Windows 7

[Tom62]

I hope that we don't start a religious war about operating systems here. They all have their pros and cons. I like XP, because there are so many free- and shareware programs available for it and you don't need proprietary hardware. I like OS-X, because it looks very cute and well designed; and I like Linux because you can get the most out of your machine (especially on older hardware).

[JillSwift]

I hope that we don't start a religious war about operating systems here.

That would be ironic, though :cat:

[Tom62]

I'd be willing to bet large sums that we all grok the whole "use the tool that works best for you" idea.  

I think that it has also a lot to do with psychology. Assume that someone has been using a certain OS for many years. Confront that person with another OS, where everything is a little bit different than what he is used to. The chances are very high that his first reactions will be very negative, because he can't find his way around so quickly. It happened to me when I was first confronted with OS-X and Linux. i had to unlearn some old Windows habits and learn a couple of new tricks.  I never really understood the OS missionary types, who claim that their OS is better than everything else in the world, while all what matters is what programs you run on that OS. Even an old DOS box is "superior" to OS-X, if that would allow you to run a certain terminal program to access a mainframe and no alternative is available on the Mac.

[jcm]

Nicest thing about most distros now-a-days is they come on a "live" CD, meaning you can boot from that CD and try out the default installation without actually installing anything; Should you be curious to give it a try.  

thanks!

[JillSwift]

I think that it has also a lot to do with psychology. Assume that someone has been using a certain OS for many years. Confront that person with another OS, where everything is a little bit different than what he is used to. The chances are very high that his first reactions will be very negative, because he can't find his way around so quickly. It happened to me when I was first confronted with OS-X and Linux. i had to unlearn some old Windows habits and learn a couple of new tricks.  I never really understood the OS missionary types, who claim that their OS is better than everything else in the world, while all what matters is what programs you run on that OS. Even an old DOS box is "superior" to OS-X, if that would allow you to run a certain terminal program to access a mainframe and no alternative is available on the Mac.

Yep. Part of the idea of "using the tool that works for you" is deciding on whether or not it's worth the effort to learn to use a new tool compared to how much better the new tool would get the job done. I suspect that for the majority of folks, switching to an new OS simply isn't worth the effort, as their needs are likely equally filled by the majority of OSs for PCs (that is, simple office stuff, web, e-mail, etc.)

The only reason I chose to switch is because I was gettin' tired of having DRM shoved down my throat at every turn. (I can police myself, thank you very much!) Linux based OSs have very little support for that kind of thing

[Godless]

So I just preordered my Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade for only $50! Pretty good deal if you ask me. Who else is upgrading to it?