What is the best operating system and why?


Note: Both Mac OS X and Windows have come out with newer versions as of the writing of this answer. Some details may be different from what is written below, and the answer should be updated accordingly

The best desktop operating system to use depends on what its intended use will be and who will be using it. There is no specific operating system which can be called "the best" overall, and since most current operating systems share most common and advanced features there is much debate on the topic. A few of the most popular operating system, their pros and cons, and some of their best uses are described below. 




Pros:
  • The largest library of programs and applications.
  • Some commercial games work only with Windows and DirectX.
  • Almost all hardware has drivers which are compatible with Windows.
  • Most widely used.
Cons:
  • Prone to viruses, spyware, and adware if proper steps not taken such as installation of internet security software, which reduces performance speed.
  • Requires regular maintenance to avoid system errors and reduced performance.
  • Even with maintenance, issues can slowly accumulate requiring a re-installation of Windows to restore performance and fix software issues.
  • Purchasing a Windows license/install disk can be relatively expensive
  • Windows Vista, the most recent version of Windows, has high system requirements.

Notes: 
  • Windows Vista has relatively high system requirements compared to its Windows XP and other operating systems. This has caused many individuals and businesses to continue using the older Windows XP.
  • The two most common versions of Windows are Windows XP and Windows Vista. Vista, although it has some issues, does have some new features such as search-as-you-type search and a 3D-accelerated desktop, features up until now only found in Mac OS X and some versions of Linux.
  • With the introduction of Virtual-machine software, Windows has become a popular add-on for Mac and Linux in order allow those computers to support Windows-only software or hardware when needed.
  • The Windows market share has seen some decrease in recent years and months.

Best uses:
  • Gamers
  • People who must use Windows-only software for work or school.
  • People or businesses looking for an inexpensive computer yet do not have the ability to use Linux.
  





Pros:
  • Relatively simple and intuitive interface with many advanced features.
  • Not a target for virus or malware attacks, generally: there are no Mac OS X viruses in the wild, and with its UNIX base, it is fairly resilient. There are a small number of trojans (malicious software) which have been known to take effect through applications running in Mac OS X, though they are almost always found on illegal-content-based websites and are not of significant concern. Apple has begun integrating malware blacklists into Mac OS X to prevent infection.
  • Second-largest selection of software, with many high-quality Mac-only programs in existence, such as those found in iLife. Although at one point software for certain tasks were not Mac-compatible, most software is now either Mac-compatible or has an equivalent that is. Most advanced games have also recently became compatible with Mac OS X.
  • Reliable and high performance.

Cons:
  • Limited to Apple-manufactured hardware.
  • Some hardware does not have Mac-compatible drivers, though the number of this hardware has recently become small and negligible.
  • In some cases, it may be difficult to do cross-platform network hardware sharing for a Mac OS X based computer in a Windows network or visa-versa. For example, a printer's Mac driver may not support cross-platform printing to a Windows-connected printer, and replacement drivers may or may not exist.
  • Smaller library of applications in comparison to Windows.

Notes: 
  • Macs occupy the medium-range to high-end computer market and as such are not sold for the same prices of some low-end PC brands (e.g. the low-end Mac Mini costs $600 USD yet many mainstream low-end PC brand desktops can be purchased for around $400-500). As a result, Macs are popularly considered to be more expensive than PCs, however Macs have been shown to have competitive pricing to comparable PCs (e.g. the Lenovo Thinpad X300 costs about $2,500 while the MacBook Air runs between $1,800 and $2,700 and outperforms the Thinkpad, or the Dell XPS One prices at about $150 higher than a comparable iMac. Additionally, the following factors can cause the total price of owning a Mac to be even less compared than that of a PC: Apple iWork is relatively inexpensive compared to Microsoft Office, PCs experience hardware or software failures more frequently than Macs, increasing service and replacement costs, Macs do not require the frequently expensive internet security software subscriptions.
  • Though Mac OS X suffers from relatively very few real-world hacks, security holes in Mac OS X do exist, just like in any other operating system. Also like in other operating systems, they are fixed with software updates upon their discovery.
  • With a relatively low market share compared to Windows, there are still individual programs which are only Windows compatible. However, virtual machine software with a Windows installation or compatibility layer software can allow those programs to run even on a Mac.
  • The Mac has seen significant market share increases in recent years and months, something which has also increased the amount of Mac-compatible software.
Best uses: 
  • Students who are not required to use Windows-specific software (though Windows can easily be installed to use Windows software). A recent study indicated that the number of American students intending to purchase Macs has neared that of Windows-based PCs.
  • Home users looking for an easy and reliable computing experience who are willing to pay more than low-end PC prices.
  • Graphic designers and photographers.
  • Scientists. 


