Why do you use Windows?

I use windows for compatibility and I have to use windows only programs for school.

I get annoyed using OSX and I am not brave enough to try linux or Ubunto (I haven't got the slightest idea about programing and I cannot partition my HDD)

 

because i <3 bill gates. plain and easy

 

I've been using Windows since I was able to comprehend what's happening on the monitor. The earliest version of Windows I remember using was 95 I believe. And since then, I've been through 98, 2000, XP, Vista, and now 7.

I wanted to skip Vista completely but that would have meant waiting a year and a half to buy a new laptop and my old one simply could not last that long but no worries, will update to 7 as soon as it hits retail or when my dad gets keys for 7 from his company.

I've gotten accustomed to the way Windows is organized and how it operates. It's relatively simple to use and offers plenty of compatibility options. OSX feels too "dumbed down" for me and Linux too complicated for daily usage, not really any other option.

 

I use Windows since ages. I grew up with DOS then Win 3.1 and NT/95/95b/98/98SE/XP and finally 7.

I often played with the idea of using Linux, but after thinking a bit longer about it I noticed that I have no use for it.

Why Windows?
Easy, I use Windows Software which does not run on Linux that easy, and the trouble I would have with Linux wasn't worth it. I use Office, Adobe CS, Visual Basic and other Windows only applications.
Now I have a tablet PC and Windows is the only OS which is really tablet friendly. Linux or Mac OS are light-years behind compared to Win in this aspects.

I have to do work sometimes with Mac OS and Linux if I want to work on a university computer. But honestly, I really can't get used to the one button Apple mouse and also is it not that much smoother or faster, and they have Power Macs. Linux, well, the basic things run fine, mathematical programs run better, but honestly, Windows is easier. Linux is great if you often use the command prompt, but therefore you need a lot of training and have to invest a lot of time, which I don't think is worth it, because in the end I will switch back to Windows again because it's easier to use and has much more professional applications.

Also does Windows have much more appealing programming languages for me, with Visual Basic and their .NET Framework. Sorry, but I hate Java and C or C++, well I'll learn it, but for microcontrollers, but would never want to create a good program with a more complex GUI with it.

 

That's a good question. Why do I use Windows? Hmmm... I don't really know why. I think I use it because most of the people I know use it and I find it a lot smoother than Linux.

 

After 3 years of using noting but Linux I've bought a laptop with Vista & kept it on there. Why? Simple stuff like Flash creation is a dead end in Linux, all we can create properly here is FLV. In addition there's some app's out there that just don't work in Wine or VirtualBox, apps like Autodesk 3D studio max 2009. Yea, we have blender that's awesome - experience there doesn't look good on your CV tho...

Don't get me wrong, I truly love Linux & have 3 other computers running it & nothing else. Following the Linux way can be a bit like biting your nose off to spite your face at times tho...

 

For me it's cheaper HW (my laptop specs are way over $2900 after tax with Apple, and they don't even go nearly this high up).

I also game, which is why I needed a powerful graphics in a manageably-sized laptop (16").

Windows is more logical for me, such as the close window function, etc.

I grew up with it, and am a lot more familiar with it.

 

I've tried a lot of operating systems over the past 10 years, but the most used one was Windows XP up until Vista SP1 arrived on the scene. Now I'm itching to move to Windows 7. My day-job involves writing Windows applications so it's my #1 OS of choice, as well as for gaming and graphics work as well.

Two years ago I got a Mac, and tried out OSX for the first time in ages. It's pretty good, and definitely is worthy. I'm now able to port some of my work to OSX thanks to the Mono framework, so I'm using it more and more. I prefer the Windows version of Office 2007, so all my Word smithing is done on Windows as well.

On the Linux front, I've tried Fedora only but haven't spent much time at all with it. No time these days it seems. I'm likely to have to sell my Mac since I'm more accustomed to the Windows world.

 

Because it just works so well.

 

Programs, games, much better user interface than Linux, the list goes on.

Why bother with Linux and OS X when you have Windows which works like a charm?

 

Does everything I need it to do. And I have certain (CAD) softwares that are windows based. I was close to getting OSX at one point (MBP), but decided against it. As for linux, it's on my list of something to try at some point. But I don't have the time at the moment.

Actually right now I am backing up all my stuff, going to install W7 RTM (MSDNAA) over the next couple of days.

