What OS are you most comfortable with?

I've used Windows since the days of Windows 98/xp, and Linux distros like Fedora, Ubuntu, and Mint. But if I had to choose just one for personal and professional use, it would be Windows. All things I want to use works.

Windows 7 was hands down the most comfortable one for me, and nothing else even comes close. I kept it for as long as I could.
 
For those that like windows 7/10, try out Windows 10 server. It's basically the stuff that was good in 7 and 10, but without all the extra crap. More customizable and easy to do zero telemetry. It does take some work to get some media stuff going, and until next update no bluetooth.
 
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Windows 8.1. Most people have never tried it because of that tiles thing and the overall UI, but it is actually the best version of Windows since Windows XP. To me, it feels like a modernised version of Windows XP. It is a lot faster than Windows 7 and startup is really quick, even on a HDD. There isn't much bloatware as compared to the Windows 10 or 11 and the installed ones can be easily removed. I wish I could use it for life, but a lot of developers have stopped supporting it since last year and apps with the new Windows API don't open on it anymore. So, I am forced to migrate to Windows 10.
 
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Vadapao said:
Windows 8.1. Most people have never tried it because of that tiles thing and the overall UI, but it is actually the best version of Windows since Windows XP. To me, it feels like a modernised version of Windows XP. It is a lot faster than Windows 7 and startup is really quick, even on a HDD. There isn't much bloatware as compared to the Windows 10 or 11 and the installed ones can be easily removed. I wish I could use it for life, but a lot of developers have stopped supporting it since last year and apps with the new Windows API don't open on it anymore. So, I am forced to migrate to Windows 10.
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+1
I liked it better than Win 7. Performance was better and yes boot and shutdown time was just a few seconds on HDD! I switched to Windows 10 a few years later but enjoyed 8.1 the most as it felt more refined, optimized UI and performance wise.
 
I've always used Windows primarily for work, gaming, and general tasks, while relying on Linux (CentOS, AlmaLinux, Ubuntu) for server management and running code or applications.
 
Windows primarily for work and Gaming. Linux for personal use. Debian for servers, and Fedora Workstation for laptops. Honestly, I find Linux has apps for everything, and for things that only work with windows, I can work on PC for a short while.
 
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privateer said:
Windows primarily for work and Gaming. Linux for personal use. Debian for servers, and Fedora Workstation for laptops. Honestly, I find Linux has apps for everything, and for things that only work with windows, I can work on PC for a short while.
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I'm thinking about using Debian (sid?!) for a server - what edition/release do you use and how do you handle release upgrades automatically?
 
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vishalrao said:
I'm thinking about using Debian (sid?!) for a server - what edition/release do you use and how do you handle release upgrades automatically?
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I use the latest debian stable when installing on a new server. If it's a server that i won't ssh into pretty often(or its reachable via internet directly), it gets unattended upgrades. If it's something I interact with frequently, then manual upgrades. It isn't like debian upgrades stuff frequently. dist upgrade is only once in 2 years. I have considered debain sid for my laptops, but instead went with fedora workstation. Good compromise on latest bells and whistles/stability. For servers, it's always debian stable. I don't need latest and greatest for servers.
 
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privateer said:
Windows primarily for work and Gaming. Linux for personal use. Debian for servers, and Fedora Workstation for laptops. Honestly, I find Linux has apps for everything, and for things that only work with windows, I can work on PC for a short while.
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I have been thinking about installing Fedora on my Win 11 laptop, which is 6-7 years old now. It often lags because Windows update services run all the time in the background and it has only 4 gb of ram. I'm wondering if it supports Microsoft's office suite or any other opensource office suite.
Would you recommend it for light academic work?
 
Most comfortable? Windows 10. I’ve been using it since 2015—work, gaming, it does it all.
However, the only Windows 10 machine I have currently is an old work laptop that I’ve repurposed as a file server. I used to have a gaming laptop, but I gave it away to a sibling. Now, the person who doesn’t game has a gaming machine, while the one who does game has none.


