What Operating System do You Use?

[Einherjar]

Wait, GNU Emacs is a text editor... What?

Yep, it's known for being pretty decent at editing text, as well as many other things.

[Guest]

Linux Mint 10

For me, OS X is more like Linux without the headaches, unless you want to do open source development, then it usually becomes more of a pain in the butt.

Fun fact: OS X is derived from BSD, which is a Unix clone, IIRC.

[Lord-Knightmare]

I use Mac OS 10.5.8
I know its old, but my DVD drive's busted so I can't upgrade to 10.6.x yet.

[lipk]

Fun fact: OS X is derived from BSD, which is a Unix clone, IIRC.

Well, in fact, (Free)BSD is not a clone but a derivative. So it's a real Unix.

[Guest]

I wonder how hard it would be to reverse-engineer OS X to get Mac-only binaries running on Linux? It might be a useful work-around to get newer games working, since OS X is probably closer to Linux than Windows is, but this depends on there being OS X versions of proprietary games.

[battlestar]

Processor and physical storage of Cortex 6.0, RAM of Hypothalamus 3.0
Slow, small memory, wanders off and goes to places where it shouldn't.

[eliddell]

@Guest: Unlikely to be possible. It's easy enough to obtain the Mac kernel (you'll find it kicking around the Net under the name "Darwin", IIRC), but the windowing system is proprietary and complex, and reverse engineering even a simple program is bloody difficult.

[ATA]

Windows XP

[Radh]

I use Windows XP. My computer can't even support it's own Wifi, or I would go to Linux Mint any day. It's a refurbished PC I got for $100. Works pretty well for my pixelated and lo-fi gaming needs, so I like it for the price. Upgrade from the overheating laptop!

[Guest]

I use Windows XP. My computer can't even support it's own Wifi, or I would go to Linux Mint any day. It's a refurbished PC I got for $100. Works pretty well for my pixelated and lo-fi gaming needs, so I like it for the price. Upgrade from the overheating laptop!

Have you tried Mint via a live disk? You can test drive the OS without having to do anything except burn a CD (or temporarily sacrifice a flash drive, if you decide to use Unetbootin). Also, I fixed my own laptop overheating problems by getting a portable laptop fan thingie, which you can find at Kmart.

[Radh]

I use Windows XP. My computer can't even support it's own Wifi, or I would go to Linux Mint any day. It's a refurbished PC I got for $100. Works pretty well for my pixelated and lo-fi gaming needs, so I like it for the price. Upgrade from the overheating laptop!

Have you tried Mint via a live disk? You can test drive the OS without having to do anything except burn a CD (or temporarily sacrifice a flash drive, if you decide to use Unetbootin). Also, I fixed my own laptop overheating problems by getting a portable laptop fan thingie, which you can find at Kmart.

I have tried. I tried Ubuntu too, but you have to install the Wifi driver-thing (I really don't know how to explain it. The computer is unable to connect to wifi without this external USB ...thing). It can only install on Windows. There's no download package to make it cross-platform, so I'm stuck. (if that made any sense)

[Iris]

I have tried. I tried Ubuntu too, but you have to install the Wifi driver-thing (I really don't know how to explain it. The computer is unable to connect to wifi without this external USB ...thing). It can only install on Windows. There's no download package to make it cross-platform, so I'm stuck. (if that made any sense)

Are you sure it is Wi-Fi and not mobile broadband? In my experience modern Linux distributions support the latter well (Ubuntu 11.04 and later’s network manager applet even have step-by-step instructions to configure MB modems without having to know every manufacturer/ISP-specific option beforehand, IIRC).

[eliddell]

@Radh: Do you mean you have an external USB wireless network card/dongle that comes with a third-party driver under Windows? If so, you probably need to make a quick visit to http://linuxwireless.org/ to determine whether it works under Linux, and if so, what software you need and how to set it up—and whether it's easy enough for you to want to bother just so that you can try out a new OS. (If it isn't listed on their site under Devices > USB devices, and you can't find anything using the search directions in their FAQ, your chances of getting the thing working under Linux are probably close to zero.)

Unfortunately, there are still hardware manufacturers out there that don't see the point of providing Linux support, and most of them make either networking gear or printers/scanners. Good luck.

[Radh]

@Radh: Do you mean you have an external USB wireless network card/dongle that comes with a third-party driver under Windows? If so, you probably need to make a quick visit to http://linuxwireless.org/ to determine whether it works under Linux, and if so, what software you need and how to set it up—and whether it's easy enough for you to want to bother just so that you can try out a new OS. (If it isn't listed on their site under Devices > USB devices, and you can't find anything using the search directions in their FAQ, your chances of getting the thing working under Linux are probably close to zero.)

Unfortunately, there are still hardware manufacturers out there that don't see the point of providing Linux support, and most of them make either networking gear or printers/scanners. Good luck.

I checked the site; and my wireless driver/device isn't on there.

@shadowmaster - I'm pretty sure it's wifi. When connected, it allows the computer to connect to wifi, and because my computer is so old, it doesn't have that built-in.

[perseo]

Ubuntu with gnome interface. I don't like unity so I still use lucid lynx.
¡Salud!