Operating System

[somebody231]

1) KDE / Gnome , why?
2) Which distrobution(s)?
3) Any problems?

I haven't used a Linux before, but I think it's a nice thing to be... Microsoft dominates the market too much. Microsoft says now that "Windows Vista will be alot more stable than Windows XP, we will built it anew!" -- yea... that's EXACTLY what they said about Windows XP, when it came :happy:

Or do you perhaps use a Macintosh? Please do tell about it too.

Let's try not to fill this thread with Windows -speeches.

 

[Kalamos]

I tried both Linux and Windows - several versions of it, actually.
Had to stick with XP cause some periferals won't just agree with 98 or Linux - but I still keep them at hand, through a multi-boot system, just in case.

Windows 9x is actually the best solution, in my own experience, when you change hardware or test new cards.

 

[leenotler]

I like the Mac OS X. It has a nice interface with sturdy FreeBSD Unix underneath. You can run Unix Xwindows on it too. I also run a slow Windows 2000 emulator on it. The emulators should get very fast with the new Intel processor Macs. I usually have fewer problems with Macs.

I also built a couple computers using Windows XP dual boot with RedHat and SUSE linux (XP for compatibility, as Kalamos said). I liked Mandrake better, but haven't used it for a while. I want to try gentoo linux, www.gentoo.org. I hear good things about it. I'm not a major linux guru and gentoo seems to have a lot of things automated.
A friend of mine likes Slackware. There's a version you can run from a CD without installing it on your computer. slax.linux-live.org

I usually take the KDE/Gnome default of the distro, thinking it might be slightly more compatible, and that most users will use that one.

I had the most problems with RedHat, but could that be a coincidence. Most linux distros have problems with new or unusual hardware. I had to install a new version of X86free on Redhat to make my video card change refresh rate.