[Fonzie]

My favourite OS would have to be MacOS X - since it's what I'm using now. But before MacOS X it was Windows XP and sometime before that (for 10 years) it was AmigaOS(the OS that I still admire to this day)

[voodoo]

Originally posted by James Christ:
Commodore 64 prompt.

I got to hand it to you not many systems can boast the charm of the Commodore 64 BASIC CLI prompt. ..

[Angus_D]

Originally posted by daimoni:
I think he was referring the technology of UNIX - and not which company thinks they own the rights to it.

I have to say I prefer UNIX-like operating systems where I can see the source code and where more innovation is happening on a regular basis. Like, oh, Linux.

UNIX was probably cool in the 70s and 80s, though.

[bradoesch]

Originally posted by Turias:
I've always wanted to play around with BeOS, but I've never had the opportunity...

Find a PC and install BeOS 5 Personal Edition. The Windows installer makes a big file on your hard drive that contains the BeOS and some apps, etc. No partitioning and stuff like that.

http://www.bebits.com/app/2680

[Jim Paradise]

Originally posted by OB1:
Mac OS 10.2.6. Best computing experience ever! I really haven't felt the need to upgrade, although some of the new features included in the latest versions of Mac OS look tempting. My laptop is very stable and quiet. Thats all my boxes ticked.

Yup, that's the same way I feel about 10.2.6.

[daimoni]

.

[macintologist]

Originally posted by xi_hyperon:
7.5.3, because it allowed me to take so many work breaks.

[iNub]

Mac OS 7.6.1 holds a special place for me, it was the first Mac OS I ever used. From what I gather, that was a good time to start using Macs. Next would have to be any version of 10.3.

Oh, and Windows 2000 does not suck. It remains, to this day, the only version of Windows that Doesn't Suck(tm).

It sucks so little, they could probably make a big advertising series out of it.

[Turias]

Originally posted by iNub:
Oh, and Windows 2000 does not suck.

Well, comparatively, maybe. I have still gained quite the hatred for the beast as it is one of the operating systems I have to use most, at work.

[CharlesS]

Best OS ever? System 6.0.5. Ah... clean, stable, simple, and fast. And it fit on a floppy disk. With room for a few apps and documents. Ahh... times have changed. OS X is cool, though, especially compared to the crap that was OS 9.

[olePigeon]

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
Be OS

BeOS is my absolute favorite.

[nredman]

Mac OS 10.3.3

[RobOnTheCape]

6.5ish I think, because I was first being introduced to computers, had an intro computer class(1989) and started with PCs. Was so frustrated(remember the green type on black background). About walked out of class when my instructor said "stick around, next week we're jumping into something called macintosh... The rest is history.

[olePigeon]

Originally posted by RobOnTheCape:
6.5ish I think, because I was first being introduced to computers, had an intro computer class(1989) and started with PCs. Was so frustrated(remember the green type on black background). About walked out of class when my instructor said "stick around, next week we're jumping into something called macintosh... The rest is history.

My dad still has his "portable" PC. It's 286 with 2 floppy drives, an 8" orange-on-black screen, and a pullout keyboard that makes a LOT of noise when you type on it. Weighs about 40 pounds.

[James Christ]

Originally posted by voodoo:
I got to hand it to you not many systems can boast the charm of the Commodore 64 BASIC CLI prompt. ..

It haunts you for the rest of your life. And the multicolor system/game crashes are an image impossible to remove. I'll take them to the afterlife.

[James Christ]

Originally posted by bradoesch:
Find a PC and install BeOS 5 Personal Edition. The Windows installer makes a big file on your hard drive that contains the BeOS and some apps, etc. No partitioning and stuff like that.

http://www.bebits.com/app/2680

Can I install BeOS on VPC?

[bstone]

Originally posted by kmkkid:
XP. Customization is endless, it's stable, fast, and it gets the job done well.



Chris

Maybe at your home PC. I am a sysadmin on a LARGE network and I blowing away XP with 2k as quick as possible

[ASIMO]

What About Bob?

[Lateralus]

Originally posted by ASIMO:
What About Bob?

For those who don't know.

[Spliffdaddy]

WinXP Pro Corp

when you need a decent OS *now* and all you have is an internet connection, a CD burner, and an empty wallet.

It might suck, but the price is right.

"hey, look. no activation required"

[coolmacdude]

System 1.0

Got to go with the classic.

[benb]

Originally posted by PowerMacMan:


For those who don't know.

The lead designer, Melinda, was suitably punished for such an atrocity. Her last name was changed to Gates.

[torsoboy]

I am with those who say windows 2000... it just rocks. i have been using it for 3 years now on my system at home, and i use it on my work computer... i have found no fault with it worth mentioning.

[olePigeon]

Originally posted by torsoboy:
I am with those who say windows 2000... it just rocks. i have been using it for 3 years now on my system at home, and i use it on my work computer... i have found no fault with it worth mentioning.

You mean no faults asside from the weekly criticaly security updates, viruses, and trojans, and the occasional reinstall after you "fix" crap through Windows Update.

