Interested to see what our user base uses.

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Greetings all,

This thread is just a consensus of what OS us BITOGer's are using when visiting the site etc. Please do not "bash", "hate" etc the responses listed below. I just want to see what everyone is running, how long they've run it and if they ever tried anything new. I like hearing about peoples experiences with different OS's.

So I will start.

I have used Windows since the 3.1 era. 3.1, 95B, 98SE, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, and 7.

Along the way I have jumped into various Linux OS's such as Suse, Mandrake/Mandriva, Fedora, Ubuntu(since 4) and now Linux Mint.

I have never encountered issues with any Windows OS, and those I did encounter in Linux were due to my own inadequacies with its use.

I have once ran Ubuntu 8.04 for about 6 months with a Virtual Box install of XP for my Zune but hosed my OS install when I accidentally(yeah don't ask me how) made the CDUsers group root or removed myself from it(still flaky) and I basically locked myself out of the OS(as root and as myself). lol

I then ran Windows 7 RC1 x64 since then until about last week I had an itch to try something new and installed Linux Mint 7(Gloria). Been flawless since, and amazed at how with every version of Ubuntu/Mint and many others things improve drastically.

I have yet to try Mac OS-X due to not being in the position to purchase(afford) a new pc, or a Mac with the Horsepower I would want. Tempted to try OS-X on my laptop as I heard some success but better to get a dedicated unit. My buddy is a big Mac guy and from the times I did use it, it was nice, similarities aside from Unix/Linux its unique in its own way.


So what have you all used? Any experiences and mistakes? I have to say I do love reading tech forums from all OSs so I can keep abreast of things.
 
I'm mostly using Firefox on Windows XP. Sometimes I use Google's Chrome browser. No major problems with XP since acquired in 2006.
 
Yeah I used XP since its beta/alpha days and think of it as one of the better Windows releases under Microsofts belt. Yeah big Firefox and Chrome guy here myself(don't use it under Mint). The Chromium(open source version of Chrome) works fine except the fonts are all unreadable and jagged.

Trying to get it 100%, I got World Of Warcraft running mint(literally) under mint. FPS are almost the same as it was under 7.
 
I either use Win7 + SRWare's Iron (Google Chrome plus adblocking) or Ubuntu 9.10 + Firefox 3.5 to visit this site.
 
Ah nice, I'll have to look into SRWare's Iron, never heard of it. See this is why I like hearing about people's experiences as you can find and learn new things
55.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Anies
Ah nice, I'll have to look into SRWare's Iron, never heard of it. See this is why I like hearing about people's experiences as you can find and learn new things
55.gif



Yeah, Iron works really well and is significantly faster dealing with pages that have heavy javascript content. They also strip out all of the "phone home" baloney and the "google update" cruft that Google sneaks in there when you install Chrome.

http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron_download.php
 
No idea what is? BTW FamilyGuy downloading Iron now. Just uninstalled Google Chrome.
 
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Installed it, seems a bit peppier. Im on my work machine so its a bit on the weak side, heavy java/flash pages usually kill it.
 
I'm joining you with Solaris 10 x86 and Firefox 2.0.0.7 because I've not updated my X server and other supporting libraries to support Firefox 3.x
 
Originally Posted By: 2003f7
I have no idea what this is?????


I'm assuming you're talking about SRWare's Iron. It's a web browser based on Google Chrome. They've stripped out a number of undesirable "features" that Google sneaks in and adds ad blocking functionality, which Google's Chrome lacks (since Google makes a fortune serving up ads, they're not about to help you filter them).

Here's why I think it's better than Chrome:

http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron_chrome_vs_iron.php
 
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Originally Posted By: javacontour
I'm joining you with Solaris 10 x86 and Firefox 2.0.0.7 because I've not updated my X server and other supporting libraries to support Firefox 3.x


I have heard nothing but good things about Solaris from my help desk buddy. How is it in terms of the other distro's out there?
 
I'm biased, I get my paycheck from Sun, so I'm not sure how impartial I would be.

Basically, I think you get a lot of great technology in the Solaris package. Zones, ZFS, etc.

I was able to study for my Solaris 10 network certification earlier this year with two Solaris x86 boxes, using a cross over cable and a bunch of virtual networks using zones to simulate a whole host of machines in three or four different subnets.

