Poll: OS war, 2007

2007 is definitely shaping up to be the year of the desktop OS: between Vista's much ballyhooed and better-late-than-never launch (and subsequently pending SP1 release), Apple's behind-schedule but super hyped release of Mac OS X Leopard, and unlikely upstart and fan fave Ubuntu's forthcoming Gutsy Gibbon launch. So, what's it gonna be?

OS war, 2007: pick it

Apple's OS X LeopardScrew Leopard, I'm sticking with TigerMicrosoft's Windows VistaScrew Vista, I'm sticking with XPUbuntu's Gutsy GibbonScrew Ubuntu, I'm using another distro and/or BSD, etc.DOS FOREVA!I hate operating systems. Punch cards for life.Vote

[AJ @ Oct 16th 2007 9:15PM]

XP FTW!

[JackOLantern @ Oct 16th 2007 11:09PM]

No matter what you're a fanboy of you have to agree that all three major OSs mentioned are very good.

OSX is getting the recognition it deserves, Vista is coming around and should be as stable as XP soon and Ubuntu is bringing Linux mainstream.

[Josh @ Oct 16th 2007 11:35PM]

Who cares about the increased stability of vista when it sucks up resources like a vacuum. If i pay for expensive hardware, i don't want a freaking OS getting in the way of using the hardware to its full extent. Of course, I am also planning on switching to it for DX10 gaming (it will be booted for that ONLY - as photoshop/bridge are my true home as a photographer and they need resources)

It wouldn't even be that bad if microsoft hadn't been so ignorant to the RAM wall that hardware intensive people are running into. Sure, 64 bit addresses this, but wait! The drivers are just not there and neither are the apps?! Oh crap - i suppose they should have just created a single 64 bit OS.

but they didn't and here i am complaining about it.

[mfed3 @ Oct 17th 2007 12:13AM]

vote whatever u want, ur wasting ur time. vista / xp will always win.

[sean.boots @ Oct 17th 2007 12:55AM]

As an aside, could the Engadget editors talk to someone about the color of the poll bars (currently an extremely light grey)? I didn't even know they were there until I tilted my screen all the way back. Visibility is good.

Thanks very kindly! Sorry to post offtopically.

[Matt @ Oct 17th 2007 8:06AM]

There are poll bars?

[Dubb @ Oct 17th 2007 12:49PM]

Contrast and brightness adjustments on your monitor and OS are your friend. The lines appear just fine, then again, my contrast/brightness ratio isn't out of whack.

[Sidney @ Oct 17th 2007 8:49PM]

> Who cares about the increased stability of vista when it sucks up resources like a vacuum. If i pay for expensive hardware, i don't want a freaking OS getting in the way of using the hardware to its full extent.

This is so farking true. This is 2007, and my laptop has two 64-bit cores running at 2.4GHz and 2GB RAM! If I showed it to people back in the 70s and 80s, they wouldn't be able to understand why it doesn't boot in two seconds and launch simple apps like web browsers instantly!

Hardware isn't just advancing, it's trying to keep up with modern OSs and software so everything doesn't just slow down over the years!

[happyguy290 @ Oct 16th 2007 9:15PM]

haha, when i voted there was exactly one vote for everything

[Argot @ Oct 17th 2007 6:54AM]

Hmm... Yeah, but then things got skewed. If they had put Ubuntu as the top alternative, or even XP instead of OS X, things would look a bit different. The top alternative almost always gets the most votes. But I'm guessing the unbiased *snicker* people of Engadget already knew that.

[GoreTEX @ Oct 16th 2007 9:15PM]

VISTA is awesome.. in before Mac Fanbois'

[David Clark @ Oct 16th 2007 10:57PM]

I agree 100%

This whole story screams flamebait. I therefore would like to use the opportunity to endorse ars technica http://www.arstechnica.com

[bombastinator @ Oct 16th 2007 11:10PM]

I've had horrible expreiences with it personally. Slow downs, inexplicable temporary freezes, blue screen crashes. (and no I don't have a virus)

If you turn off the eye candy" options it becomes very clear that it's basically XP with a bunch of cruft grafted on. I am very underwhelmed.

It is said that Microsoft's betas are everyone else's alphas and their inital releases are actually betas. IMHO this is very true of Vista.
Vista may n fact become a really good system but I'd give it a year for them to get the thing really running right.

[michael @ Oct 16th 2007 11:20PM]

@bombastinator: Wow. I didn't know all that was possible. I haven't experience anything like you've had.

Vista works great for me.

The eye candy you talk of, is just an extra thrown in. Don't like something nice? Then choose the Classic look.

I find Vista to have some of the nice goodies in OS X Tiger, and at the same time, be able to at least support and function with more things. And in the future, probably support just as much stuff as XP.

