What Operating System Are You Using?

Win8 was so awful I decided to switch to Linux.

 

It is true that some software solutions that we need or want to use are proprietary, and we don't really have any options. I still recommend that we avoid them to the extent we can (which is to say, when viable free alternatives are available).

My advocacy is that people should give GNU/Linux systems a fair chance, since one only incurs the opportunity cost to learn them. I also believe that these systems are a lot better now than five years ago. I think that people can benefit from the extra security they get from having a comparatively less attacked system than Windows, not to mention a low to zero monetary cost for the software on their system.

I do recognize that some people are constrained by what they must or reasonably expect to be able to do with a computer.

How is Trisquel for you? I have tried using fully software (except for BIOS firmware, which I'm not prepared to troubleshoot if I brick my motherboard) and it's been a pretty negative experience. I am fully in favor of free software, but only as long as it has a reasonable level of operability with the rest of the world. My experience with free software has been just as bad as Microsoft lock-in. The first time I tried to use Empty Closets with GNU IceCat, I couldn't even log in, because LibreJS was preventing "nonfree or nontrivial" Javascript from running on my browser.

I also tried Parabola (which is basically fully free Arch), and that was the worst experience I had of all, as I had a well-functioning gaming desktop system, and it broke everything so badly I had to reinstall the whole system (I allowed bumblebee to replace nvidia-libgl for starters, and the conflicting packages I allowed to be replaced were too numerous to count.)

Sometimes, it feels like free software breaks itself on purpose (for example, FSF only endorses GNU/Linux distributions that specifically disallow nonfree software), as opposed to simply being free. If I write anything important, I will make absolutely sure to release it under the GPL version 3, but I'm not going to write it so that it refuses to interact with anything else that's not GPL-compatible.

I'm interested to hear your experiences...

And for y'all's benefit:

Code:

[-------@Analysis ~]$ uname -a
Linux Analysis 3.8.11-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed May 1 20:18:57 CEST 2013 x86_64 GNU/Linux[/COLOR]

 

MacMacMacMacMacMacMac.

 

Windows 7, and I love it.

I got Windows 8 Pro as a raffle prize, but I'm hesitant to use it. I like my current OS as it is.

 

Windows 7 on 2 PC's, one laptop, and Linux on two laptops.

@wolf27 - Windows 8 is horrid... It doesn't even have an easy access start menu...

 

I use Windows 7 skinned up to look like XP.
edit: http://i.imgur.com/7vgEgyx.jpg

 

Code:

---------@---------- ~ $ uname -a
Linux ----------- 3.9.1 #1 SMP Fri May 10 07:57:10 EST 2013 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I am running a vanilla kernel, I just don't see the need a for a patched kernel.


I don't know people call it GNU/Linux, because I really don't think that the GNU project has had anything to do with the development of Linux. Yes I do know that most distros run GNU user-space, but you can run Linux without GNU too and soon you will be able to build Linux without that ugly mess called GCC. I also can't understand why Richard Stallman, thinks that Linux developers took a lot of credit from the FSF and the GNU project.

As for GPLv3, I take a similar stance to it as Linus Torvalds does. I think that GPLv2 is a very fair licence, and that GPLv3 is to politically motivated for my liking. The way the FSF is headed, I think they are just as bad as the companies pushing their proprietary software and licences on us. To me software should benefit everyone and every entity, not just a particular group of people. Also I am slowly beginning to agree with Googles' 'no GPL in user space', with the advent of GPLv3.

 

I've got Windows 7, Windows 8, Mac OS X Mountain Lion and Ubuntu all on my MacBook Pro Yay for multi boot (!)!(!)(!)(!)(!)(!)

---------- Post added 11th May 2013 at 02:34 PM ----------

We have the same name hahaha (!)

 

...
How did you know? I had my name blocked out!

 

You missed a place, above documents

 

I have yet to have any issues with Javascript; Trisquel has changed to a browser project called abrowser, which is a downstream of Mozilla Firefox. So far it hasn't disallowed running any JS that I've come across. (Not a Full Member, so I can't test the chat) I guess it should also be noted that since I maintain my own stuffs in VPS' I'm a little more apt than many at keeping my systems squeaky. FSF endorses an OS as long as it is 100% FLOSS software in it's repos. (IE you have to edit your apt/sources or equilevent or wget a binary to run non-free software)

 

W7 on PC, OSX on Macbook

 

In other words. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

 

Windows 7

 

I use Debian Sid

 

Windows 7 and really wanting an upgrade to Windows 8.

 

I really advise against that. I had it for awhile, about two months. After those two months, I downgraded back to Win7, but even Vista was looking like a viable alternative to it. But it's your computer, do with it what you wish.

 

Right now:

Windows 7
Ubuntu 12.04 (I think)

 

Question...I'm looking to getting a new laptop for my birthday (in 2.5 months). Would getting Windows 8 make THAT much of a difference (I have Windows 7)?

 

Windows 8 is considerably different, and a lot of people hate the changes.

You can see for yourself the differences (and whether you can live with them) by going to a store that has running laptops on display, and playing with one for a few minutes.