[trains are bad]

Somebody stole my laptop a couple weeks ago when I was in Ohio getting married. So I acquired an ancient 533mhz hp box for free, put $10 of used PC100 memory in it, and deemed it my cubicle queen. Rather than bust the already-stretched budget (or 256mb max ram) I installed Ubuntu on it.

I had already been used to using firefox and open office exclusively, so Ubuntu already had that pre-installed. It took like 2 minutes to establish a Dvorak keyboard layout. My USB drives just worked right off the bat. It comes with a cd burning app. I mean, it's a full functioning OS, as far as I can tell so far. Why shouldn't I go linux on all my computers?

So far it looks like I lose EAC and foobar (and i do love foobar). I have to come up with linux equivalents for those. I have a USB DAC so sound issues shouldn't be. Are there decent CD ripping apps, and music programs with functionality on par with foobar (which seems to literally do anything you might need to do).

 

[krmathis]

Probably because its pre-installed on 80-90% of all new computers. And because its the most well known operating systems of all.

I for one cant stand MS Windows, and use Mac OS 10.5 instead...

 

[shellylh]

I can only guess because they want a gaming machine?

By the way, I have a old 800Mhz laptop with 256MB ram that I like to use upstairs for checking facts on the internet. I also have Ubuntu on it (which is so easy to setup and works very nicely). However, I find it to be a little slow. I am not sure if there is another (free of course) version of Linux that would speeds things up a bit though. Do you find your 533mhz hp box to be rather sluggish with Ubuntu? Maybe I am just spoiled.

 

[Quaddy]

thats like saying why do people buy ipods!

because inheritantly everyone is different, thank god!

i have used just about every OS out there over the years, and currently am running linux distros, macOS, several windows flavours, they all have their advantages, i have yet to use one operating system that nails everything i want it to.

for example there are numerous older user who couldnt use linux, my parents for example, they can only use windows, i tried my mother with linux for two weeks and she wanted windows back so bad!

whatever floats your boat, i am well past knocking windows because its seen to be the in thing to do. i use what works for me (i couldnt have played BF2 if it wasnt for windows, a game which has held my interest solidly for over 2 years now)

 

[santiclaws]

For one thing, lots of applications are simply not available on the Mac or Linux, particularly applications for business enterprises. If you're a gamer, a Mac or Linux machine is not an option. Macs are very expensive for equivalent performance, and simply can't match the PC top end at all, and building your own or upgrading piece-by-piece with a Mac doesn't make a lot of sense, unlike with a PC.

Windows blows, but the Mac platform is hardly problem-free. Linux is probably the best of all possible worlds at the moment, but it is simply not widely adapted enough. Maybe someday.

 

[stevenkelby]

Yep, because it just works out of the box, and all 47 of the programs I have installed on my current machine just work too. No other OS would run them all (not all at the same time btw) without some stuffing around and who has time for that?

Forgot to mention I use XP. Hate Vista.

 

[stevenkelby]

BTW I've used Ubuntu too and really love it but as said, no EAC and Foobar for a start, among others, is a deal breaker for me.

Hopefully one day...

 

[radz]

I use windows xp for convenience and compatibility.

 

[Szabi]

Because windows market share is about 90%, the most of the software companies make software only for windows, and on the other hand, it has the best hardware compatibility.
I'm not saying it's the best OS out there, because it isn't. I have to use linux because of school frequently, and it's better in many aspects, but i have to stick with windows, and i don't feel bad about it.

 

[Katysax]

I used to have a job where I absolutely needed a Mac for certain things - Quark files would not read the same on a PC. I had a couple of Macs over time. I hate hate hated OS 8 and 9 but really like OS X. Unfortunately, there was either software that I needed or features in commonly used software like Excel and Word that just weren't there in the Mac version.

I had to run a Mac and Windows side by side, not because I had any problem inherently with the Mac but because I needed to do things in Windows. I now no longer have that job and gave up the Mac.

Since then I think Linux has improved quite a bit, OS X has gotten better and Windows (in its Vista incarnation) has gotten worse and worse. I still use XP on my main computer but I've got a couple of Linux machines that I use more and more. If everything I needed to do could be done seamlessly on Linux I would happily jetison XP today.

 

[Trippytiger]

I use Windows because Linux just doesn't play well with my ThinkPad without a lot of work. Neither the hard drive protection system nor the fingerprint reader work out of the box, battery life suffers, and the wireless capability is pretty spotty. Plus, there is a lot of surprisingly useful IBM/Lenovo software that comes with ThinkPads, and it all requires Windows.

Be sure to check out Amarok for your music playing needs. I don't know how it compares to foobar because I've never really used it (can't see the appeal, it's not a very attractive program), but it is a great player with loads of functionality.

 

[tot]

EAC works under linux using wine, by the way.

 

[fordgtlover]

I use Windows because I can get it up and running in a couple of hours and have it configured the way I like it.

I tried Ubuntu recently and got stuck at the first hurdle of setting up PPPoE - it didn't work. I searched around the web (on a different PC) but couldn't find anthing that worked. After a few more hours I gave up and reinstalled Windows.

Ultimately, I don't really care what the OS is. It should just work and not get in the way (too much) of the things that I actually want to do - use applications.

 

[kpeezy]

Uh.. No one has mentioned the biggest reason why most people use windows. VIDEO GAMES BOI!

 

[PascalT]

Probably because Linux is a bitch to use and Mac OSX is an overrated piece of crap with about 2 softwares to choose from. Also, Macs are hard to upgrade and you pay 10x more for stuff because it has cheap shiny plastic with an apple on it.