What computer system do you use?

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by John Bear, Dec 19, 2003.

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Which computer system do you use (mostly)?

  1. Windows

    65 vote(s)
    89.0%
  2. Mac

    8 vote(s)
    11.0%
  3. Linux

    8 vote(s)
    11.0%
  4. Other

    3 vote(s)
    4.1%
Multiple votes are allowed.
  1. Vie

    Vie New Member

    Signs, signs, breaking my mind

    Amen! I use Windows 2000 because that's what my employer supplies. It crashes regularly. I bought an Mac ibook, which I use for digital movie editing, but not much else.

    It's not logical enough for me. It's as if Apple has dumbed down the interface to the point that it has become difficult to use. At least with Windows it's easy to locate files. The interface is fairly linear. But Mac?

    Which brings me to another point, a linguistic one. (Warning -- rant on the way!) I wish manufacturers would stop translating written language into graphics alone in their instructions.

    Just include both, please, or pay a few good translators. Nice graphics, plain, straightforward English, translated into as many languages as you have a) markets for your product and b) space for text.

    Someone could probably write a linguistic dissertation on signs and their use in corporations, as well as their overuse, their overreliance on the nonwritten word.
     
  2. MichaelR

    MichaelR Member

    If your win2k is crashing alot, you probably are doing something wrong. My win2k was stable and my XP machines are like rocks!
     
  3. Vie

    Vie New Member

    Okay, I admit it

    I probably do have a tendency to open too many applications at once. But still, a little warning would be nice!
     
  4. Bill Highsmith

    Bill Highsmith New Member

    If you're using Mac OS-X, you might be an unwitting "other" user. Under the shiny Apple exterior is freeBSD (a Unix-related OS similar to Linux).

    One problem with the poll is that some of us use more than one OS and are unable to answer (XP Pro, Debian Linux, Lindows/Debian/Linux).
     
  5. ashton

    ashton New Member

    So far, all of the answers to John's question have focused on operating systems that could be used for writing, web-browsing, home finance, and the like. There are other computers, such as IBM mainframes, Cray supercomputers, etc., that are used for non-consumer applications such as processing credit card transactions, weather forcasting, building design, etc. Since the poll only asks what people use most of the time, and does not specify the nature of the tasks, some of the other responses might be from people who perform non-consumer computing all day.
     
  6. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    One of my favorite lines, from the computer world (I hope it's true) is that the Cray was used to design the Macintosh, and then the Macintosh was used to design the Cray.

    --John Bear, poised to visit MacWorld in
    San Francisco, where the gossip seems
    to suggest that a $99 iPod will be introduced.
     
  7. J. Ayers

    J. Ayers New Member

    My 1984 computer was a Kaypro with the CP/M operating system and WordStar. Unfortunately, I didn't follow you to Mac-land because my employers since then used DOS and then Windows. I've been in Wintel ever since...
     
  8. GBrown

    GBrown New Member

    My first "computer" was a VIC-20 with a cassette-tape drive. I had that until 1990 when I finally purchased my first IBM-PC compatible (10 Mhz!!).

    Obviously, I'm not one to keep up with the latest technology.
     
  9. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    J. Ayers: KayPro . . . CP/M . . . WordStar . . .

    J. Bear: Osborne . . . TRS-80 . . . Electric Pencil . . .


    Oh, we 'pioneers' are going to be unsufferable, sitting there in (and off) our rockers, on the porch at the Home.
     
  10. MichaelR

    MichaelR Member

    one day, in the late 90's i had a paper route. While delivering the Houston Post, i noticed some one had tossed a kaypro 10. I almost, stopped and got it. But I knew the hell I would catch from my wife when I got home. :) MY first PC was purchased by my parents when I was somewhere between the 6th to 8th grade. They got an IBM PC. two weeks after they got it I took it apart. Luckily it still worked afterwards.... Little did I know about the dangers static electricity till about two weeks later when I played with the static on the monitor and blew out the memmory..... Luckily I didn't get my hide tanned......
     
  11. Gus Sainz

    Gus Sainz New Member

    You have no idea how insufferable you newbies are. Now, if, in 1976, you had been part of a young group of geeks that pooled their money to buy an Altair 8800... :D
     
  12. MichaelR

    MichaelR Member

    GUS SAID NEWBIE!!!!!
     
  13. Bill Hurd

    Bill Hurd New Member

    I started on a VIC-20 in the late 70s. They couldn't make tape drives fast enough so I bought a regular audio drive from Radio Shack (an Emerson as I recall).

    Followed that with a Commodore 64, then several "Clones", which came to be known as IBM compatibles. I have used HP for the last 5 years.

    Operating systems progressed from Windows 3.1 through Win 95, Win 98, 2000, and now XP.

    At the newspaper where I am gainfully employed we are split down the middle --- XP for business office functions, and MACs for the publishing function. They both serve us very well.

    Bill Hurd
     
  14. GENO

    GENO New Member

    Does anyone remember Amiga with a MOUSE and a 3.5 floppy?
     
  15. -kevin-

    -kevin- Resident Redneck

    first "pc" Timex Sinclair (ordered the model you had to put together, what operating system? circa 1982. Latest: Win 2k, P4, wireless card, AES capable router, VPN, satellite connectivity. Now my work stuff is really neat....
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 1, 2004
  16. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    1974: Bought a DEC 310. Four 8-inch floppy drives. Paid some programmers several thousand dollars to write a simple mailing list maintenance program. Never worked well. DEC said it was software. The programmer said it was hardware.

    2003: Bought an eMac. 80 gig hard drive. My PageMaker 5.5 doesn't work well on it. Apple says it is software. Adobe says it is software.

    2032: Plan to buy a Philip Morris 100. 20 terabyte crystal storage. My Vulcan Mindmeld 2.0 software won't work on it. Philip Morris will say it is software. (Etc.)
     
  17. Mike Albrecht

    Mike Albrecht New Member

    You are the newbie! By 1976 I was on to my third computer, First 1968 IBM1620, second 1969, IBM360-44, third 1976 IBM370.

    Currently using my fifth PC (actually my sixth (a lap top is sitting next to me, but not on, and my fourth is also off, and sitting behind me, this does not include ones at work).
     
  18. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    Mike: ...1968 IBM1620...

    John: I'll see your 1620 and raise you a 1958 Curta. Well I didn't own it, my calculus professor at Reed did, and I got to use it. But the delightful article on Curtas in this month's Scientific American persuades me that it is (barely) relevant to this thread.
     
  19. sgusom

    sgusom New Member

    Getting back to the original question...

    As any student of statistics would tell you, this unscientific poll, with small numbers of answers can't give much information...HOWEVER, the percentage of people using MACS is 2-3 times greater than the reported market share of MAC sales.

    Are there common personality traits common to MAC users and those drawn to distance education?

    Are students willing to THINK DIFFERENT and enter distance education programs, also more likely to THINK DIFFERENT and use MACS?

    Of course I should comment that the "market share" of MAC is diluted by the large corporate purchases of WINTEL computers. These IT types typically don't even consider MAC.

    Any one have any other hypothesis why this poll is different than the market share?
     

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