OS Battle: which is the best? (OS X, Windows, Linux ...)

[Angrboda]

None: All software sucks.


Best is a value judgement, and so it would depend on the values in question. No single piece of software does everything well, so what your values are, and what you intend to use it for, determine which is in what way best. (The old saw about, "fast. good. cheap. pick two" is analogous here; it's a matter of matching between needs and each os' virtues.)

I use a 32 bit version of Windows XP because it's relatively simple for a person with only one finger to operate, and there's a lot of good, inexpensive software for it, much of which I've collected over 15+ years. That being said, I will be moving to 64 bit Windows 7 soon, and by losing the 16 bit subsystem, likely be forced to run a 16 bit compatible OS alongside it. Regardless, I will probably run multiple operating systems simultaneously as no one operating system is perfect, nor is running everything under one OS.

In the past, besides Windows, I've very much liked Solaris 10, Debian, FBSD, and OBSD. (the latter even despite it's ostensible slowness) I will probably run one of the more graphical Linux's alongside a 64 bit Windows, a 32 bit windows, possibly a layer of Debian or Ubuntu on top of Windows, and a few dedicated virtual machine appliances, when I rebuild later this year. At this point it's somewhat ill-defined. (I'm upgrading my file server from 2 TB to 7 TB, and that is a prerequisite to rebuilding.)