i just dropped by to say something worthless...
yeah, im that kind of asshole...

also, i dont care about the debatte because frankly, it doesnt matter. i use windows, i dont care why you dont and i dont care how stupid i am.

also, i like chocolate...

I really enjoy OSX because after spending some time with various linux distros, I found that OSX felt like a really polished linux distro.... It is Unix after all so it definitely felt similar.
To me it had the securty and power of linux, with the ease of use and simple to get running aspect of windows. Best of both worlds.

Plus, a lot of linux programs can be compiled or easily ported to OS X.

@amy: we are talking about PC Os, not mobile OS.
The Linux in the devices is highly customized to a certain task/environment,
and not a general OS.

Don't blame whatever OS, sounds a bit like your dads fault to me

Everybody should choose the OS he/she is content with.

Anyway I'm a windows guy because

• Linux will never be THE gaming platform, not all vendors would like to open their drivers, as a developer you should stick with your clients platform
• MS Office is still THE standard office solution
• my MCSA degree would be useless

Oh nonetheless I use debian on a few webservers, for this purpose it's perfect

Did I mention every other internet-enabled PC in the house was running Linux, and hasn't been hit once? This Windows machine is the only thing with the problem, and it's not like he hasn't looked into it. The trouble is, as good as our firewall is, it ultimately just delays the virus problem.


You have a point here, but that's not really the problem. You see, Linux uses a much different file structure than Windows, such that every file on your PC uses permissions. For example, if a user runs an application, he can only modify a text file if the user owns the the text file as well. Even if a virus landed on your Linux machine, it wouldn't be able to do anything since it doesn't "own" any of your files. The whole kernel would just reject it. Windows doesn't have this; if a virus lands on your machine, it can do anything, anywhere. You're totally defenseless.

while that is true, I dont believe there is anything wrong with it. Thats about the equivilent of saying people are dumb for using c++ instead of assembly because you could theoretically make your programs exponentially more efficient with assembly... But it would take forever, and the dev time itself would be ineffecient.

Inefficiencies have several forms, whether its taking time you dont have to learn to use linux when you have a perfectly good option with windows, or spending time searching for linux software... It's not always strictly about what "could be better".

You also add the "loads it with viruses", now this is an issue I've been arguing about with peopl for a long time because It's not my fault if you (not you specifically, I'm referring to most people) are too retarded to keep your computer free of viruses, and even if you get them, reinstalling windows and drivers takes 45 minutes tops, so just keep an extra partition with your important shit on it and your good. Even with linux, I recommend reformatting once in a while just strictly for the "making everything new without much effort" factor. Even if you don't, I put together my best friends pc about 1.5 years ago.... he has NO VIRUS PROTECTION WHATSOEVER.... but he's also not an idiot and so he hasnt had any real issues with it yet.... I have avg.... I never scan like I should... but then again I'm not some idiot who doesnt know how to keep viruses off my pc so it still runs fine.




point being, yes there are viruses for windows... just dont get them! and yes, people are too lazy to learn things some times... and sometimes they just dont have the time, and thats perfectly fine.

While yes, linux does use a very different structure, that isn't what makes it more secure... you can actually do this with windows (If you want to) too. Permissions are pervasive in any os nowadays.

As to viruses on linux, they do exist, but not in the sense that they do on windows. The kernel of linux is more secure yes, but every layer on top of the kernel that is added is inherently less secure than the last. So, the trick to writing a linux virus is to not attack the kernel, instead you attack the GUI (Gnome, KDE, xFCE). It can be done, and proofs do exist for this, however, since linux is such a small portion of the market, it is not exploited the way that would be and is with windows.

As to being totally defenseless in windows, if you take the time, you can lock files down to a comparable level as linux, yes there are still going to be more holes, but thats simply because more people exert their efforts in attacking windows and not linux (Although linux servers are popular choices for C&C [Command and control] Servers for botnets).

Regards,
Ayrus

I love my windows 7 computer and I also love my mac mini with now finally Snow Leopard (which is btw very cheap...). Both run very fast and very stable and while I prefer the preinstalled software on the mac and the developement tools of it over what I´ve got on my windows computer, I use windows for playing games and gamestudio and I really enjoy it currently. Of course also because one notices the 4gb ram vs the macs 2gb as well as the i5 vs the core2duo.
While currently the win7 taskbars highlighting when turning off the fancy stuff, which is actually needed for some software I use, it is pretty hard to create a new folder on the mac if the finder window shows the files in detailed mode if the folder is full, as there is no free space to click at, which you would need. xCode btw doesn´t seem to offer a really working save all function, instead you have to rebuild to get asked if you want to save all...

I once had ubuntu installed and I may will install it somewhen again, or another linux distro. I liked it but messed around with my hardware I had back then and thus sometimes took hours to start. And I relied quite a bit on the internet with it, to find and get all the things I needed as well as the many updates there were, which is not so great if your internet is as slow as mine.
I also didn´t get used to it the way I am used to windows or mac, but I may would also need some more time with it.