Poll: What is your primary operating system

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3786674

by kamechan • 14 years ago

519 450 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

olalonde2• 14 years ago

You should replace Linux/Unix by Linux and add a fourth option "Other Unix-like OS" or "Other *nix". It would be more clear since both OSX and Linux are Unix-like OSes. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Unix_hist...

reidrac3• 14 years ago

Then I guess Chrome OS is a Unix-like too.

So it would be Unix-like or Windows. Eh, and other.

EDIT: I don't agree with your classification. Sorry, Monday morning before my first coffee.

andreime• 14 years ago

Chrome OS is a browser in a linux box ....

olalonde2• 14 years ago

When I posted this there was only 3 options: OS X, Windows, Linux/Unix

mappu• 14 years ago

A choice between the 'big three' is rapidly becoming an uninteresting decision. No concessions for the rare people who use Haiku, wrote their own OSes, or use their phones/tablets as their primary device?

jordhy• 14 years ago

I agree and also vote for adding iOS and Android/Chrome OS to the poll, some people are heavily using their tablets today.

usablebytes• 14 years ago

iOS? primarily for development? would like to know more

yangyang5• 14 years ago

It'd be really interesting to hear what people answering "other" are using.

anonymoushn• 14 years ago

I've previously seen some people here who use Plan 9.

javert2• 14 years ago

Probably should have allowed an option for *BSD. I suppose "other Unix variant" is sort of approximately the same thing, but the former would be more clear.

chimeracoder• 14 years ago

Actually, I'd be curious what Nix people are using other than GNU/Linux and BSD. Solaris? Unix proper - does anybody still really use that?

jrmg• 14 years ago

Doesn't really answer your question, but it's an interesting fact that OS X is officially a 'UNIX proper' (see http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_UNIX_Specification).

javert2• 14 years ago

I doubt anybody on HN uses any of {solaris, HPUX, AIX, Xenix, ...}.

cperciva3• 14 years ago

FreeBSD. Only desktop I've used since 2004.

bobobo1618• 14 years ago

I'm curious, how difficult is it to set one up?

Do you encounter many issues performing your day to day work?

I've been eyeing it for a while and I had it running on my home server for a time but I didn't think it was quite ready to be my primary OS. I generally use Arch Linux at the moment, mainly because I like the configurability and frequent package updates.

pavanky9• 14 years ago

I tried out pcbsd, which I think is based off FreeBSD. The only issue I had was everything being built from source. Considering that userspace is pretty much the same for BSD and Linux, I am guessing there wont be many issues. Coming from an Arch Linux back certainly helps I think.

The drawbacks have to be the lack of certain binary driver blobs available in Linux. Some may call it a feature though.

cperciva3• 14 years ago

There's a few glitches -- I don't have the latest Intel graphics drivers, and as a result the video doesn't work when I resume from S3, for example -- but aside from those, it's really quite straightforward. For a long time there were problems with flash, but with linux emulation enabled it "just works" under Chromium; it's been years since I had OpenOffice fail to open a Microsoft Office document. Java is a bit of a nuisance to build, but for licensing reasons, not technical reasons.

Obviously you need to be comfortable at a command line -- the most common "maintenance" you'll be doing is updating ports, and every couple of months you'll find that /usr/ports/UPDATING says "the foo port has [done something weird] and you need to run the following commands before/after updating" (often it's a matter of deleting a port because its contents got merged into something else) -- but if you've got Arch Linux experience I can't imagine that you'll find much difficulty using FreeBSD.

dfc2• 14 years ago

Colin is the security officer for FreeBSD. I doubt he encountered many problems setting it up;)

Wilya• 14 years ago

Depends on what you expect, really. Setting up isn't much harder than, say, an Arch.

Hardware support is generally ok, though if you want 3D acceleration, Nvidia is about the only safe option (ATI is absent, Intel can be tricky or non-supported, depending).

Keeping 3rd party programs up to date can be a real pain, though. I haven't found a way to avoid long compilations, occasional breakage, and weird library issues. Compiling Firefox can be annoying.

(I run FreeBSD as my home server where basically all my data and important programs live, and a variety of other "throwaway" OSes in my day to day use)

Lammy• 14 years ago

I've a little how-to written up for putting together a nice FreeBSD desktop system. You may want to check it out: http://cooltrainer.org/2012/01/02/a-freebsd-9-desktop-how-to...

FreeBSD has been my go-to desktop OS since 2005 or so, since giving up on OS X post-Tiger.

Spyro7• 14 years ago

Every day, I start up a computer running OS X. Then, I proceed to fire up virtual machines for two Linux distributions, Windows XP, and Windows 7.

I occasionally play around with a headless system that I have running FreeBSD. Then I may power up my iPod Touch to test recent changes to my mobile site. I also do a significant quantity of work while I am logged into a remote debian server via ssh.

I doubt that I am the only developer with this type of daily routine. I actually do think that this poll is pretty nifty (and I checked off OS X), but I think that it is still worth observing that the term "primary operating system" just doesn't quite carry the same weight as it used to.

Argorak4• 14 years ago

I use something like: "OS X is my host operating system. I develop on Linux."

girardy• 14 years ago

Depending on how you use it, OS X can feel a lot like Linux. If you're spending most of your time in Terminal and Emacs, usually ssh'ed into a server, then your technical answer will diverge pretty far from your "real" or metaphysical answer.

jiggy20113• 14 years ago

I have tried similar to this but always find the experience of running desktop software on a VM to be lacking.

Just things like resizing windows or minimising things becomes clunky enough that I prefer to just native boot into whatever I plan to use.

r00fus3• 14 years ago

This is my case - whether it's a Linux VM or on the cloud, the server OS is Linux.

For my desktop, OSX provides the best combination of spatial window management (you can drag-drop nearly anything - esp. text without wiping the clipboard buffer), terminal friendliness, and MS Office (yes, Excel is still better than alternatives). Lots of hidden gems and a sustainable indie dev market.

I don't play much more than the occasional Nethack, so my need for Windows is pretty limited.

adamkhrona• 14 years ago

Same here, as a developer of a cross-platform library, this is the only configuration that works for us. By restricting virtualization of OSX, Apple has effectively forced most developers to use this configuration.

mitsche5• 14 years ago

Yes.

I use OS X for browsing the web, web-development, graphic design, video editing, and writing.

I use Windows 7 for music production and playing video games. At some point I want to start dabbling in game development, in which case I'll probably go with Windows for that, too.

I ssh into various Linux servers privately and at work. In my spare I sometimes play around with Linux distros on my desktop just to learn about the current state of affairs. I usually can't see any advantages in it over OS X other than the fact that's it's free software and that it runs on cheap hardware. I keep being curious though.

I don't use any virtual machines because I dislike the sluggishness and I don't really need them.

Sometimes I wish I could get by with only one OS without feeling crippled in some respect. My dream setup would probably be an OSS system that's great with multimedia stuff and has about a 99% adoption so hardware would be supported really well.

But that thought depresses me because it reminds me of the state reality is in, so I try not to have it.

drewcrawford• 14 years ago

> I use Windows 7 for music production

I am fascinated by this claim. The last time I looked at Windows for music production was a long time ago, but back then CoreAudio beat the pants off of ASIO for real-time work. Is that not still the case?

What software do you use? Two packages that I use heavily, Logic and DP7 are mac-only.

replax• 14 years ago

Out of curiosity, since you sound not like a fanboy of any particular os and just want to use one: What keeps you using osx over windows for browsing the web, webdev and graphic design? Are there any special advantages or is it just software which is not available for win?

silasb6• 14 years ago

OT question for you: I'm a developer that does a lot of web development, from Perl to RoR. When I end up starting more than 1 VM with 4 GB RAM, my computer literally dies with Mac OS X. Now this is all with VirtualBox, which I suspect isn't the best all around VM application.

For some reason I feel that it is the crappy memory management with OS X that is killing me.

Other than getting more RAM do you do anything special? What VM software and how much RAM you running.

Argorak4• 14 years ago

First, even if its the answer you ruled out: get a machine with lots of RAM. Don't care about the rest, even an SSD is not that important, just cram as much of RAM into the machine as possible. 8GB would be good, 16 is better. Make sure that the OS has enough space to shuffle memory.

Use tiny VMs. Most development stacks do actually fit in 512MB, as long as there is nothing else running. Pay attention about which parts of your dev stack do actually consume the memory. In my case, it's mostly in-memory databases. Sample those for smaller datasets, its good practice anyways. If its still not enough, use odd values like 700MB. Rule memory leaks out (this is one of the big advantages of small VMs: memory leaks are easy to find).

Also, use one VM per project. Unless projects are tiny, putting 2 in one VM only replicates the problems of your host-system.

Finally, I also use VirtualBox with Vagrant and am quite okay with it.

TylerE• 14 years ago

What's your machine?

More RAM would certainly help, more CPU cores (real cores, not hyper-threaded "virtual" cores) will too.

hackermom3• 14 years ago

What is this "crappy" memory management of OS X that you speak of? When it comes to memory management, OS X is definitely among the best from my 14 years of experience with modern operating systems. For what it's worth, I regularly run two VMs in VirtualBox totalling just over 2gb of guest RAM allowance, on a 4gb machine running 10.6.8, and I don't suffer problems with this. Users of 10.7 claim that it's a wee bit hungrier than 10.6, though I still can't recall the last time I saw anything else than "Swap used: 0 byte" in the Activity Monitor.

kstrauser• 14 years ago

> my computer literally dies with Mac OS X. Now this is all with VirtualBox, which I suspect isn't the best all around VM application.

