[OT] Operating Environment Survey

users
#21

At work (network admin), I am stuck with a Micro$oft Windows
environment. My work machine is Win7. (For those comfortable with
Win7, switching to Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop is *much*
easier than 'upgrading' to Win8.x)

At home, I use Linux: Ubuntu for my wife (because the nag about system
updates s in your face and can't be ignored) and Mint for me (because
after working long days [18 hrs yesterday] I *don't* want to have to
mess with my PC; I just want it to work). If money were no object, I
might consider switching to a Mac, but all my home PCs are self-built
because I want to get what I want without paying a premium. My main
system is quad-core i7 @ 4.00GHz with 16 GiB RAM.

Answer to person asking what BSOD meant: Blue Screen of Death. (Once,
in the middle of an 11 hour phone conversation with a Micro$oft tech,
I made a reference to a BSOD. He replied indignantly, 'We don't refer
to it by that name!' I replied: 'You know what i mean since that is
the industry standard terminology.' He didn't reply to that.)

A web search on 'bsod' can quickly identify the meaning.

#22

My first computer was an IMSAI 8080, which I built up from bare boards
and a bag of parts. I also had to buy a memory card and some I/O for
it. I initially loaded in software via switches on the front panel and
then saved to cassette. Back in those days, you knew your computer
inside out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMSAI_8080

#23

I also want to contribute to your topic:

At home and at job I work with and administrate several linux machines with
opensuse.
For a few (in number) tasks at work we have some dedicated windows machines
or virtual machines.
I favor KDE as desktop environment and LibreOffice integrates well with it
under opensuse. I didn't find this with other linux distributions so far.

My computer experience began in the eigthies with a TI-99 home computer.
At university I met the first IBM compatibles XTs,ATs in the times of MS-DOS
3.3 programming in gw-basic, turbo-pascal, dbase and using some standard
software.
At this times I really admired MS software that I got e.g. DOS, Word 5,
Flight Simulator...

For my first own PC I chose DR-DOS as operating system, because it was far
better as MS-DOS. (Most important was to save memory to be able to play wing
commander...).
I got a copy of GEM later as my first sight to a GUI.

At my first job in the early nineties I was responsible for all the (few)
DOS PCs. At this time I supposedly had been one of the first users of
StarWriter 2.0 the very predecessor of StarOffice/OpenOffice/LibreOffice not
against MS Word but to replace WordStar.

Firstly the rise of Windows 3.0 did not concern me very much. It promised so
much but it failed so often.

Then came OS/2 Warp, that had been technically far superior to Windows, that
was able to perform real multitasking and even included windows. I used it
mainly to develop a DOS database application for multiuser environment.

At my later job (up to now) I found contemporary windows 3.0 machines using
standard software mainly of the lotus universe (AmiPro, 123, Approach,...).

With the first network I fit them up with Novell DOS 7, because MS-DOS and
Windows weren't able to do this easily at this times.

Unhappily DR-DOS, Novell-DOS and OS/2 died away - not least by unfair
sabotage actions by Microsoft. Since then I felt uncomfortable with them.

But Windows 95 and further versions weren't avoidable, I worked many years
with them as main system.

Again unhappily Lotus was sold to IBM, the tough Lotus Smartsuite
Applications became a dead end too.

In private life I re-explored OpenOffice Version 1 12 years ago. At job I
gradually replaced Lotus SmartSuite with OpenOffice and now LibreOffice.

At the same time I discovered Linux as a valid alternative to this unfair
managed and virussucking MS universe. I also gradually replaced Windows with
Linux desktops at job featuring LibreOffice of course.

I stick to SuSE/opensuse since then, because it featured KDE, excellent
german localization, YaST, ... and maybe Ubuntu was not on the way yet.

In my private life I willingly help friends in computer concerns, if ...
they willingly start out into the world of FOSS.

Stefan

#24

My first real computer job was data entry typing punched cards for an IBM system.