 

I've played around several times on a peer's MBP, and I've personally tried Ubuntu, Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME, XP, and Vista. The one that fits my needs the best (school, work) and I get along with the best is Vista. I never had any problems with it and found XP frustrating after getting used to Vista. Already bought Windows 7 for $30 and will be trying it as soon as it's released.

 

I use both Windows and Ubuntu, and there are little things that Windows does better than Ubuntu that keep me in Windows. But Ubuntu 9.10 is the best Ubuntu I've ever used. I have it working almost perfectly with none of the problems I've had in the past.

BTW, Office 2007 is really easy to install in Wine now, the only problem I have is it is not updated to SP2.

 

Only reason I have windows on my machine is for gaming

 

I do have an old copy of Linux on an old desktop, as an emergency backup. But other than that, I use Windows because:

1. I'm familiar with it.
2. It came installed on my computers
3. We use Windows at work (primarily to run SQL Server software).
4. The VPN software distributed by work so I can login to my work computer is Windows software.
5. VB.NET and ASP.NET have close enough syntax to Fortran that I can easily re-write old programs if I wish, and because of work I am comfortable with Visual Studio.

 

I've used Windows my entire life and it's the most widely used OS. I gave Ubuntu a go for a week but didn't like the style and the ways things worked.

 

All the rational people use Windows. Notice the tone of this thread compared to other forums.

 

Logical, left brain thinkers. Like Bill Gates in fact.

 

Its what Im used to. It does what I want it to do, feels like the more user friendliest, and one thing it is undeniably has over every other OS, its the most supported.

 

Games, hardware support and familiarity. But honestly, mostly games. I've been dual-booting it with various flavors of Scientific Linux for a few years now and though it takes a day or two to set up, once that's done, the Linux works fine. Games are the only thing that I use Windows for which Linux can't do.

 

I have a g5 imac which is basically a web browser for me at this point, might even sell it if its worth anything. I think OSX is very elegant and I found it easy to use and really it presented no learning curve for me. The problems I have are: no games, little software support, and apple is stingy. I bought the Imac g5 for about $1600 and the core duo versions came out 2 1/2 - 3 weeks later. I wanted to send my imac back for an exchange and apple said no way unless something was wrong with it. I told them I would never buy a mac again and probably wont. I do like OSX but getting burned on the last generation of no dual boot macs really spoiled me on the whole company. Windows is the standard even if there are some attractive alternatives. Until another company creates a non computer specific OS that has a decent slice of the market share Ill stay windows.

 

easy answer, gaming.

 

chose windows cuz macs are expensive, its not anything against how they make their computers or the design. its just i dont see myself paying that much for low specs

 

i use windows and mac.

i prefer mac os but i use windows more often because.. i game. gaming in windows is so much better.

that is why i use windows. and the fact that it is the standard os, and everthing is more geared for windows... software, hardware, accessories, websites, etc.

 

What works requires/uses - however use several of the live CDs to experiment and see what else is there. Linus is also great for rescue operations (failed Hard Drives and pulling data etc.

 

my CAD softwares,
my games,
my can-do-loads of/any-things with windows attitude ,
flexibility,
fun,
cheaper option than mac, .. i love windows..

 

I've used Windows since 3.1 Why use Windows? Because it's widely used and has more programs for it. Linux is okay but still needs A LOT of work to be viable. OS X also has limited programs and Apple is too proprietary.

 

I like the integration between Windows Mobile and my Smartphone
Although my school doesn't "force" me to use Windows (we are free to choose Windows, Linux or OS X on Apple machines)

Some software I use for school only works in Windows (supplemental CD's in textbooks, some sites at school that run under IE, etc.)

I found that it tends to work better, esp. with Office. (I have run office 07 in Linux, but it has a few niggling issues)

With that said, I've made it an effort last year to use Ubuntu to take notes for a few classes my spring semester, It certainly worked fine and if I could get my smartphone to work with it as seamlessly as Windows 7 for syncing music,(My phone runs Windows Mobile) and my RSS reader of choice (FeedDemon) was able to run on Linux using the Firefox rendering engine for it's integrated browser, that would be one less reason to stay on Windows. Ubuntu is very stable when i do use it.

 

The feedback from everyone has been quite insightful, thanks guys.

