macOS v Windows 10 v Linux

[TheCheese]

Which one is the best and why?

[ProjectBox153]

There have been threads about this, it depends on the workload and the computer.

[TheCheese]

Lets say for each category of computer

Server -

Workhorse - 

Thin n Light

Gaming Laptop etc

 

[Crunchy Dragon]

I personally prefer Windows to everything else I've tried. I can do everything including all my gaming on it.

[ProjectBox153]

Just now, TheCheese said:

Lets say for each category of computer

What do you mean "each category"? You need to be specific.

[grimreeper132]

1 minute ago, Jamiec1130 said:

There have been threads about this, it depends on the workload and the computer.

pretty much as jamiec said

 

Personally Windows is best for me for uses like gaming etc as it is just easier without needing to deal with incompatability, as for storage I find linux is the better choice as there is linux distros designed for it. MacOS I am sure has it's uses but persoanlly I don't have one and if I did  it would be a hackintosh as I wouldn't pay the "apple tax"

[TheCheese]

1 minute ago, Jamiec1130 said:

What do you mean "each category"? You need to be specific.

I edited this to include categories 

[grimreeper132]

1 minute ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

I personally prefer Windows to everything else I've tried. I can do everything including all my gaming on it.

Windows isn't great for stuff like file servers, like it's possible to do it with it, but just having a linux distro designed for it is just easier

[Crunchy Dragon]

1 minute ago, grimreeper132 said:

Windows isn't great for stuff like file servers, like it's possible to do it with it, but just having a linux distro designed for it is just easier

Well for me, Windows is king. I didn't say it's the best overall. Like @Jamiec1130 said, it depends on system and workload.

[IBM_THINKPAD_R51]

5 minutes ago, TheCheese said:

Lets say for each category of computer

Server -

Workhorse - 

Thin n Light

Gaming Laptop etc

 

Server: Windows Server (Linux a close second)

Workhorse- Windows (insert version of windows here) PRO/ULTIMATE/ENTERPRISE

Thin n Light- Windows Pro/Home

Gaming Laptop etc- Windows Pro/Home

[Windows7ge]

10 minutes ago, TheCheese said:

Lets say for each category of computer

Server -

Workhorse - 

Thin n Light

Gaming Laptop etc

 

I think the question is too black & white but if I had to choose:

Server: Linux/*NIX

Workhorse: Windows (Just because of the amount of software developer support)

Thin n Light: As in laptop or easy to run on low-end hardware? Either way I like Linux. (I'm typing this on Ubuntu right now)

Gaming Laptop: Again Windows just because of the shear level of software support. (You need some background knowledge of Linux to do much of anything like when installing games, applications, and drivers. Windows just kind of does it all for you. You just have to keep clicking Next.

[flibberdipper]

If MacOS had all the games that Windows does via at least Steam, it would be my pick for everything other than Server, where Windows or Linux would be the winners.

[WkdPaul]

4 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

I think the question is too black & white

I think it's the other way around, the question is so general that it really depends on preferences ... apart from gaming where there's no real alternatives (not talking about consoles, and other OS don't have the catalog Windows have).

[Windows7ge]

1 minute ago, wkdpaul said:

I think it's the other way around, the question is so general that it really depends on preferences ... apart from gaming where there's no real alternatives (not talking about consoles, and other OS don't have the catalog Windows have).

When I said "black and white" that's what I meant. That the question was too basic/general and that the reality of it is more complicated and not easily explained in that fashion. I suppose I should have made that more clear.

[Wild Penquin]

Different kinds of cars, clothes, beer, games, houses, apartments, politics and operating systems (you name it) exists because a certain kind of thing does not fit everyone!

 

For your 4 categories, the simple answers are:

 

Server - Linux

Workhorse - OS X 1)

Thin n Light - Linux 2)

Gaming Laptop - Windows 3)

 

But long answers:

 

1) Depends on "Workhorse", which is a very vague concept. Say you are a media editor / content creator (with not a great degree of computer literacy), those users are often accustomed to OS X. But CPU/GPU heavy computing? Mining? Depending on the details, any of the three could be a good choice...

 

2) Some minimalistic Linux is the best choice for low-end hardware, for notebook usage etc.

 

3) For serious gaming and getting everything working on the laptop easily and OOTB, stay away from Linux. Only sensible solution is Windows. But if you feel adventurous, YMMV....

