First off, please do NOT use this thread for Vista/XP/Apple/anything bashing. Keep it friendly, and see that there is good in everything.
I was just surfing through these the forums, and I see that there are some Linux users, what I really want to know is:
1. What OS are you using? (Dual-boot? with what?)
2. Why do you use that(these) OS(s)?
3. What advantages/disadvantages does it have?
4. Related websites?
5. What should an OS consist of?
I'll start off this thread.
1. Arch Linux, and Gentoo dual boot with GRUB.
2. I use both of these OSs since they were made for speed. Arch Linux is a pre-optimized, light weight, binary based OS, so it has a fast install speed, and is very snappy all around. Gentoo is a source-based system (You compile everything for your hardware), that takes a long time to install, but it is worth is for the speed.
3. I see no disadvantages for Arch besides that there are a few packages that are not in the repos. Gentoo has two: You really need a fast CPU, or a lot of time on your hands since you have to compile everything, and there are a lot of bugs with Gentoo.
4.
www.archlinux.org
www.gentoo.org
5. To me an operating system should have as few layers as possible, allowing a bonding between the user and the base of the machine. As for the GUI, it should be minialistic, and should not try to make it's self present, the user should feel like it is the "Right" way for the UI to work.
A few extra notes: I enjoy GNOME, KDE, OpenBox, and XFCE. They all have their advantages, and disadvantages. The thing is I do lean towards OpenBox, and XFCE since of their minimalism.