Poll: Which is the best OS in your opinion?

[smp]

Okay.. graphics is not best on a mac.. I work in a computer lab at an art school, we have both platforms here (mac and win)... many poeple prefer the mac to the pc for graphics. After spending the past four years at this school, I can come up with some pretty accurate generalizations about art/design students...
Poeple here don't care about the computer itself, they want something that does the job, and easily (and somewhere they heard that Macs were easier to use, maybe applicable ten years ago).. They use macs... "Oh it's pretty, clicky clicky".. that's an art student for you.. "it has firewire".. and "macs are better for graphics".. I don't know, I have to troubleshoot both platforms.. and yes, I grew up with pc's.. but still. I use the pc for any graphical work that I do.. if I need to print it, it just gets a .tif extention and off it goes to the splash.. So yeah, someone up above said it HALF right...
and jsm, for print publishing, I agree, yeah, but actually generating the work, PC..

Oh, and the kids that use the PC lab for thier work are generally better looking, more intelligent and fun to be around.

I like linux, since I have a p75 at home serving as a router/firewall/web/ftp server.. but I know next to nothing.. my freind set it up, (he's a big mac fan actually ) I want to learn it though so I can say it's the best from first hand experience

 

[smp]

oh yeah, have to continue the mac os - windows thing..
lab 2 ---> 20 G4's, 450mhz, 256 megs of ram.
lab 4 ---> 20 PIII 450's, nt, 128 megs of ram.

"mhz for mhz, macs are better"... baloney.. hooey.. and they have poor memory managment to boot....

"not enough memory, close an application".. memory fragmentatin coming out the a$$, photoshop scratch disk space never gets cleaned.. I don't know..

 

[Hamburgerpimp]

Windows XP, maybe.

 

[Sunner]

I'll split it up.

For games - Windows2000

For real work - Linux

For cheapo servers - FreeBSD/Linux

For "real" servers - Solaris(I suppose other UNIX's would work fine as well, though the only one I've tried is DEC UNIX, now Tru64, and that was years ago).

For making yourself feel happy about any of the above, Win9x.

 

[Biggs]

At the moment, it's gotta be Win 2K.

 

[WOP]

Win 2k rocks if you have enough RAM. I suggest at least 128MB. Linux is cool if you like a challenge (since doing almost anything is a pain in the ass).
Window ME sucks... stay away from it!

 

[Abzstrak]

LMAO, I have to say I'm gettin a kick out of this thread, I'd have to say I don't believe there is a best, but win9x isdefinitely crap. I personally prefer winnt and linux(and solaris) for doing real work... win2k is full of it and not stable enough yet (don't slam me, but I want to see it run for 2 years without a reboot).

Also, I think the king of stability is Netware... I've seen it have uptimes in excess of 5 years, and still going strong.

 

[velvtelvis]

depends 100% what you wanna do with it

for games, grandmothers, and people who enjoy rebuilding their OS every six months, there is win 9x.

For people who want to spend $300 for an OS they don't need just becasuse it's the latest thing, there is win 2k

For development/networking/and using irc the way it's supposed to be there are assorted flavors of linux

for people who want a fast, solid OS that they know will have killer graphics and sound support out of the box there is mac-os

for people for whom linux isn't geeky enough: BSD, beOS, or an intel port of Darwin

for playing spy hunter because the theme song has been stuck in your head for 10 years: C64

for free net access: school shell accounts

best costers: win 9x