Windows vs MacOS vs Linux vs ChromeOS - my take on the state of desktop OS
In 2018 - I've used all 4 of the "major" desktop OS platforms out there - Windows 10, OS X, various Linux distros and ChromeOS. Here is my take on the state of these OS and where we're going.
Let's start with Windows. Believe it or not the Windows brand is over 33 years old. Windows 1.0 first released in Nov of 1985 as a shell on top of the MS-DOS operating system and a reaction to the Apple Macintosh of 1984.
Even if you consider Windows 95 - the first of the modern Windows versions you're still talking some 23 years ago.
But what has really changed ? Sure we've moved from 32bit to 64bit and the hardware has gotten a lot better and some of the underlying components such as memory mgmt and file systems have been updated. Most recently touch,pen and Hello support has surfaced - but from a general navigation and operation stand-point not much has changed.
When you look at Windows 10 today what do you have ? A Desktop, Start Menu, Task Bar and some basic apps from notepad to calculator, paint, media center and even Internet Explorer. Sound familiar ?
And just as with Windows 95 - if you wanted productivity tools - you had to go purchase and install MS Office separately. Considering we've been through at least 9 major Windows releases since Windows 95 - at this point I would have expected a lot more from MS.
As I've written about regularly - as a Windows 10 Insider - I consider Windows 10 today to be a hot mess - a mix of legacy and new without consistency with some features and UI components that hearken all the way back to at least Windows XP and earlier.
What Windows does provide is by far the widest range of hardware support. You can install and run Windows on everything from a $169 laptop to a $4,800 Surface Studio 2 and everything in between. It's part of the reason Windows across all versions still holds an 85%+ market share. Windows also has the widest range of application support - as there are literary thousands of applications available across every conceivable category.
But the world has changed - mobile devices outsell PCs by a 7 or 8:1 factor and Windows has gone from being the bellwether of MS to the #4 or #5 revenue stream.
While Windows will hang around for a few more years - I honestly expect MS to potentially change Windows back to it's original state which is a shell - this time running on top of Linux.
Let's move on the next venerable OS - MacOS.
Apple's MacOS is in fact even older than Windows - introduced in January of 1984 with one of the most famous TV commercials ever made. MacOS was the first modern Graphical User Interface (GUI) operating system. Yes there had been some previous attempts - but nothing was anywhere close to as integrated as the Mac was. It was the first system that used a mouse and introduced us to things that are still there today like the Finder.
Like Windows there are two main lives of MacOS - the Classic period from 1984 to 2001 that went through 9 versions and the now common OS X which started in 2002 and just recently released it's 14th update called Mojave.
Outside of the obvious UI differences in terms of look and feel - OS X & Windows in their own way are very similar. You get a desktop, menu (launcher) task bar (dock) and some basic apps like Mail, Safari, Photos, etc.
And just like Windows for many years if you wanted productivity you purchased and installed MS Office. In fact the overall best selling 3rd party application all time for the Mac is in fact MS Office. Even though Apple sold a product called iWork that included Pages, Numbers & Keynote it only started to include it for free as part of the OS in 2017.
For years the Mac made an impression in it's media processing capability whether that was audio or video. But today that's changed - Many of the top media applications are now available on Windows and in fact in many cases run much better there than on the Mac.
The strength of MacOS has been in it's consistency. Unlike Windows 10 which has a mix of old and new UI elements and functions, OS X has been extremely consistent. But that to me is also part of it's weakness. It just feels old and while Apple introduced the touch bar - yawn.
The down side is that OSX runs on Macs only. Sure you can create what is called a "Hackintosh" or an Intel based PC that appears to the OS to be a Mac - but it's only that an appearance. Even the best attempts are never 100% and that is by design by Apple. Apple prides itself on the overall experience to end-users and uses a closed ecosystem to provide that. The challenge with that is the often ridiculously high prices that Apple charges for that benefit.
But just like Windows - OS X is going through its' own changes. Today all versions of OS X account for only about 9.5% of the market. And the Mac hardware and software business for Apple is only about $7B of the $62B (11.7%) it reported in Q4 of 2018. Mac's today do not support things like touch screen and pens and they don't have advanced security support like Windows Hello.
With that said Mac owners are a hugely loyal bunch and so I actually see OS X having a longer life in it's current state than Windows - if Apple continues to build them...
Next let's talk Linux....
In 2018 - I ran 3 different flavors of Linux desktop - Ubuntu 18.04, Linux Mint 19.01 and DeepIn 15.8. All are very similar. First all run on top of the Linux 4.2 OS. Remember Linux itself is a command line based OS with no real UI except terminal and no real apps outside of the base services that allow the OS to run.
Linux as an OS was first released in 1991. In the early days it was purely a server OS and things like desktop UIs and apps didn't really start to appear until around 2004 with groups like Canonical (Ubuntu) started to create consumable distros.
