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Windows, Mac OS X & Linux.
I've used 'em all, and just can't see justify any reason to depart from Linux.
OS X and Windows 8 fulfill the needs of the masses, that is if all the masses want is social media and a slick UI experience. For anyone who absolutely ain't interested in all this modern guff, it just becomes tiresome (very quickly).
What is the real purpose of an operating system?
a. to do what the end-user requests with no further dialogs/clicks. ie. get out of their way?
b. be as irritating as possible, hiding stuff or requiring more mouse clicks than is necessary?
Just give me a f*cking realistic choice to get useful work done and stop wasting time fighting the OS. 
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a. and c.
c. To remove the need to learn 17,000 different command line options names, switches, command names and rules by providing a consistent, discoverable interface to all these that can be reached within a few clicks or key presses so making all the facilities of the OS available to all its users.
The last OS to actually try to achieve that was probably Windows 3.11 or Windows 2000 and they only got about 75% of the way. (Win2K may not actually have been trying it was hard to tell)
It's a hard thing to do: I mean you'd need thousands of developers working on the UI for years and they'd probably have to have several goes at it to get it right. Given that Microsoft stopped trying 15 years ago and we've all kind of got over that now the real shame is that the Linux community never started because so few ever understood that making their OS usable by users was actually a good idea.  
"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage."
Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)
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I'm glad you've found a way to live with the state of things and be happy. I'd like to know what distro you're using if
dusty_dex wrote: everything else can be done using GUI tools
but I guess you don't to a lot more than what you've said.
I have a simple unscientific test for each new Windows/OSX version and Linux distro.
I'd like to be able to release and renew my DHCP acquired IP address on the corporate network. As an ordinary user I need to be able to do this without making up or typing a new IP address, without using a command line tool and without having to know what the correct address range or other settings are for the corporate network. It should be as simple as pressing the Release button and then pressing the Renew button which might indeed be the same button. I also have to be able to find these buttons from the desktop by looking for Network related settings.
Every Desktop OS I have ever used and that list is now very long has failed this test. There has been no excuse for this since Windows NT 3.51. A truly epic fail.
![Java | [Coffee]](https://www.codeproject.com/script/Forums/Images/coffee.gif)
"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage."
Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)
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Matthew Faithfull wrote: I have a simple unscientific test for each new Windows/OSX version and Linux distro.
I'd like to be able to release and renew my DHCP acquired IP address on the corporate network. As an ordinary user I need to be able to do this without making up or typing a new IP address, without using a command line tool and without having to know what the correct address range or other settings are for the corporate network. It should be as simple as pressing the Release button and then pressing the Renew button which might indeed be the same button. I also have to be able to find these buttons from the desktop by looking for Network related settings.
I've been using wireless networks for the past 9 years, and the only time I need to hook up with a cable is to configure the router, or transfer files between PCs using a crossover cable. So renewing dhcp lease is dead simples.
Not really sure why *you* need to know the IP address range when DHCP is supposed to decide that for you.
I now use Ubuntu Studio 12.04 (precise pangolin)
release dhcp (which I don't use btw)
sudo dhclient -r
renew is just
sudo dhclient
But I agree with you, it's not very friendly having no GUI Big Red Button for it, when troubleshooting networks is a frequent task. It does make you wonder, why not?
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Exactly. I pick it out because it's an example of something that almost every networked desktop user especially in an office environment has to do eventually and yet becuase it's 'techinical' and its 'configuration' is generally considered 'too advanced' or 'complex' for the average user.
Microsoft seem to have taken the approach that they don't want users screwing up their OS and giving it a bad reputation so they've never bothered to make a GUI for this simple task and left it on the command line as ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew even though it's completely harmless, effectivey does nothing if the server policy doesn't allow it and a simple button that even a user couldn't screw up would do the job.
Linux devs seem to have taken the view that anyone who doesn't know to type sudo dhclient -r and sudo dhclient shouldn't be using a networked computer.
The net result, pun intended, is hundrends of thousands of IT helpdesk incidents in offices all over the world that are resolved by the IT person performing the above described magic incantations and walking away shaking their heads, tens of thousands of wasted hours and a lot of frustration as a result and after 20 years no one who makes what they claim is a Desktop OS has been able to solve this by adding a BUTTON.
I'll stop ranting now, until the next time.
"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage."
Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)
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Matthew Faithfull wrote: I'll stop ranting now, until the next time.
Hey, feel free to rant. 
My own rant on a long-standing and baffling IT headache is..
Why can't we have auto-scaling fonts that resize when desktop resolution changes?
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Then I guess you've never moved desk with your PC and had to plug into a different subnet.
Never had your PC turned off when the leases are renewed every few months and not recieved one when you switch back on because the system is busy or badly configured.
Sounds like you're either a very lucky man or you work in a very stable and unusually well run environment.
"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage."
Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)
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I've moved desks once, and have plugged into wired connections in several different labs/conference rooms; in every case it just worked out of the box.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Lucky you and please pass on my congratulations to your IT department. Believe me they are unusually good. If you ever take a work laptop home you may get chance to join in the fun.
