Everyone's got an opinion and this is your chance to share your thoughts on something you probably know a lot about - your Operating System. There is a long standing debate over what Operating System is the greatest and why. So for the first time here on PRO we're going to allow all of our readers to justify their personal arguments. Once all the feedback comes in, we'll compose and separate the entries it into four sections - each arguing for that particular OS. Then, reviewing those arguments you can decide for yourself what is truly the best Operating System out there today.

Remember, you should submit entries that justify your points and provide as much evidence as possible why your OS is better than the competition. Only the best arguments for each OS will be published.

So, lets hear it. What makes your OS the greatest? Email your responses to us at greatestOS@pronetworks.org

Entries must be received by no later than Tuesday, April 15, 2008.


Official News Article: Quest for the greatest OS of 2008

Personaly my favourite is XP. I like the fact that it installs quickly and easily, everything just works and tbh security isnt really that much of an issue as long as you have a 3rd party firewall and virus protection (i've never had a virus anyway.) It's fast, reliable and simple to use. It also helps that most apps are designed for a windows machine, and work straight away, unlike a linux machine where I would have to use something like wine for a lot of things.

Although i do have a ubuntu cd here, its just a case of getting round to installing it, i may be swayed.

well for a while my favorite was Windows 98SE, i hated windows ME and 2000 really wasn't in my era of servers. after XP came out i was delighted to use it, then eventually it became my favorite and i fully switched to XP. however in roughly 2003 i really got into C# and learned that i either had to go out and buy the Microsoft suite to learn it or i could install Linux. well after lots of hard work i got Linux installed and hated it so i pirated the suite to see if i liked it and then bought it eventually ( after about a month of playing ). then i turned to windows 2003 Enterprise Edition in 32 and 64bits for servers. it wasn't till around 2005 that i gave Linux another go, and this time instead of starting with Gentoo i tried Debian Sarge, and liked it. easy installer, lots of FREE applications and programs of practical use for me. i also was dual booting so that i could play games in windows till i learned about Ubuntu and how to install DOOM 3 with out the use if Wine or Cedega, in fact i still have the old 4.10 desktop CDs.


Now today I still use Windows, but only for applications that have not yet been ported into *nix ( Unix, Solaris, or Linux ), mostly Flight Simulators, and to test applications that are made for Vista but can however be run in XP with the proper modifications to the OS.


ultimately, i would have to say the Better OS would be Linux...

Why¿

simple, if i want to run a Virtual machine of Windows i can and i will get the same performance in windows as if it were running native. however because Windows is a resource hog you wont get the same if you were to run it vice versa.. 9 out of 10 times the drivers you require for your hardware are already present when you install your choice of Distro, so you don't have to worry about installing them after your OS is installed. now sometimes the drivers wont be installed, in that case its not that hard to open synaptic ( Ubuntu ) and find the drivers you need; mostly this is for Graphics cards, and non-atheros WiFi cards. Not having to install the drivers is because most the time your install will download the needed package from the web and install it during setup, if a Network driver is needed there is a 3rd party generic driver that it will use temporarily till the correct driver is present and installed.
there is also security issues at stake.
I have never once had a virus on any of my *nix machines. nor the need for a virus scanner nor any type of anti spyware or malware programs.

just a few key points...

1: virus free
2: mal/spy ware free
3: 32 or 64 bit
4: server or desktop version
5: FREE
6: free support via forums ( if you have an issue with this, i think your in the wrong place )
7:you can customize the kernel and MOST ( 90% or greater ) programs to suit your needs with out worrying about breaking the law.


there is also a special BIOS for Full Linux machines that you can install. this is a great idea, however i have never personally used it...


BTW I almost said OS X, however Mac is proprietary and i never did like that quality in a computer or software. So when i can natively and legally install OS X on my PC then i might change my mind till then NO.

I WILL NOT SUPPORT VISTA!
still to buggy, its a MAJOR recourse hog, even with my gaming rig ( listed below ) and my New SAS drives i only get a 5.4 rating ( because of the HDDs being to "slow". they're 15K RPM's have a 16MB cache and are RAID 0... slow isn't the case here. there is also the issue of programs not wanting to run unless in compatibility mode..
IMHO Vista = POS Rush job OS.

weird, my raptor scoops a 5.9 in vista, no raid. i used to have a pair of wd2500ks, and they scored 5.9 in raid0, but on their own got a 5.3..

edit, and i would point my finger at your controller card..

Well personally. Linux is confusing as hell to use or install programs. So you have to be pretty computer savy to understand it. i mean what person off the street is gonna say "oh to install a program on linux you gotta go into kernal and type tar xvz /home/user/desktop/"

now! linux XP desktop looks like the best! it runs XP programs. Fully functional XP and Linux. Its a dream!