With Mint, Ubuntu and DeepIn - these groups provide two things - first is some form of Desktop UI environment and second is a bundle of base apps from FireFox to Thunderbird Mail to Media Players, File Managers, along with either the LibreOffice or WPS productivity suites. This bundle is then consolidated into the form we call a Distro (or distribution) and made available for download - typically in an .iso format that can be placed on DVD or USB to boot and install.
From a UI and usefulness perspective all 3 worked fine and have a very similar look and feel to Windows or OS X. A Desktop, Start Menu, Dock along with a base set of apps including Productivity and a store of dozens more apps. Certainly not the size of either the OS X or Windows App Stores - but still a good selection. But apps like Office are not available for Linux. You can however use the Web version.
The good news is all 3 of the flavors I ran are free to download and install and include the productivity apps I mentioned. The bad news is twofold - first is that outside of some select Dell and HP workstations it's almost impossible to order a new PC with Linux installed. Second - if you are going to to a build it yourself system (BIY) make sure the devices you choose are supported.
Linux - across all distro's is about 2.0% of the total PC market. With that said - remember this - OS X is an Apple shell on top of - you guessed it Unix.
The biggest single challenge I see in the marketplace with Linux is that there is no clear winner and too many different distros. Hardware OEMs also need to figure out how to make money supporting Linux distros. This is something that MS figured out years ago and has a stranglehold in the market.
Finally to the newest member of the desktop OS world ChromeOS..
ChromeOS was developed by Google and initially released in 2011. Based on the work Google had done with the Chromium project to build the Chrome browser. Google's approach was simple - it went off the premise that you didn't need a "full" operating system to be productive and that all the apps you might use would be available on the Web - so all you needed at the endpoint was a browser.
That has changed since 2011. Today ChromeOS supports the ability to run Android apps, Linux Apps and Google is working on a dual boot strategy for Windows.
Just like Windows, OS X and Linux you get a desktop, start menu (launcher) a task bar or "dock". I run a number of android apps on my Pixelbook including MS Office. But what I find more and more is - unless there is some specific local application need I can honestly get the vast majority of my work done via the web. My Pixelbook also supports touch and pen but does not have the equivalent of Windows Hello.
Today ChromeOS is only about 0.3% of the total PC market. While it is grabbing some share in Schools due to the pretty much unbreakable OS and low cost options it will take sometime for it to reach even 1% of the market.
So with all 4 OS you can probably do all of the things necessary to do your job. Each has it's good, bad & ugly and often it's really just a matter of personal taste and habit that keeps anyone from changing.
Is there a clear leader - in my opinion - not really. To me the real question is - how much longer will the PC as we know it survive ? My guess is no more than 10 years...
Let's start with Windows. Believe it or not the Windows brand is over 33 years old. Windows 1.0 first released in Nov of 1985 as a shell on top of the MS-DOS operating system and a reaction to the Apple Macintosh of 1984.
Even if you consider Windows 95 - the first of the modern Windows versions you're still talking some 23 years ago.
But what has really changed ? Sure we've moved from 32bit to 64bit and the hardware has gotten a lot better and some of the underlying components such as memory mgmt and file systems have been updated. Most recently touch,pen and Hello support has surfaced - but from a general navigation and operation stand-point not much has changed.
When you look at Windows 10 today what do you have ? A Desktop, Start Menu, Task Bar and some basic apps from notepad to calculator, paint, media center and even Internet Explorer. Sound familiar ?
And just as with Windows 95 - if you wanted productivity tools - you had to go purchase and install MS Office separately. Considering we've been through at least 9 major Windows releases since Windows 95 - at this point I would have expected a lot more from MS.
As I've written about regularly - as a Windows 10 Insider - I consider Windows 10 today to be a hot mess - a mix of legacy and new without consistency with some features and UI components that hearken all the way back to at least Windows XP and earlier.
What Windows does provide is by far the widest range of hardware support. You can install and run Windows on everything from a $169 laptop to a $4,800 Surface Studio 2 and everything in between. It's part of the reason Windows across all versions still holds an 85%+ market share. Windows also has the widest range of application support - as there are literary thousands of applications available across every conceivable category.
But the world has changed - mobile devices outsell PCs by a 7 or 8:1 factor and Windows has gone from being the bellwether of MS to the #4 or #5 revenue stream.
While Windows will hang around for a few more years - I honestly expect MS to potentially change Windows back to it's original state which is a shell - this time running on top of Linux.
Let's move on the next venerable OS - MacOS.
Apple's MacOS is in fact even older than Windows - introduced in January of 1984 with one of the most famous TV commercials ever made. MacOS was the first modern Graphical User Interface (GUI) operating system. Yes there had been some previous attempts - but nothing was anywhere close to as integrated as the Mac was. It was the first system that used a mouse and introduced us to things that are still there today like the Finder.
Like Windows there are two main lives of MacOS - the Classic period from 1984 to 2001 that went through 9 versions and the now common OS X which started in 2002 and just recently released it's 14th update called Mojave.