 

Why is it better to game in Windows? Sure there's a slight difference but my friend can play World of Warcraft relatively good on his Mac. Windows will run WoW practically the same.

 

I think it may be down to game titles.

I mean, you can get games for Linux too (on the same CD even - an old version of Civilisation that I never got the hang off, had that).

But to the best of my knowledge more games are available for Windows than other OSes.
Also some games are Windows only.

 

Gaming on a Mac???.....or Linux?

LOL. Good luck with that.

Sure a few games work, but the majority do not.

 

Note that since macs and Unix are indeed built on the same hardware that the gaming aspect is perfectly possible... its just apple building support for it where intentionally they have steered away from it. Unix gaming is about programmer and community support.

Note, companies like Blizzard are indeed making functioning top-tech games for Mac... but are limited by apple's low-ball choices for hardware... especially in the laptop markets.

Hate Microsoft all you want, but one thing they have done is make gaming (or anything else) mainstream on their OS.

With gaming... STANDARDS are why windows has leaped out in front.
This is why *nix has problems... the point of the OS is freedom... but a few agreements are all that are required to make a real go at it.

Apple needs to stop hamstringing its own users when it comes to games.
"no you can't do that with my OS" has got to die. The truth is that OSX has lots of potential for gaming due to the hardware lockdown... allow a FEW more choices and it could be the next XBox... put in the Disk and play...
(you have X computer you have Y hardware, optimize, done)

 

Because there are FAR more games than just WoW, and most of them will NOT run under any other OS.

 

You guys are probably right and the majority of all the games will not work on Mac. But those who do work on Mac will run pretty well in my opinion. But still... Windows outperforms Mac/Linux when it comes to gaming.

 

I use both Windows and Linux. I have been using Linux on and off since 1995 with Redhat 5.1. And ofcourse have been using Windows since the Dos/3.1 days. I like both systems and both have their advantages and disadvantages. I do some computer gaming but not much, so that is a little bit of the reason why I use Windows. But I also use Windows a lot for .NET programming. I develop code using Visual Studio and the .NET framework. Obviously Windows excels here since they created it. I must say I am very impressed with .NET and Visual Studio 2008/2010. Very good products; some of the best products I have used on Windows or any other OS. Another reason I use Windows is for certain web sites. Some web sites still use Active X controls and you can't view them without IE and Windows.

For my Thinkpad laptop I use windows since I can better battery life in Windows than Linux. Also the Thinkvantage tools don't run in Linux. I really need and use the Thinkvantage Power Manager tool, since it helps me to get the best battery life, even over Vista inherent power plans.

 

IMO, .NET is a big hit for developers I know, along with Visual Studio. Microsoft has worked hard to make it stupid easy to develop on the Windows platform.

 

Really, software and games are the primary reasons I use Windows. All my software runs on Windows, and a good part of it won't run on other operating systems, and replacing it would be expensive and/or take a lot of time, and I still may not end up with a better product. For some of the games, it'd be impossible to replace them - and somewhat similar just isn't the same with favorite games. WINE would help some, but it isn't a solve-all. My favorite game won't run on WINE, for instance. Probably due to CD checks, but I agree with whoever said they don't want to jump through hoops to play games. If WINE played every game correctly at at near-Windows speed, that'd be great, but right now, it doesn't.

I have run a number of Linuxes in virtual machines, partly because it's a geeky thing to do, and partly because some of my computer science courses use Linux. I actually rather like Ubuntu 9.04 in terms of everyday nongaming tasks, and I agree with Calvin that the software respositories are very nice (although they aren't complete - my favorite browser, Opera, for instance, never shows up in repositories, even though it's free [maybe because it isn't open source they don't put it in?]), and it's the one OS where I've actually enjoyed fancy graphics effects (Compiz Fusion - much better than Vista or OSX's effects). But even with dual-booting it, I can't see how I would be better off than with a Windows single-boot. Everything I want to run runs in Windows, so when would I use Ubuntu? To test compatibility of programming projects, but I can do that in an Ubuntu VM. Sure, Amarok's a nice media player, but WMP 10 satisfies me even though it can't always sort in alphabetical order quite correctly.

