I have been using linux on my laptop and home PC for 4 years.
I use Knoppix DVD edition installed to the hard drive with KDE desktop on both.
The home PC is setup as a web server and I use it to host my webcam so I can watch the house from work =) (FREE !).
I use the same distro on the laptop and I have it setup with the wifi and it works great ! I am using the laptop to chat on the forums and general internet and school-work using Open Office 2. =)
I’ve been a user in the past, however I only use Windows XP currently. I need the Windows DRM functionality for my schooling, and I hate having to take care of more than one system–for me, a computer is always a means to an end. So Windows XP it is, for now.
Also, I should add that I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the stability of Windows XP compared to previous Windows versions. Yeah, it’s not “server stable,” but for casual personal use, it works pretty well.
I’ve been using a Mac for about two years, but my email is still on Microsoft Entourage, and I still have Microsoft Office on this thing. I think those are okay, as long as they aren’t running my operating system!
My Mac, of course, runs Unix. Or Unix runs my Mac, I guess…
Our friend Steve, a.k.a. Dogbowl, is proud to be a Linux geek. He had a rather nasty crash (not Linux-related) and is currently not in the unicycle scene.
Last time I tried to banish Windows from my computers, I got sucked back in. There’s always something that you need that only runs on Windows. That was a few years ago.
That just means you don’t want out badly enough. There are definitely a few Windows programs I really miss that don’t have good Mac equivalents, but I’m learning to love what I can get. ThumbsPlus was a great image viewer, but with no Mac version anymore. But yesterday I bought the full version of iView Media Pro, which is a very powerful media cataloging product (Windows and Mac).
Yes, it’s FreeBSD under OSX. Not sure if that means straight Unix or some derivative or what tho…
The *BSD’s are unix-based OSes (and are clearly not linux). That would make OS X “unix-based” as well.
It’s important to note that you’re not “running unix” though. OS X does have a unix-based kernel, but it’s not the same as “running unix” (something that some people don’t quite get).
Started with Slackware 3.0, Debian .93, FreeBSD 2.21-R, and then OS/2 Warp.
Now, I have Slack 10.2, SimplyMepis, PCLinuxOS, Kanotix, and OpenBSD. That’s all that is on this particular machine
(I’ll try to give a brief explaination with better attention to capitalization)
While the kernel is a very important part of an operating system, it’s not the only factor when considering what an OS is. In the case of OS X, the operating system is OS X - not UNIX. OS X does use a kernel based on FreeBSD as noted above. This is why I said that OS X “is UNIX-based, but isn’t UNIX”.
Depending on how strict someone wants to be, the definition of what “is UNIX” and what “is not UNIX” can lead to some heated debates.