[Lateralus]

Originally posted by olePigeon:
You mean no faults asside from the weekly criticaly security updates, viruses, and trojans, and the occasional reinstall after you "fix" crap through Windows Update.

I've never had a problem with Windows 2000.

[kertong]

another vote for 10.3.3, (although my Finder crashes very often), and BeOS as well.

BeOS, as an OS itself, was amazing. Its too bad it never really "picked up".

[- - e r i k - -]

Originally posted by iNub:
[B]Oh, and Windows 2000 does not suck. It remains, to this day, the only version of Windows that Doesn't Suck(tm).

One can argue that if you have received ten lashings every day for seven years going down to five per day feels like heaven on earth.

[Jim Paradise]

Originally posted by PowerMacMan:


For those who don't know.

Daaaamn, they named one the friends of Bob, "Scuzz," gave him a guitar, oh, and also made him a rat? That's some sharp UI design....

[Link]

Originally posted by kmkkid:
XP. Customization is endless, it's stable, fast, and it gets the job done well.



Chris

You're kidding, right?

[Link]

Originally posted by PowerMacMan:
I've never had a problem with Windows 2000.

I've never had problems with Windows XP *PROVIDED* I use it with stuff from XP's time. Using anything older (my old all in one printer for example), is a mess and really just a plain out headache as it's hard enough to get the utility to install...

Having said that, if you set the GUI down to it's bare minimum, NEVER use the network wizard, keep it on a protected network and either use IE with activex disabled or mozilla and never use outlook/kaaza, you're pretty well off.

I've always found my way around having excessive problems with windows, whether it be 98, 2000, or XP - but the issues that you have to take consideration for aren't even a concern on OS X..

There are a few other reasons I use OS X. My machine can sit here rooted as a nice server and suddenly I have a server and workhorse in one box. While there are ways to get a similar-to-unix commandline (cygwin and XP unix services), they're NOT the same as having a full blown unix box under the hood, and for me having a machine that dual boots my work OS and my server OS is nothing more than a nuissance.

FPS games and racing games don't really have much influence in making what I do with my g4 better or worse. I do admit at times I miss using windows but, those things are minor for as I did like some of it's quirky things, there are things on OS X I'll just never find on windows.. not in the same form at least.

Safari's a nice browser. Others come close albeit being extremely clunky. iChat is a damn nice looking chat app everyone I know that uses windows has envied the heck out of, xchat aqua is *FAR* better than windows xchat (although you can port GTK xchat to cgwin/x11).. Word X is better designed than Word XP, I can run multiple X86 OSes (although doable on windows), Photoshop is rootless (very handy), and well, there are more fun quirks to OS X than there are in windows... that's for sure..

For example have 2 word windows on your screen in windows. Both will have menubar, toolbars, etc (Unless you use Word97 and previous where there are ways to stick 2 windows in one parent)... Photoshop allows you to do such but either way, you've just taken up your entire screen. On OS X I'd be able to snake in IM convos, sample images, etc.. (digital colormeter, anyone?!)

Ok, point said. I could do my tasks on a windows box exceptionally well since, well, I did that up until a bit more than 2 years ago, but it wouldn't be the same, nowhere near the amount of screwing around you can do in OS X...

Err I still say 10.2.5ISH though since it didn't have the quirks of the later releases (10.2.6 worked fine for me however), and well, yeah... Panther, while has the INVALUABLE command up/down navigation in it's finder, is a pain in the butt sometimes.

[James Christ]

We had tons of these computers networked together at school. They were great for word processing and sending IMs over networks from student to student (but a nosey teacher was always checking every transaction!)



I dont know what OS they ran. There was no GUI.

[Sven G]

An interesting Linux distribution, among the many good ones available, is Gentoo (I'm downloading it now, to try the LiveCD on a G4).

OS X remains my favourite, anyway; Windows 2000 and XP aren't all that bad, either.

[Edit:] BTW, bad news for the latest Gentoo 2004.0 LiveCD: it's no more with KDE or Gnome, but only with a textual interface - you have to install Gentoo to your hard disk and get the second CD, too, in order to have the graphical interface. Of course, I hope they eventually will build the "full" LiveCD also for this newest distribution...

[paully dub]

I have fond memories of my hand me down kaypro IV running cp/m...

[macroy]

Originally posted by olePigeon:
You mean no faults asside from the weekly criticaly security updates, viruses, and trojans, and the occasional reinstall after you "fix" crap through Windows Update.

I think most OS's have all the above - and the patches/updates are the only thing that the vendor (MS) can control. Yes, they can definitely do a better job - But so can every other OS. And do keep in mind that it's probably the most targeted OS on the planet.

[Oisín]

XP. So far.

I'm still on Windoze (waiting for the boost in my bank account that will allow me to buy a PB), so I only have experiences with Windows.

Thinking back, I've been on 3.0, 3.1, 3.11 for Workgroups, 95, 98, 98SE (not really sure what the difference was, but it was very cool having the "SE" displayed to your friends...), 2000, Me, and XP.

