Windows Linux or Mac?

POSTED BY: Haze
UPDATED: Saturday, April 8, 2006 06:42
VIEWED: 42858
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DINKY

Thursday, March 9, 2006 5:08 PM

I think it would be safe for me to say it's either the software that you're using or it's Media Center.

I use Windows XP Home Edition 32 bit. I would rather have Windows XP 64 bit because I have an AMD 64 x2 4400+ for a CPU but Windows 64 just doesn't have the support, I know for a fact that not all of the software I use works in Windows 64, we have 2 out of 33 computers here in this house that run Windows 64.

And I'm going to root off from the word 'Support'. Linux I bet is a good OS... As in I bet it's fun to use, probably stable... But that's a big reason as to why it's stable, there isn't much that runs on it. It's a different OS so everything it runs has to be made for that OS. And it seems that whenever something comes out, it releases for Windows, then it releases for Linux and/or Mac. With most software anyway.

Windows is where all the users are, therefore that's where all the software developers are going to concentrate all of their... Well all of their developing. Whether it be software or patches for software or drivers.

I've been using Windows since Windows 95 and I have never had as many problems as people say they have with it. And you say you're running Media Center Windows and you're getting all kinds of crazy errors? I'm running Windows XP Home 32 and I rarely ever get a system error... In fact I don't even remember the last time I've had one.

"Th3re !s n0 spo0Ne." -The Matricks

FOURSKYS

Thursday, March 9, 2006 5:10 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by PurpleBelly:
Quote:
Originally posted by FourSkys:
... Unix (Free BSD). Would that have been more acceptable?
You do mean Unix-like?

Yes, yes. Unix-like, of course that's what I meant.

Oh, and I just have to try this puppy thing now...

Quote:

And I'm going to root off from the word 'Support'. Linux I bet is a good OS... As in I bet it's fun to use, probably stable... But that's a big reason as to why it's stable, there isn't much that runs on it. It's a different OS so everything it runs has to be made for that OS. And it seems that whenever something comes out, it releases for Windows, then it releases for Linux and/or Mac. With most software anyway.

There's a bit of a difference between "support" and "software" though. You'll find that with any Unix-like operating system, there's a lot more support out there than you'll get for Windows. Have you ever tried using Microsoft's tech support? There are tons of pages out there by Linux users who fix and identify problems, not to mention the technical pages on the distribution's site that, since the distribution is smaller, are generally very helpful with working with you to fix the problem. You're not going to get that from Windows.

Also, in the avenue of Software, just because the software isn't available to buy, doesn't mean you can't get something that does the same thing. Now, this doesn't always apply to games, but chances are someone's written something that does the same thing for Unix-like systems, and it probably works a lot better than the thing you have to buy for Windows. Oh, and did I mention that most Unix-like software is free?

PURPLEBELLY

Thursday, March 9, 2006 7:23 PM

Quote:
Oh, and I just have to try this puppy thing now...

Good on yer, mate. Be warned -- there's no coming back

Seriously, I don't use it for my work-horse development system or Usenet-sponge (Debian both), but as well as the key-ring flash I use it on an old laptop where it shares a small hard drive with an operating system that I'm sometimes forced to use when visiting alien worlds and from a multisession-dvd on a quiet system without a hard-drive mostly as an X-server but with occasional local dvd-play. It's a young community as yet, but everyone seems to have fun

http://www.puppylinux.org/

FOURSKYS

Friday, March 10, 2006 5:49 AM

This post oficially made using PuppyLinux from a live-CD boot. I still haven't gotten my USB key to work properly, but I'm just glad I got my wireless card working. Took me a couple hours, but I'm liking it...

PURPLEBELLY

Friday, March 10, 2006 6:13 AM

Welcome to the pack! Even the most adorable puppies may have inconvenient habits until house-trained

The major problem I have with using a USB drive is finding a system with BIOS new enough to have a boot option -- using a floppy disk to jump-start takes the glamour away somehow and is no more convenient than a CD -- but that speaks of my impoverished environment rather than Puppy.