Asked and answered. I like VirtualBox - the price is right for when I just need to run an app or two on rare occasion - but it certainly isn't the most stable or least OS-crashing VM I've ever used.

matwood2• 14 years ago

More RAM, period.

Going from 4GB to 8GB on my mbp made a huge difference running VMs. Also, get Fusion. For working in VMs all day Fusion has worked better for me over VirtualBox.

r00fus3• 14 years ago

Why such intensely large VMs? I've gotten by with 256MB appliances that then get their source deployed into big iron on-site, or into the cloud.

matwood2• 14 years ago

That used to be my routine at my old job. Fire up WinXP and Win7 VMs to do .net development and other client work.

My new job doesn't require interacting with Windows at all so I work in OSX/sshed linux sessions all day.

pavanky9• 14 years ago

I am not from the valley and it is heart-warming to see Linux beat out OSX. Especially considering the number of mac books I have seen engineers carry about, the couple of times I have been there.

stanleydrew2• 14 years ago

Some of us run Linux on our MacBooks.

skore• 14 years ago

It is clearly the best of both worlds.

cageface2• 14 years ago

I'm kind of indifferent to OS X but the Mac laptop hardware is so nice, particularly the trackpad, that I'm likely to stay an Apple customer for the foreseeable future.

maxbernstein• 14 years ago

Mac OS X only because I refuse to use Windows and I need Photoshop.

aidos• 14 years ago

That's the major stumbling block for me; slowly I'm moving towards Linux but I still need photoshop. I look forward to the day when design teams produce their work in something other than that monolithic software. Don't get me wrong, it's an amazing tool, but there's no need for anything that complex in web design.

Jem• 14 years ago

Exact situation but in reverse. (Windows but only because I refuse to use Mac OS and I need Photoshop.)

I tried GIMPing it under various Linux distros for a while but it's just not comparable.

ComputerGuru• 14 years ago

I use all 3 100% interchangeably.

At the moment, I'm posting this on Windows 7 64-bit (my main software development machine), with a 64-Bit Debian for Linux development and a 32-Bit SliTaz for Linux testing running in VMware Workstation at all times and actively used (along with a XP image that I'll spin up once every couple of days for testing).

My MacBook Pro is on the other "side" of my body (my desk is an L), so by simply re-swiveling my chair, I'll be on OS X where I can do more coding, check my email, etc.

I think the OS wars are over. Web apps address the needs of many people (I actually don't use too many), but by and large, all three platforms have seen enough usage and statistics and have been around long enough that there's (GOOD) software to do X (whatever X is) on any of the 3.

zheng3• 14 years ago

I run windows, but always run a Linux VM in which I do all of my dev work, and have an OS X laptop which would be a linux laptop, but Logic/Final Cut Pro keep it that way.

Right tool for the right job, IMO.

pavanky9• 14 years ago

Any particular reason you have a Windows host + linux VM instead of the other way around ? Personal experience has been Linux hosts + Windows VM performs better than the other way around.

zheng3• 14 years ago

Windows handles media much better than linux. I have a linux media server as well, and while I like it for somethings, getting Blu-Ray/DVD/MP3/CD/Netflix/etc. working in it is not one of those things. Windows just works in that sense. Also games, although this is more of a theoretical bonus as I rarely play anything.

etcet• 14 years ago

I virtualize Linux under Windows too. My primary reason is gaming. I can use Linux without any hardware acceleration. My dev environment is entirely virtual and there are advantages to being able to throw it on a thumb drive and carry it around. Or I can be staying with a friend for a week and setup my ideal working environment on their computer in a few commands. Another advantage is it's much smaller than a Windows VM so I can store more Linux VM's/snapshots on my puny SSD.

cageface2• 14 years ago

The two apps keeping me from running Linux full time are Ableton Live and Adobe Fireworks. Unfortunately it doesn't seem likely that the high-end proprietary content creation tools or anything comparable from the OSS world are likely to come to Linux any time soon.

zheng3• 14 years ago

Never used Ableton, but I've been dabbling in Reaper[0]. I can't make a full switch yet, but am hoping to be able to at some point in time. From the little I've seen it isn't missing anything major.

Final Cut Pro is another story, but I really don't use it very often anymore, and I'm well-versed enough in Adobe Premier that I could probably drop it.

I'm not holding my breath either, but I do dream of a world where most software is OS-independent. I guess we're closer now than we have been for a while.

EDIT: I just remembered that Reaper is Win/Mac. I hear it runs under Wine, but I'd be worried about latency there. Alas, we are captive to our tools.

---

[0] http://reaper.fm/

staunch• 14 years ago

The day is coming when Chrome, Firefox, Safari will be the poll options.

hasenj3• 14 years ago

I highly doubt this.

Not even tablets will run on top of browsers.

Developers will never give up a real operating system. You just can't develop on consumer devices like the iPad; these are designed for consumers, they come with many limitations to make the consumer's experience easy and smooth, but at the cost of hackability.

stanleydrew2• 14 years ago

"Developers will never give up a real operating system."

I always hesitate to use the word never. Things can change very rapidly. What developers need now may not be anything like what we need in 5 years.

But more importantly, what a "real operating system" is will probably change in the next 5 years.

patricklynch• 14 years ago

"Not even tablets will run on top of browsers."

Have you seen Mozilla's 'Boot to Gecko' project?

mironathetin3• 14 years ago

"The day is coming when Chrome, Firefox, Safari will be the poll options."

I am astonished. I wouldn't trust anything from Google any more. They aim at control over our private data. Absolutely unacceptable for everyone, but especially for developers, if you ask me.

cryptoz• 14 years ago

So developers run Chromium instead. No big deal.

youngsterxyf• 14 years ago

I like debian and archlinux

pavanky9• 14 years ago

Debian for server arch for desktop ?

Mamady• 14 years ago

I was running on linux for a couple of years. Then I got tired of my laptop battery being destroyed, the fan on my laptop being in overdrive at all times, and also having everything run slow even though I had paid for top hardware. So I switched back to Windows.

I WISH I could use linux as my primary, but I really can't justify all the flaws just for a bit more security.

tkahn6• 14 years ago

I use OS X on my personal laptop and Ubuntu on my computer at work... And Ubuntu for the servers I run.

So I upvoted both OS X and Ubuntu.

Osiris2• 14 years ago

I've been using Windows pretty much since version 3.1 (though will some time on OS/2 as well) as my primary OS. I have, of course, used Linux, though mostly for servers and not a full-time primary OS. I also have a Chromebook running Chrome OS. Recently, I switched jobs and my team uses Macs so over the last few months my primary work OS is now Mac OS X, while I still use Windows at home.

One thing I have discovered in this transition is that I find the fanboism illogical and pretty much pointless. I've found that I can, for the most part, do about the same sorts of things in one OS as another, though the process is different. Yes, there are some applications available on one but not the other, but I have not found anything that forces me to believe that one OS is superior in all ways to another.

I can appreciate the differences and pros and cons to various operating systems, but I honestly get annoyed by people that attack or bash another OS with broad statements like "Well what do you expect from Microsoft?" or "Well I can do that on Mac why can't I do it on Windows?" Worse, it's never appropriate to associate an OS choice with a personal character flaw of an individual as often happens in flame wars. Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux varieties are all tools and should just be seen as such.

teebot• 14 years ago

totally agree with this. The OS is becoming more and more irrelevant.

Joeboy• 14 years ago

I'm not sure that's actually the case, but if it were then deliberately using one that was locked down / charged for / oligopolistic would be a bad choice, not a neutral one.

pjmlp• 14 years ago

Could not agree more.

slowpoke5• 14 years ago

I would just like to add that there is a valid reason why Linux or the *BSDs are superior to Windows or OS X - they are Free. As in Speech. And I'm sad this doesn't even warrant a mention.

csomar2• 14 years ago

How much does the price tag matters when you are a developer or professional that gets paid $150/hour?

Osiris2• 14 years ago

I agree with you. That's certainly a 'pro' on the side of Linux. I stated that every OS has it's pros and cons, but my goal wasn't to list what those are.

To say unilaterally that it's better for all people at all times in all use cases is, at the very least, an overstatement. While being free is a top concern for you and many others, for some (perhaps many) usability might be their top concern and they may be willing to sacrifice freedom for usability, and that's a choice we should all be free to make.

conradfr3• 14 years ago

My way of thinking is that being free does not really to me, a lambda user, make it superior but otherwise just add pros and cons.

By using mostly Windows I trade the inconvenient and risks of non-free with other advantages. It is a informed choice.

RMS may hate me though :)

jsolson• 14 years ago

Freedom also carries a cost. At the end of the day, the best OS for any given individual is the one that gives them the largest net increase in utility, for their personal utility function.

My experience suggests that a Free OS isn't worth it to me, but it's been about six years since I gave it a go full-time. The last time I gave Linux a good go round (as in using it as my primary OS for everything I did), I still had to invest time in getting my touchpad to work correctly with X or getting decent sub-pixel anti-aliasing. All of the freedom to tinker in the world is worthless to me if I can't get the basics sorted without a significant investment of my time.

rbarooah6• 14 years ago

The kind of freedom you mention is not a reason why they are superior in some absolute way.