So it's like the best of both OS's.

And it's not really Microsoft to bend around Vista, but it's more like the market trying to get onto Vista. Until more companies produce more software that works with Vista, there's still going to be some incompatibility going on.

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 17th 2007 7:05AM]

I'll give it a try.

It's time for some fresh air on the gadget blogs.

[mferrari3 @ Oct 21st 2007 1:52PM]

@ bombastinator

About tht part about microsoft releasing sowftware in beta, Do u use OS X ?!!! they didnt get it finished till 10.4!
srsly it aint just microsoft im waitin till 10.5.1 till i get leopard

[Anton @ Oct 16th 2007 9:15PM]

Windows XP users UNITE!

[supermeerkat @ Oct 17th 2007 4:31AM]

Bad spellers of the world UNTIE!

[Ipaq3115 @ Nov 13th 2007 4:31PM]

Ubuntu will rule the galaxy...

XP is OK but not nearly as nice as Ubuntu...

[Shaahin @ Oct 16th 2007 9:16PM]

who uses dos?

[John Doe @ Oct 16th 2007 9:58PM]

Gamers. (Yes occasionally we want to pull out Wing Commander III.) industrials hardware, etc. Basically one off weird implementations.

[JDizzle @ Oct 16th 2007 9:59PM]

Not gamers, just you.

[Mikey @ Oct 16th 2007 10:12PM]

http://www.the-underdogs.info has many games requiring DOS/emulators. I was just playing F-14 Tomcat (1990) and an old version of Oregon Trail (Cd from 1992) this afternoon.

[DarkAardvark @ Oct 16th 2007 11:32PM]

OH MAN WCIII
that game was awesome, i must say.

[shawnz @ Oct 17th 2007 9:04PM]

dos is a nice OS because you get to run in real mode *and* there's a common method of loading drivers. if you're writing a simple real mode app for a boot disk but don't want it to be platform limited, running it on top of dos would let you swap out the drivers it uses and allow it to run on any platform. also, it gives you support for a simple file system without any bells or whistles to store resources for your app. you see this a lot; for example, the symantec ghost boot disk/cd runs dos.

[Anton @ Oct 16th 2007 9:17PM]

Apple: 137 (40.7%)

So that is why the comments always reek of mac-fan-boism

[webon @ Oct 16th 2007 9:23PM]

HOLY GUACAMOLE!!
My thoughts exactly, man does this mean that engadget is full with fanbois? or that only fanbois have enough time on their hands to waste(like mua)??
I voted xp but I do like the new leopard, if it were available in vaios it would have been my pick, (with the boot camp fcours)

[EJ @ Oct 16th 2007 9:52PM]

Funny, I've always had the impression that Apple haters significantly outnumber the "fanbois" in the comment sections (please tell me you're not old enough to drink if you use that term, by the way).

[404error @ Oct 16th 2007 9:38PM]

I almost voted for Leopard and I don't even have or plan to get a mac. It looks great, but I'll just stick with XP for now

[Wwhat @ Oct 16th 2007 9:54PM]

Well with SP3 for XP reportingly turning XP into Vista I guess things are going to be dicey.

[Ireland @ Oct 16th 2007 10:26PM]

So now if Apple wins this poll (in your mind) it's not because Leopard's a better OS, but because the fanboys are here. Leopard's better, deal with it!

[xSushi @ Oct 16th 2007 10:40PM]

It's because all us Apple users spend less time trying to fix things, we get our work done, then have time to browse engadget while ya'll wait for your hard drives to defragment. Wow.I do not miss those days. OS X ftw, and some love for XP too, we had our highs and lows, but the divorce was bitter!

[webon @ Oct 16th 2007 11:16PM]

I usually associate l337 stuff with losers, and geeks alike, (such as people wasting time in the internets and voting on OSs polls) but I do like the word fanboi, don't you?.
even tho its a ubergeek term "fanboi" sounds very nice and sweet in a demeaning way, it just rolls out my tongue like delicious cursing does, it's even better when you stretch the final i.
by the way do think every one that voted for leopard already tried it? I mean it hasn't come out has it?
And giving your vote (even tho its just a internets poll) without even trying the product first, doesn't make you feel a tad stupid? not that you ARE stupid fcurse
I'm not implying the you would be so stupid as to buy something just because it was made by a company that has a catchy name and if you don't get it you'll be uncool

[Josh @ Oct 16th 2007 11:36PM]

thats exactly what i was just thinking to myself...

[Anton @ Oct 17th 2007 12:10AM]

@Ireland

Sure, Leopard better. But at a cost...
You need a mac to run Mac OSX...

And ...oh wait? How much does a new Mac cost? Hmm, the last time I checked, a macbook costs over $1000...

