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What is your main OS (operating system) at home?

What is your main OS (operating system) at home?


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BlackTalon

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I answered the poll question about what the main system is, vs the OP that indicated the preferred system. Our 3 laptops and one desktop all run flavors of Windows. Plus there are two tablets running Android and one running iOS. One phone runs Android and one runs iOS. Probably Linux-based OSs in things like the OPPO player, the Bluenodes, etc.
 

Old Listener

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I switched from Win 10 to MacOS 6-7 months ago for my personal PC. I bought a 2nd M1 Mac mini for my wife but I haven't moved her over yet.

Next year, I'll buy a MacBook Air for use in music playback and travel laptop duty. Maybe Zoom meetings too.

A Win 10 Lenovo laptop is still doing duty for Zoom meetings and if we get back to traveling, it will be our travel laptop again. For a few months, this laptop will serve for music playback in our main audio system.

We have two Android based phones and two Android based tablets.

Moving away from Windows is a defensive measure. I don't see a long term need for Windows for us.
 

q3cpma

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As linux user since 1998 I am totally disagree :p
This position(GNU/Linux) is a ideologist position :
What I posted was just a fun copypasta, to be honest, but that wiki article and 99% of people who say "musl/clang or Android exist" or "let's call it GNU/Apache/X.org/Mozilla/Linux while you're at it" simply don't understand why it is still true.
The first reason is that GNU started the idea of a free OS, and provided the GPL as the most important part, not the code. Someone as crazy as rms decided to leave his comfortable job to follow his life's mission of making a UNIX compatible OS free for everyone to use and modify; all the while people were laughing at his self-imposed Sisyphean task. Without him and the people that followed, probably nobody would have tried to seriously replace UNIX, GNU birthed the zeitgeist that started the whole thing rolling.
The other reason is that even if code isn't the most important thing, it is still important, and all the boring and sometimes complicated stuff that POSIX/SUS mandates (for example, it took them 4 years to get a complete toolchain) were done by the GNU project and already used long before Linux came to. In his initial Usenet post, Torvalds even says "I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work" without even batting an eye while saying that he is making his own OS, as if the GNU stuff came from the sky.
 

shal

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What I posted was just a fun copypasta, to be honest, but that wiki article and 99% of people who say "musl/clang or Android exist" or "let's call it GNU/Apache/X.org/Mozilla/Linux while you're at it" simply don't understand why it is still true.
The first reason is that GNU started the idea of a free OS, and provided the GPL as the most important part, not the code. Someone as crazy as rms decided to leave his comfortable job to follow his life's mission of making a UNIX compatible OS free for everyone to use and modify; all the while people were laughing at his self-imposed Sisyphean task. Without him and the people that followed, probably nobody would have tried to seriously replace UNIX, GNU birthed the zeitgeist that started the whole thing rolling.
The other reason is that even if code isn't the most important thing, it is still important, and all the boring and sometimes complicated stuff that POSIX/SUS mandates (for example, it took them 4 years to get a complete toolchain) were done by the GNU project and already used long before Linux came to. In his initial Usenet post, Torvalds even says "I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work" without even batting an eye while saying that he is making his own OS, as if the GNU stuff came from the sky.
Yes, RMS (Richard Stallman) is a important piece of the history. But only one piece.

But Linux is more influenced by UNIX or the Posix definition for e.g.

Linux is more based on Minix that on GNU movement


If I have to choose I will call Linux UnixLike/Posix . GNU is a temporary (but important ) help in the history .

GNU have no "rights" on Linux movement . Hurd (and not Linux) is the choice of GNU as kernel.