It's a factor which, in the real world today, makes them better for some purposes and worse for others.

There are reasonable but unproven conjectures that this kind of freedom could become the most important factor over time, but the existence of conjectures doesn't demonstrate any inherent superiority.

mseebach2• 14 years ago

One more thing: A terminal as a first class citizen. Definitely not on Windows, and while the OSX one is orders of magnitude better, I seem to recall it's still a bit lacking. What ruins OSX for me isn't the terminal, though, it's that X apps aren't first class.

route66• 14 years ago

Besides that, while I'm not sure it's still a valid concern:

When I switched from Windows to Linux in the mid 90's it was a transition from a box with an illegal copy of MASM and a not-really-working copy of a C++ compiler to a box with a plethora of PL's, databases, code-examples and whatnot with an enormous educational value for me. On the winbox I learned Assembler, on the linbox I learned to program, that made the big difference for me.

Is it still that way for others or is the current situation on windows better? (not considering OSX as you can install pretty much anything there nowadays)

RexRollman4• 14 years ago

I don't think being free necessarily makes an OS better piece of software.

tseabrooks2• 14 years ago

Maybe I'm the only one... But as a professional developer working on everything from device drivers, embedded systems, up to your average LAMP stack and other web frameworks the "Freedom" of the operating system is worth exactly bupkis to me, ziltch, zero, nada.

There are a whole host of reasons to use one OS over the other but this "Free as in Speech" is simply not a very good one. I'm far, FAR, more concerned about "Getting Shit Done" than I am about the free-ness of my OS. For some tasks the right tool for GSD is windows, for others it's osX, and for still others it's some Linux / *BSD (I'm a NetBSD fan myself).

It seems short sighted to say that some arbitrary and subjective personal belief system about technology makes one system inherently "better" / "superior" to another. I guess it's a matter of what sort of things you grade on, For my personal OS grading metric there is only one item, "Helps me Get Shit Done". Nothing else matters, I just want to be productive.

sharjeel• 14 years ago

Free, but at the cost of your time.

Everytime I've tried to switch from Windows to any usable Linux Distro, never has it happened that i didn't have to get frustrated due to some driver issues, laptop hibernation issues or some other issues which forced me back to Windows and kept Linux to either servers or a guest OS running in a VM in my PC.

Spearchucker• 14 years ago

Before I start, what follows is my personal opinion, based on my own experience. I'm not saying my way is right. I'm saying it's right for me.

Superior (i.e. free) will not make me use it (Linux, or anything else that's free).

Every January 1st I refresh all of my personal PCs and laptops. Every January 1st I kick off Windows installs on three of them while I give a Linux distribution a go on the fourth - a stock Sony Vaio P-Series.

Never, ever has the install run smoothly. And I have to admit that a single bump in the road is enough for me to delete the partition and put Windows back on. Because I need stuff to work. I'm productive when I program, not while I debug installations.

Software being free means absolutely zero to me.

SkyMarshal• 14 years ago

Agreed, though I think it's one of those things many people don't miss until they really need it, hence the lack of mentions.

BrainInAJar• 14 years ago

"And I'm sad this doesn't even warrant a mention."

Because it's irrelevant. When was the last time you hacked at your OS's kernel?

goodcanadian• 14 years ago

"Free - as in Beer" has always been the more important point to me. This is followed closely by the ability to screw around with anything I want which, I suppose, is close to the "Free - as in Speech" argument, but for me it has always been about pragmatism rather than ideology.

efdee• 14 years ago

Can I somehow upvote you twice?

eostyx• 14 years ago

You'll never eliminate flame wars or any of it's derivatives. You simply can't for the sole reason that the people that participate in those or are offended enough to start those silly subjective "debates", are probably suffering from lack of identity.

Therefore they lash out at anyone that dislikes or doesn't share the exact same preferences, it makes them feel personally responsible to "defend" their choices in life.

Flamer wars are inevitable, the internet was made for venting and complaining that people are complaining is a big waste of your valuable time.

Everybody gets one.

ramblerman2• 14 years ago

I disagree. You are entirely correct that fanboism is detrimental to any healthy discussion. But sweeping any discussion under the rug as fanboism isn't much better.

I use all three operating systems, and one major argument for me when doing development is the terminal. I know there are emulators on windows, but I have had moderate success with them. Ubuntu and osx give me much more power in that area.

blhack2• 14 years ago

Can you elaborate on that? I have never ever noticed a difference between putty and iTerm.

groovy2shoes• 14 years ago

At work where I'm forced to use Windows, I have Cygwin installed. It's great to pop open a terminal and be able to pipe things around as you would on Linux. It makes Windows a little bit more comfortable, although Cygwin still feels like a second-class citizen (especially when it comes to the file system).

abraham2• 14 years ago

In my experience I've found OSX somewhat better suited for development and Windows somewhat better suited for gaming but otherwise the main differentiator is hardware polish. The unibody Macbook Pros/Airs is just levels above anything I've experienced in the Windows world.

tonyedgecombe• 14 years ago

I've just switched back to Windows and its the hardware I miss more than the software. I bought a fairly expensive Dell but it isn't a patch on the old Macbook Pro.

steverb• 14 years ago

Agreed on the hardware. This is why I bought a MacBook and installed Windows on it. I still hate the damned keyboard, but I hate all non Model M keyboards, so I've learned to live with it.

antihero• 14 years ago

I've honestly found developing on Windows a much bigger pain in the arse until you spend a lot of time setting it up. It's not that you can't do things on Windows - anyone with skill can do anything on anything, however it just makes it significantly less easy, it just feels like an OS set up for consumption as opposed to creation.

brownbat• 14 years ago

> Linux support is "illogical and pretty much pointless."

Excellent troll.

traxtech• 14 years ago

Debian to work, OSX to procrastinate

navs• 14 years ago

Heh exactly the opposite for me. OSX for work and Linux to customize all day.

RenaKunisaki• 14 years ago

Linux on three machines. I have an Android phone, but I rarely use it really.

shanehudson• 14 years ago

My main system runs Mac, since I need access to Photoshop. I love linux and I own a chromebook.

wildtype• 14 years ago

I use only slackware linux for everyday use. Since i use computer only for internet browsing, typing, and sometime data analysis, it just works.

minikomi• 14 years ago

At home : OSX / Arch in a VM (awesome window manager is very simple and nice). I want to go Arch all the time but photoshop / illustrator hold me back.

At work : Windows XP. Yes. Welcome to Japan.

ravloony• 14 years ago

Gentoo here, since 2003.

At work, until a couple of months ago I was using Windows Server 2008. I'm looking for a new job, not entirely coincidentally.

tutnix• 14 years ago

Mostly using Linux for day to day work. Sometimes with vms for windows or other linux installs.

bitcracker3• 14 years ago

Happy Linux user since 1992. Sometimes I also use Windows in VM for customers.

bnegreve• 14 years ago

I'd rather say Linux hacker then, Linux in 1992 was pretty basic.

bitcracker3• 14 years ago

Yes, but it was fun to configure the modem and to calculate monitor modelines to get X11 working :-)

ing33k2• 14 years ago

OMG, I was just 3 when you began to use Linux. I would like to know if its some sort of addiction to use Linux ? the reason I am asking is, I am using Linux since 6 years and I think I am getting addicted to it .

bitcracker3• 14 years ago

The awesome thing about Linux is that I got a Unix like system for free (Windows 3.1 was mainstream at that time), and that I can do in Linux whatever I want to do because it is open source. Linux hasn't lost its fascination although I am a bit disappointed about the current misleading too much tablet oriented developments (Gnome 3, Unity).

d4v1dv00• 14 years ago

i am living in Linux for work. home and now with Android without Microsoft/Mac OS X since 3 years ago

mikiem• 14 years ago

Ubuntu desktop, Ubuntu laptop, iPad, 95.5% of our servers are Linux or BSD. In our office, we have one old windows xp box on P4 hardware to remote desktop into for various stuff that cant be done on Linux or is significant easier on WinXP....rare.

richbradshaw• 14 years ago

OSX is the only operating system that can run iTunes, Office, Photoshop/Fireworks, Ruby, Python, bash scripts, Apache, Mysql without virtualization or any weird and unfun hacks (yeah, cygwin, I'm looking at you!).

mahmud3• 14 years ago

I have run ALL on Windows, no cygwin necessary :-)

insertnickname• 14 years ago

How do you run Bash scripts on Windows?

dagw• 14 years ago

I Run all those on Windows without any problems.

gnaritas• 14 years ago

If he'd have said portable bash scripts, then Windows can't do it without cygwin.

emidln2• 14 years ago

You seem to imply that running iTunes and Office are good things. That seems...odd.

giis• 14 years ago

For more than a decade,Its Linux for me

kolev• 14 years ago

For pure development (unless you're developing an iOS or OS X apps), Linux is definitely the top choice. For office work (Microsoft Office, Visio, Outlook, Lync, etc.) unfortunately Windows still bests (OmniGraffle and Office for Mac are decent, but still no match), for everything else - OS X is definitely the best choice.

chigs• 14 years ago

Linux : Pinguy

mironathetin3• 14 years ago

Since 1998, my primary private system is Mac OS. In 2000 I gave my last Windows Notebook to my brother (A 9000$ Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook E6560 - he used it until a few months ago and I'll get it back soon).