I got a macOS machine in December 2020, and I feel it’s better for getting things done. The Universal Clipboard is great.
I do miss gaming sometimes, and that yearly Minecraft itch isn’t easy to dismiss. This year, I decided to use Prism Launcher and play Minecraft on the MacBook Air. It wasn’t ideal (holding the Shift button flips the mouse scroll direction for some reason), but it did scratch the itch.

Well, that turned into a rant.
 
CrimeMouse said:
Most comfortable? Windows 10. I’ve been using it since 2015—work, gaming, it does it all.
However, the only Windows 10 machine I have currently is an old work laptop that I’ve repurposed as a file server. I used to have a gaming laptop, but I gave it away to a sibling. Now, the person who doesn’t game has a gaming machine, while the one who does game has none.


I got a macOS machine in December 2020, and I feel it’s better for getting things done. The Universal Clipboard is great.
I do miss gaming sometimes, and that yearly Minecraft itch isn’t easy to dismiss. This year, I decided to use Prism Launcher and play Minecraft on the MacBook Air. It wasn’t ideal (holding the Shift button flips the mouse scroll direction for some reason), but it did scratch the itch.

Well, that turned into a rant.
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How do you share files between Windows and MacOS? I have a movie file on Windows but haven't been able to share it with my friend's Mac. I tried several apps and setting up Windows SMB server, but none of them worked. We don't have a hub to connect normal USB to Mac, so that's a no-go.
 
Husky said:
I have been thinking about installing Fedora on my Win 11 laptop, which is 6-7 years old now. It often lags because Windows update services run all the time in the background and it has only 4 gb of ram. I'm wondering if it supports Microsoft's office suite or any other opensource office suite.
Would you recommend it for light academic work?
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I am not sure how good fedora is on old laptops, you can install and see if it works(or try on live USB, though almost always live USB is going to be slow because of the pen drive). If necessary, there are many light weight linux distros (some of them so lightweight that they work even on routers). I use Libre Office on Fedora, and I am fairly sure it works on other distros too, though I wouldn't exactly call it lightweight. I have not noticed it to be resource hungry, but I have a i3-11th gen mobile cpu, and 16G RAM. I have installed debian on a mini pc with J4125 celeron processorr 4GB RAM, and it went fine for my use case.
 
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Husky said:
How do you share files between Windows and MacOS? I have a movie file on Windows but haven't been able to share it with my friend's Mac. I tried several apps and setting up Windows SMB server, but none of them worked. We don't have a hub to connect normal USB to Mac, so that's a no-go.
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My Windows machine is a SMB server connected to my router via 1 gigabit ethernet. It works pretty well for transferring files between my Windows, iOS, macOS and Android devices. It's also a Plex/Jellyfin server and a Linux ISO torrenter. Considering the jank, I get pretty good performance.

Make sure your settings in "Advanced Sharing Settings" are correct. Make sure your network is set as private.
 
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Windows 10 for me is the best OS as of now, the reason being that all apps I use for work are windows based only - so stuck by necessity.

I have been using windows from the days of Ver 3.1, then Windows for workgroups - the whole gamut up until Windows 11. It's a pity that I would need to upgrade either to the 10 LTSC or IoT version in the coming months or pay $30 for extended support per year if I want to stick to Windows 10. Windows 11 is wonky so far and it runs as an extended test bench on only one machine of the several that I own.

Have been playing around with OpenSUSE Leap and Fedora 41 and Ubuntu 24.10 on VMWare Workstation on my HP server running Windows Server 2019 to see how things go. What has helped me so far is the ability to use ubuntu under WSL on Windows 10 and 11. but looking back at things I may have to retain the Windows family for work - until and unless they release the app as a linux variant or go browser based totally so that I can be platform agnostic.
 
Opensuse tumbleweed for a general purpose distro. It is a good mix between stable and bleeding edge. Has open build system, which works kinda like aur but better.
Opensuse leap on servers. Keeps things consistent for me.

A windows machine for media consumption and regular usage. Can always ssh into above linux systems or wsl so it doesn't hinders my productivity.
 
Debian for stability, running jellyfin on it without any issues. Initially wanted to host it on Arch, tried Garuda Linux but GPU encoding/decoding had issue. But the package manager on Arch is super fast and help wikis are really detailed .
 
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