what's your favorite OS?

[robkies]

what's your favorite OS? mine is definitely windows xp, it's the one i grew up with, it has a lot of personality and fun stuff pre-installed (any pinball fans out there?). but i also really like windows 7 and windows 98 lol

[TheFrugalGamer]

I'll probably always have a soft spot in my heart for Windows 2000, which is what I had on my PC growing up. It looked fairly similar to Windows 95, but the functionality was different and it had a few different features. I, of course, wasted no time in theming it all pink with fairy backgrounds, custom sounds, and terrible script fonts. I adored it.

[beating hearts bby]

probably xp, but i also really love 95/98. i also like vista's aesthetic i guess? the way backgrounds and stuff looked. i think it's frutiger aero.

[j]

i'm pretty fond of xp too, but my favorite would probably be tinycore (the linux distro i use now!)

i'm a big fan of minimalism and DIY approaches to software, so it really suits me - especially with older tech :)

[brisray]

A version of Linux I used for a long time was Fedora. It was interesting because it only supported FOSS file formats. As an original install it couldn't even play MP3 files - the patents on those didn't run out until 2017.

[Cobra!]

For modern OSes, Ubuntu XFCE all the way!

For classic, I think it's a tie between Windows 98SE and MacOS 9.2.2.

[Guest]

I love tinkering around with different OSs from time to time so I have favorites in many categories. :)

As for actual daily use and work, I tend to stay around Arch Linux. I enjoy its rolling release model (always the newest versions of software in its repositories) and the quality of life of having the AUR alongside it. With other distributions, I often had the issue of outdated or unmaintained software, none of that happens with Arch.

Unlike Ubuntu and other more extensively pre-set distributions, it allows me to only install the packages I really want and use any kind of desktop environment with it. Many of those pre-made distributions come with huge software sets I have no use for whatsoever, odd and buggy customm setting software and all, and Arch just tends to work consistently, unlike something like Ubuntu.

As for personal computing on a hobby machine, I was always also a big fan of Haiku, a beOS remake, but I wouldn't use it as a daily driver just yet.

Other than that, I often spin up Parabola, a completely libre rolling release distribution, or Bodhi if I want something with a really fancy default desktop.

[PurpleHello98]

I've used Macs for ages, but for a while now I've started to become frustrated with them and their interfaces, particularly since Big Sur and the move to heavy iPaddification. (I still regret "upgrading" to Big Sur...) But for OS X, although I've never used it I'd have to say Snow Leopard, from what I've seen, since it's before the iPad and all were introduced and the Mac and mobile devices were attempted to become more like each other, so it's the last purely computer version before Lion added all sorts of mobile-y features, and I've heard it's rock-hard stable. It also just exudes "MAC!!!", unlike boring and bland new releases.

Meanwhile, for Windows, which I may well switch to sometime soon, I think XP, 7 and even Vista (with its SP2 and all) are my favourites. I especially love Vista's UI, even moreso than 7, because of the more "aurora" interpretation of Aero, rather than just "air". Of course, XP's Royale theme is also rather pretty, but Vista's UI just can't be beat! Honestly, I also have a soft spot for Windows 8, because even though it moved to flat design, which I generally dislike, it was still really colourful (I've heard its style/aesthetic dubbed "Frutiger Metro") and fun, compared to other flat design implementations which make everything drab and colourless. Also, the start menu (and to some small extent the control panel) were the only parts of the desktop they touched---everything else was like Windows 7 or could be made so easily. Honestly, if I had to choose a tablet OS, I'd almost certainly choose Windows 8, even maybe over iOS.

I think Vista has my favourite OS design of all, although 7's is a close second, and I have fond memories of 7, whilst I never remember using Vista, so I'd say the two are both up there, and XP, 8 and Snow Leopard (and a lot of old OS X in general before it went all flat and crappy and iPad-y) are pretty close behind.

Edit: How could I forget to mention Pinball and Inkball?!?

[devils]

I'm an EndeavourOS stan. It's very beginner-friendly and easy to use, but you get to learn about Linux a lot while using it as well!

[shevek]

I'm an EndeavourOS stan. It's very beginner-friendly and easy to use, but you get to learn about Linux a lot while using it as well!

I am planning to sideload that onto my Steam Deck soon! I am excited good to know there are others here who use it as well. Anything you wish you knew before you started using it?

[Guest]

I also was on Endeavour for a long time before ditching it in favor of Arch. Can recommend.

[devils]

I am planning to sideload that onto my Steam Deck soon! I am excited good to know there are others here who use it as well. Anything you wish you knew before you started using it?

To be honest, the only thing I wished was knowing how to use Linux in general- thankfully a pal of mine has been using Arch for ages and that helped me a lot But yeah, if you don't have a lot of knowledge of Arch-based OSes or Linux in general, there's a bit of a learning curve. Oh, I recommend learning about what kind of desktop environments you'd like as well- EndeavourOS can install a bunch of them- I recommend XFCE.

[shevek]

To be honest, the only thing I wished was knowing how to use Linux in general- thankfully a pal of mine has been using Arch for ages and that helped me a lot But yeah, if you don't have a lot of knowledge of Arch-based OSes or Linux in general, there's a bit of a learning curve. Oh, I recommend learning about what kind of desktop environments you'd like as well- EndeavourOS can install a bunch of them- I recommend XFCE.

Thank you, that's definitely good advice I plan on installing KDE plasma and hopefully slowly get into Linux ricing!

[Guest]

I plan on installing KDE plasma and hopefully slowly get into Linux ricing!

Honestly, maybe this is just the GNU+Linux nerd inside me, but I don't recommend the big hitters like Gnome or KDE. With a big feature set comes big potential for bugs and glitches, and any time I have used either of them it's been a bad experience for me. They might be "user friendly" but they only got on my nerves. I personally recommend xfce or LXQt.

[ralfwause]

I am more or less constantly distro / OS hopping the last couple of years and my line of work encourages this too, so i had the opportunity to take a look at quiet a collection of weird OSes, but if i had to make a top 3 list it would be:

1. 9Front
Its a fork from Plan9, the intended Unix successor created by the guys at Bell Labs. Its... different... from anything you may have used prior, but has its unique strength in distributed computing and is in some ways "more Unix than Unix" (EVERYTHING is a file, you want a screenshot? Just 'cat /dev/screen > $FILENAME')

2. Haiku
Haiku is a clone / successor of BeOS, a multimedia OS from the late 90s, early 00s. Its just 'friendly' in any way, starting from its nice UI to its absolutely easy usage. Its actively developed and has a bunch of software available.

3. Q4OS (This one i am using currently)
Its in its core just a standard Debian Linux with the Trinity desktop environment (a KDE 3 fork), for ME personally its the perfect desktop, it just feels FAST even on my ancient lenovo R60 and looks good while doing so. Perhaps also a lot of nostalgia plays a role: The time when KDE 2 / KDE 3 was around was the time when i fully switched to Linux and at least in my mind "back then" the whole Linux ecosystem was just more... fun? less serious? less business? ... i don't know. I just like it.