One thing I disliked about the linux subreddit (and here too, I guess) is the hostility toward other operating systems. I just don’t get it. This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I’ve never actually had an OS interfere with my work, and I’m generally a fan of all 3 major options. Every modern operating system is frankly a marvel of human accomplishment. If there is a task that you can’t achieve on a specific computer, it’s probably because you don’t know how yet. That said, macOS isn’t good for gaming, linux isn’t good for proprietary software like Office or Adobe, and Windows is inefficient with all of its bloat/spyware. None of them are perfect, but none of them are deal-breakers for me.

Every day I work on a 7 year old Windows PC that is locked down like crazy, but I still manage to make it do everything I need it to, including programming, image editing, collaboration, live YouTube streams, and much more. I also use an iPad at work and it, too, runs on an amazing OS, despite all of the things it is not designed to do. At home I have a Windows gaming PC and a linux server running several dozen containers, both of which are constantly being modified and never cease to impress me. When I was a kid I had Macs and learned how edit videos and use the Adobe suite, and OSX propped up the software beautifully. I also learned how to program and use the command line there. If I had the money I would love to get an M2 laptop - that thing is a beast by any metric, and if there’s a task that you can’t make that thing do, well, shame on you.

I guess my point is that while Linux is an amazing kernel, and freedom from major coporations is incredibly important, but writing off other operating systems is naiive, and I think is generally a toxic point of view.

Assuming BSD wasn’t an option, it would have to be Windows because it runs on my hardware.

FreeBSD > other *BSD > Hackintosh > Windows > Mac OS in a Mac hardware. In this order.

Preferably BSD, but between only windows or mac, probably Mac. The terminal is the main reason, coding without a good one is annoying

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Windows 10, my wife and granddaughter got machines with it installed and saying I hate it is putting it mildly.

I wouldn’t use any of them, if not for Linux, I’d go BSD, if not I’d go Haiku OS

MacOS itself is fine but only runs on apple hardware which makes it a costly proposition of the bat as you’re throwing away all your hardware and buying apple hardware, which pretty much will lock you in to their ecosystem.

Then there’s apple hardware lockdown and their fast deprecation policy which breaks old but still working software and hardware. Apple dropped support for my 2008 macbook in 2012 because they didn’t care to develop graphical drivers for it, which meant I was forced to swap it to Windows 10/linux to continue using it.

Because of that, realistic only Windows would be a viable option for me, which was also my main OS up until recently.

Other smaller OS like BSD or Haiku could be interesting, but lack of mainstream support would probably prove too much work and limiting for daily use.

FreeBSD probably.

I’m mostly just thankful that I don’t have to make that choice, and even more so that Linux has gotten so good that I don’t even have to think about it.

linux

There’s definitely no way back to Windows for me. I never used BSD, but it might be a good option.

I used macOS and holy shit, I desire never to touch this shit again. Everything is tied and you cant do shit.

Yeah, I think from my current point of view, I would also be looking at BSD. Not sure if anything could make me go back to Windows, unless Proton and Wine suddenly went the way of the dodo as well.

Heck, maybe I would even consider spending the premium to switch to macOS. That one at least still has the Unix base with terminal access.

Windows. Last time I had to use it for work it was quite OK with the WSL 2.