Which operating system do you use/want to use?

[neutrino15]

I know I am a unix fan, but what are the real statistics? This is a repeat of the poll done in 2002 (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14125&highlight=operating+system+poll). I could not find a more recent poll!

[jimmythetulip22]

LOL, I spent all my money on a segway...

Oh, anyways, I have Vista Pro., and I think that is the one that I prefer the most also.

[Herodotus]

I'm rather a fan of Vista so far. I've got a good computer so it runs well. So far everything works pretty flawlessly on it, and I don't have even a sliver of the problems other's have had. It's just all around working out well for me.

[EHaskins]

I've been running Vista on my laptop for over 6 months and Vista x64 on my desktop for a month, and I've been extreamly happy with both systems.

I don'y have a proplem with unix/linux/mac systems, but for what I do Windows is easier and faster.

[Boku-Ni]

Mmm, I like to use both Vista and Fedora (Linux). >.<

[artdutra04]

I use Mac OS X and Windows XP.

[JohnC]

I would love to use OS X, but I don't care enough to jump through the hoops involved.

I've heard speculation that programming next year will be LabVIEW based.

[Guy Davidson]

I use XP, and I'm more than happy using it.

[keen101]

I would be thrilled if Teams could use Linux, or some sort of Open Source software available to Windows, Linux, and MAC users.




P.S. ...I heard more programming languages will be supported next year. (maybe python will be supported)

[lukevanoort]

I put other because I use many. At my work, I code entirely in either OS X or while SSH'd into a Linux box. At home, I run XP and Ubuntu; unfortunately, I'm too lazy to get wireless working with Ubuntu, so I usually just use XP. I do a little coding on my TI-86, but that is just so I don't have to remember equations for stress calcs and stuff like that (I don't make games or other complicated programs).

[jleibs]

Programming is programming and in spirit it should transcend the operating system you use. If you can't program on both, you are going to have problems.

On a related note, getting good at programming on a whiteboard with no OS involved is a tremendously useful skill.

1) When you're using a whiteboard and marker your brain just fundamentally works differently (different neural pathways, etc.) than when you're clicking away in some dumbed down M$ Windows GUI, or elegantly crafting your code in Emacs (No bias at all... I swear :D )

2) When you go to interview for jobs in the future a lot of times they want you to "program" on a whiteboard. This first couple times I did this it was pretty rough. As I practiced more I got better, and now when I get stuck on a programming problem, I definitely like to go to the whiteboard and think outloud there.

That said, I find that Linux gives you substantially more flexible in doing things in the way that is most intuitive to you, rather than forcing you to develop as someone else sees fit.

We only use windows at work. It makes me cry. But I run a full-screen copy of cygwin and try my best to pretend otherwise.

Oh yeah, and the only real Linux users run Gentoo and compile everything from source. :p

[pogenwurst]

Oh yeah, and the only real Linux users run Gentoo and compile everything from source.

I've been tempted to switch to Gentoo for some time now, but I always question whether it's worth my time. :D

And I have to disagree with you... "real Linux users" use LFS (http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/). ;)

[Inverted]

Originally Posted by pogenwurst
I've been tempted to switch to Gentoo for some time now, but I always question whether it's worth my time.

I tried installing that twice a couple of years ago... Both times it took me several hours and failed at the end. The last Linux distros I used were Xandros for my PC, and Yellow Dog 3 on my old iBook.

But now I use OS X 10.5 on my shiny MacBook Pro and couldn't be happier.

[Mib]

The major issue here is the MPlab software, as well as any camera software that FIRST supports. As far as I know, MPlab does not port very well to Linux, and the dependencies and/or libraries do not go with Wine/Cedega.

[Mib]

I've been tempted to switch to Gentoo for some time now, but I always question whether it's worth my time. :D

And I have to disagree with you... "real Linux users" use LFS (http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/). ;)

that is not true. Real Linux users use whatever is easiest, and get's the job done. I am friends with many database and system administrators, and most of them use Ubuntu at home (Gentoo and openSuSE for close seconds), and Debian is now the de-facto server OS.

People who say CLI or "the bare-bones linux" are for "real" linux users are people who are trying to make it hard on others, and don't know the truth of the situation. People who hate Ubuntu, do not know that there's more to the distro that meets the eye, you just have to dig a little bit further.

[jleibs]

I've been tempted to switch to Gentoo for some time now, but I always question whether it's worth my time. :D

And I have to disagree with you... "real Linux users" use LFS (http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/). ;)

Yeah. I was mostly kidding there. I think Mib is actually the most correct, that being real linux users use whatever works best for them.

The main problem with the philosophy of: "real linux users do something in a tedious and hard way so that they can have a sense of moral superiority." Is that they spend so much time futzing with making it work, that they seldom actually DO anything with it :)

I actually don't even use Gentoo myself on new installs anymore. It was great 3 years ago. It has since just become too bloated and fragile. If I had to throw my weight behind a Distro, it is incredibly hard to beat Ubuntu.

[pogenwurst]

that is not true. Real Linux users use whatever is easiest, and get's the job done. I am friends with many database and system administrators, and most of them use Ubuntu at home (Gentoo and openSuSE for close seconds), and Debian is now the de-facto server OS.

People who say CLI or "the bare-bones linux" are for "real" linux users are people who are trying to make it hard on others, and don't know the truth of the situation. People who hate Ubuntu, do not know that there's more to the distro that meets the eye, you just have to dig a little bit further.

Haha, it was just a little joke -- take a look at my user title. ;)

The major issue here is the MPlab software, as well as any camera software that FIRST supports. As far as I know, MPlab does not port very well to Linux, and the dependencies and/or libraries do not go with Wine/Cedega.

I had MPLAB working with an older version of Wine, but it's broken now.

However, IMHO it doesn't much matter. I just use Eclipse and run MCC18 through Wine.

[bronxbomber92]

I do all my programming on Mac OS X, except for robotics which I do on school computers on Windows XP (unfortunately).