Operating systems

[Seob]

I the years past, i have tried many different os systems.

But from all the different os's i tries:

DOS,

DRDOS,

OS/2 warp,

Windows 3.0 - 95,

Mac system 7,

FreeBSD,

Linux,

Solaris,

BeOS

I have to say that i really loved BeOS, after the initial bios bootup it only took 25 sec to boot into a working desktop. BeOS could handle multiple video streams at once, with audio streams running. While windows could only handle one vide stream at once, without severe frame drop.

You also didn't need to reboot the system when you installed a new driver, just restart the driver and you where set.

 

From the different OS you tried, what was you're favorite OS and why?

Edited April 19, 2013 by Seob

[Algus]

I'm really in love with Chrome OS right now. Still haven't gotten over the new of my Chromebook.

 

MS-DOS. Maybe nostalgia but I loved DOS. I knew the commands and there were tons of great games.

[Ransom]

FreeBSD on the server, Mac OS X on the desktop. Although I don't hate Windows 7.

 

[+Gemintronic]

I have no one favorite. Mac OS JUST WORKS. Windows spies on you and breaks but is easy and has lots of software. Linux for free, powerful utility but god help you if you must configure it.

[high voltage]

Windows ME my absolute favourite PC OS

[Emehr]

My first operating system was System 7.5 on the Mac so I have some nostalgia for that, but my favorite is Mac OS 8.6. Even though I run Mac OS 9.2 on all of my legacy hardware, Mac OS 8.6 had that perfect balance between stability and lean RAM usage along with some of my favorite features:

 

Pop-up windows - drag a window to the bottom of the screen and it becomes a tab. Click to have it "pop up" temporarily so you can access the files/apps. Great for using as an app launcher, quick access to frequently-used files, or as a drop zone.

 

Windowshade - click a widget in the window bar and the contents disappear, leaving the window bar. No minimizing means not having to scrub the Dock hunting around for the window. It's still right there. Just click to hide and click again to show without having to move the mouse. Great for taking a peek behind a window.

 

Finder - I list this as a feature because Mac OS X really borked the spatial abilities of Finder. In classic Mac OS, a Finder window represented a folder. Period. You could not have two windows open that show the same contents, which avoids the confusion of not knowing if you're looking at duplicate files or not. Finder windows remembered their settings. If I want list view for my Applications and icon view for a folder with a handful of documents, it stayed that way.

 

No Dock - I also list this as a feature because there is no way to kill the Dock in Mac OS X (unless you also want to lose the ability to cmd-tab to switch apps). Sure, you can hide it but if you move the mouse too close to the Dock's "home" it's going to peek its ugly head out and say "Oh, did you need me? Nope? Okay I'll hide again as soon as you move that mouse cursor far enough away. kthxbye". This peek-a-boo behavior is very frustrating if you have a window that has widgets near the Dock's "zone".

 

 

Other OS's I've tried:

Apple DOS - learned BASIC programming on it back in high school

Apple ProDOS

MS-DOS

Windows 3.1 - yikes!

Windows 95/98 - meh

Windows 2000 - not too shabby

Windows XP - got a lot of mileage out of this one at work

Windows 7 - I run this in emulation at work when I need Windows apps

Windows 8 beta - tried it in emulation, yikes!

Linux - don't remember what flavor, it was a long time ago

[+Gemintronic]

Windows ME my absolute favourite PC OS

 

Local computer stores that I knew dropped it and kept selling machines with 98 Second Editon. Microsoft was still fighting with itself instead of just going with their NT kernel (which they ended up doing anyway).

 

It wasn't as horrible as people ake it out to be - but it was a wrong turn, methinks.

[jaybird3rd]

FreeBSD on the server, Mac OS X on the desktop. Although I don't hate Windows 7.

Another FreeBSD fan here. I've been using it on desktops and servers for the past ten years, and today it's my main desktop OS. I also have a collection of Windows virtual machines at the ready, with every version from NT4 to 8; of those, I regularly use XP and 7, with the edge going to XP simply because it boots faster and still does most of what I need to do in Windows. I'm very impressed with Mac OS X, but a Mac of my own is presently outside my budget.

 

Among "legacy" PC operating systems, my favorite old reliable workhorse is still DR-DOS. I've been using some version of DR-DOS as a secondary/tertiary OS almost non-stop for the past ~22 years; my present version is 7.03, bought directly from Caldera in 1999. Even after all these years, it's amazing how useful it can be to have a "real" DOS machine handy.

[Hatta]

Debian Sid. The Universal Operating System.

[amiman99]

I'm very impressed with Mac OS X, but a Mac of my own is presently outside my budget.

I got Mac Mini core Solo (upgraded to Core2Duo 2GHZ) with OSX 10.5 for like $120 on EBAY for my kids. It's awesome, boots up and shuts-down fast, lean on RAM, quiet.

