Forum:What Operating System Are You Using For Bioinformatic Work?

Question

[Eric Normandeau]

This is a sister-question to MacOSX for bioinformatics? where I am trying to evaluate the possibility of switching to a Mac Pro and OSX for bioinformatics.

As a way of evaluating the trend among people who do some bioinformatics analyses, I would like to know what operating system you are using for Bioinformatics work.

So: What Operating System are you using for Bioinformatic Work?

Please vote and share your thoughts about the pros and cons of the systems or their usefulness for specific tasks.

[Dan D]

Nowadays it's totally feasible to do all of one's work in a web-based context such as Cloudera, Galaxy, RStudio, etc, thereby making O/S a choice mostly or completely independent of considerations related to bioinformatics.

[Eric Normandeau]

I don't know how other people may feel regarding that claim, but I certainly would not want to depend solely on web-based solutions for my daily work. To do data analysis, you need to get personal with the data and poke at it in new and creative ways that online or GUI solutions just won't permit.

[Daniel]

I'd be interested to see a sub-poll for linux flavours, purely for interest.

[Adrian Pelin]

I prefer Linux/CentOS

[SES]

This question has been asked before on SEQanswers. That was a few years ago but I don't think the results will be any different.

[Eric Normandeau]

Thanks for the link. 3.5 years have passed since that question was asked on seqanswers and this could mean different results. However, even if the results end up being similar, I still want to know what the reality is like now to help steer my choice.

Answer 1

[Eric Normandeau]

I use Linux for my main bioinformatics work

Answer 2

[Eric Normandeau]

I use OSX for my main bioinformatics work

Answer 3

[Eric Normandeau]

I use Windows for my main bioinformatics work

Answer 4

[Eric Normandeau]

I use something else for my main bioinformatics work