That's it! I've had it with Microsoft!!

[AFA]

@ xxar

if you at this moment own a PC with i386, 586 architecture I would recommend you to try any of the free Linux distributions. Im mean.. its free

And if you dont want to take "the big step" to text-based enviroment I would recommend Ubuntu or Kubuntu where you do not need to manually install window managers. There is also a great livecd over at www.ubuntu.com

I grew up on DOS, and still do small tasks with it, although all the extrinsic commands are missing.

 

[Member2019]

So with all this talk about Linux.... should I be considering Linux instead of Mac?

Probably not.
MacOS X is UNIX with a lot of the UNIX'isms made optional, and some superstores still cater to it.
Linux ****** you into understanding some basic, UNIX concepts, even if you use it 100% from the GUI, and then there are the superstore aspects.

Linux is fine if you've never used a computer and don't have presumptions of how it should work and don't want to buy hardware/software from the superstore.
Otherwise, "deprogramming" a lot of Window'ism is a serious PITA, especially the stuff Linux doesn't do because of security that Windows does "as the norm."
MacOS X is a better choice if you have some presumptions of how a computer should work and regularly shop at superstores that still carry Mac stuff.

If you have a lot of documentation in Windows, I recommend you stick with Windows because MS Office for Mac doesn't cut the compatibility (long story).
More ideally, avoid upgrading a few version of MS Office and you'll find your older documents work better with OpenOffice.org/StarOffice.
Once you make that switch, you can use whatever OS you want and not have to worry about document compatibility.

Despite comments that say otherwise, StarOffice has a long tradition of "firsts" over MS Office.

 

[pathfinder]

I don't mind xp... I think it's the best version of Windows to date.

I refuse to get a PC with Vista though... mostly because of everything I have read about the DRM crap they loaded into it, pandering to the media corporations instead of the individual consumers. I hear it makes a lot of false positives when trying to play your media and will not play as a result.

Next computer for me will be an Apple notebook. I'm not even remotely familiar with them but I'll learn.

 

[Member2019]

The best version of Windows ...

I don't mind xp... I think it's the best version of Windows to date.

For those of us who have used every single version of Windows, virtually all of us have the same conclusion.
Windows NT 3.5 (aka 3.50) was the best, ever release of Windows.
It had a pure, untainted, true 32-bit API with actual privilege concepts.
And Microsoft utterly failed to write one, single, major app -- let alone a true, solid Visual Studio release -- to use it.
Most software that was purely written for pure Win32 came from very select organizations -- e.g., Digital, who basically understood NT better than MS itself, long story.

Once Windows NT 3.51 "Daytona" was released, NT was completely fucked, and everything has been a "hack after hack" and "teardown" of the security model (which wasn't even designed for the Internet, but it was better than today).
NT 5.0 = 2000, 5.1 = XP/2003, 6.0 = Vista.

I refuse to get a PC with Vista though... mostly because of everything I have read about the DRM crap they loaded into it, pandering to the media corporations instead of the individual consumers. I hear it makes a lot of false positives when trying to play your media and will not play as a result.

NT 6.0 "Longhorn" -- the client/desktop is now known as Vista -- is just one major clusterfuck and nothing as promised 6+ years ago.
It was a 100% vaporware repeat of NT 4.0 "Cairo."
The DRM aspects are the least of its issues, and until Microsoft gets serious about building solid, secure, well-defined development tools -- and the apps that use them -- it won't change.
The .NET security has been an utter non-adoption at the OS level by Microsoft itself, and limited only to select "Intranet" space.

Next computer for me will be an Apple notebook. I'm not even remotely familiar with them but I'll learn.

They are now Intel (with EFT firmware, instead of legacy PC BIOS), so you always have the option of dual-booting with Windows (or Linux for that matter).