Linux and other UNIX-based

Pros:
  • Low number of viruses and other malware, similar to Mac OS X
  • Usually free
  • Large selection of Linux distributions to choose from.
  • Has a large amount of free and open source software equivalents to commercial Windows and Mac software
  • More easily customizable
  • Can run many Windows programs with the use of a compatibility layer such as Wine. (Programs such as Cedega can be used to run many Windows games)
  • Reliable with good performance and low requirements.
Cons:
  • Advanced use and installation of some software may require more advanced knowledge than is required for use of Windows and Mac.
  • Many commercial programs do not support Linux
  • Small commercial game library
Notes: 
  • There are a few main types of Linux: Debian, Fedora, Red Hat, and SUSE. Ubuntu, a type of Debian, is highly popular among home users, as is SUSE, to a lesser extent. Fedora is more popular among businesses.
  • There are many other (non-Linux) UNIX-based operating systems (with the same UNIX base as Linux), including Mac OS X and SunOS (which are based on Free-BSD). There are also some UNIX-like operating systems.
  • Through customization and software like Beryl, Linux can be made to have advanced desktop effects similar to Aero on Windows Vista or Aqua on Mac OS X.
  • "Dependency hell" can make installation of certain programs on Linux difficult even for advanced users.

Best uses: 
  • Experienced computer users looking for a good, free operating system.
  • Businesses looking for reliable and affordable computing, so long as they do not need Windows-only software and have a competent IT manager.


Bottom line

Though there is no one clear best operating system, each does have its advantages and disadvantages, and different people will be best using different ones. Microsoft Windows is the most common operating system and is a reasonable choice for most people. Mac OS X is second-most popular (and gaining market share) and is an excellent operating system for those who can purchase a Mac. Linux is a very good advanced operating system available for free and is recommended for experienced users. 


Mobile Operating Systems

Aside from the main question of which OS to use in your home or work computer, lightweight mobile operating systems are also used (and almost always pre-installed or even hard-wired) in mobile devices such as cell phones, smartphones, PDAs, and Internet Notebooks/Superportables (which are similar to downsized laptops with low specifications). There is not a great deal of choice among these, and features differences are based more on the mobile device itself, and less on the operating system. Windows Mobile is usually used in Pocket PCs and Smartphones; iPhone OS (based on Mac OS X) is used in the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch; Symbian is used in Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, and other cell phones; and Linux-based mobile OSes are common both on cell phones and small Internet Notebooks.

Install Mac OS X Snow Leopard in VMWARE Windows 7 Edition

How to install Snow Leopard in VMWARE 7 and Windows host ? Virtualization of Snow Leopard (Client) is not officially supported/allowed by any virtualization solution. However a few modifications to the .vmx file and use a modified install disk as this will save a lot of trouble. Let me clear Apple licensing does not allow for the virtualization of OSX Client on any hardware and only allows for the virtualization OSX server on Apple hardware. Anything else is in violation of the license agreement. This article is for informational purposes only, you can never achieve full utilization of Mac OS X on VMWARE. So if you like the Mac then go ahead and buy a Mac.







Requirements
  • VMWARE 7 and Windows XP, Vista or 7
  • Retail DVD of Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6
  • Intel Based Machine, AMD isn’t supported.
  • Patience, a Cup of coffee or Energy drink whatever you like.
  • A pre-made Snow Leopard VMDK, dariwn_snow.iso Download (Rapidshare), (Mediafire) Or (Megaupload) 

Instructions
Step One : Launch VMWARE Workstation and load the .vmx that came with the package you downloaded above. Now edit virtual machine settings for advance options.


 

Step Two : Edit the VMWARE settings eg: Memory, Processor, Networking Adaptors etc. Select CD/DVD drive options and in Connection select Use ISO image file and browse the Darwin_Snow.iso


 
Step Three : Now power on the virtual machine and keep your finger on F8 key.
 
Hit F8 very quickly on your Keyboard you will be prompted with the following screen





Step Four : Like Boot 132 method now you need to replace the boot cd with the Snow Leopard Retail Install DVD. Right click on the CD icon in bottom of the VMWARE windows and click on Settings option.




Now change the options from ISO image to use physical drive and make sure you have Retail DVD already installed.



Save and Exit

Step Five : Now navigate to boot screen and press “C” on your keyboard to select “Boot DVD”, again press F8 for advance options and type -v at the boot prompt then hit enter for booting with verbose mode.

Step Six : Now wait for 2-3 minutes and your Installation screen will appear. Now you can install Snow Leopard as usual.  Before choosing the destination open Disk Utility and erase your Vmware HDD in to “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” format type. Under customization deselect printer drivers and language translations for trouble free installation.Once installation finishes your virtual machine will reboot automatically.

Step Seven : Follow Step Two again “Select CD/DVD drive options and in Connection select Use ISO image file and browse the Darwin_Snow.iso” now you can boot in to Snow Leopard you may need to force restart 2-3 times if Kernel Panic happens, once machine boot successfully you can set your preference etc.