Outside of the obvious UI differences in terms of look and feel - OS X & Windows in their own way are very similar. You get a desktop, menu (launcher) task bar (dock) and some basic apps like Mail, Safari, Photos, etc.
And just like Windows for many years if you wanted productivity you purchased and installed MS Office. In fact the overall best selling 3rd party application all time for the Mac is in fact MS Office. Even though Apple sold a product called iWork that included Pages, Numbers & Keynote it only started to include it for free as part of the OS in 2017.
For years the Mac made an impression in it's media processing capability whether that was audio or video. But today that's changed - Many of the top media applications are now available on Windows and in fact in many cases run much better there than on the Mac.
The strength of MacOS has been in it's consistency. Unlike Windows 10 which has a mix of old and new UI elements and functions, OS X has been extremely consistent. But that to me is also part of it's weakness. It just feels old and while Apple introduced the touch bar - yawn.
The down side is that OSX runs on Macs only. Sure you can create what is called a "Hackintosh" or an Intel based PC that appears to the OS to be a Mac - but it's only that an appearance. Even the best attempts are never 100% and that is by design by Apple. Apple prides itself on the overall experience to end-users and uses a closed ecosystem to provide that. The challenge with that is the often ridiculously high prices that Apple charges for that benefit.
But just like Windows - OS X is going through its' own changes. Today all versions of OS X account for only about 9.5% of the market. And the Mac hardware and software business for Apple is only about $7B of the $62B (11.7%) it reported in Q4 of 2018. Mac's today do not support things like touch screen and pens and they don't have advanced security support like Windows Hello.
With that said Mac owners are a hugely loyal bunch and so I actually see OS X having a longer life in it's current state than Windows - if Apple continues to build them...
Next let's talk Linux....
In 2018 - I ran 3 different flavors of Linux desktop - Ubuntu 18.04, Linux Mint 19.01 and DeepIn 15.8. All are very similar. First all run on top of the Linux 4.2 OS. Remember Linux itself is a command line based OS with no real UI except terminal and no real apps outside of the base services that allow the OS to run.
Linux as an OS was first released in 1991. In the early days it was purely a server OS and things like desktop UIs and apps didn't really start to appear until around 2004 with groups like Canonical (Ubuntu) started to create consumable distros.
With Mint, Ubuntu and DeepIn - these groups provide two things - first is some form of Desktop UI environment and second is a bundle of base apps from FireFox to Thunderbird Mail to Media Players, File Managers, along with either the LibreOffice or WPS productivity suites. This bundle is then consolidated into the form we call a Distro (or distribution) and made available for download - typically in an .iso format that can be placed on DVD or USB to boot and install.
From a UI and usefulness perspective all 3 worked fine and have a very similar look and feel to Windows or OS X. A Desktop, Start Menu, Dock along with a base set of apps including Productivity and a store of dozens more apps. Certainly not the size of either the OS X or Windows App Stores - but still a good selection. But apps like Office are not available for Linux. You can however use the Web version.
The good news is all 3 of the flavors I ran are free to download and install and include the productivity apps I mentioned. The bad news is twofold - first is that outside of some select Dell and HP workstations it's almost impossible to order a new PC with Linux installed. Second - if you are going to to a build it yourself system (BIY) make sure the devices you choose are supported.
Linux - across all distro's is about 2.0% of the total PC market. With that said - remember this - OS X is an Apple shell on top of - you guessed it Unix.
The biggest single challenge I see in the marketplace with Linux is that there is no clear winner and too many different distros. Hardware OEMs also need to figure out how to make money supporting Linux distros. This is something that MS figured out years ago and has a stranglehold in the market.
Finally to the newest member of the desktop OS world ChromeOS..
ChromeOS was developed by Google and initially released in 2011. Based on the work Google had done with the Chromium project to build the Chrome browser. Google's approach was simple - it went off the premise that you didn't need a "full" operating system to be productive and that all the apps you might use would be available on the Web - so all you needed at the endpoint was a browser.
That has changed since 2011. Today ChromeOS supports the ability to run Android apps, Linux Apps and Google is working on a dual boot strategy for Windows.
Just like Windows, OS X and Linux you get a desktop, start menu (launcher) a task bar or "dock". I run a number of android apps on my Pixelbook including MS Office. But what I find more and more is - unless there is some specific local application need I can honestly get the vast majority of my work done via the web. My Pixelbook also supports touch and pen but does not have the equivalent of Windows Hello.
Today ChromeOS is only about 0.3% of the total PC market. While it is grabbing some share in Schools due to the pretty much unbreakable OS and low cost options it will take sometime for it to reach even 1% of the market.
So with all 4 OS you can probably do all of the things necessary to do your job. Each has it's good, bad & ugly and often it's really just a matter of personal taste and habit that keeps anyone from changing.
Is there a clear leader - in my opinion - not really. To me the real question is - how much longer will the PC as we know it survive ? My guess is no more than 10 years...
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