Best operating system?

Windows ME. Herp de derp.

Windows 8. If you install Classic Shell immediately after Windows finishes setting up you'll never have to deal with the Metro UI, and get to enjoy the various speed boosts it has over 7.

Windows 7

win 8 $15 + start8
, why you not create poll??..

Windows 8 > Windows 7 > XP >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>All other OS's>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Mac

Always used windows for gaming.

Not Windows 8...

doesn't this forum has a poll ability anymore?

Windows 7 for Gamers, Windows 8 for casual, Linux for tech savvy. Mac OS for Status people.

I think I'd be most happy using some form of Linux if more games came to it as well as some more media editing/creating software (GIMP is fine for images, but I don't think there are many truly competent video editors for Linux if I ever wanted to get into that). As it is I'm sticking with Windows 7 on my laptop, though I'll probably try dual booting with 7 and Linux (I'm looking into Sabayon specifically) when I finally get myself a decent desktop PC.

I don't like any Mac OS I've tried. It feels like it is trying to be deliberately awkward for regular Windows users to use due to such pointless changes as keyboard layout and functionality. Plus I don't like the really strong mouse acceleration that you can't change by default. Sure it is quite easy to move precisely one pixel if I want to which is nice at times, but the threshold to get the cursor moving quicker seems slightly too high, so I feel like it is sluggish and moving through a viscous liquid of some sort unless I make really sharp movements with the mouse.

I've not tried Windows 8, but everything I've seen of it looks pretty bad as a desktop OS. Everything seems designed around touch, which I don't like at the best of times, but given that nothing I would be using it on would be using touch interfaces, it just doesn't make any sense at all. Yes, it is notably better in underlying performance than 7 from what I have heard, but if I have to deal with stupid user interface design that is either difficult or impossible to change properly, I would rather not bother.

Arch Linux or OS X.

A potato!

Win 7 is easily the best OS for gaming... Linux may surpass it in the future though.

Windows 7 & Linux Mint for ze win yo

I run 7 ubuntu and hackintosh i love them all the same lol

Depends on what you want to do the most... if you are a gamer then choose Windows 7, if you are a designer/producer/artist/etc... then Mac is the one for you and if you are a programmer/casual pc user and like stability and security then Linux (I prefer Ubuntu with Gnome Shell).

Just my 0.02$ since I use Linux and Windows.

Since I've used Windows 3.1/95/98/Me/XP/Vista/7/8 and Mac OS X (fixed) and also few different Linux compilations, for a generic user I would select...

Windows 7 or 8.

Yesterday I bought a laptop with pre-installed Win 8 and it's unexpectedly good. Metro UI is still something to dispute, but in overall system is the next step, so why stay behind the progress? =)

For gaming Windows7(I haven't try 8).
The roblem woth other OS is that they don't have so much application and games.

What a shame. A lot of people using computer but they didn't know IOS just a mobile operating system. Mac OS X the computer system for macs. Also some people think you have to do jailbreak for macs. You cant jailbreak mac computers because you don't need it.

And windows just good at about gaming nothing else. Mac OS X better about any other things without gaming.

openSUSE GNU/Linux (or nearly any other GNU/Linux distro except Ubuntu)

I used to love win XP but it became outdated and it was giving a lot of blue screens of death,now with win 7 I can play every single fucking game but the OS surely pulls a lot of power from my pc(atleast I don't get blue screen of death like 3 times a week LOL)...

As far as music is concerened, I prefer Macbooks (IOS) and Windows.
If Gaming, Then Windows is good enough.

Windows 7.

Windows 7 is the best!

I don't have a "favourite" OS.Everything evolves pretty much around my needs.
I use windows 7 as an all arounder,i like the feel of it,and got my games on it,so I pretty much have it for my desktop os.
At work i have a macbook pro because I need it to develop for the iOs,got steam on it too,and play some of games on it(Most of my killing floor hours are from the mac)and don't dislike macOs either.

Linux tough is kind of a grey area,I have my laptop on dualboot with Mint and windows 8,with the latter only for windows phone development.I boot win 8 only if I need to develop for windows phone.
Linux has most of my developer tools on it,plus some networking stuff,and that's pretty much I use as a developer station.

So end note, really don't have a preference,my train of tought is: use what you need,and whatever makes you finish stuff faster and better,or at least in the most efficient way.