I think that audio community have no interest of this ideological/religious war . So can you avoid to talk about ?
 

q3cpma

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If I have to choose I will call Linux UnixLike/Posix . GNU is a temporary (but important ) help in the history .
But that's factually wrong. POSIX defines an entire OS including a set of system interfaces (libc functions), but conveniently leaves the kernel part (syscalls) unspecified, so that it can be implemented the way you want, as long as the userspace is compliant.
Calling GNU "history" is also quite misguided, as they still make/host stuff that's hard to replace or considered leading in non-standard features (ncurses, make, gnuplot, tar, gnupg, emacs, grub, gnat, gmp/mpfr/mpc/mpria, octave...) and the GPL is still the license that made it.
GNU have no "rights" on Linux movement . Hurd (and not Linux) is the choice of GNU as kernel.
My first point is that there is no "Linux movement", Linus even said himself that Linux won't be "big and professional like gnu". It's both the free software movement and enterprise "open source" movement containing Linux.
I think that audio community have no interest of this ideological/religious war . So can you avoid to talk about ?
Come on, you wrote such a big reply, I can't just ignore you (and you completely ignored my first point). Anyway, I'm not even a GNU follower, I'm more in the suckless camp of "you don't deserve computer freedom if you're not ready to make some efforts".

And it's still not working.
Actually, it does "work", but yeah, it'll never be a serious contender. Like all the kernels that want to be used in mainstream settings, death by (lack of) drivers.
 
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Beershaun

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Do most surfing and forum posting vis iOS on iPad
Wife uses and seems to like macOS on desktop. Don’t think she cares much either way.
Used Win7 specifically because it was deprecated and no longer had to suffer updates. Mother board died, and BIOS on replacement refused to recognize or load Win7. Forced into Win10, found online how to disable updates, so now not as unhappy with it. I find Windows functionality terribly frustrating, but I know it better than the alternatives. And ASIO drivers are usually available for my DAC’s. Sometimes I have trouble running DAC’s from iOS, and I have one that refuses to run at all on iOS, but is fine on ASIO in Windows.
Also use Raspbian on RPi. I think all the competing systems helps keep any particular one from getting out of control and taking over the world.
My PSA to folks who dont update Windows due to the frustration that goes with it: I'd encourage you to switch to an OS that you are willing to keep up to date for security reasons. In your case MacOS may be a happy solution for you. for personal security reasons any known security holes left unpatched will be exploited by bad actors using automated 'bots' scouring the internet for open computers. The most common entry points are web browsing and email even if you don't "click on the bad link" accidentally going to a site with malicious package can open you up to unauthorized crypto mining at it's most benign and keystroke recording and hard drive lockout at it's most malignant. I hear your grips with Windows so I encourage you to switch to an OS you are willing to keep up to date with the latest security patches.
 

mansr

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Calling GNU "history" is also quite misguided, as they still make/host stuff that's hard to replace or considered leading in non-standard features (ncurses, make, gnuplot, tar, gnupg, emacs, grub, gnat, gmp/mpfr/mpc/mpria, octave...) and the GPL is still the license that made it.
Gnuplot has nothing to do with the GNU project or the FSF, and it doesn't use the GPL.
 

Blumlein 88

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My main operating system is Homo Saipan neural wetware. It's still an alpha version, full of serious bugs but capable of great things.
I've got bad news for you. Yes, it is full of serious bugs, but it isn't alpha. You are running the full version as it exists. Looks like it may merge with IOS or AOS one day. :)
 

Phorize

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Debian on preferred main desktop (work and home use) , bsd (Pfsense) on firewall/router, local file server on openbsd. Work in windows on my work laptop quite abit, mainly for project collab via share point ands few specialised work databases.
 

Blumlein 88

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Please no religious posting. So take your Linux fundamentals discussion down a notch. Various flavors of linux are known by most people as the Linux OS. That is close enough for my purposes.

Currently running Manjaro, Win10, Big Sur and AOS.
 

Budgeter

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My PSA to folks who dont update Windows due to the frustration that goes with it: I'd encourage you to switch to an OS that you are willing to keep up to date for security reasons. In your case MacOS may be a happy solution for you. for personal security reasons any known security holes left unpatched will be exploited by bad actors using automated 'bots' scouring the internet for open computers. The most common entry points are web browsing and email even if you don't "click on the bad link" accidentally going to a site with malicious package can open you up to unauthorized crypto mining at it's most benign and keystroke recording and hard drive lockout at it's most malignant. I hear your grips with Windows so I encourage you to switch to an OS you are willing to keep up to date with the latest security patches.
I agree Linux is more secure not because it's open source, but because the whole mainstream platform (not server side) is less of a target for attack. There are still malware floating around though.

