Most common desktop applications are now available in all platforms (namely Windows, Mac and Linux).
I understand that many specialist/engineering applications are still Windows/Mac only but they are not required by 95% of computer users.
So, does it still matter which OS you use?
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>> Most common desktop applications are now available in all platforms
Are they? Open source ones are but not all the common ones.
If you want to have no issues at all with exchanging documents in business then you're going to stick with Office. And that's Windows and Mac only - and the versions are not in sync.
If you want to edit images then you might look at Adobe Photoshop. Again Windows and Mac only. There are free alternatives of course.
If you just surf the web and do emails then it doesn't matter which ones. Until you need to say connect to a site with material that will only run on a Windows machine. I have access to online training material from a partner company and it's Windows only.
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For most people o e does not even need a PC let alone decide what is to use
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The main reason I use Windows is Photoshop and all the specialist technicians tools I use which run in Windows.
I use Open Office anyway so Linux is fine for me otherwise. I run Libuntu on my Atom Dual Core netbook and it runs far far smoother than Windows 7 starter.
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So you could use a Mac too then ;-) It also has Photoshop.
My Intel i7 2600k machine with 16Gb RAM runs Mac OSX nicely.
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>My Intel i7 2600k machine with 16Gb RAM runs Mac OSX nicely.
It'll be paging if you only have 2GB ;-)
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Yeah but I cannot build a Mac for £250 or so :D. And my year old I3 2100 8GB of RAM is more than up for the job :). Mind you with a 2600K chip am I right in assuming you're running a Hacintosh or do the Macs ship with the CPUs with the multipliers unlocked?
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You're right in thinking this is not an Apple Mac. I never said it was. Your i3 2100 might run Mac OSX without problems. Careful selection of chipset is needed to make it easier.
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But my main machine is still an iMac (running Mountain Lion). The other machine was rebuilt to run ESXi5 for VMs. But also has Windows 7 on it and I thought why not MacOS X Lion. It's quick. Maybe I won't need to overclock it much.
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Certain Banking websites have functions which only work under IE..
I can upgrade my Windows PC with s/h bits for relative peanuts..
Certain graphics hardware - hi res - cheap cheap - only works under Windows.
And XP which I use is now reasonably fast and bug free - only 12 years to do it...
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>> Certain Banking websites have functions which only work under IE..
I use a few from the Mac (and Android phone)... I wonder which ones don't work. The ones I use (Natwest and Barclays) are fine. Also websites for credit cards, savings accounts , etc are fine too.
>> I can upgrade my Windows PC with s/h bits for relative peanuts..
I can upgrade my PC/Hackintosh easily too :-) Consideration given to the Mac side of the software, granted, but apart from the new motherboard, memory and CPU the rest is the same as my old PC. In fact it runs in a Fujitsu Siemens case.
>> And XP which I use is now reasonably fast and bug free - only 12 years to do it...
And it is fast approaching when no patches for XP will be released. Okay that date got extended to 2014 because of corporates unwilling to switch but come that date you will have a potentially insecure OS.
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Operating System - does it matter anymore? - rtj70