At work, I used Linux exclusively until 5 years ago. Since then, my Notebook is Mac OS. But large processing jobs still go to our grid that consists of several 172 GB RAM linux machines. I am an astronomer and I process quite a bit of data.

I fought for Mac OS at work and since I don't have to use linux on my notebook any more, life is much easier. But Lion and Apples cloud integration bs makes me fear, linux has to come back someday.

wavephorm• 14 years ago

I primarily use a web browser. To me an "operating system" is just that thing I need to use to access the internet and run my web browser.

korginator• 14 years ago

MacOS on the primary notebook and desktop, a little x86 box on Mint Linux with LXDE for a lightweight and complete Linux, Windows 7 on Parallels, on those occasions when I feel life's too smooth.

jchughes• 14 years ago

Use OSX, Debian Linux and Windows 7. OSX for work, debian for my testing server/some programming and windows 7 for everyday use but that is slowly changing as I use my mb pro more and more.

In the past I have had several windows laptops and none of them hold a torch to the mb pro. size, weight, hardware & battery life are all far supperior than anything I have ever experience on a windows based laptop. The price in my eyes is justified.

dfc2• 14 years ago

I am really surprised that people voted android/ios as your primary device. What type of work do you do?

canop_fr2• 14 years ago

I'm surprised they're on HN but I have a (geeky) friend who do most of his work on an Android tablet so that his "computer" is always on and ready. That makes a difference when you run more than one time in more than on place and you spend a lot of time with your customers too.

SCdF• 14 years ago

At work I use Windows / linux, but about a week ago I switched from using a MBP as my primary computer at home to a Transformer Prime.

Impressions so far: it's awesome. Consuming is much better, which is most of what I do at home. Most producing I've done lately has been of the pure text nature (emails / blogs etc). The onscreen keyboard is mostly find for this, and if I need to bang a lot of text out I can attach the keyboard.

I'm a bit overwhelmed with work work atm, but when that calms down I'm keen to try AIDE[0], as well as look for a more light weight editor for python / html hackery that can connect via ftp/ssh or similar, and play with developing web apps that way.

[0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aide.ui

jstepien• 14 years ago

I've been running various flavours of GNU/Linux on my laptop for a couple of years now, with Arch being the most recent one. I find it perfectly adequate for an IDE-less, Vim-centric coding which takes a significant majority of my time spent in front of a keyboard.

I wonder what are experiences of members of the HN community who run Linux on their MacBooks, especially in case of a development-oriented environment. Could you share your opinions about such a setup? Is it worth the price of the machine?

chavezgu• 14 years ago

So it's true, Microsoft is dying: http://paulgraham.com/microsoft.html

steve-howard• 14 years ago

This is obviously an excellent representative sample to make that claim literally.

dostrow• 14 years ago

I can't hope to answer this question. My home desktop is a Windows 7 box, my laptop is a Macbook Air running Lion, I own both a Xoom and an iPad and use both regularly and my work machine is a Linux box...there needs to be another option on this Poll...YES!

stephenhandley• 14 years ago

LAKES

joshryandavis• 14 years ago

I gave Chrome OS a vote, just because I felt bad for it.

rshm• 14 years ago

I could not leave Windows for photoshop and Excel. Now that the photoshop runs smoothly in VM and Calc is comparable, made a switch to ubuntu.

jurre2• 14 years ago

OSX also has both of those, although I'm not sure if you have VB support in osx, but I'm guessing that if you're using calc you don't need it anyway. If this set up works for you that's great of course!

bliss• 14 years ago

VBA on OSX is fine, a little slower than on windows (yes, it can get slower!) - couple of funnies around file system access, but well written code will work with no changes

richardk• 14 years ago

Debian Stable since 2009, before then I used other Linux distros and Windows.

I'll admit I was quite a fan boy in my teens, but now I really just use Debian because it's what I'm used to, or most comfortable with.

I think GNU/Linux in general is a fantastic development environment.

terminhell• 14 years ago

Arch Linux. Been a fulltime nixer for a few years now. No reason to use anything else. I'd miss the freedom too much.

CWIZO• 14 years ago

I use Win7 at work (servers are FreeBSD). I also had a personal WinXP laptop until 4 months ago when I switched to air and I'm now using OSX at home for fun and sometimes also for work.

mahmud3• 14 years ago

Ubuntu, as far as the eye can see.

sakthig2• 14 years ago

Community Effort Always Wins - Unity is Strength -> Linux ;)

sakthig2• 14 years ago

I don't see value for money in osx other than ui awesomeness ...

troels• 14 years ago

It's the only unix that you can run Microsoft office on.

TazeTSchnitzel• 14 years ago

WINE works too ;)

hrktb• 14 years ago

I spend blocks of hours every day in front of a dev machine, but aggregating all the hours I spend in private or inbetween work, including weekends and all using my phone or the ipad, iOS is my actual primary OS.

HackR• 14 years ago

I use OSX and love it. For personal use its awesome and feels a lot like linux when I need it to, but when I actually need linux for work, I can just ssh through the terminal and its awesome!

I love how its very easy to develop on OSX because it comes with a lot of dev tools preinstalled. Not that it takes any effort to get your own personal environment set up, but its just nice how they package that all together.

drblast• 14 years ago

For desktop use I'm migrating back to Windows after having used Ubuntu almost exclusively for the past five years.

It's a shame, because Ubuntu was soooo close to surpassing Windows from a "I just want to get stuff done without mucking with the machine" standpoint. But then Windows got much better with version 7 and Ubuntu took a nosedive into crazy UI fantasy land.

The final straw was when text started randomly disappearing and reappearing in emacs and xterms in Unity. I don't know why it happened, just that it was too much trouble to diagnose some weird bug for the millionth time. If I can't trust my desktop to run emacs(!) without glitching, see ya.

I'm getting older, and after about 15 years playing around with config files, I just want something that's stable and consistent, and OS X was never to my taste. Windows is leaps and bounds better than when I heavily used it last.

And Linux runs fine using Xfce in a VM where you can count on the host to have all the hardware working.

BerislavLopac2• 14 years ago

Our experience must have been quite different, since I have finally ran away from Windows after four years of using Ubuntu in parallel. Windows 7 is nice, but I still find Ubuntu easier to use and much less resource intensive. True, I was also at first thrown away by Unity, but have adopted Gnome Shell and had no need to look back since. Each time I reboot in Windows I feel like in one of those nightmares when you're running the best you can, but are barely moving.

foxit2• 14 years ago

I'm getting older, and after about 15 years playing around with config files, I just want something that's stable and consistent[.] .. Windows is leaps and bounds better than when I heavily used it last.

This is why we use Windows. When we buy a new computer, it's a former corporate business class laptop sold on eBay, it comes with some version of Windows preinstalled, and we don't mess with it. As with the recent Gmail discussion, the reason we use it is that it simply works and we need it to do work.

esolyt• 14 years ago

I use Windows too. But I found it interesting that someone on Hacker News considers installing an OS as "messing with the computer".

fingerprinter3• 14 years ago

Interesting that you say "crazy UI fantasy land". It wasn't until Ubuntu 11.10, and now 12.04 that I thought desktop Linux had a shot. Unity in 12.04 is quite awesome and makes me super productive. It gets out of your way and that is how I like it. Sure, I make some modifications (smaller icons, autohide the launcher, change icon set to Faenza), but that is about it.

And, since being back in Linux land, I have never, ever had to maintain a system config file or touch it at all. I do have my own zshrc and .vim stuff, but I would have that on a Mac as well. Overall I find Ubuntu to be more productive than OSX. And since I virtualize my dev instances, I want something lighter and Ubuntu is WAAAAAAY lighter on the same hardware than OSX.

RexRollman4• 14 years ago

It makes me happy to know that someone here likes Unity, because I think it is horrible. But then again, my preferred GUI for Linux is Ratpoison and some Xterms.

cmkrnl• 14 years ago

Here follows nostalgic reminiscence and some ranting.

I used to run OpenSUSE exclusively. That was fine when the world was young and my job didn't demand too much of my time. I didn't need any graphics support, WiFi or even ACPI.

10 years later, I don't have the patience and the time to sculpt a unique snowflake that will work with all the hardware in my laptop, and have it work in any reasonable network I might have to plug in to. Windows 7 works well enough. This is also a pity, since I've come to strongly dislike the post-Vista Windows UI - the new start menu, the new task bar, the new Windows Explorer windows. Everything was Just Fine with the Windows 2000 UI.

At work it's all Red Hat Enterprise Linux, a tiny bit of AIX (ewww). And I run NetBSD on Prgmr just for the heck of it.

I hate where we've gotten to. Opera is the only browser that still has a g*ddamned proper status bar.

mironathetin3• 14 years ago

"Ubuntu took a nosedive into crazy UI fantasy land" Is that really your reason why you ditched linux???? It is so easy to install a different UI. Nothing is so clean and consistent as window maker or any other of the extremely lightweight UIs linux allows to use.

Compared to that: whenever I start up Winodws (XP) in vmware to get my tax stuff done, I am horrified by all the messages that pop up (repeatedly), antivirus practically paralysing my computer for minutes (and longer), genuine advantage stuff etc. For my taste, windows still needs so much work invested in configuring these annoying things until the stuff is usable.