Not bad.

[Osgeld]

I dont have a favorite, especially with the modern ones, windows is windows, mac is mac, linux is just retarded

 

I used to really like linux but after a decade of it, it seems to get more broken and silly with each distro's release, even installing it is a major pain in the ass to me, as a change in the kernel some time a few years ago makes it think my 1280x1024 60Hz LCD is some screwball PAL HDTVm and every single distro out there wont work out of the box.

 

its pretty effin bad when your hacking text files to get the garbage to work before its even installed, what is this 1994?

 

as for classic os's ... MS-DOS (maybe PC dos but I dont like some of its utilities, like e)

Edited April 20, 2013 by Osgeld

[Uzumaki]

Window 7 is pretty fast now. I can go from power on to desktop in about 30 seconds if the BIOS is properly optimized and using a nice SSD. My computer consists of Corsair Force 120GB SSD on SATA 6G (top read speed peaked close to 500Mb/sec), dual XEON, and 24GB memory. It's a real beast and can be up and running in less time it takes me to go to bathroom to pee.

 

PS yes it's overpowered for games. I can do 3D rendering in a few hours what it would take basic Walmart POS about 2 weeks to do. But 95% of the time it's playing World of Warcraft. For running old game on this rig is like having a Formula F-1 engine on a push mower.

[Osgeld]

I actually do quite a bit of cad work on my quad core 4.2Ghz FX box, and windows 7 is quite darn snappy even without a SSD or SSD cache while being a fairly budget box

its snappy on my i5 work laptop, its snappy on my 2.5 ghz athlon x2 it seems to work well as long as its past a specific date

 

it runs like garbage on my p4 laptop, but ... its a p4 laptop

[Keatah]

Well.. I liked the kernel on my TI-59, and the OS for my TRS-80 Pocket Computer wasn't too bad either. If you don't consider those as bona-fide OS'es and just firmware instead, then:

 

..It would have to be DOS 3.3 & Pro-Dos from the Apple II days. Reverse engineering RWTS allowed me to ascend into godhood back then. Haven't left since. And then for modern machines XP and 7.

 

I want to like Linux, but it's just a toy and quite ridiculous.

[Seob]

Forgot to mention the O/S i currently use. For my pc it is Windows 7 64bit, sometimes a linux suse bootdisc (had to use it to recover data from my broken LaCie network disc), and Mac OS X 10.6 for our Mac systems. Running Android on phone (2.3) and tablets(4.0 and 4.1). But i'm not a big fan on Android. Mainly because there to many manufacturers of hardware, so you never know if software will work on you're tablet, the bulk load on pre-installed software you don't use and that can't be deleted, without hacking it, and the lack of software control on google play, so you get a gazillion of easy rip-offs of popular titles.

[Rex Dart]

I guess the NT kernel has worked best for me so far, but I've also enjoyed using BeOS and various versions of QNX in the past for short periods of time. OS/2 (now eComstation) was a great idea, but I couldn't get used to some of the old-fashioned window management & file browsing it stuck with.

[potatohead]

IRIX is my favorite.

 

Today, I run Win 7, which I like, Mac OS, Linux. Mostly Ubuntu.

 

From the classic era, I'm a big DOS / PRODOS fan. PRODOS took the Apple ][ series a long way.

[FastRobPlus]

Windows 2000

[high voltage]

Where can you buy a BeOS computer/software? I never see it on ebay

[The Usotsuki]

Try Haiku. Same difference.

[Hatta]

BeOS will run on x86 hardware from the right period. The actual BeBoxes are pretty hard to come by. There's a free download here and a hardware compatibility list here. I haven't played with it myself, but I see my al440lx motherboard is supported. I might give that a shot when I move my Voodoo 2 cards to a Pentium III.

[Arkhan]

Mac OS JUST WORKS.

 

Gimme a break. I crashed the shit out of OSX all the time. No OS "just works". They all crash, they all do stupid crap, and they could all be better.

 

 

My favorite was Windows 98 SE + DOS.

[Seob]

Nice site with different screenshots from different OS : http://toastytech.com/guis/b5pe.html

[desiv]

No OS "just works". They all crash, they all do stupid crap, and they could all be better.

So, you're saying.....

 

:-)

 

desiv

[potatohead]

BEOS was pretty cool, and yes you can run it on period correct hardware.

 

I did once with a friend who was into operating systems. I liked it a lot, just didn't get to use it much because it was so niche. The vision was good though. Hey, here's a great OS rant from Neil Stephenson:

 

http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html

 

Well worth reading, and it's lots of fun too. When thinking about all that has happened in Operating Systems, I find that read lucid and highly entertaining. Enjoy!