Then I started working at several colleges with those "ghastly" PDP/11 systems. One was the core for a large computer center with large tape units, and one was just a stand alone system with a drive platter and all of those dump terminals. That "stand alone" PDP/11 system is where I had to write/code/etc. a full general ledger accounting system using COBOL. Have you even tried to write a data entry system for an accounting system, so people could not type in the wrong info/data - like Feb 29th for a non-leap year or an account number that is not created, or other values that are not within the proper any of the data ranges. That was 3 time the coding size than all of the rest of the system, including the account query/search system and report generating systems.

Yes, I remember those data cassette tape drive computers, before you could afford a dual floppy IBM PC/AT/XT clone. Then there were those 10 MEG hard drives.

I saw the introduction of the PC based
Hard Drive
CD ROM drive, then burner

Real Graphics above 640 by 480

I saw the introduction of the Bulletin board system that was interconnected so you had a primitive email address - mine was almost 80 characters long.

I saw the start of the WWW part of the Internet, which is what is now "THE Internet", since most of the other parts [terminal based mostly] have either "died" or been converted to use a browser. Of course there are still parts that run via the terminal which I still use from time to time - mostly local to server communications.

The domain I use for this email address - I own - was first created in the early '90, when you only had 14.4 dialup for most areas of the US, and has gone from one domain service to another, and my hosting service from one to another, till I finally settled on the one[s] I have been using for many years now.

Yes I have seen the wireless phone go from the "big brick" technology through to the introduction of the smart phone technology. I now use a LG base model Android phone, since I do not need all of the wow-wee stuff. I do not need to use it for my every "computer" need, like some are touted.

I have bought 3 Android tablets over the years. I still use 2 of them. And no, I do not like the hype of not needing a larger system - laptop or desktop - since a Android, IOSx, or MS OS claims it will do everything you will need. My desktop I am typing this from is an old 4 core running Linux Mint 16 with 4 hard drives internal, 1 OS and 3 data drives - adding up to 6.25 TB - with 3 external 2 TB drives for backup. I use to have 4 backup, till an internal 2TB drive failed and I needed my spare to replace it.

I really wonder how you could get a tablet to have 6 TB of data storage. I also like to see these tablets find printer drivers to run the USB or network printing. I have enough trouble tryng to find a working Linux [.deb] printer driver for my newer printers, and I have not been able to get any of my android tablets to access any of my colored printers - just a "older" HP laser printer. I now look for Linux drivers BEFORE I decide to buy the printers.

I have gone from punched card data entry to web-based data entry screens.
I have gone from cassette tapes, through to floppies, internal/external hard drives, USB flash drives and SD cards.
I have seen mainframe computers the size of a bedroom, down to a refrigerator.
I have seen the IBM PC come out to the modern 4/6/8/16 core desktops.
I have use "portable" computers that were 30+ pounds down to the ultra thing, ultra light multi-core tablets.

I have "retired" from the "computer field" - as they use to call it - after 3 computer related degrees and many computer related jobs.
Then I had to get "permanently and 100% disabled" working as a substitute teacher by a student who should have been locked up in a mental ward.

#25

Hi :slight_smile:
PDP11s look interesting!

A short article that claims the default OS was Multics;
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/PDP-11-Programmed-Data-Processor-11
but that many put Unix on it. Wikipedia gives a great long list of OSes
that ran on or could run on PDP11s;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-11#Operating_systems

As you can see in the url below Nuclear Power Plants are apparently still
using and plan to continue using PDP11's until 2050 !
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/19/nuke_plants_to_keep_pdp11_until_2050/

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#26

The big discussion of Linux over the past 24+ hours has me wondering: What operating environment(s) do other members of this list use at home and at work? What factors influence the choice?

I'm definitely in the minority of responders so far, as I only have one pc, a 6-year-old home desktop running Windows 7. My intentions at this time are to upgrade to Win 10 after it's been out 10-11 months (since it's free), depending on how things look then.

I use both LO 4.3.7.2 (mainly Writer & some Calc) and MS Office 2003 (mainly Excel, with 2 self-built Access applications).

