The Glade 4.0

Ok, so I'm curious:

What OS(s) do you guys use? And if there's a particular reason, why?

I'm still using XP on my work/home computer, although my laptop has (had) Vista, since it was the only option at the time.

I'm considering swapping over to an iMac for my work computer, however.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

I have Windows 7 on my good computer and Ubuntu on my 2009 computer.

Windows 7 is the best as a PC. Games, the GUIs are much faster, it's easier to fix problems, and has support for Microsoft Office. It's also the most polished and clean operating system in general.

Ubuntu is a good backup for anything else Windows doesn't cover well.

Also my work laptop has XP, and my old laptop has Windows Vista (which I DON'T recommend).

Windows 7 Ultimate or Professional. Windows runs everything I need to run. I use it at work, for my gaming system and my personal laptop(s).

As far as Windows goes, Win 7 is far and away better than Vista from a stability, compatibility and usability standpoint. Think of Vista as Win 7 Beta. Win 7 also takes better advantage of your current hardware. I don't know what software you are using, but even if you NEED to run XP for something, you may not have to dual boot, as there is a free virtual XP Module available for some of the higher versions of Windows 7 (Professional and up I believe). Windows XP is fine if it supports your needs, but it's just old and lacking support for a lot of new (mostly high-end) hardware and software.

I'm not going to touch the Windows vs Mac thing.

Personal:
15" Macbook Pro with OSX as the main partition, Windows 7 as secondary. I also have virtual machines of Ubuntu and Windows XP inside of OSX.

Work:
21" iMac with pretty much the same setup, but all VM's instead of Win7 in Boot Camp.

I started using OSX because it's got some nice web development applications that I couldn't at the time find equals for in Windows. Honestly, though, after actually having it as my main OS I've become a convert. Every day I find a new cool app that makes things even easier for me to use. The OS always runs smooth, animations are always excellent, etc. I though I would hate the addition of an app store into a desktop OS, but I actually love some of the apps. Even apps that are cross-platform, like Chrome, have some sweet Mac-only additions.

If I have some kind of Windows-only situation I can always just run a specific app in Parallels' "Coherence" mode which will launch an application instance in its own window, making it seem like it's part of OSX. Works great.

My Windows 7 partition at this point is only for (3D) gaming and Zune.

OSX is probably the best for development in general, unless you're using VNC in which case it doesn't matter. Granted I don't have much experience with it, but people at work use it.

Windows 7, for compatibility

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Ron Paul 2012

Work has been keeping me busy enough lately that I don't game nearly at all anymore- so I just need a solid, reliable work system.

One of the main reasons I want to switch to Mac is that it's what my boss uses, and things don't transfer cross platform nearly as well when it comes to writing papers and grants and such together. The stability of the OS is mainly secondary to that. Additionally, we have a huge problem with windows USB transmitted viruses at our university... Lots of the staff/grad students (mostly internationals) have no antivirus to speak of, and transmit the USB viruses to all of our instrument computers (which are kept offline, ironically, to keep them from getting viruses), and I'm tired of having to use a third party computer to sterilize my USB drive every time I need to transfer data.

I used Red Hat for a while, and it was nice- I just didn't have that much time to really learn the OS.

I haven't updated any of my machines to Win7 honestly just because of cost. I've been thinking about getting a new computer, so no real driving need to update the old ones. And I'd have to pay out of pocket to put Win7 on my work computer, which I'm not going to do.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Windows 7 because my home computer is a gaming machine.

Windows 7 only costs 100 bucks for home premium so I upgraded all my vista/xp machines (why not?).

At work I use XP because, well, that's what the gov't uses.

Who is paying for the iMac ?

It sounds like you have already made up your mind to me...

Oh, I need to get an iMac for work to interface with my boss. That's for sure. It's coming out of a grant I have, most likely.

I'm still trying to decide what to do for the rest of my computers. If I decide to get a new PC, I'll definitely pay to put Win7 on it (although it will probably come pre-installed), I'm just against shelling out the price of the OS if I'm going to change to another computer shortly. Especially if that upgraded computer is just going to go back into the University system.

