Which Operating Systems and Setups Do You Use?

Operating Systems You Use
What operating systems do you all run on your devices right now? Whether it’s macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, or something more niche, I’d love to hear about your choices. Do you prefer sticking to a single OS across all your gadgets, or do you mix and match depending on the type of device?

Customization and Setups
How do you have your systems configured? If you’re using Linux, which distributions are you running and what motivated that choice? For Windows or macOS users, do you keep things close to the default setup, or have you customized the look, feel, and workflow to make it your own? On the mobile side, do you lean toward Android for the flexibility or iOS for the seamless ecosystem?

Hardware and Reasons
I’m also curious about the hardware you’re using and why you decided on your current setup. What devices are your operating systems running on, and what made you choose that combination of hardware and software as the best fit for you?

 

I'm using a Chinese laptop, with windows, and AMD hardware, on the assumption it makes it easier for everyone to fuck with my computer.

Google was fighting in public over who got to bug my computer first, along with about 2 billion other people, and I found its best to make it easier for them. My work is related to cutting edge fuzzy logic and quantum mechanics, that you just can't buy with money, and is actually written using simple Comedy Club statistics, yin-yang push-pull dynamics, and paradoxical Monty Carlo statistics.

Since the 1980s, the feds have been busting hippies and confiscating their land, then bugging our computers for fuzzy logic. So, I decided to give them way more than they ever bargained for.

My books are worth a Nobel Prize and, possibly, 20 million dollars or more, making them impossible to censor, without garnering a great deal of attention, and is actually written for any ordinary AI to read in five minutes flat. The Three Stooges have nothing to offer anyone, so i decided their own AI can keep them busy.

 

*edit

 

Im on my favourite os: Win98se using IE6 (MyIE2 (IE extender))

 

I built my own PCs by purchasing the parts locally and online. Asus Motherboard, Intel i3 uProc, 16GB RAM, Tall case, Samsung 480 GB SSD and a 4TB SSD to backup everything I have. Logitech Wireless Keyboard, Amazon generic wireless mouse (3 ea.), KVM switch, two Sceptre 28" Monitors, HP Small B&W Laser Printer, Canon LiDE 200 scanner, Logitech camera.

Operating System & Software: Linux Mint Debian Edition-6 (LMDE-6). Software: OpenOffice (Equivalents to uSoft Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and More). Added Chromium (for Linux), Firefox, FreeFileSync 14.2, PDF Arranger, Kazam video recorder, Aisle Riot Solitaire game, many others Apps available for free from the Synaptic software repository

 

Thanx for your entries everyone

 

Thank you very much, you all are amazing, I love seeing what you all run, and this makes me smile to see more Linux!

 

Still running on I5 3800(overclocked) Intel, 1080Nvdiia (8gig mem) and 16 Ram mem(3600 mzh/overclocked)

Still using win10......refuse 11 switch to Linux..............

I do need a upgrade or a new build(pc)................Wanna play BF6

Mzzls

 

Double post

 

I run Plasma Desktop on CachyOS. I used to be all into tiling window managers, and different desktop environments and tweaking, distro hopping around FreeBSD and AntiX, NixOS and Gentoo, and so on. Nowadays I'm quite busy, and settled on what is reliable for me.

My last tower was an HP Z440. I bought it used off Amazon, because the motherboard allowed me to put an E5-2680 V4 CPU in, and have up to 64 GB of ram, with 3 or 4 SSDs. Unfortunately I don't have it anymore. Right now I have a Gen 3 E14 Thinkpad with an AMD 5700u.

How about yourself?

 

Still using Win10 (for now) but with classic Open Shell and O&O Shutup10 to disable a hundred things that M$ does not want disabled. Firefox, Waterfox, Librewolf, Brave and Vivaldi browsers, OpenOffice, Thunderbird email client, Irfanview, Corel VideoStudio X10 and VLC video player. Love music and making music videos.

Hardware is older Dell Latitude E5570 with 32GB RAM and 2TB NVME storage plus an older (and much slower) SSD box for backing up everything. Had to replace the battery with a smaller Dell version to make room for the old SSD box plus the 2280 NVME card.

 

I'm building (again) Mint to replace Win10, which I locked down in every way possible but it's still scary and I refuse to even let Win11 into my brain, and this time I'm trying Mint 22. It's going ok so far, I have Firefox, Librewolf, Brave an d a couple of imaging apps installed. Some questions if you have time and are willing?

1. Are the differences between Mint 22 and the Debian Edition worth thinking about? I don't plan to do anything fancy with my Mint 22, just generic daily online activities.

2. Have you tried LibreOffice and if you have, how does it compare to OpenOffice which I use?

3. Is FreeFileSync working ok for you on Linux?

4. You didn't list Brave browser but do you know any way to add policy objects in Linux (like in Windows) to totally disable the Leo AI and crypto stuff in Brave? For Windows it was an easy download and install. Everything online says that those Brave plugins are not enabled unless you want them to be, but I don't even like that possibility. I think a lot of people either lie abut Brave or totally ignore all of the questionable stuff that Brave does behind the scenes.... my Sandboxie and cleaners (Bleachbit and Privacy Eraser) always find massive files to delete every time I run Brave, several times more files than my other browsers.

My sweetie and I both are pro techies but my skills are limited and he's retired and doesn't like getting frustrated with tech stuff anymore

 

Thank you! Quickly because I have a lot going on, several years ago (I think in v12.4?) Ubuntu started violating privacy in some ways, sneaky like Microsoft. That was enough for me to stay away from anything Ubuntu based!

Maybe more of a reply later when I have more time.

 

I love FreeFileSync, have used it for awhile in my Win10.

It seems Firefox is something that we always fall back on. I do love Brave as long as I can be sure that I have it locked down in every way that I can. And I also use DDG, but I use a settings string that disables all of that unneeded and unwanted stuff. Every now and then Brave works when my heavily restrictive Firefox (uBlock and other addons) just won't handle a certain webpage. And if you don't know about uBlock Origin ad blocker it is the absolute best out there I think.

I will certainly try Clonezilla! As well as a Debian LMDE build. My Mint install is still a work in progress so I would even be willing to replace it totally with Debian if I had to.

Thank you so much for those great responses!