[You_are_a_cunt]

Server - Windows (I am DONE with spending 3 days configuring Linux just to end up in a corner crying)

Workstation - Windows/Linux dual boot

Thin n Light - OS X/Windows dual boot, mostly because I like MacBook aesthetics and they're pretty damn thin n light

Gaming Laptop - Windows, but I wouldn't buy a gaming laptop

Mobility laptop for school/work/travel - Windows/Linux dual boot

[Gronnie]

I use Windows for my gaming PC, Linux for my work PC (SSD firmware development), and a Macbook Air for browsing from the couch. They all are great (and not so great) in their own ways.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

Mac for casual use

Linux for productivity

Windows for Solitaire

[Salv8 (sam)]

On 2/8/2018 at 4:20 AM, TheCheese said:

Which one is the best and why?

here is a table on things about windows, macOSX (what it is called not masOS, that is for PowerPC macs and under) and linux, with pros, cons and my opinions

(my opinions are mine, you can try and argue but i will ignore you as people have the right to a opinion)

 

OS	Windows	MacOSX	Linux Distros
Pros	·Commonly used everywhere, no problem finding help for it	·Good if you like using the OS and apple proprietary hardware and software	· Free and a lot of distributions (different versions) to choose from
Cons	·Bugs, glitches and crashes in the OS, really not that great	·Really inflexible, also core OS changes happen so older software may not work at all (not even a compatibility mode... shame…)	·Incompatible with most software and requires a bit of time to learn how the OS works (not to mention that with each distribution is changed slightly to suit the user’s needs)
Great for	·Most things you want to do on a computer	·If you like apple and what to stay in the ecosystem for the foreseeable future	·Servers and things that other OS’s can’t do
Useless for	·Anything that requires custom workloads (e.g server render farm, there isn’t a app that can do this to my knowledge)	·A lot of things due to the OS architecture (the way it’s designed)	·Running proprietary closed-source software
Recommended for	·Most people	·People who are in the apple ecosystem	·Tinkers and people who want to learn other OS’s
My opinion	·Does what it need to do, it’s an ass sometimes but it gets the job done	·Useless, highly annoying and limited. VERY LIMITED.	·Useful, very flexible and customisable, kind of annoying to get used to but still fun it use

 

edit: fixed some errors

 

Edited February 23, 2018 by Salv8 (sam)
fixed some errors

[wasab]

On 2/7/2018 at 1:27 PM, Crunchy Dragon said:

Well for me, Windows is king. I didn't say it's the best overall. Like @Jamiec1130 said, it depends on system and workload.

It is the best of you want the best possible  odds of catching malwares and viruses. 

[Crunchy Dragon]

4 minutes ago, wasab said:

It is the best of you want the best possible  odds of catching malwares and viruses. 

Common sense keeps me safe online, I don't visit sketchy websites or click on sketchy links. Beyond that, I haven't needed anything more than Windows Defender on Windows 10. I prefer Windows to any other operating system I've tried.

[wasab]

I use Linux for programming and school work. The main reason is that desktop is so much more responsive than windows. I can alt tap between different tasks so fluidly. This is awesome for multitasking.

ironically, I had been sticking to Linux for gaming as well. I did not use it for gaming initially but now I have bunch of macOS friends on my steam list and I can only play with them multiplayer on Linux or Mac.(the game is company of heroes 2 and it has no cross platform support) That prevents me from switching back to windows.

[FreeDev]

Same as wasab except that I create a Windows 10 KVM with GPU pass-through on my machine, so basically, I don't have to reboot into Windows to use Windows specific software when running on Linux. Linux is just overall much easier to be made secure than Windows when you configure Mandatory Access Control policy on Linux (SELinux) as opposed to Windows (Mandatory Integrity Control.)

 

Linux is just so much saner when it come to programming, basically all of the headers file you need are just sitting in /usr/include while Windows have it all over the place. With Nix Package Manager, you basically have a rollback feature built in so that whenever software update goes wrong, you just roll it all back while on Windows when one of the update make critical error, you're out of luck and have to restore from backup if you have one.

 

Least to be said, I am not a fan of Windows and I can see myself stop using Windows in the next 2 years thanks to cross-platform technologies that are being developed to make it easy to port applications across platforms with less testings especially with LLVM/Clang.

[ItsJosh18]

On 2/7/2018 at 10:20 AM, TheCheese said:

Which one is the best and why?

I've used all three (OSX/macOS and windows more extensively than Linux) but it really depends on the workload. For gaming Windows all the way. I actually switched my MBP to windows exclusively so I could play some less intense games on the go. For productivity, macOS is the way to go. The UI is clean and it works great on Apple hardware. Personally, I've found video encodes to go faster on macOS than windows but it might be other factors. I love macOS but it just needs better compatibility.

[JohnVHSTapes]

macOS for anything work related. Windows for all my gaming needs.