What sort of computer(s) do you own?

In the house, I have 1 windows based server, 1 linux server, 1 linux workstation, and 4 windows workstations / laptops.

My 2 dvrs and ps3 run linux as well.

My home PBX is windows based. I am not sure what the security system is based on.

My kids own a few Macs, but I don't know the details.

 

What I own is a Windows PC. The basic tower configuration. That's the home machine.

The work machines are two Windows laptops (but only until I finish transferring data from the old one) and a Dell PC running Linux. The PC is a development "sandbox" to allow us to play around and try to emulate the servers we run.

I'd switch to Linux at home, but there'd be a huge learning curve for my wife. And it's just not worth it to make my machine dual boot.

If the tower at home ever goes (or we finally have space for a second machine), I'd consider a Mac.

 

Own: one dell POS running a linux server, two homemade PC's - one gaming machine and one multimedia center, one old POS dell laptop running windows (primarily for nerdy robotics stuff), and one shiny new Macbook.

Here at work i'm on a windows PC with access to (and frequent use of) linux workstations, linux servers, oracle DB servers, Nexus servers, and a few others.

 

Windows 98 and a dual boot Windows XP/Ubuntu at home, that are in use, and an older triple boot Win 95/Win 3.1/GEOS (IIRC, wife's old computer, haven't used it in years).

My work computer is a dual boot XP/Ubuntu, and I semi-regularly use a Fedora Beowulf cluster and some other Linux distros on various servers.

 

Home:
* Custom built Core 2 Duo PC, Windows XP, for general use
* Custom built AMD64 Linux Server, 10TB video server for home theater, about to upgrade from SuSE 10.0 to 10.2
* PowerMac 7600 w/G3 upgrade, retired in 1998, sitting in the closet

Office:
* Thinkpad T60p, Windows XP for general use
* Dell Precision Workstation 390, Windows XP
* Dell Precision Workstation 360, SuSE Linux
* MacPro 2x2.66 GHz Xeon, MacOS X 10.4.8
* iMac 20", Core Solo, MacOS X 10.4.8
* Silver G4 Mac, 2x1GHz PPC, MacOS X 10.4.8

 

One PC running XP Pro, and one iMac running 10.4.something, soon to be joined with a nifty all in one. Another old lapple for one daughter, and a new one soon for the other daughter, university-bound in the fall. There are 2 or 3 dead PCs in the basement, but they don't count. Or spell, either.

 

Solar powered PC and notebook.

 

Windows 95 notebook
Windows XP pro notebook
Another Windows 95 notebook
Windows XP media center workstation
Another Windows XP pro notebook, dual boot with Ubuntu Linix
Windows 98 SE desktop
Another Windows 98 SE desktop
Windows NT server with Exchange Server
Another Windows 98 SE desktop, dual boot with Mandrake Linix

I think that's it, but I might have missed a few, unless we count the dozens of Microchip microcontrollers.

Tom

 

An IMac mainly for internet work and an XP PC for much of the other stuff. It's a shame the Microsoft Operating System is so vulnerable and under attack. I ran into too many security issues during my many years using Microsoft PCs, but none since buying my IMac a few years ago, not even so much as a pop-up. I notice even with the new Vista, still the first thing reviewers are saying is to be sure to buy your anti-virus software and make sure to renew yearly, bla, bla, bla.

 

iMac, and Linux on a laptop for travel. In the poll I voted Mac, because "Mac and Linux" was not offered as a choice. But again, the laptop only gets used when I am travelling, and then only when I feel it's worth the weight. Some trips I leave it at home. 99.99% of the time I'm using the iMac.

 

Im running a 1996 (P.O.S.) NEC PC. It has a intel celeron processor, 398 MHz w/96.0 MB of ram.

When it dies (I think sooner than later) I will have to use the brand new Dell laptop. But will buy a Mini-Mac in the summer..

 

I'm running two Windows XP machines:

• a Dell XPS 600 desktop
• a Dell M-170 laptop

Both are mainly used for gaming, video editing, and messing around with CGI. No plans to "upgrade" to Vista.

