[Photon46]

Total Mac environment at work and home. Between the two I use 13" and 15" Macbook Pros, a 27" iMac, an older Power Mac to run a Heidelberg scanner, and what I jokingly call "FrankenMac," a Power Mac case with lots of newer replacement parts, hard drives, and a 27" NEC monitor.

[mcgsxr]

I earlier answered about my audio environment.

As for home use, we have a main Windows PC in a computer room upstairs.  How decidedly 1996 I know.

We also have roughly 7 iOS devices between the iPhones, the iTouch, the iPad mini's and the iPad 2.

The main PC is used for online banking, printing and by my wife for house related stuff.  Sometimes having XLS or Word makes working at home simple.

All web browsing is done via the iPads for all of us.

All work PC's are Windows.

[SlushPuppy]

Windows laptop for now but considering a Linux box in the future since my primary OS at work is Linux and I've gotten pretty comfortable with it.

[*Scotty*]

I'm running a HAL MS-2 PC Music Server WIN8.1 8G RAM, 60G mSATA SSD for the playback of music files and a WIN 8.1 Toshiba laptop for everything else. Samsung S4 and Samsung Note3 android. I looked at Apple, but for the price they ask I wanted to see the very best hardware currently available on the inside of their computers and this is not a part of their business model.
 At least Microsoft finally appears to have finally ditched the problematic legacy code their earlier OSs were burdened with, I wasn't that happy with the Windows OS until I got a new WIN 8 machine that replaced a 7 year old XP laptop.
Scotty

[G Georgopoulos]

on the subject of OSs ,win 7 and above dont run 32bit win programs..so i keep my win xp machine for that task...

[*Scotty*]

There is a work around for running 32bit programs on a 64bit OS machine, see the the links below. In many cases they will run just fine, in some cases the program installer, ie setup.exe properties must be accessed and the installer run under the appropriate compatible version of Windows, Windows 98 for example.
http://www.eightforums.com/customization/19575-help-running-32-bit-program-windows-8-64-bit.html
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-system/how-to-run-a-32-bit-program-in-windows-8-pro-64/a8ac463a-4975-4f4e-90d1-d466225a57b0
Scotty

[HAL]

Windows 7 OS has both 32 bit and 64 bit editions.  Depends on which was installed by the mfg.

[Johnny2Bad]

MacOS since 1990. However I'm comfortable in WindowsOS and Linux (have been paid to write Linux documentation in the past). I use the power of UNIX in MacOS as well.

Also have always used emulation for occasional Windows/Linux app use; SoftWindows (1996~2000); VirtualPC (2000~2004 or so, until Microsoft bought it from Connectix and promptly killed the MacOS version; they used it as the basis for the Windows virtual environment still available from MS) and now Parallels.

Parallels is a joy to use; better than a real Windows box or Bootcamp installation. Works even with software that requires a dongle to authenticate. I have XP SP3 and Win8 Pro virtual machines.

Current hardware:
2009 Mac Mini Server 8 GB / 2x 1GB 7200 RPM HDD RAID (mirroring) Array
Late 2013 15" MacBook Pro 16GB / 512 SSD / 2.7GHz i7 Quad-Core / Dual Graphics (Intel HD 4000 1GHz shared RAM + nVidia GeForce 650M GPU 1GHz RAM)

As you might imagine, I've owned a wide variety of machines: Mac Plus, SE30, Powerbook 180c, Performa 630, Performa 5215, Graphite G4, Quicksilver G4, Mini PPC, and the current machines. Also owned a 1GHz x86 box.

I don't use the desktops at work, but the company has migrated to MacOS Server which has no per-user costs (unlimited client is standard) and are replacing WinOS boxes with MacOS units as they are retired.

[WGH]

on the subject of OSs ,win 7 and above dont run 32bit win programs..so i keep my win xp machine for that task...

That will work as long as you don't connect to the internet.

The Risk of Running Windows XP After Support Ends April 2014
"There is a sense of urgency because after April 8, Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) customers will no longer receive new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options or online technical content updates.  This means that any new vulnerabilities discovered in Windows XP after its “end of life” will not be addressed by new security updates from Microsoft."
Link: http://blogs.microsoft.com/cybertrust/2013/08/15/the-risk-of-running-windows-xp-after-support-ends-april-2014/

Windows XP sees its first major vulnerability after Microsoft ends support
"A division within the United States Department of Homeland Security has warned against using old versions of the Internet Explorer browser, following the discovery of a security flaw that can lead to “the complete compromise of an affected system.” The flaw has led the division to advise the use of alternative browsers until Microsoft fixes the problem.

"The flaw is the first major security problem found with the Windows XP operating system, which was released in 2001, since it was officially abandoned by Microsoft on April 8, 2014. The company warned Windows XP users that it would not be fixing any more problems with the software after that date — if they wish to keep their computers secure, users must use a different Web browser or upgrade their computers to a newer version of the operating system."
Link: http://pando.com/2014/04/28/windows-xp-sees-its-first-major-vulnerability-after-microsoft-ends-support/

Just Google "Windows XP vulnerabilities" for more info.

Wayne

[Phil A]

That will work as long as you don't connect to the internet.

The Risk of Running Windows XP After Support Ends April 2014
"There is a sense of urgency because after April 8, Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) customers will no longer receive new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options or online technical content updates.  This means that any new vulnerabilities discovered in Windows XP after its “end of life” will not be addressed by new security updates from Microsoft."
Link: http://blogs.microsoft.com/cybertrust/2013/08/15/the-risk-of-running-windows-xp-after-support-ends-april-2014/

Windows XP sees its first major vulnerability after Microsoft ends support
"A division within the United States Department of Homeland Security has warned against using old versions of the Internet Explorer browser, following the discovery of a security flaw that can lead to “the complete compromise of an affected system.” The flaw has led the division to advise the use of alternative browsers until Microsoft fixes the problem.

"The flaw is the first major security problem found with the Windows XP operating system, which was released in 2001, since it was officially abandoned by Microsoft on April 8, 2014. The company warned Windows XP users that it would not be fixing any more problems with the software after that date — if they wish to keep their computers secure, users must use a different Web browser or upgrade their computers to a newer version of the operating system."
Link: http://pando.com/2014/04/28/windows-xp-sees-its-first-major-vulnerability-after-microsoft-ends-support/

Just Google "Windows XP vulnerabilities" for more info.

Wayne

+1 - that's why I indicated in post number 14 it does not go on the web except if I update printer software from HP once a year.