Which OS are you using now, 7 years after it was last polled?

[bluesman]

The forum search seems to show no poll on operating system choice since 2012.  I'm wrapping up an AS review of current players and platforms for the Finding Value in Audio series, so I thought it was time to check again and compare results with the last one.  Like me, many of you have multiple devices running different operating systems, both for different functions (e.g. server, player, control, endpoint, renderer, playlist visualization etc) and to evaluate differences for yourself.  Because of this, the new poll includes more than the one from 2012, so we can have a data baseline for future analyses.

 

There's so much hardware now that I'll start a new thread for that poll.  I can only find the 1G of RAM version of the new Pi4 so far, and I want to both set it up myself and see how others are doing with it before I can prepare a thorough, current hardware survey and evaluation.  With the new processor and 4 gigs of RAM, the audio possibilities seem great!  And with a Win10 version coming for ARM that's not IoT and will allegedly run well on the new Raspberry Pi 4, at least some of you Windows lovers will want to try it - I sure do.  So I'll wait a few weeks to see if the Pi4 becomes readily available with 4G of RAM and if we can openly and easily get Win10 for ARM.

 

To refresh your memory, here's the final tally on the 2012 poll:

 

[rando]

Going to guess a lot more 🐧 this go round.

[esldude]

I don't know how much this is really going to tell you.  

 

I run Windows, Linux, and Mac.  In my preferred world I would run only Linux.  But I need ASIO for too much.  I have and use some Windows gear because it is around.  I've become tired of Windows taking over my hardware without my approval and started with a Mac last year.  For the things I can't easily get working via LInux the Mac will do.  In time I likely will let Windows fade away.  

 

I wish Android wasn't following in the Windows footsteps by having a god awful stupid puny support for sound.  If it would get off its arse in regards to sound I probably would in time use it for all my music needs.  You can only do that now if you don't much care for sound quality or are willing to jump thru hoops (even then it is difficult).  I've grown tired of hoop jumping for software. 

[bluesman]

4 hours ago, esldude said:

I don't know how much this is really going to tell you.

 

It’s a guide to the evolution and current spectrum of our collective wants and needs in audio computer software. For example, assuming that the first responders are a representative sample of the AS population, Linux is now much more popular than it was 7 years ago. So good articles about it will be more popular and useful now.  And a growing openness to using different platforms for different needs suggests interest in interoperability, integration, and platform-independent software.

 

The apparent decline of one-solution users also suggests an openness to innovation that’s missing from the “I only use [insert name here]” cohorts. So interest in novel new approaches and out-of-the-box products should be higher than it was for the Apples to Apples group, the Windows only bunch, et al.  

 

I hope it’s going to be useful to AS sponsors too. The best source of consumer interest info is the consumer 🙂