What Operating System is Best?

[TotallyOz]

I currently have a Mac, a Windows computer, IPad, Chromebook and multiple phones. But, for me, Mac OS has always been the easiest to work with and to use.  I do like my Chromebook but it is pretty limited. But, very cheap and smooth.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/operating-system-choose-next-pc/

[Guest]

Windows7, as it works and after purchasing it, I can install on whatever PC I like.  I can also purchase it myself.   

Both Apple and Android have a reputation for doing updates which slow the device down to an appalling extent, which forces a premature upgrade.  I have suffered this problem on 2 Android devices.   Some kind of class action lawsuit is needed.   

As well as screwing your device up within 3 years, Android also make it much more difficult to stop upgrades than Microsoft.

Also, if I wanted to solve my issue by doing a fresh Android install, I don't know how to obtain a fresh copy of Android from a reliable and secure source.   Plenty of third party sources, but should I trust these if I am to use the phone for banking ?

Also, I am not aware of any attempts by Microsoft to ever apply censorship to their ecosystem.    The iPhone and Android systems are app based and they censor what goes on the app store.   Windows is browser based, with no censorship.

[reader]

Certainly agree about the upgrades. The worst one I experienced was on an iPad that disabled both cameras.

I want to put in a rave for the virus protection that I purchased when I got my current PC. "ESET" I find is superior and more bug free than the others I've used over time. It has stopped occasional malware attacks and warns about questionable websites. It's been around for about 30 years but has a low profile.

ESET comes with a mode especially dedicated to banking and financial websites.

[fedssocr]

Depends what you want to do. I use my Chromebook most of the time since I spend time mainly surfing the web. Can use (most) Android apps too. 

My big desktop rig I switched over to Linux Mint with Windows 10 dual boot only for a couple of big photo editing applications that don't run on Linux. If I didn't use them I would be Linux full time. I got tired of all the problems I had with Windows and their broken updates. Linux Mint is quite easy to use for the most part. If you run into problems the user community is very helpful walking you through how to fix things. The user interface is very Windows-like so it's easy to adjust to. There are also Linux versions available that have desktops which mimic MacOS if you're more comfortable with that.

[Guest]

I shall probably trial Linux on a laptop when back home.

I did have it on a netbook for travelling about 8 years ago.   The big problem at the time was Wi-Fi.  In about 20% of the places, it would not connect, even after reboots and so on.  But if I ran a different Linux version off a USB it was OK.   Then after installing that, back to the same issue.   I even tried changing the wi-fi card in the device and then tried different Wi-Fi software.

Windows and Android never have these issues, although the evil people at Samsung or Google will screw up my Android device with slow software after about 3 years.