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psuedo-poll: favorite x86 OS?

janey

janey

macrumors 603
Original poster
Dec 20, 2002
5,316
0
sunny los angeles
i'm so unbelievably fed up with windows xp, need an OS to install (how pathetic is it if you have six viruses on a 15 day old xp install, didnt even touch any email client and only downloaded and/or installed the service pack, iTunes, vs.net, office 2003 and stuff from TheOpenCD?!).

so i was wondering what you guys used as your favorite x86 OS other than windows.
the list is so long that i'm sort of down to randomly picking them.
thanks in advance.
 
At the moment Gentoo Linux.

Having said that it's a very involved OS. Installing it requires a good internet connection and a lot of time as it downloads source for everything and recomiles locally. If you know what you are doing this can lead to better performance. You also only have the stuff you want or need installed and turned on.
 
Tired of Windows? Download Red Hat Fedora core 1.

Then download WINE.

Bam, stable and no viruses :D

Edit: my favorite isn't limited to one, but include SuSE 9.0+ , Red Hat 9+, Mandrake 10+, and the many, many, many other easy to use, linux flavors out there :D
 
redhat would be the most user friendly of all the linux os. if you don't need user friendly then go with debian or even one up that and go with free bsd.
 
Honest Answer...

Dos 6.22 with Windows 3.11
There are many enhancements out there to allow you to run modern softwae in 3.11 and is by far the most stable of all the Windows.

However, I have also like BeOS, it is available for x86 and would probabily do the job you are looking for.

TEG
 
TEG said:
Honest Answer...

Dos 6.22 with Windows 3.11
There are many enhancements out there to allow you to run modern softwae in 3.11 and is by far the most stable of all the Windows.
Click to expand...

back in 96 I bought a P 120mhz with 32mb ram (screaming machine at the time) it came with 95 but for the first few weeks I ran 3.11 on it. man did it scream with that os. at that time having 3.11 on 32mb ram was like panther on 2gb now. my only good memory of a pc :)
 
übergeek said:
i'm so unbelievably fed up with windows xp, need an OS to install (how pathetic is it if you have six viruses on a 15 day old xp install, didnt even touch any email client and only downloaded and/or installed the service pack, iTunes, vs.net, office 2003 and stuff from TheOpenCD?!).

so i was wondering what you guys used as your favorite x86 OS other than windows.
the list is so long that i'm sort of down to randomly picking them.
thanks in advance.
Click to expand...


In order of pref:

XP
2000
Mandrake
Red Hat
BeOS 5
Gentoo (as someone else stated its a PITA to config/setup but once its up its a good OS.)
DOS/WIN 3.11 (Call me insane but I still like to putz around with DOS and 3.11.)
.
.
.
Windows 9x (When hell freezes over.)


As for viruses on Windows. Simple solution.
-Don't run attachments you don't know what they are about. (DUH!)
-Install a firewall. (Takes care of 100% of MS security vulnerabilities that can be exploited by worms.)
-DO NOT USE INTERNET INPLODER. FireFox is your friend.
-Install Norton AV.
-And install patches once every 4-6 months or so.

I've been using Windows since Windows 3.11 (Used Win95, 98, 98SE, WinNT, 2000, and XP.) and I have NEVER had a virus take out my system for one simple reason. I compute like I f***. I use protection.
 
blue&whiteman said:
back in 96 I bought a P 120mhz with 32mb ram (screaming machine at the time) it came with 95 but for the first few weeks I ran 3.11 on it. man did it scream with that os. at that time having 3.11 on 32mb ram was like panther on 2gb now. my only good memory of a pc :)
Click to expand...


The introduction of the Windows registry in Windows 95 was MS's biggest mistake in their history. That PoS is caused people more problems. They've made decent strides in Windows 2000 and XP with the reg but its still a massive Achilles heel for Windows. Thank god MS was smart enough to start making backups of the reg automatically. I'd still prefer OS X and *nix's implementation of plain text files for configurations.
 
OS with best GUI for x86: OS/2 3.0. WPS has many features which have never been seen in any other OS.
But you won't have any software to run.

Easiest to install: Lindows (Linspire) 4.5 Linux.
But it doesn't come with many packages you'll need.