Actually one of them was running a version of Solaris 11, but that's beside the point.

The one drawback I find is wireless network support. Let's face it, Solaris wasn't designed to run on laptops, so I'm pushing it with Solaris 10 in a WiFi setting.

But as a carry with me small server to service and install new systems, or to do firmware upgrades, etc, it rocks.

On my laptop, I have three partitions. NTFS with XP Pro that I seldom boot, save for wi-fi situations and when I work on some StorageTek gear that requires Windows apps to service. I have a Fat32 partition to share data between XP and Solaris since Solaris doesn't understand NTFS, but both O/S's understand Fat32, and I have a Solaris partition, but am using UFS not ZFS since I set up this box before ZFS was built into Solaris 10.

I've had this laptop for three years and I'm on the same load.

It just works.
 
I've got a MacBook Pro, 1st generation (circa 2006) that I use for work (audio and video production, web development and graphics and photography); but I no longer use it for anything *but* work, as it is beginning to show its age, in the late autumn perhaps of its life. When it was used for day-to-day stuff, I used Safari mostly, for its speed. I stuck mostly with Apple's built-in programs: Mail, iCal, iChat, etc. I installed my own Jabber server to allow iChat to use MSN, Google Talk.

The system I use for day-to-day computering is an old refurb that I bought for $80 with a P4 1.7GHz CPU, a $10 eBay-purchased NVIDIA M440-based video card and 512MB of RAM. It runs exceedingly well and stable with Debian Lenny (5.0.3) installed. It functions as our media center (hooked up to the TV to play movies, etc.), radio, phone (using Ekiga or Skype), communications Command Central, recipe database and BITOG portal. It uses the IceWeasel (Firefox, rebranded by the Debian folks to protest Mozilla's "non-free" licensing of the Firefox logo and name...) browser, version 3.0.x. I use NoScript and AdBlock Plus from the Debian repositories.

I also keep a very, very old IBM Thinkpad around with XP in a VM (Debian Lenny w/ no GUI as host) for my wife's high school software which only runs on corporate OS's. It runs Firefox 3.5 although, given the very minimal browsing that's done on it, given the minimal resources the poor laptop has, and given my wife's considerable acumen and savvy concerning safe browsing, I may begin using... gulp... IE8.
 
I am using IceWeasel 3.0.9, the Debian fork of FoxFire. I have done a few upgrades since adding new hardware early last year. Before that I think I was running Mozilla under Mandrake. May have been FireFox later on.

Before that I was running NS 4.8 under Mac OS 7.6.1.

The last system I used Microsoft software on was a 64K RS Color Computer. Since OP asked for no bashing, I will say no more about MS.

I have no use for sites that won't work unless you have the latest browser, Flash, and Java Scripts.
 
Originally Posted By: javacontour
I'm biased, I get my paycheck from Sun, so I'm not sure how impartial I would be.

Basically, I think you get a lot of great technology in the Solaris package. Zones, ZFS, etc.

I was able to study for my Solaris 10 network certification earlier this year with two Solaris x86 boxes, using a cross over cable and a bunch of virtual networks using zones to simulate a whole host of machines in three or four different subnets.

Actually one of them was running a version of Solaris 11, but that's beside the point.

The one drawback I find is wireless network support. Let's face it, Solaris wasn't designed to run on laptops, so I'm pushing it with Solaris 10 in a WiFi setting.

But as a carry with me small server to service and install new systems, or to do firmware upgrades, etc, it rocks.

On my laptop, I have three partitions. NTFS with XP Pro that I seldom boot, save for wi-fi situations and when I work on some StorageTek gear that requires Windows apps to service. I have a Fat32 partition to share data between XP and Solaris since Solaris doesn't understand NTFS, but both O/S's understand Fat32, and I have a Solaris partition, but am using UFS not ZFS since I set up this box before ZFS was built into Solaris 10.

I've had this laptop for three years and I'm on the same load.

It just works.



Nice, I believe he runs Solaris on his desktop and he runs PuppyLinux on his netbooks(he is Netbook obsessed, he has like 4 of them, all for himself lol). I'll have to give it a whirl, I plan on "one day" building a new pc or maybe buying one(Mac) just to fool around. Sounds like a very stable and solid OS, no issues in 3 years. I tried to push my wife into using Ubuntu and after about 15 minutes she uninstalled it(Wubi).
 
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