Hey your using one now right......just post a little about what your using. OS, how many cores does it have.................blah, blah, blah. The wife and i spend our free time online....she loves Facebook and i have forums that i check up on.
I have just one laptop, an 4-year old Dell Inspiron B130, I'm very surprised that it hasn't broken yet. The climate here is very hard on laptops due to the heat and humidity, and the AC power here is very "dirty", chargers normally get fried very quickly because of the poor sine wave of the power and constant voltage fluctuations, both surges and brownouts. There is also a big problem here with viruses that spread via flashdrives (thumbdrives, pendrives), so I run Ubuntu 9.10 full-time. I've been using Linux since Redhat 9. Linux isn't perfect, but Windows is too complex when something breaks, and I'm too cheap to buy a Mac. But I am also surprised to see how non-standard most of our users here are. Bunch of geeks eh?
I agree with Stan that a Windows license is an expensive thing to waste. I personally prefer to buy a laptop with Windows because I occasionally have to run a Windows program on Linux with Wine, but to do so I have to use Windows DLL's, so I personally feel that I can only legitimately do that if I own Windows.
If you wanted to know, this site is running on CentOS servers managed by DowntownHost in Miami, Florida. It shares a server with my other forum, LinuxForo.org. I prefer Drupal for site content management, it is an absolutely amazingly versatile tool, and very, very reliable and extensible. It's not usually the first choice that comes to mind to run a site that is principally a forum, but I like the Drupal backend so much that I decided to use it for everything, including the forums. So here we are.
Well I have 4 PCs at home and a lappie. All the PCs are home brewed running XP. No. 1 son experiments with Linux, Ubuntu specifically, on one. He also tried out the Windows 7 RC. Anyway he says it rocks. Didn't like Vista nor ME before it. MS just came up with stopgap OSs just to buy time! May upgrade to 7 when the time comes.
I have a buddy of mine running 7 and he loves it.....says that the os is so much easier to use, you dont get all that crap when you try to delete something or shut a program down. But if your like me that got used to it, it works.
Now that Apple have sorted the drivers, it works - but is still Windows. The guts are essentially the same as Vista's and it probably is more secure and is certainly less irritating than Vista. Just for fun I plan to get OpenSolaris to run on this iMac in a virtual machine. Imagine this will be less than simple. But I enjoy fighting with Solaris though those who don't enjoy foul language should probably not listen.
Lol......dont worry man i get the same way......i hate slow computers. I would rather use mine.
I started selling Commodore VIC20's in 1982, and progressed through all kinds of machines/OS's. Sold Apple "LISA's" for a while 8-)
Bought my 1st Mac in January 1984. I've used C/PM, DOS, Windows, Linux too, but at home it's been Mac OS only.
Gave mom (she's 84), my old Macintosh II in 1988, she's on her 4th one and probably should look at a replacement soon, me too. I'm on #8 myself.
I tried programming, it's not for me. I want to, it just drives me nuts. I don't have the patients.
I would be lost without it though.
later,
Fedora Core on a HP at Home.
XP on a Dell at work.
Windows XP here... again.
Used Windows 7 Professional 64bit for about year (until it broke) and installed Windows XP Professional 32bit, because I like it better :D
I have legal licenses for both from our school :)
Windows7 Ultimate. It's the only way to roll.
I use Windows for one reason: I can make it do whatever I want it to do. I have been using Windows my whole life and I have all of the interfaces mastered. I have used Linux and it is nice, I just don't like the interfaces. I want to be lazy when I feel lazy.
Started on DOS - Win95- 98SE - 2000 - ME (junk) - XP(early ones were soo bad , SP1 ? got better with SP2 )
VISTA ?? (what can you say about vista) several 7's , currently 7 64bit + 2003Server
Linux ???? Damn it , Ive tried many flavors over the years , seriously , when Linux becomes as easy to use as Windows , when you can download a game . click on it and it installs without any issue [ same with 3rd party software ] , do they call it seamless ? Anyhow , when you can install Linux on the partition of your choice again with no issues , till then Linux will be nothing more than a curiosity to the majority .. [ not talking to fanboys here - cos we know you love linux ] ...
I find it strange , Linux . So many flavors , so many years , and it still cant compete [ not for seamless ease of use - instillation - and loading - finding software ]
I was expecting it to have come of age by now . I tried the Latest Ubuntu , and what a POS ! It refused to install in the partition I wanted and actually integrated with my Windows , WTF is that about ? I tossed that one in the rubbish bin ...
Linux has to : Install where directed ! Automatically set up its own partitions etc - where directed by the user ... Just to begin with ...
Linux has to: Be able to seamlessly install software games ...