That's it.  Comments encouraged. 

How does Facebook Make Money ?


They say its free. They also say that Mark Zuckerberg – the guy who started Facebook – is one of the richest people around – a billionaire apparently. So how the hell does this guy give free accounts to its users and yet sit happily atop a goldmine? The figures going around about Facebook's annual revenue are heart-stopping to say the least. The numbers that did the rounds were all around the US$ 500 million mark, which means that since 2007, they've been more or less doubling their revenue. All this from a free website! So where is the money coming from? This article will answer the question, how does Facebook make money and solve the mystery for you.

How Facebook Makes Money?


Free account notwithstanding, Facebook is making money. And lots of it. How does Facebook make money? If only you knew how does Facebook work financially!

Ads


I'll solve the mystery for you in one simple word – ads. The same thing that runs most websites across the world. That is the big secret behind Facebook's burgeoning revenue. If you open your Facebook profile, you  will see that the while right hand side of the page is full of ads. You can give the thumbs up to the ad or the thumbs down. The thumbs down will remove the ad and it will not come back.

How do these ads work? Well Facebook being a decidedly smart social networking institution knows which ad to put where. Like the Google AdSense, Facebook too provides ad to the pages based on the interests and the overall profile of the user. So, if you mention in your profile that you are a fan of Nike or any other sportswear brand, the related ads will appear on the right hand side of the page for companies and websites selling them. Facebook ads are not intrusive and hence people do not get annoyed with them, unlike we do with those super-irritating pop-up ads.

And their advertising system makes sense, since it ensures that the right ad is displayed to the right customer, since the ads are selected for an individual page based on the interests and likes of the user. This avoids unnecessary waste of adspace on the page where the chances of the ad being 'hit' are theoretically pretty low. Also, the ad system of Facebook, gives the user a 'thumbs down' option, which ensures that the particular ad does not appear again. That too is a pretty interesting thought, given that the ad hasn't a chance of being clicked and letting it sit in front of the users will continue to rile them.

Facebook Gifts


Ever sent a virtual gift on someone's birthday? You must have at some point, if you knew how to use Facebook. Well you do pay for some of them and a big slice of it goes into coffers of the company. While simply writing 'happy birthday' suffices for some, the 'send a gift tab' on your friend's wall encourages others to send a virtual gift – paid for online. All the money almost always goes to the company, but if the gift is provided by an outsider, then a portion of it goes there. But much of it is still retained by the website.

Application Performance


The beautiful thing about companies like these which work on different platform are the plethora of business ideas that they bring to the table. Performance advertising is a unique answer to how does Facebook make money. Let us take the example of Farmville, which is doing reasonably well on Facebook. Now the application is provided free for use for the users of Facebook and the parent company (Zynga) is getting a lot of traffic because of the game's popularity on Facebook. So isn't Facebook entitled to take a slice of that pie? After all, they are providing a platform for gaming companies like Zynga to their burgeoning user base. So Facebook makes a bit of money there too, as a 'rental' for using their users.

I guess that answers your questions about what is Facebook and how does it work and how does Facebook make money. Now this information on how Facebook makes money is largely speculative. Facebook is a privately held company and has the complete liberty to not disclose their financial details – and they don't disclose their revenues and the sources of their revenues either.

Partition a USB Flash Drive in Windows XP




One way to Partition a USB Flash Drive from Windows XP and mark it active "bootable". Windows detects Flash Drives as "Removable Disks" and flash drives are typically shipped formatted as a "Super Floppy" (USB-FDD without a partition table) . The Windows built in format utility cannot create a partition table on Removable Disks. Furthermore, the diskpart utility in Windows XP will not allow you to partition Removable Media, although diskpart does work for partitioning a Flash Drive from Windows Vista/7.

To address the inability to Partition a Flash Drive in Windows XP, you need to use a third party low level partitioning tool such as BOOTICE, created by Pauly. BOOTICE Home Page

Note: I partition my flash drives as USB-HDD (with a partition table), simply because my computers support booting from Flash Drives formatted to be seen as a USB Hard Disk.

One way to Partition a Flash Drive from Windows
  1. Download BOOTICE, unzip, and run BOOTICE.EXE
  2. Make sure your "USB Flash Drive" is set as the Destination Disk
  3. Click Parts Manage 
  4. Click ReFormat USB Disk
  5. Select USB-HDD mode, and click Next 
  6. Select Format as Fat32, and click OK

FIGURES :

BOOTICE Manage Partition

BOOTICE Format USB

BOOTICE Set USB-HDD Mode

BOOTICE File System Fat32


You should now have an active "bootable" USB-HDD Fat32 formatted Flash Drive, containing a partition table with a single partition. You should be able to Boot It as a Hard Drive.