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

[johnk]

Interesting to see how many Linux users there are here. I have been a hobbyist user since '94. I have to admit to finding the complexity of the Linux audio tools quite a challenge. I was toying with the idea of trying to generate a real time view of all of the pulseaudio config to try to help me to understand what is happening when things go wrong. I still haven't quite worked out how to feed my microphone through pulseeffects on the way to my video conference software. That said pulseeffects has been wonderful in general for tweaking my speakers. Cheers, John

 

[Raindog123]

…when I post on ASR I prefer iPad OS, by far; when I debug some SW for work I like Linux; when I type a white paper or compose PowerPoint charts I really prefer Windows; we edit movies and run a DAW on iMac; and so on…

 

[_thelaughingman]

Dang, there are more linux users than MacOs.

 

[RichB]

Software Development
Desktop PC: Windows 11
Servers: Windows Server 2022, 2019

Mobile devices
iPhone IOS
iPad IOS
ATV4Kv2 TVOS

Roon Streaming Endpoints
Rpi 3 and 4 Linux

Other Linux Devices
Synology NAS
EcoBee

- Rich

 

[sarumbear]

The word 'main' is somewhat vague. I run a single copy of Windows 11, but its the OS i'm using now on my 'main' dekstop, however, I run mulitple instances of both Synology DSM and Android, so either of them could also be considered as my 'main' OS in terms of deployed instances. However, I have over 60 devices deployed on my home network, so it might be something like the 'Echo Dot OS' than should really be considered as my 'main' OS (or 'some flavour of embedded Linux' would be the actual winner)

I guess the only other option is to say "desktop OS" but then what about the tablet only users? Or even phone only users? It seems the concept have changed.

 

[MRC01]

Interesting to see how many Linux users there are here....

Dang, there are more linux users than MacOs.

This is a result of sample bias - ASR members have more than a representative sample of engineers.
In our company's web site and video streaming logs, which are a roughly representative sample of the general home internet using population, Linux is about 1%.

 

[somebodyelse]

This is a result of sample bias - ASR members have more than a representative sample of engineers.
In our company's web site and video streaming logs, which are a roughly representative sample of the general home internet using population, Linux is about 1%.

The Steam survey data usually shows around 1% too https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

 

[sarumbear]

The Steam survey data usually shows around 1% too https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

The general stats are the same. Interestingly there are more Linux users in Europe.

https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share

https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/all/europe/#monthly-202009-202109

https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/all/north-america/#monthly-202009-202109

 

[MRC01]

Did we just provide empirical evidence for the notion that the smarter you are, the more likely you are to run Linux?

 

[deebeez]

Using Linux here, KDE. Switched from MicroCrap about 2 years ago, after battling with a hacker.

 

[sarumbear]

Did we just provide empirical evidence for the notion that the smarter you are, the more likely you are to run Linux?

Maybe; the fussier you are…the more you like fiddling…the more you think big corporations control you…the stingier you are… (MacOS runs on Linux and Windows 10 has a Linux subsystem.)

The list is endless

 

[somebodyelse]

Did we just provide empirical evidence for the notion that the smarter you are, the more likely you are to run Linux?

Or that linux users are more likely to care enough about which OS they use to read a thread about it?

 

[elvisizer]

This is a result of sample bias - ASR members have more than a representative sample of engineers.

on an audio forum there's also the raspberry pi's popularity for audio applications . . . and they're generally running linux.

Or that linux users are more likely to care enough about which OS they use to read a thread about it?

sure, selection bias too . . .

(MacOS runs on Linux)

no, BSD is 100% not linux.

 

[sarumbear]

no, BSD is 100% not linux.

Are there many Linux apps that will not run on BSD?

PS. Technically Linux is not an OS. It is just the Kernel.

 

[elvisizer]

app compatibility varies

What’s the Difference Between Linux and BSD?