I also got burnt by GRUB crashing and burning when I tried dual-booting Ubuntu and Vista (GRUB as the first bootloader), and had GRUB crash and burn in a VM once, too, so I'd be hesitant to use it as a production bootloader, despite its good reputation. Lilo I don't have a problem with, but it's becoming less common - and as stated in the previous paragraph, I don't really have a need for a native Linux install.

For Mac OS, I still haven't gotten over how awful Mac OS 9 was at my high school. Sure, Mac OS X is different, but it's still "Mac". Macs are also terribly expensive for the same specs - I saved over $500 for an equivalent machine (and equal if not better warranty) by buying Dell instead of Apple. And Apple's business practices push me the wrong way. Microsoft's far from perfect - I'm no fan of their occasional Automatic Updates pushes when it's set to "Notify first" or "Off", and I dislike Vista's DRM protections, but I find Apple worse. Total control over the iPhone store, for the longest time DRM on iTunes, making upgrades more difficult (for example, no CPU upgrades on Apple laptops thanks to BGA), and the general elitism of Apple, particularly with not allowing OSX on non-Apple hardware. In a way it makes me want to run OSX on my Dell just because Apple says not to and it's rather challenging, but I realized the same applied to OSX as Linux - what's the point, when would I use it? At least Linux there's some things I like - I'd use Linux over OSX any day (assuming a reasonable distrobution). The only thing I'd use OSX for would be testing application compatibility, and that can be done in a VM. Or, at least, it could be if Apple weren't so control-centered about their OS.

At work I use Solaris, and I have tried Solaris both natively and in a VM. And it's just a nightmare to configure. I like being able to tweak settings, but I do like for software to just work initially, without tons of setup. And that doesn't happen much in Solaris. A few things come in somewhat easy-to-install packages, but an awful lot has to be compiled, or at least manually configured, and it almost never works with default settings. Far too much work to get a computer working. OpenSolaris is considerably better, but still nowhere near the standard of Linux/Windows (can't say for Mac OS since I've never actually been able to experiment with installing software on/setting up a Mac at all). Hardware compatibility also becomes an issue with Solaris - there just ain't that much supported. As someone who runs XP x64 on a laptop sold with Vista x86, I don't think I have an unusually low tolerance for hunting down drivers, but there does come a limit.

That said, I have grown to like many of the Unix utilities, and have install MinGW on Windows to have the functionality of many of those. I'd still rather have a full IDE for most programming to save me some of the time wastingness resulting from typos and the like, but ls sure beats Windows' dir.

Philosophically, I'm not entirely with the free and open source philosophy. Open source certainly has benefits, and may have better security, but it also makes it easier for the bad guys to find flaws, and I trust most companies to not plant all kinds of malware in their code. And I'd rather use superior closed-source software from a reputable source than even slightly inferior software that's open source - as an example, I use Opera instead of Firefox because I find Opera superior and trust Opera Software ASA. All else equal, I might use Firefox because it's open source, but even Firefox probably would be my second choice, open source doesn't put it over the top for me.

Perhaps moreover, I plan to get a career in computer science, and you have to make a living somehow. Distributing all your software as FOSS isn't the greatest way to get revenue. If Windows and Office were free (even if just monetarily, not true FOSS free), Microsoft wouldn't be making nearly as much money, and a whole lot of people in computer science would be out of a job. And I kinda care about making a living someday. Sure, you can sell service help on your software, but I can't help thinking that if your business plan is to sell service on your software, either your software is too buggy, or you need a more intuitive/easier to set up interface, or perhaps better/easier to comprehend documentation. Even as a consumer, I'm willing to spend a bit more for software that's easy to use.

 

And they succeeded. Many developers (and the companies they work for) have been seduced by .NET. It even helped IIS to briefly be more popular than Apache.

Ironically, despite Linux's reputation as an enthusiast's dream OS, it's Windows that's truly a programmer's paradise. A text editor and makefiles is just no match for Visual Studio.

 

Because i like gaming and i can't afford a mac



and theres no drivers for my wifi card in osx

 

are you referring to hackintoshes?

 

I maybe

 

yes, and we looove it

it's what any developer dreamed of, including the ones on a mac, and on linux (but they don't want to agree of course).

working with visual studio in .net is just so awesome, it was what i waited for for 10 years.

now i just wait for max for live, to be able to have pure awesomeness with visual programming in my favorite live music environment, to rock the show