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New Reader Poll: Mac or PC?

Posted by Virginia Hughes on June 2, 2008
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Everybody loves those Mac commercials…you know, with Mac and PC anthropomorphized? (Greg Laden’s got a few spoofs with Ms. Linux, too.)

Many of the ScienceBloggers swear by Macs and the Mac OX operating system. Others say that they have to use Windows for a lot of specialized lab software. I thought it’d be an interesting poll for a larger audience, as I’m sure many of you are working in labs much of the time.

So, which operating system do you use the most often?




Want to know the results? We’ll publish them exclusively in next week’s ScienceBlogs Weekly Recap—the fun e-newsletter that brings you the top posts, quotes, photos and videos from the previous week on ScienceBlogs. (Click here to subscribe to the newsletter.)

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Comments

  1. #1 themadlolscientist
    June 10, 2008

    =LOL= @ nighthawk!

    Way back in the early days of Win 95, a friend of mine hired me for a two-week stint helping with his company’s transition from a “dumb terminal” system to a PC-based one. Four months later I was still at it……

    My best friend runs XP. I’ve spent hours – and sometimes days – at a time chasing crapware around his system. As of last month, I’ve installed 8 separate SW packages (all free and all work well, but none of them catches everything) to block and/or get rid of the stuff.

    I have another friend whose laptop came with Vista and (he says) about $1500 worth of commercial security SW pre-installed. Since last year he’s been hacked at least 6 times.

    The only good window is the unopened one you finally throw your PC out of when you just can’t stand it any more.

  2. #2 nighthawk
    June 3, 2008

    @themadlolscientist: The best Windows XP emulator is called a hammer. Apply the blunt end directly to forehead. For a Vista emulator, rotate the hammer around its longitudinal axis and apply the claw side to the eyeball instead. Admittedly, this won’t give you the full pain experience of a real Windows session, but it does a passable job.

  3. #3 LightningRose
    June 3, 2008

    I’d rather eat worms than use any Apple product.

  4. #4 themadlolscientist
    June 3, 2008

    Mac rules, Windoze drools. If you absolutely can’t get around using Windoze, there are some good Windoze emulators out there. I’ve used them and they work great.

  5. #5 Mishal
    June 3, 2008

    I use Windows ME most often, but it’s not by personal choice. As I’m still in college, I need to be able to access and use the CD’s that often come with my textbooks. Unfortunately, nearly all of them are formatted to only use Windows, so I’m stuck with PC to do my work.

    My personal preference is Mac OS systems, first because they are much safer for online use, and second because the interface is much simpler, without any of the character limits that often show up in PC. My least favorite issue with PC is, because of my subfiling habits, it is quite difficult at times to burn CDs if the name of the file (and its directories) is over 120 characters or so. Given that PC insists on jamming in at least half of those characters on just root and location data, it really limits how long titled or deeply stored files can be. It’s a pain in the neck. MAC doesn’t have this problem that I’ve seen so far, it’s a WYSIWYG format of storage and hard-copying.

    I do my work on PC, but I store my work on Mac.

  6. #6 Colin M
    June 3, 2008

    I need to sign up for a newsletter to see the results? Lame.

  7. #7 Mike Haubrich, FCD
    June 3, 2008

    I agree that the default windows op system should be XP, as only those who bought systems pre-loaded with Vista went along with the joke.

    I am step by step migrating to Linux, but there really is much to learn as I go. Dual-boating using Wubi has been helpful.

  8. #8 James Igoe
    June 3, 2008

    Use Mac OS @ home, XP @ work….was hard to say which more often, but chose Mac OS

  9. #9 NM
    June 3, 2008

    What kind of crappy poll widget is this, you need to sign up for their newsletter to see the results! Yay, what the FUCK.

  10. #10 Greg Laden
    June 2, 2008

    I think the windows breakout is correct, because the interesting question is who is going to Vista.

    For BSD/Unix, etc, I would think everyone would just check of Linux and be happy. Bu I know you won’t, so I’m not even sure why I just said that…..

  11. #11 Zeno
    June 2, 2008

    I suspect you broke out the wrong version of Windows. It would probably have been more accurate to ask who uses Windows XP versus Other Windows. The migration from XP has yet to occur (and probably won’t as long as Vista is the alternative).

  12. #12 sng
    June 2, 2008

    Yet more lack of options. A generic BSD option would be nice as would a write in choice for those of us who use two or more Unixbased systems at one time.