3.X basically sucked. I hated them even then. Bah!
95 was �bercool when it came out. Not so much after a while when you'd realised how unstable it could be.
98 & 98SE were a little better, but not much. It was stable enough to actually use, but nowhere near stable enough to enjoy!
2000 was the worst peace of sh!t I've ever had!!! I don't know how so many of you here can call it "stable" with a straight face! We went through two machines with three different versions of 2000 and one was more unstable than the other!!! On average crashed two-three times a day. Bllleeeuuurggh!!!
Me. Had this for about a week. The only contestant to give 2000 a run for its money in crappiness. Threw it out and reverted to 98.
XP. Not perfect, but a helluva big step in the right direction! Can actually be downright enjoyable at times, although usually "unnoticed" is a more realistic goal to go for. Multitasking is actually possible now - wow!

Not to mention that XP is a lot more pleasing to the eyes now that I've emulated OSX on it (I know, I know, it's not the real thing, but I was impatient - might as well get as much now as I can as a sort of "preparation" for the real thing, right?)

[- - e r i k - -]

Originally posted by Ois�n:
2000 was the worst peace of sh!t I've ever had!!! I don't know how so many of you here can call it "stable" with a straight face! We went through two machines with three different versions of 2000 and one was more unstable than the other!!! On average crashed two-three times a day. Bllleeeuuurggh!!!

My experience exactly. People think I'm loony when I say that. Windows 2000 ruined two PCs where I used to work (I've thankfully moved on to a more mac-friendly workplace now ), where previous versions of Windows worked just fine. Handy for the IT-guys to blame it on hardware then...

[Oisín]

Originally posted by - - e r i k - -:
My experience exactly. People think I'm loony when I say that. Windows 2000 ruined two PCs where I used to work (I've thankfully moved on to a more mac-friendly workplace now ), where previous versions of Windows worked just fine. Handy for the IT-guys to blame it on hardware then...

Takk!

Finally somebody agrees on this point!!!

[MindFad]

I really miss the OS 8.6 and 9.1 days, but OS X protected memory, UNIX, and the way it laughs at multitasking are enough to make me easily forget those Classic days. Two thumbs up for OS X.

[bradoesch]

Originally posted by James Christ:
Can I install BeOS on VPC?

I've never tried. If it doesn't work, all you need to do is uninstall it from Windows.

[IonCable]

Digital's GEM OS used on the Atari ST line. I loved that OS. Clean, simple, and the busy bee icon was to fun.

[James Christ]

Originally posted by bradoesch:
I've never tried. If it doesn't work, all you need to do is uninstall it from Windows.

I meant can I install BeOS without Windows and DOS? Straight from the bootdisk?

[MindFad]

Well, BeOS didn't install in XP. "Reading package..." "Unpacking..." and then nothing, the window closes. I don't see BeOS files anywhere, and there's no confirming anything actually installed. Gotta love Windows.

Yeah, I don't see anything. Ah well. I was looking forward to trying it out. Back in the closet with this PC, then.

[jcadam]

Favorite OS?

1. Amiga Workbench
2. MacOS X
3. Linux

Also, MS-DOS is fun to screw around with (from a programmer's perspective), because it allows easy direct access to hardware, which is also a reason why it is such a poor OS

No offence, but I never did like the classic MacOS. Great GUI (probably better than OS X), lousy OS. Better than the Windows 9x series, though.

[bradoesch]

Originally posted by James Christ:
I meant can I install BeOS without Windows and DOS? Straight from the bootdisk?

Not with the personal edition you can't. The regular editions would've been able to, but they weren't free.

Originally posted by MindFad:
Well, BeOS didn't install in XP. "Reading package..." "Unpacking..." and then nothing, the window closes. I don't see BeOS files anywhere, and there's no confirming anything actually installed. Gotta love Windows.

Yeah, I don't see anything. Ah well. I was looking forward to trying it out. Back in the closet with this PC, then.

Sounds like the installer is corrupt. It's supposed to run on the NTs with the use of a bootdisk (it'll boot directly into BeOS with 9x). It's a very impressive OS. I was surprised how well it played movies, and just how, er, snappy it was.

[James Christ]

BeOS must be crap in VPC anyway. Surely it the emulation support would make it real slow. I installed Mandrake and Red Hat in VPC and it was just too slow to use and many apps wouldn't launch.

[Angus_D]

Originally posted by daimoni:
You can call it gnu/debian or *nix whatever you want... it's still UNIX.

Anything else is just being overly pedantic for the sake of being overly pedantic.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. It was probably cool in the 70s and 80s.

OK, so OS X is the same thing as Linux is the same thing as UNIXware.

[dampeoples]

10.2.8

[insha]

OS X Pather

Oh and Windows 2000/XP and very stable -- not sure how the peeps here using it and loving it

[kmkkid]

Originally posted by Link:
You're kidding, right?

Nope.

[splatq]

You can install BeOS through VPC using BeOS Max Edition (Google it). Windows isn't needed at all.

One very major problem though, is VPC doesn't emulate a PS/2 keyboard (rather, it emulates a USB keyboard and mouse). Because of this, doing anything in BeOS that requires text input will cause the OS to freeze in VPC. The same thing will happen on a regular PC also, without VPC.