The thing is, there is no usable anti malware on Linux. I mean, there is ClamTk but its quality is debatable though. Besides, no normal user will have access to enterprise endpoint protection. You can say because 99.99% of Linux software is open source so everyone can take a look at the code base, but will you expect every user searches through a few KLoC to find a bug? People keep downloading packages and run some scripts from who-knows-where and expect their machine to be safe? Unfortunately, that's still a part of Linux experience. We can never expect "BRAIN.exe" runs perfectly. That really is a paradox IMO.

Linus from LTT recently mentioned this on his WAN show too, about 1 hr 14 mins into the video:
 

danadam

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People keep downloading packages and run some scripts from who-knows-where and expect their machine to be safe? Unfortunately, that's still a part of Linux experience.
Really? The only thing I have outside official repos (Debian Testing) is spotify client. And even that one is from repository.spotify.com, which I wouldn't call who-knows-where.
 

Budgeter

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Really? The only thing I have outside official repos (Debian Testing) is spotify client. And even that one is from repository.spotify.com, which I wouldn't call who-knows-where.
Well, same to me, I only configure stuffs from well-known repos, but many do not do the same though.
Have you ever thought about people going on Reddit or Stack Exchange and asking for scripts, commands to do this and that? Well, that's the case.
 

pseudoid

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Can't remember why but when Windows3dot0 was being demo'd to a group of engineers, I recall whispering to myself "argh, who needs a GUI to get work done?" Never realizing that I will have a love/hate but enduring relationship with Microsoft OSs, from the original to Windows11 (..and then, back to Win10Pro again).
Its only defense is the fact that WindowsOSs respected legacy hardware/drivers/applications.
There was a time when penguin-heads were a condescending bunch and deterred many original early adapters.
I put my mate in the walled-garden many years back, and it agrees with her well.
Equally, I minimize my own garden's exposure to anything google.
 

mansr

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I agree Linux is more secure not because it's open source, but because the whole mainstream platform (not server side) is less of a target for attack. There are still malware floating around though.
Linux is more secure because it is a better design in pretty much every respect. Open source has less to do with it.
 

Budgeter

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Linux is more secure because it is a better design in pretty much every respect. Open source has less to do with it.
I think this is debatable though. Other OSes are closed source so we will never know what's in there. System design/architect or Kernel dev are not my specialty so I have no comment on this matter.
 

q3cpma

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I agree Linux is more secure not because it's open source, but because the whole mainstream platform (not server side) is less of a target for attack. There are still malware floating around though.

The thing is, there is no usable anti malware on Linux. I mean, there is ClamTk but its quality is debatable though.
Look at rkhunter too. Personally, I consider the use of "anti malware" software the same as admitting defeat of your defenses. And when they're proprietary, it's even more comical.
On the subject of defense, Linux has seccomp, capabilities, cgroups and user namespaces. From all of this, you get firejail/bubblewrap for the end user that are really great.
You can say because 99.99% of Linux software is open source so everyone can take a look at the code base, but will you expect every user searches through a few KLoC to find a bug? People keep downloading packages and run some scripts from who-knows-where and expect their machine to be safe? Unfortunately, that's still a part of Linux experience. We can never expect "BRAIN.exe" runs perfectly. That really is a paradox IMO.

Linus from LTT recently mentioned this on his WAN show too, about 1 hr 14 mins into the video:
The real security of GNU/Linux distros is the combination of package managers as standard way of getting software, the curated repositories, reproducible builds and mostly open source software. Using source distros like Gentoo or Sourcemage helps even further, as you can greatly diminish your attack surface.
Also a reason I'm not a fan of lightly curated repos like npm/Pypi, unlike stuff like Quicklisp.
 
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Raindog123

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What about Linux (Ubuntu, CentOS) running on top of Windows (as a VM)? And Windows running on top of iOS (as a bootcamp)?

How does that count? :)
 
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