Guidelines To Select An Operating System

Operating System


Looking for an operating system to best fit your needs? Whether you're constrained by a budget, proprietary software, or other concerns, this guide will help you pick an operating system (OS) that is best for you.



Ease of use. Every OS has a learning curve for those unfamiliar with any OS but the curve might not be the same for all OSs. Mac OS X, for example, focuses on consistency and ease of use - and while it does not do a perfect job it does a good one; all software a user is likely to use will have the same Print and Save dialogs, for example, and will have the Preferences and Help located in the same place. With Windows this is not true.

However, most people will have a background and familiarity with Microsoft Windows. Moving to Mac OS, Linux, or BSD from Windows may be a steeper learning curve. The same is true for a Mac, Linux, or BSD user moving to Windows.

 OpenSuse Linux

 Ubuntu LinuxSoftware availability. There is a wealth of open source applications available for Linux, and a wealth of freeware, shareware, and commercial applications available for Windows. Mac OS has solid third-party software support, but the variety is much more limited. For most users, any of the three will offer the software you need. Linux lacks commercial alternatives (MS Office and Adobe Photoshop, for example) and both Linux and OS X lack some niche software categories (for example most quilters prefer a package that is available only for Windows). OS X does come with an excellent intro suite of applications that make working with music, pictures, movies, DVDs and the like very easy - all very well integrated.

 Mac OS X installerFile sharing or collaboration with others. Microsoft has a reputation for undermining standards. Windows is undoubtedly a market-share leader, and therefore most individuals will use applications and work with files from a Windows computer.

This doesn't necessarily limit sharing files between a Linux or Mac OS user, even if they are in proprietary, Microsoft formats. As for image, sound (ie: music), and video formats, they are all cross-platform.

 OpenOffice.org is free, cross-platform and includes a word-processor, spreadsheet and presentation softwareOffice. Microsoft Office is cross-platform (Windows, OS X and Linux via WINE or Crossover Office[1]). OpenOffice.org is free and cross-platform (Windows, OS X and Linux). Both support doc (Microsoft Office better than others), both support OOXML (Microsoft Office with plugins[2] and natively since 2007, OpenOffice.org with plugins[3] and natively since v3.0), both support ODF (Microsoft Office with plugins[4] and plan to natively).



 iLife is exclusive to the Mac and has iMovie, iPhoto, iDVD and GarageBandMultimedia. Watching DVDs, playing music, and watching recorded television is very easy to do with Windows and Mac OS. For Linux and BSD, the task is certainly possible, but requires "restricted" software that anyone can download and install. Due to licensing reasons, playback of encrypted DVDs on Linux is a touchy subject, yet easily enabled. For multimedia creation, at least at the introductory level, OS X's iLife suite allows a novice to do amazing work without even knowing how to save files or what files really are. It does have a number of limitations and more advanced users - or those wanting to do more advanced work - will need to use other solutions.

 Adobe Creative Suite includes Acrobat, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Premiere, Photoshop, InDesign and After EffectsStudio work. Many professional, studio-quality applications are only released for Microsoft Windows. Some are duplicated on Mac OS, but none are released for Linux or BSD. This includes software such as Autodesk AutoCAD and Revit, and Adobe Premiere, AfterEffects, and other Adobe Creative Suite applications. There are open source alternatives for some of these studio applications, but they currently do not replicate all of the leading software's functionality.

 BSD with FluxboxProgramming. It is undeniable that Linux and BSD are the most flexible and powerful platforms for software development. Integrated development environments (IDE) such as Eclipse and JDeveloper are powerful tools that are portable to most platforms, but the true power of Linux is its native C compiler that is included by default with the OS. Windows has its proprietary Visual Studio IDE and .NET framework, while Linux and BSD has its Mono and GTK libraries (framework). Windows also has many other third-party IDEs, as well as those offered as cross-platform IDEs. Mac OS hosts its own software development tools, but they do not have nearly the same level of wide-adoption and community support as others. Also, everything inside of a Linux and BSD OS, including all applications included, are open source. This means anyone can open up the code, change something, build it, and use it.