Which OS do you use on your computer?

What OS are you using on your computer?

  • Windows 2000

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Windows XP

    Votes: 80 61.5%
  • Windows Vista 32

    Votes: 22 16.9%
  • Windows Vista 64

    Votes: 14 10.8%
  • Linux

    Votes: 8 6.2%
  • Other OS

    Votes: 6 4.6%

  • Total voters
    130

Munkey

Inactive User
Joined
Jan 27, 2006
Messages
5,849
Reaction score
180
I am puttting together a new machine and cant decide on what OS to put onto it. I fancy using Vista 64 but if I am going to have worse performance than Windows XP I may give it a miss.

So out of curiosty what OS's are you guys using? Any regrets on what you are using?
 
Last edited:
I suppose it depends on what you want to do with your PC.

On my main machine I still have XP Pro for the program support and familiarity. The new waves of all mainstream software seems geared to Vista but some of the stuff I need isn't typical consumerware.

Why not put a few HDDs in and multi-boot? I say a few drives as it's a bit neater and partition mangling is less likely (unless you format the wrong drive that is). I was going to dual boot this with GNU/Linux but couldn't be bothered in the end as the HDDs are on a RAID controller which might have brought up some interesting driver problems. I will when I get a new PC though, with Vista as well perhaps.
 
Last edited:
I'm going to mainly use it for video encoding, file server, ftp server and for surfing the web.

I dont fancy the aggrovation of program compatability TBH. Its a tough one as I cant be bothered to do another clean install in case I change my mind in a few days, I don't enjoy breaking and fixing things as much as I used to LOL.

if the poll is inconclusive I'll definitely give the multi boot a go.
 
Last edited:
Do what I do and make drive images with Acronis True Image or similar. I can't remember the last time I ran the XP installer on this machine, I just put an image on.

You can revert back to different installations quite quickly.

Better to store the images on a separate internal drive. As Acronis had bootable media you can back up any OS without installing it.

I would be temped to use more than one machine for what you want. Have the server headless somewhere and possibly running GNU/Linux, if you dual-booted your main PC you could use the X server to remote to it probably.
 
You could still dual boot whilst you make up your mind.

It is easy enough to convert the windows partition to ext3 if you stick with Linux or vice versa if you choose windows, and it wouldn't require a reload
 
XP For me, I only have 2GB Of ram so vista still ran kinda slugish with out tewaking the services.
 
in fairness, there are swathe of Vista SKU's:

Vista Home Basic
Vista Home Premium
Vista Business
Vista Ultimate

Is there more even? Plus, are there not 64bit versions of all bar Vista Home Basic as well?
 
For what you want, I'd definitely go with linux. If you're prepared to put in a bit of time learning a new system (note 'new', not 'more difficult'), then the rewards could be great. The only disadvantages would be a lack of games (it's getting better but linux gaming is still WAY behind windows in terms of choice), and maybe video editing (things like Adobe premier etc). Video encoding is a different kettle of fish, and a few customized mencoder or ffmpeg scripts will run rings around any Windows software for dvd ripping and generation. I wrote a script about a year ago to rip my DVD collection. I got the 'time infront of the PC'' down to 3 minutes per disc. I managed to do all my 150 odd discs in a (very long and boring) day.

You may as well give it a try, since:
- It's free
- You can dual boot anyway if you want
- Don't like it? Just delete it.

As for the server related stuff, then imho, linux wins hands down. Everything you'll need is free (as in properly free, not 'obtainable'), and it's more secure/reliable. And for surfing the net, at least for now there's no (or pitifully few) linux viruses, so no need for anti virus/spyware or any onf the countless other 'security' programs people install on windows.
 
Most of the free stuff is Windows based so that's where I lay my hat.

And everytime I install Linux I spend the next month trying to get it to look, behave and run like WINDOWS!

I'd rather pay Apple for OSX than run Linux these days.

What i really wants is Amiga OS.

:)
 
I've got a couple of 80GB hardrives lying around that I was going to sell for £20 each on ebay, now I'm going to keep them for a dual or even triple boot...

I think I will try Linux although I'm dreading learning how to use a new OS. I don't use my PC for gaming at all, just for video encoding and database queries. Thanks for the advice beady.

First I'm going to try a dual boot with Vista. If Vista is any good on a desktop I may stick with it (on my lappy it was rather slow). I've managed to source a copy of Vista, I think its the Ultimate version but as karym6 says there are so many versions its difficult keeping track of what is out there.

A few people have mentioned that they have XP and Vista dual boot. In what scenario would you prefer to use Vista? Also do all versions of Vista have Media Centre built in?
 
i got xp and vista 32 on my pc but mainly use xp...vista seems toooo user friendly
 
A few people have mentioned that they have XP and Vista dual boot. In what scenario would you prefer to use Vista? Also do all versions of Vista have Media Centre built in?

Vista over XP, urm...never mate, XP does everything Vista does except it does it faster.

Vista comes with it's own flavour of WMC as standard.
 
Vista over XP, urm...never mate, XP does everything Vista does except it does it faster.

Vista comes with it's own flavour of WMC as standard.

Thanks. I guess the poll is pretty comprehensive. I use MediaPortal but I can't help be curious as to how good Vista Media centre is.
 
newsgroupssssssssssssssssssssssssssss :)

Vista and Server 2008 are actually based on the same NT 6.0 Kernel.

2008 is lovelly, I really enjoyed using it but I had a few issues with my Wireless so I dropped it, shame though as I really did like it and it was lightening fast.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top