RUXTON

Friday, March 10, 2006 6:31 AM

HAZE,

This is my first post since installing full Windows XP/Home 32-bit, wiping everything off the computer. This computer has held Linux (Red Hat/Fedora, which I recommend highly on any computer running 500 mhz or faster, and with, say, six gig of hard drive or better), W98SE and now W-XP. [My copy of Red Hat Fedora was also zero cost, but at most you may have to pay $5 for a disk. Compare that to typical eBay prices for XP of $90 or so.]

I had to install XP only four times (at about 1.5 hours a shot) to get it right. Only one installation screwup was my fault, I suspect, which resulted in my having to choose between Windows XP and "on" for an operating system every time I turned the computer on. I have no idea what "on" was, or how it got there, but a final reinstall got rid of it.

I have absolutely no good words for Bill Gates or Microsoft or anything they offer. However, I did get some good feedback from a M/S tech along the way, to my utter amazement.

The problem with W98, as I learned from a United Parcel tech who builds his own computers, is that it has a memory drain. If you run memory-intensive programs fast and furious, the memory loads up and does not refresh itself, and eventually the computer just stops.

I have had this problem with "Guitar PRo," which could never play a full piece without stopping the computer completely. We'll see in the next day or so if XP solves that problem, but I'm told it does.

Yet Photoshop LE will NOT run on XP, and it's a small, simple, old, and useful version (also obsolete) of the mighty and costly Photoshop, that runs on every other system except Linux that I've had here on all my computers.

The problem with Windows seems to be that it wants to do everything for you, and do it all automatically. Linux, on the other hand, is MANUAL. You control it, not the other way around. It does NOTHING automatically. But my computer expertise and time allotment were insufficient to make Linux work with all the stuff I wanted to make work. So it was back to this Microsoft garbage.

STDOUBT

Friday, March 10, 2006 8:17 AM

Ruxton,
Since you bumped this thread, I thought i'd
pipe up and suggest you try a bootable cd called
Elive. It does a lot of things automatically. And
it can be installed as well as run from cd.
In my experience, many Linux distros do more auto stuff than I like (heh). Sorry for your windows relapse... That's gotta hurt!
http://www.elivecd.org/gb/Download/0.4.2/
This version of Elive is code named 'Serenity'
so I been pimpin' it ;]
EDIT: There's actually a pantload of games for Linux: http://happypenguin.org/

RUXTON

Friday, March 10, 2006 10:19 PM

Would respectfully ask ANYONE how the dickens do I get XP to run Photoshop LE??? The "compatibility" option of XP does not work. I have LOTS of RAM, 640 Meg, (max possible is 750), but suspect -- SUSPECT -- the 32-bit setup causes the RAM to be managed in a way that forces Photoshop LE to be dumped entirely into it, and hence the computer can't do it.

Anyone have any suggestions? Fixes?

I could reinstall XP (6th time) with only 2 gig of room for its own partition, which doesn't force the 32-bit installation, and also leaves me more of the hard drive open for music, pix, etc.

Or I could buy more RAM, but won't spend another dime until I'm sure it'll get this stuff to work.

ANYONE?? HELP!!

RUXTON

Friday, March 10, 2006 10:22 PM

STDOUBT,

Do you know if ELIVE runs Photoshop LE?

I just emailed 'em with this question....

SNEAKER98

Friday, March 10, 2006 10:38 PM

Well, there's a few rules of thumb:

Windows for gaming.
Mac for artistry and media editting.
*nix for servers.

It's a general rule, but it works most of the time.

As for the folks saying they get error after error: you've done something, not windows. Provided you know what to install and what not to, windows is as stable as intended, which means so long as you don't leave it running for months at a time, it'll do just fine.

Also, someone mentioned that they wanted 64-bit windows: don't. Because there's less driver support, and frankly it's pointless at the moment. There's almost no applications that are made specifically for 64-bit, because most folks are still on 32-bit processors. In about 5 years, you'll only be able to find a 64; but not yet. And no, a 64-bit processor doesn't run 32-bit programs faster than a 32-bit processor! ;)

"I do the job... and then I get paid. Go run your little world."
-Malcolm Reynolds

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