Best OS?

[Jschroet]

Hey I need to go shopping for a computer system and I know one thing I have to know is what Operating system I want on it I have experince in Windows(I didn't like it) Mac OS X (heart it to bits) Linux (which looks cool)

have heard of BSD and OS/2 as well.Now I know I need a computer that is Fast and stable first off! But...I also know I need (or want) a computer with the following :

Good User interface you know not to buggy

Fast and stable even if there are millions of programs running

good ease of use in general

Wide range of software with good offerings in engineerring/math/science specialty software.

Secure

 

Not imporant: cost(not very much as most people anyway)

Gaming ,Instant Messaging having a million choices for one thing)

Now I happen to like macs but there major flaw is lack of software you know cad and other engineering stuff

 

I don't know about linux and windows I really dont want to use as my only OS(maybe dual-boot with Linux/BSD

 

 

thanks to anyone that posts as I try not to get swept up in OS advocacy wars

 

[radiohead]

I love Linux. But not many things are compatible with it. CAD won't work on Linux unless you find one on the internet. What I would do is make like a 5 gig partition and put Windoze on it, then on the rest install Linux. It is much more stable and a hell of a lot faster than Windoze because it doesn't have to deal with the Win32 API. You can leave Linux running for weeks, maybe even months, and it won't crash. I would suggest Ubuntu Hoary Hedgehog distro, but thats just me. It's free (as are all Linux distros). All you have to do is burn it as an ISO image and boot to it to install it.

 

EDIT: But there are many OS's out there. BeOS, OS/2, etc..

 

Just test them out and see which one you like best.

[Pangloss]

Good User interface you know not to buggy

Fast and stable even if there are millions of programs running

good ease of use in general

Wide range of software with good offerings in engineerring/math/science specialty software.

Secure

 

You might want to check out Solaris 10. It's more or less designed for that sort of thing, and it has the benefit of not being Microsoft OR Linux. And it's free.

 

http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/

[dsjgenius]

linux

red hat linux 10

its just to cool to handle but of course u have to know a lot of progaming . but i still think its awesome

[Dave]

Redhat has been outdated by Fedora Core. I think the latest version is Fedora Core 4, you can find it at: http://fedora.redhat.com/

 

My take on the subject is that OS X is pretty much beasting; I'm considering getting a PowerBook at some point, just for OS X

[1veedo]

Pretty much anything open source or unix bassed. I have never tried solaris but I think it's bassed on unix. I don't think windows is going to suffice for your needs, though.

[Klaynos]

CAD won't work on Linux unless you find one on the internet.

 

qCAD: http://www.ribbonsoft.com/qcad.html

 

What I use for CAD work.

 

I like ubuntu, made a decision to install it instead of Fedora Core, decided I prefered the update cycle to fedora.

[Dave]

I'd toyed with the idea of installing ubuntu, but decided that I love gentoo too much

 

(For those who aren't in the know, ubuntu is a derivative of gentoo but instead of building everything from source, ubuntu uses binary packages. I find the extra flexibility of gentoo to be quite nice.)

[radiohead]

Gentoo kicks arse. But, I really don't have time to install for 8 hours...

[Dave]

It doesn't take that long unless you want to install from stage1. Most people tend to go from stage3, and then rebuild the system when they have time. It's a lot more convenient that way.

[1veedo]

I tried installing gentoo once but something went wrong...I tried logging in and there wasn't even a root acount! That also happened on slackware but when I tried installing it again, everythign worked fine.

 

I have ubuntu right now but I'm probably installing FC4 June 6. I'll leave ubuntu on, though. Maybe even use it over FC4...I really like it. I have a couple complaints more then I had w/ FC3 but overall I think it's better.

[Dave]

I have to say that I still can't stand rpms, even after all this time. The shining feature of gentoo is portage, and it works extortionately well - it's like nothing I've ever used before, really. And as an added bonus, extremely simple to create and maintain even complex ebuilds. Definately my distro of choice, at least for the time being.

[Aeternus]

(For those who aren't in the know, ubuntu is a derivative of gentoo but instead of building everything from source, ubuntu uses binary packages. I find the extra flexibility of gentoo to be quite nice.)

 

I thought Ubuntu was a debian offshoot (using the bleeding edge builds for everything rather than sticking with debian stable)??

 

Ubuntu is a free' date=' open source operating system that starts with the breadth of Debian and adds regular releases (every six months), a clear focus on the user and usability (it should "Just Work", TM) and a commitment to security updates with 18 months of support for every release.[/quote']

 

Seems to suggest debian but i cant find a definitive history anywhere.

 

I thought Gentoo's portage system was loosely based on debian and freebsd's package management systems but obviously with the exception that it is primarily compile from source (and yes i agree gentoo kicks ass, i just LOVE portage and the community).

 

Gentoo's History

 

It all began with Extra Time. Time to explore' date=' Time to discover, Time to experiment. That's how the creator of Gentoo, Daniel Robbins stepped into the world of Linux. [b']He started with Debian Linux, setup a couple of applications[/b], learnt the ins & outs of Linux and as most Linux users do, tried out a couple of distributions and settled to help out with a distro called Stampede Linux. Soon he was into Stampede development and working on their package management system. After a period of time and due to certain issues, he moved on and decided that he would create his own distribution.

