Windows, MacOS or Linux?

There’s always been that debate hasn’t there – Windows or MacOS, and for some of us, we also throw Linux into that mix as well.

We could talk for hours, and never conclude as to which is “best”.

The simple truth of the matter is, in my opinion, there isn’t one which is best, each will do some things better than the others can do, and there is the important factor of using what works best for the person sitting in front of the computer.

I sit here typing this article out, using a laptop running Linux. This is my non-technical productivity laptop, which I feel allows me to get more done on the non-technical side of the business.

Would I take my Linux laptop to a customer site to do some network troubleshooting? Absolutely not. And here’s the same important point, it’s not because it can’t do that job, it’s because I’m personally much more familiar with networking tools on a Windows computer. Hence, my tech backpack contains my tried and tested Windows 11 laptop.

How you work, is more important than the Operating System you use

In an ideal world, you shouldn’t be tied to an Operating System. The software and tools you use should work on the platform. I know the reality of this can be hard, or that the provider of the software doesn’t have a Mac version for example, but aiming to have your business entirely Cloud-based is the goal. You should be able to do everything you need, within a web browser.

If you only need a web browser, then you’re free to use Windows, MacOS or Linux.

Is this the case with ourselves? The truth is whilst we’re about 95% there, we will need to use a couple of applications for the technical side of the business, that only work on Windows. Given time, those apps may work on other Operating Systems, but at this moment, they don’t work as they should on either MacOS or Linux.

If you’re making use of Office 365, you can use most of it on any Operating System, but you might be restricted or have to work things slightly differently on MacOS or Linux, for the core email stuff and creating documents, you should be just fine using whatever platform you want to use.

Getting independent of the Operating System opens up your hardware choices, with something for every budget. For example, with Windows, you can go for any computer, of a decent spec from £350, right up to however much you wish to spend. With a Mac, you’re realistically looking at a starting price of around £1,000. Finally, with Linux, you can see super cheap and low-spec hardware. I’m sitting typing this out on a laptop which was just £230 brand new. Equally, you could quite easily run Linux on much older/used hardware, picking something up off the likes of eBay for £75 for example, if you needed to.

Gavin Moorhouse is the owner of Lucid Computer Solutions. Based in Redditch, they provide much more than just IT Support. He uses Linux and Windows daily.