There's actually noit much chice, not yet. majority of the applications and gamez are built for Windows platform and Gates is still raging on with his smart marketing strategies. The popular OS get to win and Windows is super popular.

welll that guy/girl a couple post above me is right, the one talking about how they all have their purposes just depends on what u are intersted on doing w/ them....... as far as my opinion.. *nix

linux is GREAT for programming and webdesign and self hosting of servers, they also are just plain great servers. fully customizable. no registry to get corrupted. i use SuSe9.2 and ive used Fedora Core, GREAT!

windows is only good if i was a gamer, but im not. and im not big on ONE OS claiming 90% of the world.. i like the fact that linux can be programmed, and reprogrammed and individuals can make their own versions, and its mostly freeware..

mac would be great if i was into multimedia, but im not heavily into it... so its still crap.

Its a boy!!!!

It's how you prefer which functions and compatibility issues when comes to select your best operating system to use.

Windows is definately the more popular choice and well-known even for non-IT literate. Support and help can be easily obtained anywhere, even by stopping someone on the streets and ask for help with Windows OS. Installations are much a breeze and drivers compatibility will simply work without much reading to its FAQ frequently.
Of course the most popular may be always targeted by virus-writers and hackers. Simply because its the most popular, spreading viruses and hacking can be easily done on the huge population. So Windows OS is never safe.

Linux/Mac are Unix based OS that have much much lesser users. Virus writers and hackers find no point hacking users of these OS, simply because its pretty useless and doesn't do much damage to the major community. Unix based OS are harder to use and have minimal support. Installations are a hassle and cannot be done easily by a normal user. Extra time is needed to find compatible drivers, which may eventually not able to obtain one.

Many will immediately say Linux is the best, but do they use Linux?
For me, I'll say Windows OS is the best operating system for all general use, like now.. I wouldn't want to spend extra time and hassle to install Linux and try to make everything work just to use something that not everybody is using. I would say for general use, no point using Linux unless its on a server task or something related.

Oke first of all i am a Linux user for almost 6 years now and as you can read in my reply a fewpost back i don't think its the best OS (doh for me it feels better as windows) . I am not a pro but I know the system good enough to say that some partsof what you say about linux is bull.

There are viruses written for linux it also has itsvirusscanners. Also linux systems get hacked since hackers don't look at the system they only want to now if they can get in. (mind Hackers not Crackers/Scriptkiddies), thats also why there are allot of ways to set a firewall in linux.

taken from grisoft aka AVG.


When I started with linux making my soundcard to work was like a little hell on earth but linux came a long way and nowdays its harder to find something that isnot supported in a way by linux. Oke for some things you still need to lookk for drivers on the internet but this isgeting better by the day. if you have a modern system I doubt that there would be allot that doesn't work right away.

Imo linux is easier to use as windows, but when you used windows all your live its hard to make the step to think in a diferent way. The learn-curve in linux is a bit higher but when you tasted it and realy tried it most people (I say most not all) agree that linux is easier as they thougt. All it takes is letting go the windows way of thinking.

And support on *nix is bad?? Where have you been m8? Take a look on the irc channels of irc.freenode.net and see that there is lots of help. Even the dumbest questions will get a answer. Also the site of the distro you took has a forum to ask questions most of the time. If you bought linux in a store (Suse for instance) you are mostly entiteld to get support from the Suse team.



I had to reinstall my system a few days back because my harddisk died and I Installed both linux (debian) and WindowsXP guess which one was up and running with all drivers, software and updates the fastest??

Yes debian regardless the fact i needed to find a driver for my webcam. and you know why?

The basic system of Windows was done really fast but then i needed to install my virusscanner and firewall. After that and a reboot (why does windows always have to reboot after installing a system-tool??) I was told by a balloon that I needed to update my virusscanner and firewall because they where to old.. Oke so I did.

Only a few seconds later a new baloon telling me that there were updates availeble for windows and if i would like to install them.. Oke I want to have my system up to date so I did. After the intstallation of the update windowstold me it had to reboot again But oke thats windows.

Finaly I thought now I have my system and I can work on it.. Wrong.. There was no office software installed yet and since I need excel for my school I needed to install officeXp. So I did an guess???
Yup again windows wanted me to reboot

I also needed to install Nero to burn backups and again after te installation I wasask to reboot my system

but oke in your opinion thats easier as answer a few questions when you install linux and pick the 'desktop' option when provided to have a full working system with office-software and a burner and more?? (you can also pick packages by hand if you want to reduce system space)???

Linux never did force me to reboot the complete system even not when i installed a new kernel...

In my opinion I would have to say Windows. I'm currently useing Windows XP and I love it. The reason I say Windows is because the only Computers i've had had Windows on them. And if your looking for any software or games most of them run on Windows. I've never seen any game or software that you can't use because you have Windows as a Operating System.

Yes I've to agree with you. But please don't misunderstand me. I didn't meant Linux operating system is 100% hackproof or virusproof. In fact, or rather, Linux should be easiler to intrude into because it's all code or command based provided the hacker and virus writer knows around about Linux pretty well as Linux is open-sourced. Firewalls and Anti-Virus is also required too. However Linux is generally safer than Windows, that's what many will agree.


And again, I'm not saying Linux doesn't have support. They have definately, but much lesser than the support for Windows OS. You can easily find help on Windows OS on the internet and understand the guides of troubleshooting whereas for Linux, you have to find for a relevant helpline, which in your case might be in IRC and then solve your problem as immediate as possible without waiting any much longer for replies. Searching for help on the Internet for Windows OS can be as immediate and the search results and guides usually appear in multiple sites so the user may obtain help much easier, quicker and on-demand.


I definately have to agree with this. Windows is well-known for rebooting again and again otherwise. Generally any installations that deals with system settings and configurations or component drivers, a reboot is required. Linux, I don't think reboot is needed. That's a very big obvious advantage after using Linux for some time.

Anyway, you are a Linux user. Where did you usually get your help and guides from? If websites, what are the links? Because I'm trying to get into the Linux world too and I believe the future is Linux everywhere. I always have problems with Mandrake and I almost unable to get a single help from anywhere. Maybe you can recommend some with your experience. But definately for now I cannot deny that Windows still rule the majority.

Its been a long time since I really used the internet to find info for linux, specialy basic stuff what starters need but first of all the website of the linux version of your choice is/should be a good source for info. Take a look @ www.debian.org or www.gentoo.org and you will see that there are lots of guides to help you with the installation when you face a instalation problem thats a god source to look first.

Also a nice place to look is http://www.justlinux.com/ and http://www.tuxfiles.org/

If you have irc irc.freenode.net is a good source for help and info to.

but overall first look on the website of your distro, most people easely forget that thats also an info source..

Note. Mandrake is nowday Mandriva and for what I have seen the documentation on its site is oke and easy to understand.. The only thing is that it s a rpm based system and personaly those are not my favorit. But since allot of people like rpm based systems I guess there must be something good about it

I use debian-sid btw