Shortform #96 Operating Systems Rant Number Infinity

Much like you need a kernel (usually in most cases, anyways) to run an operating system...this rant needs a foundation: use-cases for operating systems; the principle of charity & steelmanning shall apply here. Note that this is focused on desktop operating systems, not mobile operating systems. Don't take this too seriously, I have some thoughts about the OSes I use and need to get them out, this is by no means polished or seriously researched.

Microsoft Windows

• The inescapable behemoth that is Windows ate the business world and continues doing so. What do most businesses love & need for the technologies they use? Iron-clad support contracts with enforceable SLAs, and the software does most of what they need most of the time and is mostly stable. The easiest way to make a living working with computers during the last two decades (minus possibly being a programmer) was (and for now too, is) to support Windows as an OS & the whole Microsoft ecosystem or products.
• Video games: Yes you can game on Linux, macOS, and even BSDs, and yes consoles exist, but playing video games is synonymous with Windows for a reason: compatibility, enterprise support, & mindshare.

Apple macOS

• Beautiful hardware, beautiful software. The magic box that "just works". Found for a reason in creative industries and often is the OS + hardware of choice for developers. macOS is usually more stable than Windows, has Unix roots that still persist to this day, and Apple's customer support experience is incredibly good compared to other technology companies.
• Tight integration between hardware & software: not quite as a fully general rule...but usually the more optimized an OSes codebase is for the hardware it runs on, the better your experience using said OS will be, at least from a performance standpoint. This feels true of macOS, it is a more stable and smoothly responsive OS to use from my experience than any other OS I've used, even a lightweight Linux distro (responsive, but not smooth). Also, Macs tend to last a long time and usually are a better capital expenditure than PCs; six years of full software support on average and then a few years of security updates, and usually still a decently functioning if outdated computer that can run other operating systems if needed (I'm bullish on ARM Mac laptops being able to run Linux or even Windows in 2-5 years; Apple has not made that verboten and many people are interested in enabling such support).

GNU / Linux distributions

• Freedom.
• I have old computers and love that I can still make productive use of them for modern tasks if I run a Linux distro, this is great.
• This section is deliberately shorter than macOS or Windows, I love GNU / Linux distributions, the free software philosophy, yes also the open source software philosophy, and the vision of how the world could or ought to be that is embedded in how Linux distributions feel to use. No, perhaps not the OS family for everyone, and there are definite issues where certain usecases easily supported on macOS or Windows are just honestly terrible on Linux distributions.

BSD Unixes

• Freedom.
• Open source cathedral design as opposed to the bazaar design of GNU / Linux distributions; see The Cathedral and the Bazaar, by Eric S. Raymond. I love a well designed & tightly integrated system and find that the BSD Unixes (i.e. FreeBSD, OpenBSD, etc.) might just supply a better designed & more stable experience than most if not all GNU / Linux distributions. I'm still learning & growing with BSDs so I have a ways to go, but so far I like BSD better than Linux from a purely technical perspective.

Commercial Unixes

• Stability & enterprise support.
• I am mostly mentioning this category to note that it exists, but I have no experience with commercial desktop Unixes, only a few server or mainframe Unixes that I got to log into and poke around in a few times (mostly IBM's AIX).

Chrome OS

• I've used this some, it's a really cool concept, but I personally could not use it as anything other than a test OS or to learn another OS paradigm on because of privacy concerns. I do think Chrome OS is doing good things for computing accessibility for many many many people though, and it's an amazingly secure operating system too, that's good.

Now with my perceived use-cases or commentary on desktop operating systems laid out...why am I writing this? Mostly for personal reflection and to think out loud about the impact of operating systems in my life and why I find them so fascinating.

I want an OS with the freedom of GNU / Linux & BSDs, the security of Chrome OS, the versatility, compatibility, & enterprise support of Windows, and the beauty, integration, and optimization of macOS.

I'm not sure that OS exists or ever will, but if it's ever created, I'll be there to use it & possibly contribute to it too.

I like operating systems, they are fun things :) Computers are eminently useful prosthetics for us humans, and I'm happy to be alive during this era with them. Though (nods at AI Safety, political & sociological issues caused by computing technologies, and a few other things), they are not without their risks if not properly created, governed, & used.

Happy Computing y'all :)