macOS vs. Windows vs. Linux

[Kain]

Which OS do you prefer?

 

[OldTimer]

MacOS Sonoma

 

[Vincent Kars]

Android

 

[Apesbrain]

Windows is fine. I'm sure the others are also.

 

[audio_tony]

If I was to summarise:

Mac - I liked the interface, although as an advanced user many things irritated me.
Windows - it does the job, with a lot of software available (especially freeware / shareware)
Linux - Ideal for servers, but the desktop is improving rapidly. And of course it can run quite a lot of Windows software with Wine.

TLDR;

I used Windows for many years, then I switched to Mac (OSX) for a couple of years, but became tired of having to pay (again) for apps I had purchased each time the O/S was upgraded.

So I switched back to Windows and stuck with Windows 7 for a few years after support was withdrawn.

In between the above, I used Linux (as a server - I'm a former sysadmin) and tried the Linux desktop a few times (I still have a PC setup with a Linux desktop).

Each O/S has it's advantages however.

 

[ahofer]

years, but became tired of having to pay (again) for apps I had purchased each time the O/S was upgraded.

I’ve never had this experience.

 

[Berwhale]

Anything but Apple. I only have one Apple device, which is my work phone, which I don't use as a phone (the work SIM is in my personal Android phone). I take great pleasure is only using the iPhone to generate Symantec VIP or Microsoft Authenticator tokens for 2 factor sign-in.

Also, this topic has been covered and voted on before... https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-your-main-os-operating-system-at-home.27353/

 

[celt]

FreeBSD (Berkeley UNIX), of which MacOS runs a modified BSD kernel.

 

[Stokdoof]

You can transport a lot of good using a regular truck or car but if you want to do serious transportation you need a semi-truck with a trailer. The same counts for Windows, nice and you can do a lot of work with it but for real serious work you need Linux. IMO

 

[celt]

You can transport a lot of good using a regular truck or car but if you want to do serious transportation you need a semi-truck with a trailer. The same counts for Windows, nice and you can do a lot of work with it but for real serious work you need Linux. IMO

One can take that further...serious work, process and resource management and a proper network stack requires UNIX. Linux is UNIX-like, but it is NOT UNIX.

 

[XpanD]

Linux, but sadly stuck on Windows for the programs I need. (and my modded games)

Not that a NTLite-stripped install of W10 IoT Enterprise LTSC is that much of a punishment, though. Heck of a lot better than the bloat/"telemetry"-infested desktop builds!

 

[droid2000]

One can take that further...serious work, process and resource management and a proper network stack requires UNIX. Linux is UNIX-like, but it is NOT UNIX.

The vast majority of the internet runs on Linux.

 

[ahofer]

It seems like a huge scam to me that Microsoft convinced people that they were needed to defend their networks.

 

[raif71]

I'm mostly on Centos 7 / Ubuntu 18/20/22 (work stuff) and finalizing documents using Windows. Back in the early days of working, the company where I worked had Sun Solaris, HP/UX and Mentor Graphics which was used for designing vlsi chips.

 

[audio_tony]

I’ve never had this experience.

I had this with VMWare workstation, and FuzzMeasure (to name at least two apps) - both required me to purchase a new licence when I upgraded from OSX Snow Leopard to OSX Lion.

For example, (I don't remember the exact versions) but VMWare went from version 1.1 (for snow leopard) to version 1.11 (for lion) - and Fuzzmeasure did something similar. Both apps required me to purchase a new licence for the "newer" version (in reality the versions were no different - just an incremented version number) - it just felt like I was being ripped off. After all, a paid for Windows app that runs on Win 7 will (mostly) run on Win 11 - no further purchase required.

And there was other software, long since forgotten, as I sold my MB pro about 12 years ago IIRC.

 

[audio_tony]

It seems like a huge scam to me that Microsoft convinced people that they were needed to defend their networks.

Explain what you mean by this?

 

[maverickronin]

Linux is great except for the fact that to a first approximation, no desktop apps run on it natively. I run my Unifi network controller on an Ubuntu server.

Windows is awful, but overall more useful because essentially everything runs on it and often continues to run on it for decades. I'm running W10 LTSC 2018 on my desktop.

I never liked Macs. I guess they work if everything you need is either a DAW or sold by Adobe. It seems to slowly turning into toy OS though. (see below). I wonder when they'll start shipping it with no access to the terminal and no root access to your own device.

iOS and Android are toy operating systems which belong in the same category as game consoles. They are locked down for the purpose of the manufacturer taking a cut of all software sales.

My OPNsense firewall runs on some kind of BSD.

 

[Dialectic]

I run MacOS for music listening (for BACCH4Mac), Linux for music archiving and regular web browsing, Windows for taxes and other boring things, and Android for television on an NVIDIA shield. Smartphone is a Pixel, but it's so bad that I'm considering switching to iPhone.

 

[Kain]

For those who use a Mac, what mouse do you use?

 

[Blumlein 88]

For those who use a Mac, what mouse do you use?

I use a Macally or a type C gaming mouse. Macos doesn't respond the same way that Windows or Linux do. So it's never quite the same "feel".