Is that 1500% improved with win 7?

r00fus3• 14 years ago

First off, occasional forays into Windows VM is always fraught with windows and AV updates - you can delay them if you're only in for a few minutes, but...

That evenutally got me to dust off an old netbook, use it as my windows "server" that faithfully wakes on LAN, and just keep that in the cupboard access through remote desktop (Microsoft makes a great OSX app for this).

Every week the machine wakes up, backs up (to image), fires off a bunch of updates, potentially reboots, then goes back to it's aquiescent sleep state.

The RDC is generally faster and has the upside that crazy activity on Windows stays on it's own hardware, and I don't have a crazy 60GB file that's clogging my backups - the netbook has it's own backup.

ngokevin• 14 years ago

You didn't ever try running a different window manager?

jk• 14 years ago

Linux user since 2002.

Now I have multiple machines running linux. I use linux at work too. I am an embedded developer and use Linux in most of the projects. Using linux machine makes life a lot easy.

nosugar• 14 years ago

Which Linux distro are you using?

And: Is it a real alternative to a Mac for a developer?

fingerprinter3• 14 years ago

Ubuntu.

Depends on the type of dev, but anything short of iOS is probably easier on Ubuntu. And, just an FYI, I know people that do iOS on Ubuntu as well (virtualized OSX instance).

BerislavLopac2• 14 years ago

I was a MacOS user from 1992 (version 6.8!), and started using Windows along with it in 1995. In 2001 I have switched to Windows completely, and in 2009 I have started using desktop Linux (Ubuntu) in parallel with it, switching completely to it as my only desktop OS in December 2011. Wandering what will be next... :)

shellox• 14 years ago

I used Linux for 6 years, but switched to OS X 2 years ago. It's much more comfortable, I have access to the command line tools and the UX is much better. I just get things done now and haven't to care why pulseaudio doesn't work anymore after an update etc.. I'm really satisfied with my MacBook and OS X Lion :)

ralfd• 14 years ago

Say whaaat? OSX leading? (I too clicked it.) And more Linux than Windows? PG should show the traffic statistics to contrast that.

hobin2• 14 years ago

It's probably correct, actually. In the past there have been a few links from HN to my own site, and I was surprised to see that a LOT of people were using OSX.

exDM69• 14 years ago

I've been a Linux user since kernel 2.0.30 was new.

I have used Windows at work for 6 days total. I used it at a Java shop where the build system was Windows only. After 6 days I needed to get my job done and I installed Linux to get better dev and network diagnostics tools, hacked the build system to not include .bat-scripts, got my job done and never looked back. That was my first 6 days as a professional software engineer and my last 6 days of using Windows for non-gaming purposes.

nickik3• 14 years ago

Nothing can get me away from my Arch Linux with XMonad as a Windows Manager. I love it.

mansoor-s• 14 years ago

I tried to set it up.. I actually did but it appears you need to know Haskell to do even the most basic of customization :( back to Gnome3 for me

nickik3• 14 years ago

Really? Common most stuff you copy from somewhere (you can find tons on github for example). For the rest the only have to know that the list syntax is like the python one [1, 2, 3]. I don't no haskell either.

yangyang5• 14 years ago

I run the same. That - plus tmux, Emacs and Chromium - is just about perfect. If I wasn't tied to Lightroom for photography I'd get rid of the mac.

nickik3• 14 years ago

I use firefox and urxvt with client/server

apgwoz5• 14 years ago

Have you tried darktable? It's definitely not Lightroom, but it's getting better and better all the time.

gosub• 14 years ago

Linux at work, Windows + virtualized Linux at home

richurd• 14 years ago

I was forced to choose "other" since my operating system (GNU) was not listed.

What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it.

Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run.

The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.

deanproxy2• 14 years ago

My car engine is a Volkswagen and the entire vehicle consists of parts made by various other companies, but do you see anyone going around saying "I have a Brembo/Volkswagen" just because Volkswagen used some Brembo parts to build the car?

Look, GNU is super important and they have done amazing things for Free software. I heavily support them and the work they have done. However, I don't force people that use my Open Source software in their products to put the name of my organization at the front of their product name or label just because they use it to develop their product and neither do most other manufacturers of other products in the world.

Using Linux as a generic label to represent all the Linux based Distros out there is not unreasonable just as using "Volkswagen" isn't. There is no need to cram GNU down peoples throats and force them to write and/or say "GNU/Linux" anytime they refer generically to Linux. If you feel that way, at least be consistent with everything you own and start refering to it by both the components its built from as well as the product itself.

udp• 14 years ago

I wish there was a Linux distribution with the FreeBSD userland, just to bring up on occasions like this.

deno3• 14 years ago

I’m using KDE/Linux.

irreverentbits• 14 years ago

This argument is, and has always been, ridiculous. The GNU user land is no more an operating system than the Linux kernel or the K desktop environment. It's just one component of a larger software system which most refer to by the convenient moniker of "Linux".

mikegerwitz3• 14 years ago

It is disappointing to see "GNU/Linux" comments consistently harassed. Consider the history.

The GNU project was conceived in 1983 to create a full free (as in freedom) operating system. This operating system combined many different projects (for example, X), in addition to creating its own components. Before Linux, it had one troubled component - the GNU Hurd, which was its kernel. Torvalds developed Linux (the kernel) in 1990 and released it under the GNU GPLv2 in 1991, which completed the GNU operating system by providing a working, stable kernel. The entire operating system was, and still is (except when GNU is not present, such as Android), GNU. The term GNU/Linux was used to give credit to both Torvalds and the GNU project. The term just as easily could have been "GNU/Linux/X" (and in fact that was used by the Yggdrasil distribution).

Linux, as it was conceived, is a kernel. GNU, as it was conceived, is an operating system. There is an important distinction there.

Fast forward a couple decades. Many people, in an effort to shorten the name "GNU/Linux", simply dropped the GNU portion and referred to the entire Operating System as "Linux". Also combine this with projects such as Android, which use Linux without GNU, and therefore are not GNU/Linux. Everyone has come to know any operating system that uses the Linux kernel simply by the name of "Linux".

Is that correct? Well, that depends on how the term is used. "Linux distribution" is certainly correct --- if your operating system uses the Linux kernel, then yes, distributes Linux. But to consider Linux an operating system is incorrect from both a project and historical standpoint, because it is not --- it is a Linux-based operating system. But to call an entire operating system "Linux" is saying that the entire system that you are using is part of the Linux project. On the other hand, calling your operating system "GNU", as long as it uses GNU, is correct, because GNU was always developed to be an operating system - a collection of components.

So given the history, why is the term "GNU/Linux" ridiculous? Why is the term "Linux" to refer to an entire operating system not ridiculous? Because that is the most popular term to refer to a Linux-based operating system? And given your statement

> The GNU user land is no more an operating system than the Linux kernel or the K desktop environment.

it would seem GNU is just as fitting to be used as Linux. So again, why is such a notion ridiculous?

dredmorbius• 14 years ago

gcc would be the principle counterargument. At a more fundamental level, the GNU project provided the philosophical foundations for the Linux kernel to develop. GNU is among the principle reasons (the AT&T lawsuit being another) that we're living in a Linux rather than BSD centric world. I suspect that the free software model of the GPL also mattered -- BSD/MIT licensing have their place, but they're not a match for the OS/kernel as a whole, at least not at this stage of the game (in an earlier period they did help establish UNIX as an industry standard, and spreading standards and reference implementations is a key element of these licenses, hence: X11, Apache, BIND).

As I find the GNU userland superior to other tools, I also find that it's worth consideration.

And in all cases, I find it's sufficient to acknowledge the FSF's contributions to the environment I use and prefer. It's GNU/Linux.

zvrba• 14 years ago

> and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX

GNU defaults to NOT being POSIX-compliant, which makes most of GNU software a PITA to build on platforms which default to being POSIX-compliant.

Also, except for emacs, GNU is a failure. gcc we use today is an egcs fork, and the Linux kernel could have worked just as well with BSD userland.

ringe82• 14 years ago

I switched to Linux around 2001 because I wanted to know more about what went wrong than a BSOD could tell me.

twinturbo• 14 years ago

I assert that you can't be a programmer (Read anything unofficial MS) with Windows. If you try, that just tells me you don't care about your tools. Which tells me you need to level up.

prodigal_erik• 14 years ago

I don't use crappy unportable tools, which means everything I care about also runs fine on Windows. I'm not writing Win32 apps right now, but when I was I certainly had no good reason to add work just to avoid Windows on my dev box. Win32 isn't a very tasteful API, but it at least has the virtue of being intended for what people want to do with it, unlike the World-Wide Web (which is being destroyed so that we can have an astonishingly ham-fisted and inefficient application platform instead).

khyryk• 14 years ago

What do you assert I'm doing right now, then?

I think you turned the point on its head -- I don't care about the operating system as much as I care about the tools.

asjo• 14 years ago

I have been using Linux as my only operating system since Yggdrasil Fall 1994. Before that I was a happy Amiga user.

After Yggdrasil I took a short turn to Slackware (downloaded a lot of floppies), and then switched to Debian which I had heard nice things about - and I have been running Debian ever since.

I always get surprised at how complicated other systems (Windows, Mac OS X) seem to me, when I briefly encounter them. I guess it is the power of habit.