From the responses I've seen so far (including my own) the breakdown of preferred Operating Systems seems to be:
    15 some flavor of Linux, led by:
       4 OpenSUSE
       3 Linux Mint
       3 Ubuntu
    4 Windows 7
    1 Mac

-- Tim Deaton

#27

hello,

I spent nearly 30 years with IBM, looking after mainframe customers as a systems engineer. I was around
at the time when Bill G. convinced IBM to go his way with regard to PCs. I still don't quite understand WHY
our people let themselves get convinced - I suppose it was mostly a matter of Bill being an excellent salesman
and not too many technically minded people around on the side of Big Blue. Another sad fact is that IBM did
turn its back on StarOffice, when looking for something to compete with M$ Office. In any case - this is history!
On the other hand, somehow it looks to me as if M$ is in a state similar to the one IBM was in around the mid
90's...

I run two computers, mainly for the administration of a traditional Austrian windband.
- a Lenovo 4-Core system, running Debian 8, MySQL 5.5, PHP, Apache2, Owncloud, Libreoffice, Gimp ...
   it acts as a kind of server and backup for the Internet-based server of the band as well as of my Laptop
- a Sony Laptop (2-core). I use dual boot, but 99 p.c. I boot to Mint 18.1 with KDE. It has all the necessary stuff
   for a desktop PC on it, including kdeconnect, used for sharing and backup with my Android phone (Xperia Z).
   On the laptop the second operating system (Windows 7) is only used for two things:
   - a flat bed scanner HP Scanjet G2710 (which is not supported well enough under Debian) and
   - my online banking system (ELBA) which is only supported under Windows. It has a lot more function than
     the version used through the browser and it is also more secure...

Actually I think that there has to be better support for "mission-critical", administrative software to REALLY
make Linux viable for "the man/woman of the road"....

In any case, I have used Linux for some 15 years now and wouldn't DREAM of ever switching to either Apple
or - least of all - M$.

Regards from a very hot Salzburg/Austria
H. Stoellinger

#28

My first home computer was a BBC micro (anyone remember those?) That was back in the days when programming had to be really tight, only had 32Kb (yes, Kb) of RAM; long term storage was all external on cassette tapes

My first computer was an IMSAI 8080, which I built up from bare boards
and a bag of parts.  I also had to buy a memory card and some I/O for
it.  I initially loaded in software via switches on the front panel and
then saved to cassette.  Back in those days, you knew your computer
inside out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMSAI_8080
Awesome!

We didn't have computers at all at school, and I didn't really start getting into them until some time later. At that time I had no particular desire or intention to use computers except for a bit of fun programming, but eventually the twists and turns of life led me into a job programming the things. I was never any good at building hardware, though I did gain considerable knowledge (mostly long since forgotten) of how the circuitry works....
/Gary

#29

The company I used to work for manufactured mass spectrometers and we used PDP 11s with software written in PASCAL to control the instruments and gather and present the data they generated. The biggest pain in the neck was having to use overlays to swap parts of the program code into and out of memory as required. These days, that sort of thing happens quite transparently, and unless you're into writing operating systems, it's not the sort of thing you're likely to come across.
/Gary

#30

Linux user since 2002.
No smart phones, no "social" net.
At work we are forced to struggle with Windows 7 and 2008 Server.

Nice topic demonstrating how much desktop computing, "productivity
suites" and mailing lists have become subject to old farts.

#31

We didn't either. I had a FORTRAN class in grade 12 and filled in
pencil mark cards, which the teacher took to the board office, to run on
the computer there.

#32

neither did we....log tables and slide rule!

#33

Ah. We didn't even have computers on the curriculum..... there weren't many schools that did.

#34

Yes, I remember those.... (this is getting a bit like "The Three Yorkshire Men!)

#35

Sorry, that should have been "The Four Yorkshiremen" (I must have miscounted :slight_smile: )

#36

We only had log tables; standard slide rules weren't allowed as they
were too inaccurate. Drifting a bit more OT, ball-point pens weren't allowed either, only fountain pens.

To put this in some sort of perspective, I left school in 1962 aged 18.

#37

Did they have slide rules way back then? :wink:

We used them in physics and electricity & electronics classes.

#38

Yes, that was shortly after they finally ditched the abacus

#39

and thus ends this excursus into archaic calculation devices.

(though I do wonder when people learned to use fingers or digits to count...<g>.)

f.

#40

This seems to be degenerating into the the Four Yorkshiremen -luxury!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo