Now that Microsoft Windows Vista has hit the streets, I have been thinking about the next operating system that I will run on my machine will be. Honestly, I am just not impressed with many of the new features of Vista and I am not happy about the DRM liabilities inherent in the OS. On the other hand, I like to be able to play games on my computer and for that I need Windows installed. Wine, the windows emulator for Unix systems, does mitigate much of the problem but it is still a rough solution.
If I were to move away from Windows, which operating system should I use? Well, I have always been partial to FreeBSD with its easy to use ports system for installing software. This is especially true with the new portsnap and portupgrade programs which make updating and upgrading your programs extremely easy. The security available disallows a normal user from installing software and allows multi-user situations. For instance, I can be running the windowing system for Unix X Windows while my brother on the other side of the world has also logged into my machine and uses it to do stuff either graphical with X Windows or non-graphical command line, which is extremely powerful itself.
As I ponder my options for the future, it is interesting to note that for the most part there are programs available for almost everything that I want to do except entertain myself. I hope that game makers will start taking seriously various people's moves to other operating systems and will start to release games compatible with these various OS's.
posted by Chris #3:29 PM | 0 comments |
