I use linux, because my brother gave me a free computer and Ubuntu was installed on it. I have grown to hate Windows, because of all the bloat and spying they do. They jacked the price of gamepass up ten dollars earlier this year and I said, that's it, I'm done.. So I sold my Xbox series X and cancled my game pass. After they did that, along with the forced upgrade to Windows 11, I refused to touch another microsoft product. I was a big Xbox fan, and I loved gaming on pc...I'll do without now. If I want to game I'll use my Playstation 5 Pro. If I want to use my pc, I'll stick with linux.

I use linux, because my brother gave me a free computer and Ubuntu was installed on it. I have grown to hate Windows, because of all the bloat and spying they do. They jacked the price of gamepass up ten dollars earlier this > > > year and I said, that's it, I'm done.. So I sold my Xbox series X and
cancled > my game pass. After they did that, along with the forced upgrade to > > Windows
11, I refused to touch another microsoft product. I was a big Xbox fan, and I > > > loved gaming on pc...I'll do without now. If I want to game I'll use my
Playstation 5 Pro. If I want to use my pc, I'll stick with linux.

I have installed, configured and used just about every single operating system, on several different computer manufactures, starting with CP/M! Last decade or so I am been using MAC OS at home and currently own (2) 27" Retna iMacs, 2 Mac Mini Servers and a MacBook Pro Laptop. I find the OS to be very robust, secure and nice that its running on top of a Unix type kernel. I've used just about ever flavor of Linux and although they are great OS's, for my day to day use it can't run the major software that I need a Mac or Windows runs, mainly Pro Tools, Adobe Creative Suite apps and commercial MS Office 365. Funny thing is, I'm a network engineer that supports ALL the Windows PC's and Servers for my company, as well as many our customers around the USA, all sitting behind an iMac - LOL. I do have a little Raspberry Pi4 sitting next to me running Mint, which I have been trying to get IMAGE BBS 3.0 running on it (Commodore 64 based BBS) but still working on it. I've never really been a gamer even though I've owned some gaming systems and currently have over 10k games on my 1984
Commodore 64 Breadbin on an Ultimate II+L cartridge hooked up to a 1TB external USB drive - LOL. BTW - you should check out Commodore OS Vision V3, it's a 40 gig Linux package, heavily tweaked, and loaded with Linux games and retro stuff.

Windows is the best OS for me because it's the only OS that is really good for gaming. Mac isn't that great for gaming, and not many games work on mac. Linux is not great either, since it has the same issue as mac (not many compatible games). Also many multiplayer games now implement kernel-level anti-cheat, meaning it's almost impossible to play games that have the anti-cheat on a linux system. Want to play Call of Duty or Battlefield? Can't do so on Linux because of the implementation of the anti-cheat.

It's a shame because I like many aspects of linux and mac. I like how they are more customizable, don't have the bloat windows does, and are (typically) more efficient. The reason why these OS's aren't as mainstream as windows is because they aren't as user friendly. I'm not a super tech savvy guy myself. I'm a 22 year old young adult. Heck it was only recently that I learned what a BBS was, and I only found out about it from my father. Windows is extremely easy to use, and I don't have to jump through hoops or be a tech genius to get it working. There's a lot of things I hate about windows, but as mentioned before, it's the only OS that is compatible with literally almost every video game in existence. Can't say the same about Linux or mac. I really wish there was an OS out that was as customizable as Linux/mac, was as easy to use as windows, and as compatible as windows. It would be the best of both worlds. Sadly I highly doubt a OS will come out that will offer all these positives...

Re: operating system.
By: Bozz to Morningstarr on Sun Mar 15 2026 08:08 pm

I used windows for gaming..had a beast rig and my gpu kept burning out...
it was an asus r9290x2 back in the 2010's got me so fed up. I quit pc gaming...it sucks because the mouse and keyboard are legit for fps.
So now if I want to game, I just play on my ps5 pro.
do you have a ps5?
If so maybe we can do some multiplayer.
Does your dad run the bbs? If so I'm going to help him mod this board.
You should check out my bbs. I run synchronet as well.
Use the hobbyspace commandshell or dueces lightbar shell on my board..that's the best way to use my bbs
the address is hobbyspc.synchro.net

Unfortunately I don't have any consoles. Got rid of my Xbox one and PS4 once I started getting big into PC gaming 10 years ago. Also yes my Dad is the one who made this BBS. He's been educating me on it for awhile now and teaching me what it's all about. It's hard to wrap my head around it, mostly because I'm looking at things from a Gen Z perspective. From my point of view, why dial into a BBS when I can just open my phone and gain instant access to social media? BBS's were essentially the early days of social media, but now that social media exists I don't see much reason to use a BBS. Similar to the concept of someone using a rotary phone in 2026 when other more advanced options exist.

