OS - how often do you reinstall it?

[Calandale]

Windows. Probably once a year.

[duncvis]

Windows - as and when it becomes virtually inoperable. This came as a secondhand box with genuine XP Pro preinstalled, just over a year ago. its still in good order so I'm keeping on top of maintenance and limiting the kids access to it. prior to that it was an annual thing I guess.

Linux - about every six months on average. I always fancy a change, I'm a chronic distro hopper.  :lol:

[Dexter Morgan]

XP has been working pretty well with me

[Kosmonaut]

Never.

[Phlexor]

I usually re-install XP Pro SP2 every time I manage to fuck it up to the point where shit dont work, or I kill the partition through a major act of stupidity. Gonna have to do it soon when I upgrade my motherboard. Looking to get a Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6 or if they arent out yet or available when i go to buy, I'll get a GA-X38-DQ6. This is to replace my 2 year old ASUS P5GD2 Premium.

Gotta love MOBOs that have Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect on their onboard sound   

[DirtDawg]

The box I use all the time (WinXP Pro SP2) and make changes to on a regular basis, gets fucked up after a while. I feel lucky to get a year out of it without a problem. I made many hardware changes to this thing and actually got an extra nine months or so without anything major going wrong. I was beside myself with glee for a few months. It's pretty stable for a five year old computer.

Then, out of the blue, weeks after anything changed ..... PROBLEMS!

My more modernish box, which is still four years old running Win XP Pro (but a cracked version) SP2, is loaded like a fatboy with graphics software (Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel Draw, Macromedia, Painter, Quark, a printer rip, about seven fractal generators, but NO NETWORK BS!  In fact, I have ALL Windows services turned off that I can possibly get by without!)  and I never have made any hardware changes to it since I put it together. It still works flawlessly after four years on its oringinal install.

The box I use for the kids educational games, most of which are Quicktime based and need Win9X to work, I re-install about every six months. Actually, I have fucked that one up myself on re-install by putting the games in - in the WRONG ORDER, FFS! That one suffers lots of conflicting changes to the software, though. Plus, the kids often destroy it by becoming impatient. The only time I have ever seen Windows warn me that my mouse buffer was over-run was after the kids had locked up the system.

[GalileoAce]

I've installed and re-installed many an OS for various people and machines. But surprisingly I haven't had to do it very often for myself, probably about half a dozen of times over four machines, encompassing about 10 years of computer usage....And mostly through mistakes I made, fucking with something I shouldn't have been.

[El]

Never have on this one- 4 years old, windows XP.

I know at some point within the next couple of years I'll likely want, or need, a new computer.  I'm hpoing to hold out on that and maybe manage to get one for a graduation present (so, in two years).  Maybe by then I won't hate the new office (2007) quite so much (I have no choice but to sue it as school- HATE), and maybe also by then there will be more known ways to compensate for how fucked Vista (apparently) is- it seems likely that the next comp I get would have vista on it, if it was new.  :/

[DirtDawg]

Never have on this one- 4 years old, windows XP.

I know at some point within the next couple of years I'll likely want, or need, a new computer.  I'm hpoing to hold out on that and maybe manage to get one for a graduation present (so, in two years).  Maybe by then I won't hate the new office (2007) quite so much (I have no choice but to sue it as school- HATE), and maybe also by then there will be more known ways to compensate for how fucked Vista (apparently) is- it seems likely that the next comp I get would have vista on it, if it was new.  :/

At Best Buy, we don't even offer a computer for sale with XP on it. You can get one, still, for a while, by special order through their "business" website.

Vista is not as bad as some have said. The worst complaints are associated with the commonly available hardware that is NOT suitable for Vista drivers. It has actually proven to be quite a bit more stable than XP was, when it was introduced.

The first service pack for Vista will be released in a couple of weeks. We and all others are closing out computers with Vista, Pre-SP1, at fantastic prices, right now.

[Alex179]

I have once on my low end machine (due to power outage at a friend's house).    My other 2 have never had to have their OS reinstalled.   System restore is nice, though I have only used it once.  

I fucking hate Vista (due to compatibility issues with old hardware mainly), and I hate Office 2007 even more.   I had to put Office 2007 on all the PCs at work, and all that release did is make things run slower.    I just bought a Intel Core2Duo 2.0ghz 2gb RAM 120gb HD laptop last week, thankfully I got it with WinXP installed and not Vista.  

[GalileoAce]

My PC is Vista. But it was built from the ground up with Vista in mind... So uber hardware specs (probably not so uber now...but it was at purchase date), all compliant with Vista.

[Alex179]

My PC is Vista. But it was built from the ground up with Vista in mind... So uber hardware specs (probably not so uber now...but it was at purchase date), all compliant with Vista.

Mine is compliant with Vista, just that I have some older hardware I like to play with that isn't compatible.   Most notably a MIDI soundcard that I have.    MS purposefully sunsetted some devices through not supporting them with drivers, that is crappy in my opinion.    I can run Vista fine, but it is just a big bloated mess atm.   I don't need my OS to be pretty, I need it to be efficient.

[GalileoAce]

My PC is Vista. But it was built from the ground up with Vista in mind... So uber hardware specs (probably not so uber now...but it was at purchase date), all compliant with Vista.

Mine is compliant with Vista, just that I have some older hardware I like to play with that isn't compatible.   Most notably a MIDI soundcard that I have.    MS purposefully sunsetted some devices through not supporting them with drivers, that is crappy in my opinion.    I can run Vista fine, but it is just a big bloated mess atm.   I don't need my OS to be pretty, I need it to be efficient.

Then use Windows 2000. Or Linux.

[odeon]

Linux I have reinstalled once in the last five or six years, mostly because I couldn't be arsed to mirror the old installation when I moved to a new HD. Windows (2k, 9x, XP, whatever) about once a year, if I use it enough for it to be fucked up; the exception is my age-old laptop where the WinXP installation is four years old (I know, it's a miracle).

[Alex179]

My PC is Vista. But it was built from the ground up with Vista in mind... So uber hardware specs (probably not so uber now...but it was at purchase date), all compliant with Vista.

Mine is compliant with Vista, just that I have some older hardware I like to play with that isn't compatible.   Most notably a MIDI soundcard that I have.    MS purposefully sunsetted some devices through not supporting them with drivers, that is crappy in my opinion.    I can run Vista fine, but it is just a big bloated mess atm.   I don't need my OS to be pretty, I need it to be efficient.

Then use Windows 2000. Or Linux.

I do use Windows 2000, but it doesn't have the best support for games.   WinXP seems like a good enough compromise.