Index ⇒ General Topics ⇒ [Poll] What is your primary OS?

[guardsman]

Hey, everyone!

I was just wondering what GUI based OS peeps here consider to be their primary OS (e.g. What OS is used most on their "main" computer?).

I have been using Windows XP Professional x86 for almost eleven years (Since it came out in 2001) but now that game companies are starting to release recent games that require Windows Vista or higher installed, I see that the "writing on the wall" tells me that I need to move on to Windows 7. I'm gravitating towards Windows 7 x86 since I personally hate the interface formerly known as "Metro" in Windows 8 and I'm not going to use the "improved" touch screen functionality on my old desktop (As I understand it, Win 7 also has touch screen functionality but it is buggy). Based on what I have read as far as games are concerned, there is no noticable difference in performance to the user between using Windows 7 or Windows 8 (Please let me know if this is not so, with links to articles) -> http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/win ... ,3331.html Of course with either OS, I'm going to be running a VM (I'm not crazy about the idea) in order to play my favorite Windows XP based games. It is just a sign of the times, I guess...


BTW - I had to group Windows NT with Windows 98, 95 & 3.1 and leave out "Other OS" (Lindows, BeOS, AltOS) in the poll options since this board's BBS only allows up to 10 poll options.

[GigaWatt]

I vote for DOS.

[guardsman]

I vote for DOS.

Remember unlike Windows XP, Windows 3.1, Win 95 and Win 98 are really just GUIs layered on top of the MSDOS kernel. So your vote would actually go towards the Windows NT, 98, 95, 3.1 poll option (Again, sorry for lumping NT in the same poll option).

[GigaWatt]

Remember unlike Windows XP, Windows 3.1, Win 95 and Win 98 are really just GUIs layered on top of the MSDOS kernel. So your vote would actually go towards the Windows NT, 98, 95, 3.1 poll option (Again, sorry for lumping NT in the same poll option).

Eh? So, Windows is a real mode multitasking DOS with a GUI?

[hfric]

Winblows 98

[loddic]

Dos 6.22 with IBM dos shell

[guardsman]

Remember unlike Windows XP, Windows 3.1, Win 95 and Win 98 are really just GUIs layered on top of the MSDOS kernel. So your vote would actually go towards the Windows NT, 98, 95, 3.1 poll option (Again, sorry for lumping NT in the same poll option).

Eh? So, Windows is a real mode multitasking DOS with a GUI?

I never said that, Gigawatt. Windows 3.1 and later only support protected mode, not real mode memory addressing (Windows 3.0 and earlier supported real mode but as a consequence, they crashed a lot). All I said basically was that the GUIs of Windows 3.1, 95 and 98 can not function without the MSDOS kernel (They "sit" on top of DOS). Windows XP and above have their own kernel and emulate the MSDOS kernel with the "Command Prompt" emulator. With Windows 98 and earlier versions of Windows, you actually have the MSDOS Prompt which allows the user access to the MSDOS kernel commands. So a vote for DOS in this poll of GUI based OSes can be interpreted as a vote for Win 3.1, Win 95 or Win 98.

As for multitasking, this is what I understand (I could be wrong): Back when CPUs had only one core the "multitasking" available was not actually true parallel processing. Applications were buffered in memory and the CPU took turns quickly switching among the different running applications performing some processing. When multi-core CPUs arrived, true "multitasking" (parallel processing) was possible with each core handling one process. When you have more processes running than available cores, then each core will be buffering multiple processes. You can run Windows XP on a multi-core machine and have true multitasking. On such a machine in Task Manager, you can see what each core is processing. I'm not sure whether Windows 3.1, Windows 95 or Windows 98 support true multitasking or just buffering on a multi-core machine. I don't think they support true multitasking since we didn't have multi-core PCs back then. Remember how happy we were if we could run more than three applications simultaneously with Windows 3.1 on a 80286 machine without it locking up or GPF (General Protection Fault) crashing?

Winblows 98

Oh, I see -> http://www.legendsworld.net/adventure/game/4274


BTW - I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! And may the New Year be filled with happiness and joy for you!

[hurenBock]

as a gamer u wont bypass windows i guess....at least not now and in the near future.

[guardsman]

I LOL'ed when I read the following article -> http://betanews.com/2014/07/01/windows- ... ow-growth/ I hope that Microsoft finally got there act together with Windows 9, making it suitable for both desktops and tablets with "switchable modes" for both types of computers. That's the only probable way that they'll win both kinds of users over. Otherwise Windows 9 will be just another disaster for MS like Windows 8!

[guardsman]

Wow talk about prophecy (See above post) coming true! -> http://www.techradar.com/us/news/softwa ... rs-1029245 It looks like the next version of Windows will be called Windows 10 and it can be used by all "recent" computers (Desktops, laptops and tablets). Why is it called 10 and not 9? -> http://www.extremetech.com/computing/19 ... -windows-9 Basically, because the heads at Microsoft said so (They even use lame jokes like [Windows] 7 ate (8) nine to explain the decision).