I find the history of the BBS very interesting and I've been watching a lot of BBS documentaries with my dad. The FIDONET documentary was pretty cool and I learned a lot. I also recently learned what an acoustic coupler was. Lots of very strange and weird gadgets that people used, and I respect the fact that these ancient technologies paved the way for what we have now. However, this still doesn't change the fact I don't see the value proposition. I don't have the rose tinted nostalgia glasses that Gen X'ers have about BBS's, and I'm mostly a gamer myself. Since I use computers primarily for gaming, the offerings a BBS has pales in comparison to modern gaming. Would I rather play an 8-bit Pac-man knockoff that moves as slow as a snail, or would I rather play a hyper-realistic first person shooter getting like 144 frames per second? The answer is pretty clear. This is not to say that BBS's are bad and I'm anti-BBS, all I'm saying is my generation (Gen Z) has a hard time understanding it because we didn't grow up with it. I greatly appreciate the history of it and how it contributed to modern tech, but using it on a practical level is difficult. Heck, it took me about a week to figure out how to properly send my dad a message using the BBS, and I had to get my dad to show me how to create an account. I'll try to join your board but I can't promise I'll know what I'm doing. When you say "hobbyspace commandshell" or "dueces lightbar shell" it's like you're speaking another language hahaha. My dad wanted me to install something on my computer for the BBS, but windows 11 has enough bloat as it is and I didn't want to have another thing downloaded to my PC just to be able to use a BBS. So I've been mostly using "telanet" or whatever it's called.

Re: operating system.
By: Bozz to Morningstarr on Sun Mar 15 2026 08:08 pm

Linux and steam are teaming up, thankfully it allows about 60 to 70 percent of the games to run. I don't think linux will ever get full support, or mac. I love the way mac os looks. I have never used a mac, other than my Ipad or Iphone.

Linux is pretty user friendly. It's not as bad as you think. Everything can be done in the graphic user interface. Also, you can pick your gui. If you like Mac, go with Gnome. If you like windows go with KDE. I understand your views, on linux and Mac. Hell, I have the same view point as you. I just can't use windows anymore. The way they treat their customers are horrible. When they raised gamepass, I turned my back on windows. The gui's in linux are really customizable, and look AMAZING. I use Ubuntu, with gnome. It's so pretty I put up screen-shots of it. I have it customized, so I can jump around the gui really fast. It doesn't use hardly any resources either. Maybe one day, you will get the fever, to setup a duel boot system. That's what I did back in the day. Like 2008 I setup a duel boot with ubuntu. The install was easy. It only took a few clicks, and the install was fast. I ran a duel boot system for years. I started to only use windows for games. Even my old roommate used my computer with linux on it. She had never used linux and needed a computer to do her school work. She got on my old pc, and said, "wow that looks different" She really loved the way it looked. I told her to have at it lol. She got on there, without asking any questions. Just started to jump around on it and use it. She didn't ask any questions, about how to open anything. So it's not hard to use at all. Well you seem like a cool guy. I am glad your dad got you to use bbs systems!
If you decide to check out my bbs. Use the command shell hobbyspace, or Duece's command shell, Zelda themed. I wrote my own menu system by writing code in javascript. Can you write javascript?

Re: operating system.
By: Bozz to Morningstarr on Tue Mar 17 2026 03:21 pm

The reason to use a bbs, is freedom of speach. Also, not to be tracked by big tech companies. If you keep it using a bbs, you will see why people use them! :-)

Linux and Mac are getting much better in regards to gaming, I'll give them credit for that. More and more games have been getting compatibility patches to work on both OS's, however it did take over a decade to get to the point where Linux and Mac have a decent selection of games (still not enough as windows though). I assume you're probably familiar with Steam, as it's the largest PC gaming platform. Steam conducts yearly hardware surveys, and in 2025 Linux saw a rather big percentage increase in market share in the PC gaming world. A trend I'm noticing is people are getting fed up with these big corporations harvesting consumer data and selling it to third parties. Windows is basically a glorified advertisement nowadays, as even programs such as Microsoft word or Excel are constantly shoving ads down your throat (especially ads related to microsoft copilot). When I wrote my message the other day, I didn't really understand why people use BBS's when other modern alternatives exist. I now see the correlation between Linux market share going up as well as the resurgence of BBS's in 2026. Both are seeing increased usage because as mentioned previously, consumers are tired of these algorithms feeding on their data, pushing bloatware, and allowing big corporations to maintain control. Linux and BBS's are significantly more consumer friendly (albeit a bit more confusing for the average consumer). With that said, I'm still going to make Windows my main OS primarily because a lot of the games I play don't work on Linux, however I totally understand why someone would want to get away from all the corporate shenanigans and dial into a BBS or use Linux. If I were to choose a Linux OS, I would probably pick Linux mint since it reminds me the most of windows based on the GUI.

Speaking of BBS's, I did try to go into your BBS by copying the http://hobbyspc.synchro.net/ link you had sent prior. However, every time I paste the link into chrome it says "This page isn’t working. hobbyspc.synchro.net didn’t send any data. ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE". Not sure what's going on there but I tried. I know there's a software to download (one that my dad has been begging me to get), but I'm personally against it. I don't use BBS's that much, maybe like once or twice a week, and so downloading a piece of software just for something I barely use I don't see much value in. To answer your last question, I have no knowledge of javascript or coding, sorry.

Re: operating system.
By: Bozz to Morningstarr on Sat Mar 21 2026 05:44 pm

Apparently, the javascript I wrote that blocks botnet hackers, accidently blocked your dad's ip as well. I removed it from the ipcan, so hopefully it will allow connections, from your ip. It wasn't your ip that it blocked, it was the host name.