An Ubuntu based Linux distribution with Xfce (although I installed the Cinnamon the other day and quite like it so far). But every now and then I have to boot into Windows (10), because some game developers still don't care about making their games run on Linux. (Don't be that dev.)
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Your Preferred Os And Why
Windows 7 Baby... best OS ever conceived (okay, thats maybe an overstatement, but still hands down the best Windows I have ever used, and I have used them all!)
Slowly migrating to Windows 10 on all machines save my work rig... not really warming to it. Change for changes sake, really. Fixing what wasn't broke compared to Windows 7. Windows 8 of course was a total trainwreck, no a big fan of Windows 8.1, so its at least better as those two. Well, maybe over time MS improves Windows 10 so it becomes more like Windows 7 again.
Because in the end, I'll have to migrate to Windows 10 as soon as I want to use DX12 on my work rig, or connect XBox One gamepads, or the Kinect 2.....
Mac OS is not for me, though I have used it for years... its just too alien for somebody so used to Windows. And again, nothing broken with Windows (7), so why try to fix it by converting to another OS? :)
I really like Unix systems, Unix dev is what I mostly do for my day job (besides Java and Oracle development)... but then, I don't know about Linux as a Windows replacement at home. Given what I hear about the performance Problems with openGL with some modern games, and the small selection of Steam Titles for Linux....
OSX because it is the one I use for work. I also like the idea that I can get a brand new machine and without even connecting to the internet I can start coding in one of several languages with a choice of programming editor straight away.
Also with OSX if I need a windows program I can legally access windows using Parallels, Bootcamp, VBox etc.. Yes yes I know I could technically do the opposite on windows but I would be breaking Apples EULA.
I don't tend to play Windows PC games anymore. I used to be a die hard PC gamer and spend several thousand a year having a custom PC to run everything with the best settings. Nowadays most PC games are eventually available on OSX or console anyway.
I do still have several Windows devices at home but they very rarely get switched on and when they do the usually need to install a bunch of stuff before they actually work.
Windows 7. Thanks to ntLite, you can turn Windows 7 in an entirely shit-free environment (best 45€ I have spent in my life). It's actually possible to have an up-to-date, fully functional (without the shit) Windows which takes up just 15G on your harddisk. Bet you didn't think you could.
Now, Windows 10, no thanks, not as long as I can get around, and when that is no longer possible, I might just use Linux or not use a computer any more at all (which is the same thing, basically). Windows 10's problem is not just the telemetry stuff (though sure that is a concern, it's more the EULA that accompanies the telemetry), but first and foremost it is designed bottom-up, through and through as something I don't want. I do not want my voice sent to and analyzed on the cloud (nor waste the bandwidth for doing that), I do not want smart ass suggestions from a virtual babe, I don't want fucking MSN and Facebook in the start menu, I don't want to search the web when I'm not explicitly saying: "Search the fucking web". No, I don't want your suggestions, I don't care what you think might interest me, just fuck off and leave me alone.
I don't want fucking blinking stuff that I didn't ask for, and although much of it can be disabled, the point is, I don't want to have it running when I don't want it. Nor do I want to see fucking warnings about it all day long. This phenomenon existed under Win7 already (that's really the single bad thing I can say about Win7). Disable that fucking indexer service which scrubs down your harddisk yet doesn't work properly anyway, and you get yellow warnings about search being slow in every darn search window. As if you didn't already notice it's slow. Besides, it's only slow because it does stuff you didn't ask for. Of course if you remove the shit from the install disk alltogether (one click in ntLite), the warning is gone, too.
And I don't want a fucking Windows store, nor the millions of trash apps inside it. Nor do I want to be shop-locked (which is certain to come eventually). It's still my computer, I paid for it, and I pay the electricity bill and for internet access. I want to decide what's going on.
I used to have Apple until they cheated me (and millions of others) on the PPC Macs. And Linux at the time when you had to manually untar a dozen floppies with Slackware. Fun to play with, but well... not really suited to do something "real". Sadly, this hasn't much improved. Ubuntu looked promising for some years, and Cinnamon/Mint is almost usable... but "almost" just isn't good enough.
Started in the Windows world with Win98SE, which much to my surprise didn't nearly suck as much as everbody said (well, definitively a "home computer" style of OS, not for a work environment... but still, not so bad), and NT 3.5 (later 4) in university, which by contrast was pretty much the worst nightmare. Had XP and after getting used to the ugly plastic look kinda liked it, and was surprised how stunningly better Windows 7 was. But anything Microsoft did after that... bleh.
Apple's overall approach nowadays is, unluckily, worse than Microsoft's even (although I'll grant them the benefit of being mostly trouble-free in their user interface), and for that you pay extra $$$, no thanks. Ironically, it's the very same company that was marketing against "big blue" dominating your life in 1984, and look what they do now. They are trying to control every aspect of your life, with virtually no choices. I can't even seem to be able downloadin a photo from this darn iPhone onto my computer by means of a plain normal USB cable. Not without asking Apple for permission first.
