Thread: What's Your Current OS

Let me just begin by saying that I'll try to refrain from calling the OS "Linux" not only to please the FSF folks but also because it's really just a kernel. Since I don't refer to Mac OS X as "XNU" I think it only makes sense to refer to the OS as GNU/Linux.

Now that that's out of the way...

Originally Posted by Ynot

I very much doubt anyone's running sun solaris on their desktops

OK, we're in agreement; I just didn't want to sound biased toward FreeBSD. Don't include Solaris then.

Originally Posted by Ynot

this isn't slash

We're in agreement here, too. Nor do I frequent Slashdot.

Originally Posted by Ynot

as far as most people are concerned, there's 3 OS's
MS, Mac & Linux

Who do you mean by "most people"? Most people that I know don't even know what an OS is, haven't heard of Mac OS X, and certainly haven't heard of FLOSS OS's like GNU/Linux. Those who are familiar with both Windows and Mac OS X but do not use GNU/Linux probably have not heard of it.

Originally Posted by Ynot

let's not over burden them

Isn't the point of this poll to determine what OS(s) the techies on Dreamviews use? Your "Linux" option only concerns them if they use a GNU/Linux distro, which implies that they are more skilled with computers than the "most people" whom I have described above. DistroWatch indicates that FreeBSD is an extremely popular UNIX variant, even among GNU/Linux users. If someone browsing this thread doesn't know what FreeBSD is (or even GNU/Linux for that matter), he/she simply won't click on that button. Adding a FreeBSD option has no disadvantage, and it has two advantages. First, it provides more specific polling results than "Other" (which benefits those of us who are interested in what the results of your poll will be). Second, I'll be happy, so I'll shut up.

P.S. You should also add an option for Mac OS X. The classic Mac OS is even more different from Mac OS X than XP is from Vista. If you are going to make the distinction between XP and Vista, I think Mac OS X should certainly get a mention, considering that it's been the main OS on the Mac platform for the last 6 or so years. At the very least please change Mac OS (which generally means up through Mac OS 9) to Mac OS X, since almost no one uses the classic Mac OS anymore.