Here is a bar chart of the votes:

· http://koldfront.dk/misc/hn/os/data.png

(Updated hourly currently.)

ing33k2• 14 years ago

I am a Linux user and I feel more secure when using it.

Desktop : Linux Mint ( Was using Ubuntu until 10.4 )

Laptop : Linux Mint and Windows 7 Dual boot. The reason I have windows is that laptop battery lasts for 4 hrs on windows and only 1.5 hrs on Linux when not on charging mode. also I use windows when I need to use dual screens.

sathishmanohar• 14 years ago

Wow! OSX first, Linux Close second. There are not many places, that will draw this kind of result.

I use windows and Ubuntu, I use Ubuntu for almost everything nowadays, My only reason to boot into windows to get something done with photoshop.

chrisveto• 14 years ago

I'm sitting on Windows 7 machine and quite frankly I don't get the hate about it. It's beautiful, it runs programs and with those programs you can do work and view media. Heck, it even plays games (WOO, who knew right?). While there are parts that aren't really thought-through when it comes to UI design, it's still the best thing I can afford. Some day when I win a lottery, I'll try out a mac, but till then it's all Windows. And to those lovely linux freaks, the day you can run Adobe Fireworks / Illustrator / Photoshop without the hassle of Wine emulator, do let me know.

canop_fr2• 14 years ago

It seems to me that if you can buy Fireworks + Illustrator + Photoshop, the difference of price between a Mac and a PC shouldn't be a problem.

Not working on graphics enough to buy those softwares, I'm happy on linux.

jamesflorentino• 14 years ago

I've also been a Windows user for more than 10 years but just recently switched to OSX (May 2011) because I was migrating from Flash Development to HTML5/JavaScript. It seems that most of the tools for web development in general are more conveniently available in OSX.

frou_dh• 14 years ago

OS X has software by third parties that take design and UI seriously. That does not seem to generally be the case on Windows or especially Linux.

If OS X disappeared, I'd probably spend a huge amount of time tweaking an Arch Linux install and would use less GUI software.

hackermom3• 14 years ago

Couldn't agree more. The whole mentality in the OS X developer world glows of such a strong focus on usability and UI design, while, for some reason I cannot understand, the Windows and Linux world is mostly the diametrical opposite. This was the first thing that I noticed when I moved over to OS X; the difference was incredibly clear, and it struck with great impact. I think people in general gravely underestimate how much in good software lies in a good interface connecting the user with said software.

3ds• 14 years ago

At work: Linux

At home: OSX

fastviper• 14 years ago

So... this is not a hacker news, but hipster news, right? I mean, OSX majority? You must be joking...

4ad• 14 years ago

Using what best works for you is hipster now? Count me in.

lifeisstillgood2• 14 years ago

I'm giving up FreeBSD today.

I've built Departments and platforms on the old faithful OS, I even blog about it - but my contracts demand skype or even Oracle and whilst you can sort of get those things working I no longer can afford the extra time to make it work

Ubuntu just managed to auto install X on a chipset I could not get working manually, and so I am going to Linux land for my workstations. The contracts will require Linux and windows servers so Freebsd will run my in office DNS for now

the network effects of things like dropbox skype and so on are having their effect. I have gone from feeling my OS choice is a secretweapon to a drain on time and effectiveness

it's not a good feeling for diversity

Anyone else?

emidln2• 14 years ago

You might try PC-BSD for a Ubuntu-like experience with a FreeBSD base. I know it autodetects graphics/sound during its installer and can setup stuff like Skype/Flash for you pretty easily.

That said, I did the same thing and now use Ubuntu on my laptop and workstation. The only apps I really want are a terminal and Skype since I can run Konsole+tmux/Firefox/Chromium/Okular/etc remotely displaying locally via X.

lifeisstillgood2• 14 years ago

Thanks. I may be giving up too easily. I think I will upgrade to core i7 laptop and run virtualbox soon too.

fingerprinter3• 14 years ago

My main machine is Ubuntu host and I run virtualized Ubuntu dev instances. Frankly, nothing can beat it. Unity in 12.04 has been a god-send to me using Linux and I don't think I'll be going to anything else for quite some time. Seriously, if you haven't tried Ubuntu 12.04, you owe it to yourself.

BTW. I used Slackware for years but had to use OSX at a job for like 4 years. When I left that job I went and bought a MacBook Pro out of habit and I realized I just didn't feel natural using it, even after 4 years. That is when I put Ubuntu on the system and felt the "ahhhhhh" feeling. Nice to be comfortable again. Unity really is an awesome interface. First real innovative interface I've used in years.

dpacmittal• 14 years ago

This is the first time I've seen someone praising Unity. As soon as I tried unity I shifted to Kubuntu, but now that you mentioned, I will try 12.04 with unity.

kisom2• 14 years ago

I've got a macbook air and a thinkpad. I use the air much of the time but quite often I just need to get my FreeBSD fix on in spectrwm. (Yes, you can run spectrwm on OS X but it's a pita and XQuartz makes it much more difficult). Most of what I do on the thinkpad is C hacking.

I tend to approach operating systems with a BSD mindset: use what works for you, and if you have a complaint - put up with some code.

cmeiklejohn• 14 years ago

traitor! :) thought you were obsd for life?

kisom2• 14 years ago

hah, I unfortunately need some better compat with the lunix stuff. Loongson soon! (How soon? not long!)

apgwoz5• 14 years ago

I choose other because I use GNU/Linux

apgwoz5• 14 years ago

Since when did it become not OK to side with the FSF? This, (i.e. the "Hacker" News crowd) has really set a new low bar.

gjm11• 14 years ago

Saying "I use GNU/Linux": OK. Saying "I don't use Linux and am going to distort your poll results because you didn't use the terminology I prefer": not OK.

And, honestly, if getting a few downvotes for some random thing is "setting a new low bar" then something's wrong with your calibration.

sbuk2• 14 years ago

"Since when did it become not OK to side with the FSF?" I'm sorry, but when did it become obligatory to agree with your world view. You were down-voted presumably because your comment was fatuous. Being a 'hacker' is not synonymous to exclusively using F/LOSS. Ideological fallacies are just the same as all the other fallacies...

buster3• 14 years ago

Myself using Debian/Ubuntu as work OS since i started studying 11 years ago. Dualboot for gaming.

All my (IT) colleagues are using MacOSX.

My pro/contra list:

Contra:

  - gaming
  - want a proper desktop search engine/crawler
    (that doesn't eat up my CPU every day when 
    indexing (and thus, creating far too much noise))

Pro:

  - everything else, never looked back

edit:

When i think back so much has improved in regards to Linux, it's awesome. No more kernel compiles, no more X11 configuration editing, no driver hassles. I'm curious what the future brings :)

hythloday• 14 years ago

Pretty much the entire games industry runs (for historical and practical reasons) on Windows. I used a Linux desktop at home for ages but eventually the rebooting and impedance mismatch got too strong.

andypants• 14 years ago

I use Windows, but the only work I do on it is in visual studio with C#.

For other programming work, I run linux in a VM. Can't work without the terminal!

pica• 14 years ago

I use NetBSD exclusively for three years now (desktop system), and it is a very comfortable experience so far.

kartikrao• 14 years ago

Being a programmer, I want an OS that gets out of my way and lets me focus. I find the 'busyness' in some of the OS's distracting and a drain on productivity. Availability of tools and one's aesthetic preferences are also important, for me once I switched to OSX there was no looking back. That being said Windows or Linux may be better choices for people with other needs or preferences.

soyapi• 14 years ago

Did anyone regularly using OSX, Windows and/or Linux vote OSX just because it was listed first?

mikeandrews• 14 years ago

linux

RexRollman4• 14 years ago

I switch between Windows and Linux, with some OpenBSD thrown in as well, but I am considering switching back to Mac OS X.

Apreche• 14 years ago

Windows, but all my programming work is on Linux servers and Linux VMs.

edanm2• 14 years ago

Windows (7, mostly). I also run Ubuntu on servers and in a Virtualbox for development.

I've been meaning to move over to a MacBook for a long time now, since I love the iPhone, love the look-and-feel of the MacBook Air, and because so many programmers are moving to them.

The problem is, I've been so reliant on Windows for so long, and have so many modifications and workflows that I set up, that I honestly think it would take me months of work to get to the same comfort level in OSX, assuming that I even could get all the features working there. Is it really worth it?

horv• 14 years ago

I don't know anything about how heavily you've modified Windows, but I just switched to OS X from Win7 a month ago. This is after only ever using Windows. I was surprised by how easily I made the switch. I know Lion gets mixed reviews from long time Mac users, but I'm a huge fan.

edanm2• 14 years ago

Well, I have autohotkey modifications which give me a vim-like keyboard everywhere, add all sorts of shortcuts to switch to my most-used windows (browser, editor, etc.). Plus I have programs for everything I need to do, etc.

Honestly, the two biggest problems I have with switching are my AutoHotKey customizations, and Total Commander, which afaik doesn't exist for OSX.

m0skit0• 14 years ago

I clicked Linux despite using Windows for more time because I only use Windows for non-relevant stuff (gaming mostly, also studying chess since good software only exists in this platform, sadly...). For research/programming/reverse engineering/security/important work I use Linux, specially Debian GNU/Linux or based distro (except Ubuntu), but I guess any open-source OS will do fine as well (FreeBSD and OpenSolaris did very well last time I tried them).

