoping to hear from the one DOS user. If it was me, I'd be using DR-DOS, with the 4DOS extender and that neat text-mode windowing interface that Desqview produced - and surfin' the net with the Arachne browser... but it ain't.

Nope, just plain old Slackware 11 + Dropline Gnome (Gnu/Lunix) for me. Slack 12 runs really nice but the winmodem drivers for the 2.6.x kernels are still unusable (at least on my system), and I won't buy an external modem, so I'll be with 11 for a while longer.

Nice to see the majority of users here are on Macs, I guess that's not too surprising given this forums dedication to a less than mainstream camera design. One thing though, isn't OS-10 basically BSD Unix with a super slick GUI? Technically speaking, I think Unix may be the mainstream here.

 

[Socke]

One thing though, isn't OS-10 basically BSD Unix with a super slick GUI? Technically speaking, I think Unix may be the mainstream here.

Not realy, its a Mach Kernel with a BSD and a Mac Personality which run, more or less, side by side.