Poll: OS Choice (2009)

[terry]

Ive always been a fan of XP pro then I purchased my laptop that came preloaded with Vista 32. At first I was cursing vista left right and center, I downloaded XP chipset and associated drivers to suit my laptop and I was going to format it and load on XP.
I found some minor tweaks here,,,(BV) and now I've become a bit of a fan of vista.
A couple of my programs wont load on Vista but I use them on my home PC instead of the laptop. I reckon now Im gunna leave vista on the laptop and get a bit more used to it....not bad in my opinion.

[DrWhy]

prefered OS huh?
 Today its Vista 64 -- Yesterday it was XP Pro 32 I am typing this on a win7 Ult (I beleave I need more ram to pick this thing up) I work with construction companies setting up there networks and laying out there softs for use. Different strokes and all.

win7 was working fine "UNTILL" I loaded Adobe acrobat 8 full version.. (will not see the printer driver) now i'm getting memory lockups...

[spyknee]

 
W7 64bit Ultimate,
 Easiest install ever, so far 99% trouble free.
I'm an amateur enthusiast, I'm enjoying 64bit.

[cuiq]

I'm gonna have to give linux the hands down winner for me....I hear a lot that it has a long way to go but i think people forget that windows had long way to go when it initially came on the scene.
Anyway graphically speaking linux has had a beautiful desktop for a very long time while windows is just making into gadgets linux has moved on to some serious eye candy with Compiz in the past few years, but that is of course if you're into that kind of thing. As for hardware the only real issues i had were with dial up modems before broadband became the must have and linux handled that excellently, but of course its networking was its winner before the desktop was thought of.
I have and will keep windows for my gaming needs because that's just where the market is. Should any game companies ever decide to take linux on I will gladly give it a whirl.

[Black Viper]

I have and will keep windows for my gaming needs because that's just where the market is. Should any game companies ever decide to take linux on I will gladly give it a whirl.

Agreed.

[SaintSatinStain]

Discuss the "why's" you have chosen a particular bit depth structure and OS generation below.
1) Greater then 4GB Memory Support
2) Stability
3) Driver availability
4)

The 2008 results and discussions:
http://bbs.blackviper.com/index.php/topic,135.0.html

XP Pro 32 bit because I am poor; there are more freeware programs available. I am not a gamer; I do general work, write, research, and email, IM, and such.  The limit of 2 Gs fine with me.

[Spawn]

Hey, BV.  You going to add 32bit and 64bit Windows 7 to this? 

Spawn

[Black Viper]

Hey, BV.  You going to add 32bit and 64bit Windows 7 to this? 

Yup, in the 2010 poll here in a few weeks.

[superc]

I started back in the C=64 days (still have 2 of those, 1 in SX config with a HD, after 20 years of 6502 can write my own ML programs) and ran up through Win 3.1 (still have one of those machines) and Win 95.  I used Win 98 until MS dropped it.  I don't have a Network of any kind (and won't in this house).  5 standalone PCs, each with its own HD and software.  What infects 1 stays there.  Dial up on each (nothing else available out here in the sticks, and satellite goes away when it is cloudy weather).  The thing was gradually, over the span of years, thanks to hours on the WWW and some books, I finally hit the point where I knew more about Win 98 nuts and bolts than some of the MS Engineer types I worked with.  My machines were pretty stable.  24/7 on operation.  Needed a reboot maybe once a year.  I still have one machine in Win98 simply because it has some good Win 95 legacy software on it not reproduced in XP format.  (i.e., Word Perfect 4, etc.)  Then MS realized no one geeky would XP as long as updates were available for 98. 

Further complicating my life was a contract requirement that I obtain an XP with MS Office and ESRI ARC.  Then came the BAM virus.  Ow.  The patch broke my SQL (and my $1,000 ESRI software).  That experience proved the value of NOT having a net.  Set machine 1 aside (till its fixed) and bring up 2 and 3.  In the beginning XP WAS horrible.  Initially I saw way more (and more difficult to fix) Blue Screens of Death with XP than I ever did with 98. 

Then came SP 2.  Diamond Software (back then) had some good security tools that some even translated into the XP environment.  This guy 'Black Viper' came out with a web site about something called Services, and the learning and experimenting began.  Books began to leak out that revealed a lot.  SP3.  I haven't had a blue screen of death since SP3 came out.  Tools so many acquired.  I got a volunteer gig to configure old donated laptops into something workable for non-geeks.  Played with Linux.  Too complex for the end users who often had problems with 4 character passwords they created themselves.  Solution some donated XP disks in SP2 config and a downloaded (days on dial up) SP3 ISO CD.  Open source software whenever possible.  Free stuff, AVG etc.

In the words of another user in another post, "If you are one of those people that installs a lot of software just to try it, and then uninstalls it when they realize it is not for them, the registry can become bloated and slow down the system."  Yes, that's me. 

[Off topic answer to what's the best reg cleaner?  None, or it depends.  I've played with several.  Some will work fine on one machine, but totally mess up the laptop.  The next one does well on the laptop, but turned the Compaq into a paperweight.  None is safest, but not always the best.] 

Anyway, I've done XP on about 40 XP machines now.  From Pent IIs to Pentium IV+s.  256 megs to 4 gigs.  Snapshoted all of them as they are issued.  This house runs on XP.  There's 5 XP machines in my home.  There is some stuff I don't know about.  I don't 3G, so I don't need to know or care about 3G.  Etc.  Am I stoneage, naw.  There's a Vista (couldn't beat the price) and someone threw a 7 at me last month.  To Vista and 7 I can only ask, What's it for?  Both look like they are more advantageous to someone out there in Net world trying to sell you something than they are for you as an end user.  I haven't hit a stand alone PC application yet where XP doesn't fill the bill nicely.