ParadisoShlee_• 14 years ago

I really want to use linux as my primary OS. but I keep falling back to Windows XP/7 of late for pure usefully.

Linux desktop is boned, and not getting any better. KDE should be killed with fire and gnome is the moes tavern of WMs.

edu• 14 years ago

On my laptop/desktop: Mac OSX on servers, Linux.

hackermom3• 14 years ago

I took a leap of faith from Windows to OS X as my main desktop OS back in late 2004, before it was "trendy" to use products by Apple - and long before users of Apple products began being referred to as "Applefags". I haven't looked back once. Besides OS X and Windows, I've been using the *BSDs (mainly OpenBSD) since around 1999.

methodin• 14 years ago

Does spending most of your time in a Putty terminal using vim count as Windows or Linux?

hef19898• 14 years ago

Windows, all the way back to windows 3.11. Main reason was being a PC gamer, so you are pratically stuck with it.

lv0• 14 years ago

once you go black (and yellow) you never go back.

exch• 14 years ago

Linux warrants a distribution choice, I think. Not nearly every distro out there is worth my time. While under the hood, they are all pretty much identical, the way a given distribution sets itself apart is what makes or breaks the operating system. I've been an avid fan of Arch Linux for a few years now and I can't imagine wanting to switch to Debian or any other setup any time soon.

thought_alarm• 14 years ago

AppleSoft BASIC/ProDOS: 1983-1990

MS-DOS/Windows: 1990-1997

Windows NT: 1997-2005

OS X: 2005-2012

Honorable mention goes to the Commodore 64, OS/2 Warp, various Linux distros, and VMWare.

dgaaaaaaaaaa• 14 years ago

dual boot windows and linux

silasb6• 14 years ago

I think the most important thing is that you should be able to cope with what ever operating system you might be in.

Understand where to get tools to do development with LAMP on windows, or how to cross-compile windows applications on Linux, et cetera.

manuscreationis• 14 years ago

Windows, but I'm trying to make the switch to using Linux.

Primarily a .NET developer, the lure of Node and Ruby have been calling to me lately

statenjason• 14 years ago

Arch Linux with Awesome Window Manager is my preferred setup. I appreciate that each screen has its own virtual desktops.

plant42• 14 years ago

Primarily I use Linux (ubuntu flavour), not for any specific reason other than it is what I am most comfortable using.

I sometimes I do despair at the fanatical and near religious arguments going on over a god-damned operating system as if it truly matters.

Pick your system, use it, enjoy it, get to know it. Just don't be a muppet about it.

sukuriant• 14 years ago

At home, I'm in Linux about as much as I'm in Windows. What's that mean? I use both and enjoy them equally. There's not really an option for that.

mindcrime• 14 years ago

I run Fedora Linux on the laptop I use for all my day to day stuff. All of the servers I maintain are running some RH related distro; either Fedora, CentOS or - in the case of one really old server - Red Hat 9.

jasonkostempski• 14 years ago

Windows at work, Linux at home. I voted Windows but if I weren't working on .NET I wouldn't be running Windows at all. I wouldn't have said that a month ago, I really like what's been done with Ubuntu 12.04. Windows is basically just a Visual Studio host for me. Once I figure out how to get paid to work with node.js Linux will be my primary OS and Windows will just be a virtual machine running VS. Unless I start working on iPhone apps.

OriginalSyn• 14 years ago

I'm the opposite. Linux at work. Windows at home. Windows is a gaming and HTPC with Netflix support platform for me.

cicero• 14 years ago

I use Windows at work, and OSX at home.

dasrecht• 14 years ago

Longtime Windows Admin, switched to OSX in 2008 and working on OSX since end of 2011.

moystard6• 14 years ago

I use OSX at work with a Virtual Machine running Windows 7 for corporate tools (such as mail, instant messaging, etc.). I also use that OS on my laptop, mostly because I bought a macbook pro a couple years ago and still want to get the best of its hardware (battery life).

At home, I use Windows 7, simply because I don't want to reboot to switch back and forth from one OS to the other. I exclusively play Starcraft 2, and if it was possible to play it under Linux with excellent performances, I would switch and never go back again to Windows.

yangyang5• 14 years ago

Windows 7 at work, which isn't too bad (coding Python and .NET stuff).

Mac OS and Arch Linux at home, with an OpenSolaris storage server and OpenBSD firewall.

JimmyL• 14 years ago

Windows 7, but all my personal development/work happens inside a Ubuntu VM (through VirtualBox).

e40• 14 years ago

Primary is hard to define. Desktop? Windows. Server? Linux (Fedora 16). Both are crucial to my home operation.

relates• 14 years ago

Ubuntu 11.04

Killswitch• 14 years ago

Long time Windows user, went to Linux because Windows just wasn't good anymore... and recently to OS X.

runjake• 14 years ago

Windows 7. With a Linux VM always running.

It used to be OS X, but Lion was a curveball out of nowhere. Enough things don't run on Snow Leopard anymore to make that viable.

weilawei• 14 years ago

What primary operating system? I use whatever fits the bill at the moment, and I have enough computers to run 'em all.

Operating systems are a tool. All problems are not nails.

rdl• 14 years ago

OSX on laptops, OSX or Linux on desktops, Linux or FreeBSD on servers, iOS on mobile/tablet.

I don't know you you define "primary"; outside of a web browser, I spend more time at a command prompt on a linux machine than at the command prompt on OSX.

Nux• 14 years ago

GNU/Linux for everything (CentOS).

sxcurry• 14 years ago

Long time Windows user and developer, switched to OSX a few years back, now can't imagine working without it. Love the terminal access to Unixy stuff. Running Windows in Parallels for the remaining Windows only software. As I tell people, my MacBook Pro is the best Windows laptop I've ever owned.

duxup• 14 years ago

Windows on the desktop. Android on the phone.

I don't have the time to dork around in Linux as I once did (never was that great at it) and while I'd like to take OSX for a spin I'm a penny pitcher so I stick with Windows at home. I'm happy with it.

ianleckey• 14 years ago

ubuntu 11.10

Symmetry• 14 years ago

Linux on my home laptop.

Windows 7 on my work laptop, but only because it has Optimus graphics and I want multi-monitor. I spend most of my time in a Linux VM.

Windows 7 on my desktop gaming machine.

prophetjohn• 14 years ago

This is pretty hard to define for me. At work, I primarily use Windows 7. My away-from-work computing is pretty evenly split between my laptop (MBP running Lion) and my desktop (custom box running Ubuntu 11.10).

I'd say my time pretty evenly split between all of these operating systems. I think I prefer Ubuntu overall, however the ease of use of OS X and Windows 7 are pretty tempting a lot of the time (try installing Spotify on Ubuntu 11.10 and get it to play local files). I'd probably prefer OS X among those 2, though since it's much better for development. However, for the most part it really doesn't matter what operating system I'm using.

rch• 14 years ago

I answered OS X in the spirit of honesty. However, I would much rather use Fedora on a laptop at least equivalent to my MacBook Pro, if I could buy such a thing. Installing it myself works at home, but not at work.

I am familiar with System 76, but I personally prefer Fedora. Suggestions welcome.

pfedor• 14 years ago

OSX ahead of Linux and iOS ahead of "Other Unix variant".

Can we now get the name of this site officially changed to Hipster News?

grandalf2• 14 years ago

I'm curious about those using Windows. I can see four main reasons to use it:

- You are a "business type" and prefer some app/workflow that you are already familiar with and don't want to change.

- You used to work at Microsoft and you know it way better than other OSes.

- Your target userbase has strong Windows lock-in so it makes the best business sense to use it.

- You are really into gaming and don't want to dual-boot.

I'm curious if any windows users have any other reasons...

jaxn• 14 years ago

I primarily use OS X, but I do have a Windows machine that I use for some development. My reason is not in your list:

I need to create Windows executables and installers as part of our product and don't know of a way to do that on OS X.

If that was a larger part of my development, I would primarily use Windows.

nosse4• 14 years ago

It's only OS that can do serious CAD. That's it. Would use linux if I could.

sbuk2• 14 years ago

By "serious CAD", what do you mean?

bdunbar• 14 years ago

It was not that long ago that 'serious CAD' and 'Unix' went together like ham and eggs.

Then those pesky Windows computers got underfoot and that was all she wrote.

flomo• 14 years ago

- You want to buy inexpensive hardware and use familiar commercial software.

Spoom• 14 years ago

Personal laptop: Linux Mint 12 (was running Ubuntu since 8.04 or so until recently... since Unity I've been wanting to move to another distribution)

Work desktop: 21" iMac running Debian (dual-boots to OS X but I rarely need it, and I'm much more at home in Linux)

Synergy works to share the mouse / keyboard across the desktop to the laptop to create a three-screen environment at work.