Overall, probably your best choice is Red Hat.
 
blue&whiteman said:
back in 96 I bought a P 120mhz with 32mb ram (screaming machine at the time) it came with 95 but for the first few weeks I ran 3.11 on it. man did it scream with that os. at that time having 3.11 on 32mb ram was like panther on 2gb now. my only good memory of a pc :)
Click to expand...
Everything went to hell after Windows 95. I didn't even like it at the time, but support for the OS I wanted, OS/2, mysteriously died around the release of Win 95.
 
OS/2 Warp

I remember when I got my first pentium (a IBM M system rocketing along at 75 mhz.) it was preloaded with Windows 3.11 and IBM's own OS/2 Warp. Of the two, warp was by far the nicer operating system to work with. But alas, somehow it has vanished from the scene. Lamentably so, given that it was ahead of it's time.

Since then, short of Linux, which I have little experience with, it has been a dismal progression from OS to OS. (maybe the only near success for windows - was 2000)

Edit: Looking back at the post, I see I am not the only OS/2 fan. Please, IBM give us that system back.....although it wouldn't exactly get me switch from Mac. :)
 
SiliconAddict said:
The introduction of the Windows registry in Windows 95 was MS's biggest mistake in their history. That PoS is caused people more problems. They've made decent strides in Windows 2000 and XP with the reg but its still a massive Achilles heel for Windows. Thank god MS was smart enough to start making backups of the reg automatically. I'd still prefer OS X and *nix's implementation of plain text files for configurations.
Click to expand...
I couldn't agree more. Windows needs to toss out the whole registry concept because it is inherently flawed. The biggest flaw in the Registry is actually itself. Let me explain. Let's use an example from Mac OS X - an application's preferences become corrupted. That's OK - the application can simply create a new preferences file - no other apps are affected. Now for the Windows counter-example: a Windows app experiences corrupt preferences. This application stores its preferences in the Windows Registry, so effectively we have a corrupt Registry. Windows tries to access another part of the Registry, but can't because of the corrupt part. Bang! Instant Windows crash - you reboot, but Windows won't boot now because it can't load its settings as long as the Registry's corrupted. If it wasn't for the automatic Registry backup feature, you'd have a worthless copy of Windows. Do you see the flaw now?
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
If it wasn't for the automatic Registry backup feature, you'd have a worthless copy of Windows. Do you see the flaw now?
Click to expand...

Since the registry debutted, I've never seen the theoretical scenarios you mentioned occur, and I've deal with a LOT of pcs, software, and hardware configs. So I'd have to say, it is a theoretical flaw that has not come to pass. I'd say the X86 platform stress tests theoretical flaws more than any other platform so we can conclude the registry is not a problem. In fact, I only hear it talked about by network administrators, who know how to use it, or Mac users.
 
übergeek said:
i'm so unbelievably fed up with windows xp, need an OS to install (how pathetic is it if you have six viruses on a 15 day old xp install, didnt even touch any email client and only downloaded and/or installed the service pack, iTunes, vs.net, office 2003 and stuff from TheOpenCD?!).
Click to expand...

6 viruses on a 15-day XP install. Well, I'm not surprised. I take it XP and Office 2003 are retail and not also downloaded.

You can get 6 viruses and countless spyware in 15 minutes downloading from the Internet. Get an AntiVirus or install SP2 and buy your software.
 
MorganX said:
6 viruses on a 15-day XP install. Well, I'm not surprised. I take it XP and Office 2003 are retail and not also downloaded.

You can get 6 viruses and countless spyware in 15 minutes downloading from the Internet. Get an AntiVirus or install SP2 and buy your software.
Click to expand...

SP2 hasn't gone gold yet.
 
i love seeing all these mentions of BeOS cause it's my favorite of all time :p get it now if you can, it's so great in many many ways. windows would be lucky ot be like it. OS X might be better now, but BeOS came out a long time ago and still does a good job against current builds of linux or windows.
 
DR-DOS/GEM was my favourite but DR-DOS with Windows 3.11 worked too and GEOS wasn't that bad either but there were few applications.

Out of today's non-Windows choices, I'd probably go with Sun's Java Desktop System.
 
Rower_CPU said:
SP2 hasn't gone gold yet.
Click to expand...

Current version 2096 works great, i'd recommend going ahead and downloading it. Seems bug free on my windows machine

sp2.JPG
 
idkew said:
Most Def Windows ME



I love seeing it crash on a multiple time a day basis for my gf's family.
Click to expand...
:eek: Windows ME? :eek:
Wait just a minute, I see your point now...but I've never known a Windows user that loved Windows crashes (unless they also used Macs, like you do).
 
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