Hi Argonath,
I've seen a few people asking this question but not finding the answers that they want. Also the curious sometimes don't know who to ask. Note that these are my experiences so take them as you see them. Don't think about hating unless you've lived at least 29 years and are earning more than $30,000 a year, lived where I have lived and read the same books because I really don't have the time to listen to kids who think they know the best only to find out 8 years later that they are still doing the same thing they were doing. Sorry for the rant but I know how these topics can go so I ask moderators to keep a close eye out and if necessary lock the topic.
So now that's over with, here's the introduction:
I'm covering the subject of OSX, Windows 10 and Linux. This is not a complete list. This will only be of interest to people who are novices about the different operating systems and how they work. There are plenty of guides around for those more interested. Those who already know this can obviously add their feedback and update this topic as the needs change. There are big differences between them all and my advice would be, know what your needs are before proceeding because its not one size fits all so let us begin:
Good to hear you're doing alright. Anyhow, as an IT specialist, can I ask you: should I switch to Linux? I am getting tired of the constant problems that windows gets...
So, Windows - Think of it like a car. What do you need it for. Do you need it to 'just do the work? Do you need to tinker with it. What about how you're going to use the computer further down the line (work / college etc). Based on these we can start to narrow down what you need.
First thing is budget. If you can't afford $1000 to spend a machine Mac's (OS X / Unix) is out of the question. My opinion is these are the rolls-royces of the computer world. OSX combines ease of use with very (yes very) advanced ways of using the operating system. Just that no one bothers to find out how Terminal works... You set the system up how you want it then you'll get bored really quickly because it never, ever, ever crashes. I've forgotten what they look like. Plus the computer's themselves are so well built you'll go omg when you see another machine that has a problem. I had one iMac during my college year - it was the family computer and you know what, when I wanted to get work done I used that stupid slow iMac and it never let me down. I also had it 6 years. It's still working today at a friends and its almost 10 years old! Its still pretty quick too. Try that with a windows system of the same era...
So now that thats out of the way lets think about windows. Lets not start with XP or Vista or 7, lets go right to Windows 10 because that's what you should be on. Windows 10 in my opinion is a massive improvement over every single other version of windows. Why? Because it behaves a lot more like windows should. Its easy to use, pretty much self explanatory and should do advanced stuff if you want to. (Networking / Server / Programming and so forth). Its also free if you've got a version of windows 7 or 8 already so there's nothing to figure out about. And should I mention that drivers are native to windows, meaning your graphics drivers, motherboard drivers, network drivers and everything else will run really nicely on it. So if you don't have a Mac, or even if you do, don't put windows out of the question because its got a lot of features going for it. I would recommend an antivirus though.
Next up is Linux. Linux is great, as long as you know a few principles. Linux is not like windows. Linux is not like OSX. Linux is not like Unix, Linux is not like Solaris OS, Linux is completely different. Oh and there's about 500 different versions of linux. Which all do completely different things! Imagine having 500 different Windows versions. So its very 'bespoke'. Do you know what the difference is between Gentoo and Fedora? If not you're not ready for Linux. Have you heard of Linux Mint? No? Then you're definitely not ready for Linux. If you brush up on Linux, find out about ALL the distro's (distrowatch.com) then you might be able to figure it out how to do it. Then there's the next thing, the hassle of the install. If you're going to make it your primary operating system, then unfortunately it's going to cost you 12 hours of labour time. (In addition to the amount of hours you have to download the ISO file, put it onto a CD / DVD or USB Drive and figure out what's compatible with your system 32bit / 64bit x86 i386, i486 i586 i686. If the previous sentence made no sense. Linux is not for you. If it did great lets keep going a little more. So it'll take you about 15 hours to get it the way you want it. You'll have to download all the apps you want, and there's no backup, so make sure you've got a backup hard drive. Did I mention there's no backup utility? Good okay. Next thing, because the Distro will be old you'll need to update it. That'll take at least 1 - 2 hours. With me so far? And no you can't just leave it, because it'll ask you for your password upon install. Then you might have to restart. Oh and by the way did I mention, if you mess up your linux distribution by deleting a package (because you have full access to all of linux) you'll have to start again from scratch. Yet another 12 hours.
Linux is a great utility if you know how to use it. Ubuntu makes it simple. But there's a lot to Linux that I can't go over in a short period of time. So there you have it. It'll take a lot of your time up and unlike OSX and Windows that are updated around every 1 - 3 years. Linux distributions get updated anywhere from 3 months to 9 months. So be prepared to do it all over again every 5 Months. And unlike Windows where you can upgrade, and unlike OSX where you can just upgrade. You'll have to do a fresh install.
Okay thats the bad bits out of the way. Why do people use Linux? It's the only platform that you can customise something to your own specific needs. Think about a Kit Car, you can choose, all the parts, what they look like, what you need, a tow bar, a hitch, rope, fog lights, you name it you can build it into linux. That's why a lot of servers are built on it. There's also a great thing about Linux because its got a massive community full of resources and its the most customisable on the planet. If you think you need a tool that's not built, such as a database analyser, Linux will have packages that will allow you to create an SQL Database analyser, or Oracle, or MySQL. Its got tons and tons of things. Sure these may exist on Windows but getting to them, writing the code and setting it off is way easier because its designed for this purpose. On the other hand, if you have no idea what I'm talking about and all you do is play computer games and the occasional word document and love how Chrome / Firefox works, stick to what you know.
I got annoyed (talking about me now) with Windows (back on windows XP /Vista) Because the darn thing was crashing all the time and I wasn't getting anything done quickly. I would have to restart after every update. After every time I had to uninstall a program. After every single time I did something. And forget having a windows machine on for 8 days straight without a restart. OSX can run for 60 days without a hitch. Linux can do the same. But lets think about it, Windows 10 is now here and they realised that they needed to fix a load of things. Gone are the days where you have only 2gb of ram max and the system has to use your hard drive for the page file over and over again. These days you've got SSD's mostly in your machine. This makes a huge difference for Windows. Don't forget you'll probably have more than one core. Yet another bonus for Windows. Back in the XP days you didn't have this, therefore it was highly unstable, yet windows XP was the best version around at the time. Go figure it lasted for 10 years. What a shame that Linux was catching up so quickly and drew a lot of attention at the time.
So yea, at the time Linux looked like an option if only to try it for what it's worth. They're trying to make it better, but don't forget what you see is not always what you get, so if you've got some random graphics card be prepared for your graphics not to work properly. Flash won't be installed so be prepared to find that. Then be prepared to download the AMD / Intel microcode package (yes really) Otherwise your processor won't work properly (some packages may / may not already include this). Then there's the sound. that's 50/50 either it'll work, it'll kinda work, or it'll not work. Lets hope you have a generic circuit sound card that can use any of the drivers already supplied.
So in summary. If you want a lot of work - try Linux. If you want less work try Windows. If you want to be bored and do no work try OSX.
The other way round is - If you want an operating system with a butler that does everything for you try OSX. If you want more customisation but an assistant try Windows. If you want DIY Linux is the way to go. This is probably the best guide I can post. I can honestly say I tried Linux up until 2014 so my information may be out of date however I doubt it as I'm up to date with Windows / OSX systems. I know how the Linux Kernel operates and I doubt that'll change any time soon. So with that said. Have think about it, then think again and wait up to 14 days before making a decision. In that time you should figure out what your needs are. Checked that the particular operating system (with the latest updates) suits your needs and that your needs will change in the future so you need to be prepared for that.
Good luck and happy Computing!
<3 Dell.
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