Both Linux and the BSDs are free and open-source, Unix-like operating systems. They even use much of the same software — these operating systems have more things in common than they do differences. So why do they all exist?

www.howtogeek.com

PS. Technically Linux is not an OS. It is just the Kernel.

yep! the link I posted goes over that too

 

[dwkdnvr]

Interesting - far more Linux representation than I would have expected. I'm actually in the throes of potentially revisiting my primary OS direction. Or, maybe just trying to decide whether the new MacBook Pros are viable as a 'one machine' solution.

I'm also an old CompSci guy, and started on Linux way back in college in the 90's running it on a 386 machine. Had my first active xover running on Linux w/ BruteFIR and M-Audio Delta soundcards some time before Y2k (eventually on a 1GHz Athlon!! holy mflops, Batman). Moved away from it as my desktop OS though during the 'growing pains' era when maintaining the OS became a full time job due to the dependency hell that more or less eventually led to Docker.
I've had a Proxmox server running in the house for most of the last while, but recently finally decided to take a shot at GPU pass-through with my new build and it actually worked quite easily. So, now I have a Ryzen 3700x w/ 64GB running a variety of services in LXC containers and VMs but also a VM with a GPU attached to serve as a desktop. Taking a shot at trying Linux as the desktop, but sadly haven't had much time to really thoroughly evaluate things like Darktable, FreeCad, Resolve etc.
I'll likely always have a windows laptop unless it gets replaced by a MacBook; at the moment the 'killer app' is Vectric V-Carve which is windows-only, but it's possible FreeCad might be able to replace it.

 

[mansr]

MacOS runs on Linux

no, BSD is 100% not linux.

MacOS isn't BSD either. There's probably at least as much BSD-originated code in a typical Linux system as there is in MacOS.

 

[BostonJack]

MacOS on personal laptop. Win10 on work laptop (boo! gag! WTF! corporate bullsh*t).
Ubuntu on various Virtual machines scattered about various corporate servers.

Free RTOS on work machines. (though I rarely have to dig that deep).

I cried the day we retired the last Sun workstation running Berkeley 4.2 at BBN.

I'm a class A Unix and Unix-like bigot.

Various linux flavors are fine. I used to like watching the Mach box that we used as a console for
KSR supercomputer boot. The initial boot log was essentially a history of Unix OS development.

I also use emacs as my primary technical editor. Yup. I'm one of them.

 

[BostonJack]

Interesting - far more Linux representation than I would have expected. I'm actually in the throes of potentially revisiting my primary OS direction. Or, maybe just trying to decide whether the new MacBook Pros are viable as a 'one machine' solution.

I'm also an old CompSci guy, and started on Linux way back in college in the 90's running it on a 386 machine. Had my first active xover running on Linux w/ BruteFIR and M-Audio Delta soundcards some time before Y2k (eventually on a 1GHz Athlon!! holy mflops, Batman). Moved away from it as my desktop OS though during the 'growing pains' era when maintaining the OS became a full time job due to the dependency hell that more or less eventually led to Docker.
I've had a Proxmox server running in the house for most of the last while, but recently finally decided to take a shot at GPU pass-through with my new build and it actually worked quite easily. So, now I have a Ryzen 3700x w/ 64GB running a variety of services in LXC containers and VMs but also a VM with a GPU attached to serve as a desktop. Taking a shot at trying Linux as the desktop, but sadly haven't had much time to really thoroughly evaluate things like Darktable, FreeCad, Resolve etc.
I'll likely always have a windows laptop unless it gets replaced by a MacBook; at the moment the 'killer app' is Vectric V-Carve which is windows-only, but it's possible FreeCad might be able to replace it.

I've been using Macbook pro's for years now. If you really have a killer app you can make a dual boot MacOS/Windoze machine, or just run a virtualbox VM in windows. Needs testing, of course, but viable for 95% of applications.

I am staunchly against allowing Windoze on my personal machines. Gotta keep the Devil down in the hole.

 

[somebodyelse]

I'll likely always have a windows laptop unless it gets replaced by a MacBook; at the moment the 'killer app' is Vectric V-Carve which is windows-only, but it's possible FreeCad might be able to replace it.

You might want to give F-Engrave a look too, unless FreeCAD has picked up a similar capability since I last looked.