OSFirstTimer is a YouTube channel run by Philip Adams. This channel has Philip's family (his mum, dad and younger sister) test out various operating systems. As of October 13th, 2023, OSFirstTimer has reached around 108,000 subscribers.

Initially having started as a series, where five basic tasks were given to complete on various operating systems that were never tested before by his family, the channel has branched out to testing out and reviewing devices, software and games, either by himself or together with his family.

The original aim of OSFirstTimer was to find the best operating system which eventually turned out to be Arch Linux with the KDE desktop environment installed; it was given the unofficial name of 'The Diana Perfect OS' as Diana, Philip's mum, personalized it to her liking. MS-DOS was declared the worst operating system in the 'Top 3 Worst and Best Operating System User Interfaces' video, although Arch Linux, in its base form, was presumably given a similarly low ranking to MS-DOS a few videos later.

After the best and worst operating systems were decided, the channel then solely focused on exploring operating systems in general; this was expanded upon with the OSFirstTimer Advanced series.

Philip took a break from uploading on OSFirstTimer from October 2018 to December 2019 due to renovations in their house in Tasmania. When renovations were completed, Philip uploaded a video on the 9th of December 2019 to explain why he couldn't upload due to VFR (Variable Frame Rate) issues, but was able to later. His Alienware Area 51 PC was replaced by a custom Mwave PC in January 2020 due to the Alienware's failing hardware and it being unable to record the screen. According to the update video addressing said information, Phil said it could take up to 2 months for a new video as his new Mwave machine won't boot every second day and due to Hobart-to-Sydney and Sydney-to-Hobart shipping taking a long time (Sydney is where Mwave is located in).

Cast

OSFirstTimer Advanced

In 2015, Philip started a series on his channel named OSFirstTimer Advanced where he has Diana complete more complex tasks on certain operating systems throughout history. Initially, videos of that series used the OSFirstTimer Advanced intro as opposed to the original OSFirstTimer intro only used in the videos that follow the 5 basic tasks format. Starting with the video Mum Tries Out Tandy DeskMate 3.02 (1988) though, new videos by the channel include a new, much shorter intro, replacing the intros of both the original OSFirstTimer and OSFirstTimer Advanced series.

Controversy regarding its first intro

Despite popular belief, the initial OSFirstTimer Advanced intro prior to the Tandy DeskMate video was not created by, but only customised by Philip. YouTube user RavenProDesign is the creator, having created it as a free trailer template in 2014. Furthermore, Neosphere, the song used, was published in late 2012 by Jack Trammell, working under the independent music company and record label PositionMusic. Since permission by the company was missing for RavenProDesign to use said song, the song was never allowed to be used and redistributed by the user in any shape or form.

Without prior checking or knowledge of such, Philip used the template and edited it for his Advanced series, not replacing the song. This resulted in Philip having received copyright notices in the form of shared revenue notices with PositionMusic, albeit three and a half years after the publication of the first Advanced episode. That led to the post-upload cutdown of the intro of many Advanced episodes through YouTube's video editor.

That situation, along with the often-joked-about length of the two intros used (being around 15-20 seconds long), is the reason why Philip decided to use a new intro from the Tandy DeskMate video onwards, for both normal and Advanced episodes.

Diana Games Through Time

In 2020, Philip started a series on the channel called "Diana Games Through Time", where Diana would play video games starting in 1978, through to the present time. Each episode would feature Diana playing a video game from that particular year. This series concluded on the 7th of May 2021. Below is a list of all of the current Diana Games Through Time Episodes. Click on one to watch it on YouTube:


OSs Tested

Operating systems marked with "Dad tries out" or "Jasmine tries out" were tested by Ben Adams or Jasmine Adams instead of the main tester, Diana Adams.

OSs tested in 2012

OSs tested in 2013

OSs Tested in 2014

OSs Tested in 2016

OSs Tested in 2017

OSs Tested in 2018

OSs Tested in 2019

OSs Tested in 2021

OSs Tested in 2022

OSs Tested in 2024