 

Three Pc's:

home doctored sony for gaming (larger power supply, more memory, video card)

laptop #1: Aldi special, can't run much for games, but does word processing and surfs the interweb just fine. P4 2.2 gig processor

lappy #2: fujitsu lifebook A so I can check my game server/police it while traveling. (actually bought because before last night laptop #1 was dead)

If one maintains windows properly there is little to no problems with it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(parrot_lady @ Feb 16 2007, 08:24 AM) [snapback]391384[/snapback]</div>

Yes, but examine the costs of maintaining windows properly:
- expensive software
- Time consuming clean up tasks
- The need to bounce the computer at least once a week (if not once a day) if it's heavily used due to memory leaks

Guess what? Linux and OSX more or less take care of all of those items. And they boot faster. And they aren't as bloated, which means they require lesser hardware to run on.

My windows machine has to be bounced at minimum once a week (and i do know what i'm doing with it... been programming and studying computers since before microsoft even existed).
My linux server, which actually gets far more use, hasn't been bounced in two months. Prior to that, it was 6. In one case i was moving, and in the other the power went out for an extended period of time.
My Macbook hasn't been restarted in 4+ weeks - and the sleep mode actually works! every time!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Feb 16 2007, 11:40 AM) [snapback]391395[/snapback]</div>

you're wrong. My service provider gave me the firewall that I use, as well as my antivirus. Firewall runs everytime I'm on the interwebs, antivirus I'll run 2-3 times a week, and I'm HEAVY into downloading (if you catch my drift) which puts me at higher risk. Most expensive thing in my computer is my video card, which cost an arm and a leg then, and now.

I've never had to buy expensive software to fix my computers, and have even homebuilt three machines (two of them were identical amd dual-core game machines that are something I still drool on, but the bf, and my dad have them) that don't need the expensive software.

as for time consuming clean up tasks, the disk defrager is HARD on disk drives, and shortens their life so I don't use that but once every couple of months.

My gaming machine takes a beating, I'm currently an active admin on fairly popular game server and I wind up updating our hosting server a lot, which means a lot of uploading/downloading/deleting and possible swearing from my mouth as the codes/event scripts I write don't work the exact way I need them too. being unemployed (was supposed to start this week) gives me the chance to really beat the hell out of my machine.

My main rig stays up for days/weeks on end, with the occasional stint of being in standby mode. Never had a problem with memory leaks or bad system performance running it like that. Of course I do check for extraneous programs running in windows task manager.

Lappy #1 was a traveling laptop, and I used to take it with me to college, everday. Took notes on it, played games, surfed the internet, loaded up my gps so I knew where I was going on long car trips, and the most expensive thing I had to buy it was a new screen after it got wrecked in a car accident (actually the one last year, in my prius). The entire time at College, I NEVER installed windows again on it, and that computer took four years of continual use, with no maintence except a firewall and a virus scanner.

I'd own a mac again except for one reason: the software thats out there is about 10x more expensive and it doesn't suit my purposes. thats where the cost comes in. Its surprising how many anti pc people don't realize that the only difference between their mac and a pc nowadays is the os.

 

At work, I program and I'm network admin. Of all of the Windows machines we have, currently only one gets turned off or rebooted regularly. Most are up for months at a time. I tend to reboot a little more often, as I have a dual boot.

The biggest problem we've got at the moment with the Windows machines is that we're using Symantec, which will be changing soon. As each subscription expires, we'll be switching. Haven't decided yet which one for certain, as we've still got a few months, and we're still testing our options.

 

I run a Debian server with a Terabyte RAID5 array to serve Samba, SSH, SFTP.

Also a couple Dell Laptops, and a couple desktops for doing animation stuff.


Re: Mac vs. PC, I've been dying to switch to Mac for years, but can't because they suck too much still. My biggest problem right now is that all the software I run regularly doesn't have a universal binary release for Mac yet, so they run in emulation mode and are dead-slow and super buggy.

 

3 JBOD SATA RAID's ... home brew 3.5ghz processors, 2ghz memory, all have external firewire backup drives. Maxed pipes, and one new Dell notebook model 610-something. The battery DOES get hot, but it never made the recall list. Tried Apple a couple times, and never got it. Oh! ... almost forgot ... one linex that's strictly for running amateur radio hardware.