All operating systems are somewhat shitty
2024-03-10
I know that there haven't been that many tech-related articles lately, so it's time to change that. This week I want to do an all-around attack against the three major desktop operating systems, since I'm personally rather frustrated with the state of all of them. From my experience it isn't really a matter of choosing the best option, but rather the least bad one. So, let's take a look...
Before get into the actual comparison, I want to state that this is mostly my personal take on things and your mileage may very - even though all the experiences are reproducable and have been confirmed to me from others. It should be also clear that I can't possibly take all the aspects into account that distinguish these operating systems from each other, so try to think of the aspects I do mention as some sort of starting point and feel free to build upon them yourself. Oh, and last but not least I'm just to lazy to turn all of my bullet points into full sentences, so you'll have to do with them ;)
Windows
The good:
- Exceptional software support and backwards compatibility
- Rather nice window management by default
- Huge marketshare and thus community
The bad:
- Huge legacy and compatibility needs only ever add bloat
- Not UNIX-based with a really "distinct", not to say ugly system architecture
- App installation is a nightmare (downloads from the web)
- All the omnipresent advertising, surveillance and AI shit
- The goal isn't to make a good operating system, but one that's just not terrible enough for the user to undergo the hassle of swit
macOS
The good:
- UNIX-based with full admin rights available (very much unlike iOS and iPadOS)
- Good app support with most professional software being available
- Good package manager available (Homebrew)
- Exceptionally app sandboxing and read-only system files geatly increase the operational security
- Unobtrusive and actually helpful smart features that mostly run on-device (live OCR in images, image conversion, PDF annotation etc.)
The bad:
- Terrible window management
- Unusable dock, task-switcher and application closing procedure
- Distinct workflow in general (need to do things the "Apple way")
- App installation only mediocre by default (app store or .dmg downloads)
- The goal for the system is vendor-lockin since Apple still is primarily a hardware company
- Is also affected by Apple's slow but steady development into a marketing platform
Linux
The good:
- When it works, it is extremely stable and reliable
- Endlessly customizable
- Great package management
- The only choice where you are still in full control over your PC
- Everything from no to all the window tiling available (personal must have)
The bad:
- Hard to get it working
- Not everything even works at all
- Limited software support and overall nicheness
- Can be cumbersome to configure
As you can, you really have to pick your poison here - none of them is perfect. I'm currently rather happy with my Linux setup, but can honestly see myself transitioning to macOS in the long run due to the broader software support and just a more polished experience. What's is your take? Feel free to share share in the comments down below and have a good one...