All The Different OS's.

Taw likes the Linux Ubuntu version. OSX won't work for a PC

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There are a few Linux distro's out there

oh I also like Debian very much, but there's stacks more. FreeBSD is good (and its code also underpins OSX) but there's a variety of other Unix-based BSD derivatives, and like many *unix-like* os variants, can be GUI-enabled with something like KDE so that people used to a Windows-like environment can feel at home rather than being command-line nerds like me. Ubuntu's useful because it's a single install GUI environment than you can use *straight out of the tin* with no fiddling around, so that might well be the way for you to go, and it supports FAT and NTFS as well. Not much in the way of games but there's no reason that there shouldn't be apart from people can't be bothered.

there are *illegal* OSX dev-derived packages out there that purortedly will install on Intel-based kit, but I haven't tried them myself so I can't say how well they work. OSX is, despite my taunting FD about his Mac, an incredibly easy o/s to use and seems very reliable although the directory structure makes no sense at all! and stuff just seems to get shoved anywhere, but really you need to spend a packet on a Mac like FD did if you want OSX, it is proprietary after all. No gaming though apart from purpose written stuff usually for little kids.

DOS was always my favourite, you could do anything with that and configure it how you wanted, I used to run it in a lovely shell that was way better than early Windows. Pre-Windows pc games were always written for DOS and you could still make them work with W95/98/Me but generally i used to make a bootdisk or a DOS start menu because I didn't always want to go straight into Windows, and the Windows full-DOS mode had a habit of getting stuck in a loop and rebooting back into DOS which most people couldn't cope with.

There are a myriad of other o/s but they're very much for technical uses and will only work for specific hardware. HP are still actively developing DEC, IBM still have their own for their top-end kit, mainframes always do though. Solaris workstations are pretty groovy but their specialist kit and they cost stacks, Sun kit does rack up the sponduliks (incidentally did you know that Micro$oft develop on Solaris? just shows how rubbish Windows really is!) There's loads, but for home/desktop pcs, you're realistically stuck with Microsoft Windows, a Linux distro, a dodgy OSX rip, or buying a Mac.

Incidentally, I recently read in El Reg that 1 in 3 of retail computer purchases in the US is now a Mac. Speaks volumes for the failure of Vista, doesn't it? having said that, after three days of ripping the guts out of it, I actually got Vista to work properly for our work apps (basically i turned it back into XP with a skirt)

Apart from DOS (6.22 of course) the only decent o/s M$ ever produced was W2K because they cut all the legacy rubbish out of it and didn't fill it full of retail consumer rubbish. We still have loads of W2K kit, our dev dept wouldn't use anything else as a Windows platform until recently (it's still the best Windows desktop platform imo, not full of all the cr*p that's in XP and Vista)

Windows NT had no gaming support to speak of so you can forget that. NT4 Server and Workstation were ok but a bit of a pain to work on and had a habit of flaking out without warning and needing rebuilding (no change there then eh M$?)

I haven't got that much of a problem with XP, it's not brilliant but it does the job and I can make it do what I want, once I've taken it apart and put it back together again. Besides Mrs Taw can't use anything else so good old Borromir is stuck with it.

I'm a linux fan myself, and Ubuntu is a good distribution to start on. Debian I think is better, though they are quite similar, Ubuntu having a Debian base, but Ubuntu has the benefit of more accessible and centralized help-forums (imo), a smaller size, and totally foolproof installation procedure.

The only flavor of Linux I have any experience w/ is Knoppix, and using the root terminal always reminds me of DOS. I used to love finding out how to use really crazy-long syntax commands and periodically getting totally lost... That DOSSHELL was cool as well, but here I digress once again.

I note that Taw mentions Solaris as well and that's something I'm now learning @ work. Interesting - it's got a GUI, but it's still command line based as near as I can see (DOSSHELL?) w/ the Terminal, Console, TTYA,B, etc. and commands are shortened compared to DOS as I recall (cp to copy, * for all, . for current directory) but there is also an Open Solaris which is GNU and I haven't had time to try it in earnest. This still leaves a question for AA though in that which of all of these can run Freelancer or allow for modding? That I do not know. Taw correct me if I messed any of this up... Thanks folks,
LW

Knoppix is ace, it works on everything and avoids those potentially incriminating Windows security audit logs the Knoppix cd and a usb cd-rom are your friends.

sadly, for playing FL, Windows only will suffice (98/ME/XP/Vista, maybe W2K if you worked at it a bit, not NT though, that's useless) although you could certainly edit the files (the lines of code) on almost any system with a compatible file editor and you could probly run them in code too. An open-source space combat & trading for Linux would be fantastic, but I think the nearest there's ever been were the open-source Privateer Gold re-workings (iirc) unless you count Elite in it's various incarnations, BBC Micro originally.

PC games are totally dominated by Windows to the exclusion of everything else because of DirectX and M$' highly-protected APIs. However their greed and protectionism have turned upon them, as the foolish decision to lock DX10 into Vista is effectively driving everyone, including developers as well as gamers, towards consoles. So maybe if Windows-based PC gaming is truly dying, as is being said, the eventual removal of M$ from the equation may well allow independent open-source developers back into the PC gaming market.

I have a friend whose first job after graduating from Digipen about 4 yrs ago I think was to convert a software project completely from Open GL to DirectX which he did easily. I wonder if the reverse would be a worthy venture? I'm gonna ask him about it... any thoughts on that folks? I'll get back on this later.