"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage."
Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)
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Nope. Never had problems with my laptop at home: wired or wifi. I've never dealt with the networking people; my interactions with ITs server admins and general support staff would rate as generally clueful but nothing exceptional.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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What is the lifetime of the DHCP lease?
It sounds like it has been set to an unusually long period. Perhaps to cover up other network configuration problems.
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I've seen everything from a week to permanent, which doesn't work because addresses are never recycled so they run out. I think somewhere between one and three months is normal.
It's not that I have a specific issue, I'm quite capable of configuring the networking on a variety of OS and machines from scratch and have done so many times.
It's just that I've seen this issue almost everywhere I've worked amongst ordinary users and developers. IP addressses failing to be handed out, needing to be renewed etc and having to go to the command line to do it. I reckon 20% or all IT helpdesk callouts I've ever seen are solved by 'reconnecting' to the network and this is the most common case. Hence I use it as an example of the epic failure across the board of desktop operating systems to actually expose their functionality through their GUI, i.e. make themsleves usable to users.
The ultimate example of course was Netware 4.x which had lots of functionality and it had a GUI. Once you started the GUI the only thing you could access was the clock, that was it. Zero functionality beyond that I kid you not.
"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage."
Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)
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The biggest headache with Windows machines is that the server service isn't required on clients, but it has been set to automatic start by default on every version of Windows NT. Sh*t loads of extra network negotiation, DNS & NETBIOS/WINS traffic.
IOW a big P.I.T.A
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Just one of the many side effects of Microsoft never having actually shipped a network file system.
Despite the number of times it has caught them out including one of the biggest bugs in Vista I guess it's always been a project the other side of WinFS which has never been completed despite vast efforts because the project cycle needed is a little longer than the Windows product cycle itself which means they never get to finish it. 
Still we fight on and manage to produce software and even access files over our networks anyway 
"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage."
Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)
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Matthew Faithfull wrote: I guess it's always been a project the other side of WinFS which has never been completed despite vast efforts because the project cycle needed is a little longer than the Windows product cycle itself which means they never get to finish it. 
Probably won't happen at all now. Seeing as the new Windows lifecycle will be around 12 months.
Wasn't it (WINFS) supposed to be files & folders held as GUID references in a SQL-type database or something?
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Possibly but that sounds more like what was supposed to replace the registry.
There have been numerous rumours, statements, plans and even demos and announcements of WinFS since well before it missed the code freeze deadline for Windows XP after having been bumped from Windows 2000 to stop it becoming Windows 2001. It's also been canned, scrapped, delayed and resurrected more times than Lazarus. It's got to the point now where I'm not sure whether MS are actually claiming that WinFS is what they implemented in Vista (They weren't when it came out) or that the file system changes in Vista were instead of WinFS or to enable WinFS in Windows9 but I agree it probably won't happen at all.
"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage."
Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)
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Going by your explanation. It reads more like a deformed relative that they keep in the basement, and it's only allowed out when they feel threatened. 
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Right-click network icon, click "Troubleshoot Problems". This will among other things, release & renew your dhcp lease.
wha-lah, wish granted.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.-John Q. Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering.-Wernher von Braun
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.-Albert Einstein
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Thanks. Given another 2 years Linux might get the the same and Windows might actually tell you that's what it's doing when you click that. 
"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage."
Thucydides (B.C. 460-400)
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Well, it does give a series of one-liners as it's going about it's "business". Not terribly informative. But to one in the know, it could be meaningful.
As for linux, I don't understand why the linux gurus don't want to make it easier to use for the "common man", so-to-speak. To me that is the measure of success. When "ordinary" folks can easily and intuitively use the OS.
But then, everything's intuitive when you already know it. Try showing a jungle native a computer and see how "intuitive" it is. Context and basic knowledge are key.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.-John Q. Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering.-Wernher von Braun
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.-Albert Einstein
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Betanews wrote: Microsoft Windows 8 is the best desktop operating system.
Unless of course you ask MS http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22714048[^].
they appear to be making several "u-turns" since their release of Win8. If it's so great then you would think the need for these reversals would be nil.
as if the facebook, twitter and message boards weren't enough - blogged
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No, literally. Pixar's lighting/rendering systems were completely redone for their new film Monsters University. In my correspondence with Chris, who studied Visualization at A&M and works in the Rendering dept at Pixar (see my interview with Chris about his work on Brave here) he mentioned his work on MU... Oh, that's great, blame it on the little guy. How original.
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Chocolately is a bootstrapper that uses PowerShell scripts and the NuGet packaging format to install apps for you. NuGet is the package management system that Windows Developers use to bring libraries down at the project level. Chocolatey (get it? Chocolatey Nu-Get?) extends that concept to bring applications down at the system level. What if you could install just about anything with a simple command? Well, you can.
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) I have downloaded an evaluation of embedded Windows 7, which is preferable so that I can rip out features before installation. 
