No operating system is better than the other; they all offer different pros and cons. It is down to what the user needs the system for and in order to find the best one for you; a bit of research or a test drive may be the best option. What are the main differences between Macs, Windows and Linux? These days, the differences are small as they all compete to be the best. In order to do that, they have slowly adopted similar features to each other to ensure that they can adhere to the need of their users and offer the same and more if possible than the competing OS. Linux is probably the least known, expect to the techies that is.
Although they have a lot of similarities, there are some things that one does better than the others, and vice versa. There are other operating systems out there, but these are the main, most widely known, three and so these are the ones this article will compare.
Windows dominates the operating system market with a massive 90% of the share. It is the most commonly known OS and therefore used widely in businesses as well as home computers. Windows has been around for over 25 years and, although it has its flaws, it a very well developed and recognized operating system. As Windows is the most commonly used OS you will find that it will run pretty much every game, driver or app. It has been around for such a long time that there is plenty of support available whether online or in person; there is always someone who can help with Windows. There are functions galore so you can do almost anything you like with ease and the majority of people can say they know how to navigate the OS. The downsides come in the form of viruses; although these can easily be fought off using free anti-virus programs available online. It might be a good time to use this reference to find cheap broadband deals so you can download the best, free packages. The OS itself needs a lot of your computer’s memory and can therefore be slow at times. Then there is the cost…
Unbeknownst to some, Macintosh OS is older than Windows. It was actually released a year before Microsoft’s attempts and was the first successful graphical-based OS; a breakthrough in computing. A great thing about Macs, and in opposition to Windows, is that they get pretty much no viruses at all. Windows is more prone due to its superiority mind so whether Apple would see the same if it were more superior, who’s to know. The OS only runs on Apple computers and because of this it doesn’t tend to cause user issues by crashing very often. In a lot of people’s opinions, Mac is a bit nicer to look at too! When it comes to cost, Mac is even more expensive and, if you already have a computer that is not Apple you can’t install the OS. It can be difficult to find programs and games that will run on Mac because of the lower number of people who use it.
Linux is the less heard of out of the three. The first and best point here is that Linux OS is absolutely free. You can download and redistribute Linux completely free of change, and legally. It has not been around quite as long, but isn’t far behind; at approximately 20 years old, the space between the OS’ is quite small yet Linux is much less heard of. Linux itself is not a full operating system, but this is a pro; downloads come in full as ‘distributions’ and can give the user a more bespoke OS. The most popular are Ubuntu, Mint and Fedora. Linux has very few viruses although is slightly more at risk than Mac. It can be quite complicated depending on the distribution you choose and computer knowledge may be needed to install it. As with Mac, its shares are a lot lower than Windows and so there are not as many games or programs that come ready to run on Linux.
Ultimately, the choice is yours and down to your preferences. You can choose depending on what you want to use the OS for. Consider trying them all out first and getting an understanding of how they operate to be sure you make the right choice.
Author Bio
Emily Steves is a freelance writer based in North Wales. A keen reader, and inspired by the authors of fiction, Emily is an up and coming author. When not writing professionally about operating systems and how to use this reference to find cheap broadband deals; you’ll usually find Emily spending time with her partner and niece, if not reading or writing her book.