Linux developers need to consolidate Linux , so that all software games etc work on all flavors . No software developer is going to develop squat if they have to port there wares to half a dozen different operating systems all calling themselves Linux ..
Linux rant over !
Win 7 ultimate 64 at home right now, although I have used many ubuntu distros in the past. I actually like win 7, it hasn’t annoyed me like a lot of previous MS offerings ( Pre-SP1 Vista or WinME had to have been the worst)
At work I use many OS’s (DOS6.22, NT4.0, 2000, WinXPE, XP, Win7 and ubuntu)
I generally use laptops at work and home but my main goto machine is what I am always on at home and that is a Motorola Xoom dual-core Android tablet with 10" screen. It's a pretty amazing piece of hardware that even lets me use a BT keyboard and mouse if I care to when performing work on the servers at work remotely.
Notebook 64bit Win7 home premium, Desktop XP Pro SP3 32bit, Router 1 IPCOP Linux, Router 2 Monowall (FreeBSD based) , Archos 605 Portable Video Player 605 Linux based and hacked to run VNC over Wifi, 2 Sandisk Sansa Mediaplayer (MP3+Vid) running Rockbox Linux to run Doom ;-) , Windows 2000 SP4 as fileserver and downloadportal , Kindle 3 with Duokan alternative Kindle OS, PowerShot SD1100 IS / Digital IXUS 80 IS with CHDK alternative OS, My Mio 320 GPS runs TomTom,Garmin, IGO, Navigator, Magellan, Word and Excel ;-)
Did I mention that I like to tweak things?... ;-)
Home has win7-64 and xp-x86 machines (licenses were free through school) behind my tomato firewall/router.
I'm on the road right now, so it's just me and my sad little 1st gen netbook running win7-x86 behind some it's-in-chinese-so-I-can't-even-config-WPA router.
Windows 7 all the way, if I have a license for it. Vista, XP etc gets replaced with ubuntu. Plus I do not believe in the concept of overpaying, so apple is out of the question.
Personally I run a stripped Win7 64, very fast and stable and it still has all the nice looks and compatibility.
My home office
24" iMac running Snow Leopard and Win 7 Home Premium 64 Bit via Boot Camp
Dell XPS 730 running Win 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/ I gave this tower to my 15 year old nephew along with a Dell 23" monitor I had laying around.
24" Ultrasharp 2405FPW monitor
Dell Inspiron 531 running XP Pro ( used as a DVR for home security system)
Black Macbook running Snow Leopard
Not shown: an Acer 11.6" Aspire One 722 Netbook running Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit
Bedroom: Mac Mini running on a 40" Samsung.
Win 7 64-bit on an Asus low voltage 13.3" laptop that is almost 2 years old but still better looking and just as functional than anything that has come after it. I grew up using Mac's in school and never cared much for them. I like the freedom I have with Windows (doesn't mean I'm a MS fan - Xbox Live is pretty awesome though). I've tried a few of the popular flavors of Linux over the years and I think they're still stuck in the same ol' rut. They just refuse to make them run out of the box and be user friendly. It's the same story: I get in the mood to try another version and eventually I get frustrated, annoyed, impatient, bored and quit on it.
Between Apple and MS, I don't put one over the other. Neither of them wants to give warm, fuzzy hugs to their customers so I don't buy into all the fanboyism. In the end all they care about is your money and they might even share giggle sessions when you get tricked into believing they 'care' about your needs in a personal way. When the masses finally realize Apple became the largest tech company in the world with above average industry standard profit margins on their hardware then they may as well be relegated to the pit MS is in and the cycle continues.
I guess I keep using Windows because it has always worked for me and the marketing practices don't bother me. I will keep buying a company's products until I'm turned off by their shady business practice or the product simply is garbage. I dont buy Sony products anymore because of their crap. I've boycotted HP (although now their PC division is being spun off so maybe there's hope again). I wanted to support Archos but they're a lost cause. I'm sick of seeing GoDaddy commercials so I won't use their services. Hey, I have my principles ;) haha
It's funny my Dad is retired but builds custom computers and sells them for side money (and it's his hobby). He is an encyclopedia of computer knowledge. Myself on the other hand, I never really got into computers (other than using them) so my field of knowledge is tiny compared to his. I think I never really "got into" computers because I could never afford a good one. With what my Dad does though, I never have to buy a computer, haven't bought one in ten years. He just builds one with leftover parts (he does repairs and upgrades too) and gives me a "new" one about once a year.
That being said, all our computers use XP, which is fine because most of what we use them for is the internet.
Office Engineering PC = Windows XP x64
Servers = Open Solaris (If you haven't discovered ZFS, You Should)
Home "Main" PC = Fedora Core
Home Laptop = Dual Boot Solaris Express & Windows 7 x64
Media Center Server & Clients = LinuxMCE