Now, Windows 10, no thanks, not as long as I can get around, and when that is no longer possible, I might just use Linux or not use a computer any more at all (which is the same thing, basically). Windows 10's problem is not just the telemetry stuff (though sure that is a concern, it's more the EULA that accompanies the telemetry), but first and foremost it is designed bottom-up, through and through as something I don't want. I do not want my voice sent to and analyzed on the cloud (nor waste the bandwidth for doing that), I do not want smart ass suggestions from a virtual babe, I don't want fucking MSN and Facebook in the start menu, I don't want to search the web when I'm not explicitly saying: "Search the fucking web". No, I don't want your suggestions, I don't care what you think might interest me, just fuck off and leave me alone.
I don't want fucking blinking stuff that I didn't ask for, and although much of it can be disabled, the point is, I don't want to have it running when I don't want it. Nor do I want to see fucking warnings about it all day long. This phenomenon existed under Win7 already (that's really the single bad thing I can say about Win7). Disable that fucking indexer service which scrubs down your harddisk yet doesn't work properly anyway, and you get yellow warnings about search being slow in every darn search window. As if you didn't already notice it's slow. Besides, it's only slow because it does stuff you didn't ask for. Of course if you remove the shit from the install disk alltogether (one click in ntLite), the warning is gone, too.
And I don't want a fucking Windows store, nor the millions of trash apps inside it. Nor do I want to be shop-locked (which is certain to come eventually). It's still my computer, I paid for it, and I pay the electricity bill and for internet access. I want to decide what's going on.
I used to have Apple until they cheated me (and millions of others) on the PPC Macs. And Linux at the time when you had to manually untar a dozen floppies with Slackware. Fun to play with, but well... not really suited to do something "real". Sadly, this hasn't much improved. Ubuntu looked promising for some years, and Cinnamon/Mint is almost usable... but "almost" just isn't good enough.
Started in the Windows world with Win98SE, which much to my surprise didn't nearly suck as much as everbody said (well, definitively a "home computer" style of OS, not for a work environment... but still, not so bad), and NT 3.5 (later 4) in university, which by contrast was pretty much the worst nightmare. Had XP and after getting used to the ugly plastic look kinda liked it, and was surprised how stunningly better Windows 7 was. But anything Microsoft did after that... bleh.
Apple's overall approach nowadays is, unluckily, worse than Microsoft's even (although I'll grant them the benefit of being mostly trouble-free in their user interface), and for that you pay extra $$$, no thanks. Ironically, it's the very same company that was marketing against "big blue" dominating your life in 1984, and look what they do now. They are trying to control every aspect of your life, with virtually no choices. I can't even seem to be able downloadin a photo from this darn iPhone onto my computer by means of a plain normal USB cable. Not without asking Apple for permission first.
Windows. Every few years I check out the latest Linux distributions (I'm due shortly) but I've not yet seen anything to convince me that it's viable. So much of Unix mentality seems stuck in the 1970s that it actively hinders progress.
I'm in the habit of being an early adopter of new Windows versions, but that doesn't necesarily mean that I think they're awesome. In work I'm a domain admin and tend to judge an OS by criteria relevant to that; hence the Windows ecosystem just feels more complete and useful, overall.
Windows 8.1 I guess? Been using that for a while, upgraded my PC at home to 10 for DX12 support, but I dislike the fact it's not as easy to select tiles with arrows keys as it was in 8. Also, the amount of settings on disabling the built-in spyware :|... USB headphone works slightly better on 10 though.
Sticking to windows because it's what I'm used to, but more importantly games and Visual Studio. Also, I feel it's more stable than Linux. There, I said it!
Linux, because I've been using Unix since decades before Windows was even invented, and I'm just not familiar with Windows other than how to turn it on and bring up games. Worked in a place that had Macs on the desktop, and when they came out with a brand new OS based on Unix, it was real nice.
RIght now, I use Ubuntu, with Unity 7 and Unity 8. Unity is the best graphical shell I've used in terms of efficiency and convenience, although what counts is the applications not the shell for the most part. I use ssh to connect to multiple machines (phones, tablets, laptops) at a time so I can sit at my desk with a single clicky keyboard and multiple displays to do my work (which often involves broken graphics, so remote access is a goatsend.
As a developer, I prefer the full-on power of having access to everything in the system when I need to rather than the fuzzy "no user-serviceable parts inside" approach of other OSes.
I do have a Windows 10 machine hooked up to the TV and used as a games console in my living room. I'm not sure how to do much except click on the Steam icon on the desktop.
Read the thread title. Wondered why one O would be different from any other O. I guess I prefer mine circular and sweet?
Windows 10 for Game and Engine development, because Visual Studio IDE (especially debugger) is unbeaten, and DX12.
For other projects involfing electronics and embedded processors Ubuntu for dev and debian on the device, because of the huge amount of free tools available, and the possibility to build your own kernel
I thougt about switching to Ubuntu for GameDev to but Vulkan took to long to arrive so i had already started using DX12 and don't want to switch again.
Do ppl willfully switch from win 7 to 10? My experiences with win 10 is that its like a windows 7 where they removed your power to choose and make stuff hard to access (probably with the mentality "lets not scare dumb users")
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