I don't know, but $1000+ is a pretty high price to pay just to run a pretty cool, virus-free, operating system.

I am completely fine with the fact that Mac OSX is a pretty sweet operating system and that everything just works. But if I have to buy a $1000+ system just to run a $120 operating system...Yeeeah...You know, that is a pretty high price to pay...

[liin @ Oct 17th 2007 2:52AM]

Anton,

Windows users around the globe: 90+%. So that is why comments on all publications, paper or digital, have high praises for XP & Vista, and reek of MS-fan-boism? "Screw Vista, I'm sticking with XP" is getting more votes than "XP", you think OS X users managed to made that happen while voting for Leopard?

[daliminator2000 @ Oct 17th 2007 9:56AM]

I saw that too and was surprised, but shouldn't have been.

Remember, kids: Apple fanatics are more numerous and vocal on the Internet, where they don't have to actually confront people face to face.

[Brad @ Oct 17th 2007 4:08AM]

"It's because all us Apple users spend less time trying to fix things, we get our work done, then have time to browse engadget while ya'll wait for your hard drives to defragment."

No, it's because all you Apple users don't have real jobs or (for the college kids) majors, and your "work" for the day includes dumping all your dirty laundry into a basket and leaving it at the top of the basement stairs so your mom can come wash it.

See, I can make broad sweeping generalizations and propagate stereotypes, too. Except I won't, because then everyone would think I was a rabid zealot who thinks OS choice is a reflection of character, not preference.

[Smiley @ Oct 18th 2007 11:58AM]

@Brad:

Jeez. Lighten up. The only ones doing so, are US KIDS. Why? Oh right, because WE ARE MINORS. So, next time, re-think your comment.

@Anton:

There's the Mac Mini that costs 600$, plus I bet you can (as in any other computer) buy extra hardware and replace some insides, like the processor, hard drive, and graphics card. Or you can get Apple to do so.

Macs may cost a lot, but they sure beat the trouble of buying a new computer every 3 years for us computer "geeks".

Plus, Windows XP is proved to "collect dust" over the time, even when using it for simple stuff. I can testify in favor of that.

----
-Smiley out.

[Charlie @ Oct 16th 2007 9:18PM]

DOS fo' life. Thats how real gangstas roll. Graphical interfaces are for little girls, real men use command line interfaces.

[James Ollier @ Oct 16th 2007 10:11PM]

Google image search "Real Man"
The one that says Dapper is the one that I think you look like

[UKNigel @ Oct 16th 2007 10:49PM]

Yes, but real men use command line interfaces that run on linux. WEPCrack just isn't the same on DOS.

[captain underpants and the bringdown gang @ Oct 17th 2007 5:51PM]

Your not a man unless you spend 5 minutes typing out commands to run a word processing application.

[Snud @ Oct 16th 2007 9:20PM]

Gutsy Gibbon? Wasn't that a Saturday morning cartoon show in the 1960s?

[Goldaar @ Oct 16th 2007 9:20PM]

I don't even know why they put these polls up. Engadget, you already know the answer. Honestly, Gutsy is probably the most exciting release this year, it is right at the cusp of making Linux accessible to the masses, and the functionality it provides, as well as the eye candy, trump Mac OS and Windows Vista. I don't think Leopard should even be thrown in here, as every year we get another version of OS X.....

[Ryan Block @ Oct 16th 2007 9:28PM]

Occasionally the answers can surprise you! Besides, would you rather we just ignore what our readers think about things?

[Nushio (NDF - Blue) @ Oct 16th 2007 9:31PM]

Personally, I can't wait for Fedora 8 to roll out.

[Goldaar @ Oct 16th 2007 9:32PM]

Most of them, yes, but I do see your point. I just hope that Ubuntu gets what it deserves (even though they are trying to take over the world and destroy kde....)

[SnowB @ Oct 16th 2007 10:56PM]

Always funny to see Linux fans talking about how "this distro's going to be the one that makes Linux accessible to the masses!"

Year, after year, after year...

[Kaminix @ Oct 17th 2007 4:26AM]

"Most of them, yes, but I do see your point. I just hope that Ubuntu gets what it deserves (even though they are trying to take over the world and destroy kde....)"
I'm just as excited about the new release as anyone, using the Kubuntu version though.
Offtopic: Can't wait for KDE 4! :D

@SnowB:
Ubuntu is making Linux accessible to the masses, it has been doing that for years and is getting very close to the "it just works" thingie. I had tried several different Linux dists before Ubuntu, but none of them really worked for me.
We're getting closer to the point when the only thing Ubuntu can't give you is gaming support. As for me I already think it's giving me plenty more than Windows ever did...