 

Thus, Enoch was born. Daniel wanted Enoch to be a blazingly fast distro with capabilities to completely automate the package creation and upgrading process. Soon there was a #enoch on irc.freenode.net and 10 developers helping with the distro. Over a period of time, as Enoch started improving, they felt that it needed a new name. They called it Gentoo Linux. Around about the time Gentoo was moving to its 1.0 release, Daniel bought a new, fast machine. The motherboard model had a faulty chip that caused Linux to lock up when idle and because of that, Gentoo Linux development came to a complete halt.

 

Since there wasn't anything going on with Gentoo, Daniel switched to FreeBSD. He liked what he saw. Especially the "Ports" system. And he returned to the Linux world. Along with the help of other developers like Achim Gottinger, Gentoo was back on track & charging ahead. The whole package management system was redesigned & called Portage. Gentoo has been in active development ever since, with tons of features being continually added over the years. Teams of volunteers help keep Gentoo on the bleeding edge and patched to ensure maximum security & stability.

 

That seems to suggest the main contributor was FreeBSD.

[Klaynos]

I thought Ubuntu was a debian offshoot (using the bleeding edge builds for everything rather than sticking with debian stable)??

 

 

 

Seems to suggest debian but i cant find a definitive history anywhere.

 

I thought Gentoo's portage system was loosely based on debian and freebsd's package management systems but obviously with the exception that it is primarily compile from source (and yes i agree gentoo kicks ass' date=' i just LOVE portage and the community).

 

 

 

That seems to suggest the main contributor was FreeBSD.[/quote']

 

 

As I undstand it ubuntu is the latest debian unstable snapshot and then altered.

 

 

Ubuntu and Debian are closely related. Ubuntu builds on the foundations of Debian architecture and infrastructure, with a different community and release process.

 

Taken from: http://www.ubuntulinux.org/ubuntu/relationship/document_view

[Dave]

Ahha, I'm wrong again.

 

I don't know where I get these ideas from, you know

[Deviation]

The best OS ever will be released in 2006 April by a lesser know company called MS. Its supposeldy gona slay Linux Once and for all with its long horn.

[calbiterol]

What exactly is "portage?" "rpms?" Also, I was under the impression (from a Popular Science Article) that there are programs that will allow oneslelf to run Windows programs on a Linux PC. Is this true?

[Dave]

The best OS ever will be released in 2006 April by a lesser know company called MS. Its supposeldy gona slay Linux Once and for all with its long horn.

 

If Longhorn is anything like XP, then it will be nothing of the sort. I suspect that it will try to simulate OS X and fail miserably.

 

What exactly is "portage?" "rpms?"

 

Portage is a package management system; it allows the user to control specifically what is installed on the system. Packages can be obtained (in source format), compiled, optimized and install with the run of a single command. Kindof like the Add/Remove Programs thing in Windows, except about 2000 times more usable and infinitely better at doing what it does. For example, if I want to update every package on the system to the latest version, I need simply type:

 

emerge -u world

 

Portage does the rest for me - obtaining sources, compiling and installing.

 

RPMs are somewhat of a different beast. They contain a package/program that has already been compiled (unless you have a sRPM, but that's a different story). On systems that use rpm files, you can install these by using a similar command. They're harder to maintain (in my opinion) and can quite easily break your system because of the absolutely abysmal dependence system.

 

Also, I was under the impression (from a Popular Science Article) that there are programs that will allow oneslelf to run Windows programs on a Linux PC. Is this true?

 

To a certain extent. WINE will allow you to run Windows applications undex Linux. It's basically an open-source implementation of the Windows APIs. Just be aware that it's still in development - not all programs will work under it, and the ones that do will be quite slow.

[Klaynos]

The best OS ever will be released in 2006 April by a lesser know company called MS. Its supposeldy gona slay Linux Once and for all with its long horn.

 

Longhorn has had anything interesting either removed or it will be back ported to xp (Avalon backported, winfs removed), it's another case of MS saying "we're going to fix windows this time and bring you something completely new", and then just releasing something very similar with a new shiny cover, I'm not anticipating it, it is a a long time comming too, XP will be an old os when it is released.

[Dave]

It's a bit of a cock-up all around, really. There were supposed to be some significant revisions in this version of XP. For an OS that's supposed to be "revolutionary", we don't appear to be getting much apart from shiny bits that are inevitably useless.

 

Considering it's over-budget, late and generally bloated, I can't see it being any good.

[Pangloss]

One interesting aspect of this is the gradual shifting of gaming development away from PCs and over to the next generation of console games, like XBox and PlayStation. HDTV support, more complex types of games, and low hardware cost all drive users in that direction.

 

Most users pick an OS because of compatibility and familiarity. But it does seem to me that the shift in gaming emphasis from PC to console will assist a lot of power users and geeks in weening themselves of the Microsoft teat. Ironic, in that case, that Microsoft is helping to fuel that very change.

[Klaynos]

If I have the choice of whether to get a ps2 game or a PC game even when I was a windows only user I always went for the ps2 one, it's just so much easier...