What Operating System(s) is(are) your choice(s)?

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I just use Windows 10 really the GUI is pretty nice and I've rarely had issues with it, also what's so great about Linux if you guys don't mind me asking?
It's kind of the same argument of iPhone vs Android, one you can do the basic stuff with but it hides the advanced and more complicated things away from the user (windows), and the other allows you to do basically anything (linux).
For me my main gripe with Windows 10 is wasting system resources and all the bloatware you can't uninstall.

It runs relatively slow on my work laptop (only have 2 gig of RAM to play with) and arrived pre-installed full of programs I will never use and can't get rid of.

I need excel with macros, VBA and userforms running flawlessly and am worried that WINE under Linux will not do that for me (based on things I've read on the internets).

Anyone know if Windows 7 is any less resource hungry and full of junk?

(I can't use XP as I need full support with the latest Chrome for a cloud-based application we have at work).
 

cheese

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Technically, if you reinstall the OS, it will get rid of the bloatware either way. I'm pretty sure Windows 10 is supposed to run better, but the minimum spec on both windows 10 and 7 is 1ghz processor and 1gb ram for 32 bit and 2gb ram for 64 bit.

If you'd like I can test whatever you need in Linux under wine to see what does and doesn't work

EDIT: Windows 10 sucks lmao, use 7 if you can
 
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cheese

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Just noting that I am gonna amend my statement, if you don't need any of the things that are win 10 only, I would strongly suggest going to windows 7. I installed 10 in a virtual machine (as I need it for some programming stuff), and it is slow as shit (compared to the 7 vm it is at least 2x-3x slower) with literally nothing installed whatsoever.
 
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Cool, cheers for letting me know.

All I need is Excel running solidly (i.e. natively) and the latest Chrome build, sounds like 7 is my least worst option.

Thanks!
 

Miceeno

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I run a tri boot setup. I run Linux as my primary, Windows 7 for Steam and recently Adobe products, and the 3rd is my dirty install of Linux that I use as an incognito OS and a sandbox for distros and desktop environments I'm trying out.

I usually run a Debian varient of Linux but last year I fell in love with Arch because it is only what you need. I also love the archwiki, that place is glorious. And pacman is so intuitive. But I got sick of "the Arch way" when my proprietary Broadcom driver kept breaking so I said screw it and switched to Ubuntu because it just works. As of right now Ubuntu and (mostly) Gnome3 are irritating me so I'm considering going to Antergos with Plasma 5, Manjaro, or stepping out of my comfort zone and trying openSUSE or Red Hat.
 
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Debian!

Yay package management!

Basically Systemd and aptitude, then it gets bastardized to fit whatever platform I'm using. So mostly Debian.
Ubuntu for desktop, because Nvidia :\

- sent from Xubuntu Xenial on my Lenovo Y50
 

fibbef

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Despite having a degree in computer science, I don't mess around with software too much so I just stick with Windows 7. I was a little iffy when MS was offering free upgrades to Windows 10 and then I watched The Kingsmen and saw what happened when everyone accepted the free SIM cards and I'm glad I didn't upgrade.

I'd like to make a Raspi laptop someday so that means I'll have to learn to use Debian/Raspbian.
 
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I do a lot of AAA PC gaming, so i just stick with the latest Windows, I'm not a power user so Win 10 hasn't been to bad for me.
 
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I've been using Xubuntu for almost 5 years now and have completely removed my dependency for windows.

Besides compiling is so much faster for me ;)
 
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mary OS is Arch Linux, it was a bit of a journey to get here. @Miceeno Manjaro is a very good quick deploy distro that is Arch-based. The other half of my hard drive has MS's latest ad platform of Win10. I feel dirty everytime I use it and I prefer not to do any development in it. I am looking at getting a good thinkpad to put just linux on.
 

Nold

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Nice to see so many linux users around here :)

personally, Im using (only) linux for 10 years now. I fell in love with Debian back then & using it until today. (+ XFCE).
At work I'm forced to use Win10 now.. the only good thing about it is, that it reminds me why i use linux.. ^^
 

Miceeno

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The other half of my hard drive has MS's latest ad platform of Win10. I feel dirty everytime I use it and I prefer not to do any development in it. I am looking at getting a good thinkpad to put just linux on.
At work I'm forced to use Win10 now.. the only good thing about it is, that it reminds me why i use linux.. ^^
M$ and windows has been so irritating lately! I feel like they've intentionally broken windows update to force people to windows 10. I've had to turn windows update off on my install of win7 because it bsod's anytime it updates and has to be reinstalled. On my wife's gaming PC I've given in and upgraded her to an inactivated copy of win10 (I will never give micro$oft another dime). And I just recently built the gaming PC of my teenager dreams: Q6600, 4GB SLI Dual Channel RAM, EVGA nForce 680i mobo, 8800 GTX SLI, 4 1TB drive RAID5, DVD drive, CD drive, Floppy drive, all in an Alienware Area51 ALX case from 2006ish (so lucky to find one on the classifieds), running Windows Vista Ultimate. Even windows update for vista causes bsod's after it runs. From what I understand it's the update pertaining the malware (can't remember the codename) that exploits windows smb. And M$ can fix it in win10 but magically the patch bricks all older versions of windows.

The worst part of it all on my "retro" (but not really) gaming pc build is I have to run windows update to get the dependencies to install steam. I can't get things stable enough to see if my computer can run Crisis yet. I've tried win10 but the old geforce driver for the 8800 GTX is 100% incompatible with win10.

/rant on micro$oft

Fortunately WINE runs DX9 and older games better than Windows does so I can run linux for most everything I like doing but DX10 and newer and I'm stuck with windows. I had the crazy idea of upgrading my Plex server and switching from freenas to unraid so I can add a GPU and an installation of win10 then use steam in home streaming to stream games to my linux machine. The only catch is I just made a career change and I travel a lot now so I can't rely on steam in home streaming. So I've been researching gaming laptops that have IOMMU groups that will allow me to use KVM virtualization and have a linux machine with windows gaming without dual booting.

Right now I'm liking the Razer Blade laptops because they have macbook build quality. Also Razer says they intend to provide full linux support for their Blades but I'm not sure how valid this is after my experience with the Black Widow keyboards in linux. The way the Black Widow behaves in linux made me swear to never buy another Razer product but their laptops are sexy.

Do you linux guys know of any really good gaming laptops that work well with linux?
 
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I can't tell you of a laptop that is geared toward gaming, but I had an Acer that was awesome with Arch. It didn't have high gaming specs, but it worked well, until the dog helped give it Mtn Dew.
 

jhonny

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Which Operating Systems do you like, and why so?


I'm partial specifically to Windows XP primarily, and then I run Mint on my netbook.

XP I use for basic game emulation and Fruity Loops primarily.

While I use Mint on the go for web browsing and minor graphic work mostly.
I run Ubuntu on my main laptop, Arch on my secondary laptop, and Lubuntu on the machine I use for data recovery.
I like Ubuntu and Lubuntu because I need to be able to fire both of them up and have it just work. I like Arch because I don't have to have a single package installed that I don't want.
 
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