I'm not sure what making up my mind has to do with things, I'm asking what you guys use and why... Mostly just out of curiosity.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

I use symlinks + Dropbox to automatically sync certain files between all my computers. Some of my buddies also have access to the same Dropbox, so it's like one big collaboration that's always up-to-date. Pretty easy to set up.

It's keeping up with software versions... MS Office 2011 for Mac doesn't play as well with 2010 for windows as I'd like... Mostly when you're trying to keep the format exact (formatting for a copy-editing submission or something). And there are some more specialized programs we use that are even worse, and completely mangle the file going between Mac and Windows.

Our department is also really bad about not keeping the same version of programs for Mac and Windows- so they'll have a version for Mac (that my boss is using) that's several editions ahead of the windows version I'm using.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Windows 7 home premium on my desktop, laptop and UMPC. Desktop for gaming compatibility and upgrade to 64bit from XP media center edition, UMPC upgraded for speed over Vista business it came with plus smaller install size since with a 40gb hdd space is at a premium on it, laptop is new so it came with it.

The PC in my car however is still XP pro as there's no reason to upgrade it since I just want a light fast booting os and it just plays music and does gps nav, though that's being replaced with an Android tablet soon.

OS X, across all computers. iOS on all mobile devices.

Why do I like it? It's rock-solid, with virtually perfect performance across all of my machines. It just works, it has incredibly nifty apps, negligible threats of viruses, and while there's still a gap in software (particularly with gaming), it has the single most important tool in my creative disposal: Final Cut Pro.

It's simple, elegant, beautiful, functional, custom-made for the hardware and perfectly suited to my needs.

So, yeah. Like Midgen, I don't really want to get into an e-peen "mah OS is bettar than yours RAWR" flamefest. But personally, OS X, and couldn't be happier.

Win 7 ultimate on my main machine. Have a win2k server and a Windows Home Server stuffed in closet collecting dust not doing anything. Work Laptop in Win XP Pro, current server is Ubuntu, but dead at the moment till i replace my main video card.

Why? Cause PC games are much easier to play on windows PC > consoles.....

I have every windows OS, TechNet for the win! Keeps me update on my job and with all the latest versions of Windows.

Win 7 on my workstation at the office, Debian (Linux) on my Xen servers and for doing most of the infrastructure's "heavy lifting" (mail, web, routing, etc), a mix of Windows Server 2k3 and 2k8 on VMs to handle the Windows-centric stuff, Ubuntu Linux (natty) on my home PC.

I have a decrepit laptop with XP on it that I "inherited" from my sister which I sometimes browse on from the sofa. I'd convert it to Ubuntu, but it's main purpose in life is to let me use iTunes, which doesn't play nice with Linux.

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

I forgot to mention that at work I use two Redhat Linux servers that are really fast, the one I get to myself has 8 processors with 16 total cores.

I am using Windows 7 on my laptop (work and home). I have been happy with 7, but I liked Vista, XP, 2000 and Me. I have not had the opportunity to use Mac OS: but I will not shoot it down, and I have tried Unbuntu, but that PC gave me the ghost.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

7 at work, though some of the stuff I maintain is still XP. I also work on Servers 2k3 and 2k8.

Vista at home, because I'm downright too lazy to format and refuse to upgrade the existing installation.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I put up with WinME for like 2 years. An OS that gives me a cheese-grater job could make me happy after that. Though, for some reason I concluded that the way ME handles TCP/IP packets, you got some sort of latency advantage playing counterstrike over XP users.

I'm on Win 7 Home and it's worked out for casual use/

I use Windows 7. I don't use my computer for anything other than gaming and browsing(what the hell else is a computer for?) and no other OS does these two things better.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

Win Vista/7 at home because Macs suck

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Holy shitsnacks!

Win 7 cause that's what I'm used to. It plays my games and CS5 seems to run just dandy for the PC.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Home desktop: Win 7 Ultimate
Home server: Slackware Linux 13
Personal laptop: Win 7 Professional
HTPC: Win 7 Home Premium
Work laptop: Win 7 Enterprise

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XP, iOS, OSX

Some embedded Linux devices, if you want to be picky.
Some RHEL and Solaris, if you want to count work.