I used OS X for a good month or two when work got the new iMacs in; it just wasn't my cup of tea. My coworkers have a mix of Windows and OS X installs mostly.

kjajula• 14 years ago

understandability by common users is a big thing and linux lacks it. A common person who doesn't know anything about computer would be much comfortable with windows or Mac rather than linux. Linux is a programmers operating system. You learn a lot using linux than windows. Programmers have different opinions so are different distros(That is my view !!). I personally use UBUNTU for my programming and Windows for gaming/netflix/other_entertainment.

s00pcan• 14 years ago

I use OSX, Windows, Linux and Android daily. Some more than others depending on where I am and what I'm doing, but I'm at work using Ubuntu for 40 hours a week, so I should probably vote that.

evoxed• 14 years ago

OS X for regular day-to-day, Windows for CAD and structures. I used to use gentoo occasionally, so a year ago I started browsing other systems and found Arch Linux. As soon as I get some extra hardware for a desktop workstation I'd love to give it a try.

jcla1• 14 years ago

My OS of choice is OSX, not because I find it the best OS ever, much more because I don't want to use Windows! I used to have a laptop with ubuntu on it but in the more recent versions the UI just isn't it.

wildmXranat• 14 years ago

To be fair, I shell into a Linux box or mount a directory over SFTP from OSX. Linux is the common server OS amongst a couple client environments I use

borgchick• 14 years ago

primary where? at work? linux, at home? windows, on the road? osx

jsmith72• 14 years ago

I can't believe OSX is the highest!

kstenerud• 14 years ago

Not sure what to put down, since my general server runs Ubuntu, my games machine runs Windows 7, and my work machine runs Lion (for iOS dev). I use all three almost daily.

Yaggo• 14 years ago

I'm honestly little surprised about the popularity of Windows. In webdev circles, I rarely see developers using it anymore (as a primary OS).

nosse4• 14 years ago

There is other breeds of nerds here. Me for one. I do mechanical nerd-stuff and I need windows for CAD. But I guess there is not enough of us here to explain that number.

nosse4• 14 years ago

I'm using Windows 7 for CAD. I now use Solid Edge, I used to do AUTOCad and I think I'm headed for Pro/E.

I'd like to use anything but Windows, but guess how plentiful are my options to use CAD on other systems? Nonexistent.

The economic niche of CAD systems would have room for good CAD running on Linux. The bounty is good. At the moment it's practically impossible to get a serious CAD legally for no less than 2000$/copy.

I'm guessing that the 3D printing scene is held back by modeling prices. It's actually more expensive to model than to actually get that model printed.

I feel like I'm saying "Carthago delenda est", but I strongly feel that this should be addressed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-aided_design

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carthago_delenda_est

cateye• 14 years ago

I tried to use OSX as my primary OS for a year but I couldn't be as productive as I am on Windows. However I would really love to be able to use Linux.

MS Office is really a lot better on Windows. It is miles a head on features and stability in for example Word, Outlook and Excel. It is so much more powerful and if you are an advanced user, OSX version is just frustrating.

The file management and the window manager of Windows is to me also a lot more convenient then on OSX.

On Windows you also have the Adobe CS and there is no substitute for it on Linux. Running it under Wine doesn't give the same user experience.

I see more and more web development tools for OSX only. I hope it is not necessary therefore to have to use OSX.

housel• 14 years ago

At work: 1. 64-bit Windows 7 displaying a 32-bit Linux VM on one of the two screens 2. 32-bit Linux running native on an HP TouchSmart (for doing embedded Linux cross-development)

At home: 1. 64-bit Windows 7 running usually at least 2 or 3 FreeBSD and Linux VMs 2. Macbook for reading mail and developing while watching TV. Some programming done natively, some done SSHed into a FreeBSD VM. Also sometimes runs 32-bit Windows 7 in a VM.

So... no idea which poll option to choose.

rufibarbatus• 14 years ago

Windows for work. iOS + Linode [1] for personal use / on the go.

[1] h/t to yegg, http://gabriel.weinberg.usesthis.com/

nwmcsween• 14 years ago

Windows, because I just want things to work instead of wrestling with it to work .

gsharm• 14 years ago

"After all, it is no longer the purpose of programs to instruct our machines; these days, it is the purpose of machines to execute our programs."

- Edsger Dijkstra

By extension, I think it's more important for us to think about our programs than the operating systems they run on.

ronik• 14 years ago

I used Windows for over 10 years and moved to a Mac in 2009. There is no way I am going back anytime soon. Amazingly, I only realized the problems with Windows after using the Mac for a while and then switching back to Windows for a day to fix an urgent issue. The usability issues lit up like lights on a christmas tree.

Here is what happened. I tried to install a tool on Windows, which required an updated version of the .NET Framework. So instead of doing what I wanted to do, I started doing what that little app wanted me to do. When I tried installing the .NET framework, it wanted an updated version of the MSI (Microsoft Installer). So now, instead of doing what the app wanted to do, I started doing what the .NET installer wanted me to do. You get my drift?

In the 2 years I have been using my Mac, I have not once come across words like virus, anti-virus, drivers or seen any avoidable alert boxes pop up. I am no Apple fanboi. Really, OSX is my preferred OS simply because it does not get in the way and let's me do what I want to do.

r0s• 14 years ago

Your .NET problems are my java problems on OSX.

Yes it's the same, no it's not easier in any way. I get all kinds of alert boxes and inane dialogs in OSX. I develop all day on a mac and it's constantly annoying, as much or more so than windows7.

kfcm• 14 years ago

Depends. For servers, FreeBSD and OpenBSD hands down.

Desktops are two different systems--Windows and Ubuntu Linux. I need direct access to the hardware for development (CUDA) on both, so I can't VM. Windows is needed simply because Linux has always failed to provide me with the business apps I need to successfully work with the outside world. Not trying to start a flame war; it's just my experience.

Laptop is Windows, with Linux as a VirtualBox VM. Simply because I want to GSD.

niels_olson• 14 years ago

I waffle between OS X and Linux. They're both running at my house, more Linux than OS X, but when I got a new Verizon iPad with 4G, I finally set down my Cr-48 running Ubuntu (love Unity on that machine, btw), and picked up my old 2008 MacBook again. Hacking: I find linux more pleasant. If I bought a new computer today, it may well be a Lenovo tablet, in the old, swivel-screen definition of the word, because I really miss the high input resolution of resistive touch.

jjcm• 14 years ago

Different OS's for different modalities. For desktop environments, I usually prefer windows 7. I think that Win 7 has some really good window management control, and across multiple monitors often found in a desktop setup it works especially well.

Apple hardware is top notch and robust. I don't need that in a desktop - my hardware isn't going anywhere (hell I don't even use a case for my desktops). For a laptop though, portability and build quality matters. So for those I'll buy Apple hardware, and thus use OSX as it integrates the best with the hardware provided.

For servers, I like a light and lean platform, so I'll use linux. Requires very little maintenance, runs solid, and eats up very little resources. Right now I'm using Ubuntu on my two linode servers. I'm only hosting websites on them and seeding the occasional torrent, I don't need a custom setup. The out-of-the-box functionality that ubuntu provides works great for that.

This is by no means and end all/be all rule, but for the most part I find that this is how I'm using my devices and OS's.

jsz02• 14 years ago

For my needs OSX is the perfect mix of a user friendly / powerful desktop OS. It's just a very elegant operating system. I feel like just about anything I need to do is very close to the surface. Anytime I am forced to use Windows or Linux, even though I am quite familiar with both, it seems incredibly convoluted to me. Not really difficult just unnecessarily complex and chaotic. OSX knows how to get out of the way and let me work. Since Lion came out I've been using full-screen apps + multi-tasking gestures extensively. I can go days without seeing anything besides my applications. The OS just disappears and leaves me alone when I don't need it.

njharman• 14 years ago

Primary is hard to define.

I'm currently working on chef/sensu ssh'd into a few linux servers from osX desktop.

Xyzodiac• 14 years ago

I'd love to have a Macbook Pro for iOS development, but I'm sitting pretty with the Arch Linux install on my current laptop. Nothing matches the customization of Linux in my opinion and I could never leave XMonad.

mattdawson• 14 years ago

I clicked into this thread specifically to see if someone had cheekily added emacs as an option. Color me disappointed. ;)

notatoad• 14 years ago

it doesn't matter. i use a web browser and a terminal. as long as i have those, i'm good.

i use mac os on my laptop, because mac laptops are the nicest. i use ubuntu on my desktop because it's the cheapest option. i honestly don't notice a difference switching between the two. all the linux kerfuffle about window managers and whether unity is better than gnome2, it doesn't matter. you can switch between windows. you can get work done.

stevejb• 14 years ago

Using linux since Caldera Desktop Preview 2. Things really picked up with RedHat 5.1 and 5.2. I currently am running the latest Ubuntu on my dev box and my laptop. My job is mostly C++ development of finance models, statistical analysis, and creating documents in LaTeX. I couldn't think of a better fit than Linux for this.

swah• 14 years ago

Maybe I'll return to Linux when I get a tablet and can consume media, read long articles and play little games there.

jfmercer• 14 years ago

If we simplify this poll to "Unix vs. non-Unix," then Unix wins by an very strong majority.

boop• 14 years ago

Long time OSX user. Great for web development.

amitp85• 14 years ago

OSX vs Linux vs Windows vs XXXXX, I don't care a bit about it. I'm happy to see that people here use Linux more than windows :D

aaronsung• 14 years ago

Anyone would use OS/400 like me?

goronbjorn• 14 years ago

There are probably a large number of people that should've put iOS or Android but just aren't aware of it.

krollew• 14 years ago

Linux is my OS of choice, but I have nothing against Windows 7. Unlike XP and earlier it can be normaly used from non-root account, there can be set nice POSIX-like programming environment. Maybe one day, but I need get more RAM for my machine at home. xD

mariusmg• 14 years ago

Windows forever :)

Poll: What is your primary operating system

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