I am an IT Pro with over 30 years experience

[broncovet]

Comparisons between "THE BIG 3":

1.  LINUX.  LINUS TORVALD'S donated this software he orignally wrote to the world.  Its called "android" on cell phones.  Cost?  zero.  Can be difficult to use, early versions did not have a GUI

(Graphic user interface, known as "point and click").  This means you had to type in commands.  Linux still has a "command line", and so does Windows.  "Command Line", where you type in commands is often used for advanced users, and when "there is no icon" to do that.  It means you can do much more using the command line, and are not limited by the functions of the "Icon" writer.  Linux, and Android, are known as "open source" software, where anyone can view and modify the software at their own discretion.  

Many, many many computer software programmers, all over the world, modify the open source software, or even write new programs that run on it.  One example is "Open Office".  Open office has many similarities to Microsoft Office, except for ONE difference.  Microsoft Office can cost hundreds of dollars while Open Office is free.  

With a few possible exceptions, Linux is not "pre installed" on a computer you buy.  THe user loads it on the computer.  Incredibly, Linux runs "on the CD", so you can try it out, before you install it on the hard drive.  Of course the CD version is slower, because CD's are slower than hard drives.  Linux can often be ran on Windows or even Apple computers by "booting from the CD" (or booting from a jump drive), and you can try out linux and not disturb Windows operating system.  There are huge advantages to this, one of them is you can repair a computer that "wont boot" (perhaps because of a hard drive which has failed).  

2.  Windows.   Most of us know windows.  Its proprietary software, where only Microsoft employees can view or modify the source code.  It has more user's than Apple or Linux.  Many people believe that is do to ONE indisputable fact.  "Microsoft" is the best at marketing and advertising.  Have you ever seen a Linux commercial?  I haven't either.  You probably wont either.   It comes "pre installed" on almost all computers you buy except those made by APPLE.  In a contest between "who is the best in the world at marketing", Windows wins, then Apple, then Linux is dead last.  Interesting, however, Apple is a much larger company than Microsoft.  Apple was the first company to reach a market cap of $1 Trillion (1000 billion).  Currently, Apple is the largest company in the world at 2.45 Trillion, Mircosoft is 2.04 trillion, and Google (Alphabet) is 1.24 Trillion.  

3.  Apple.  Most of us are familiar with this company, the largest in the world, by market cap.  Apple makes hardware and software, while Microsoft makes mostly software, but Microsoft does have "Surface", as well as gaming devices.  I may have explained, since Apple sells both hardware and software in one computer, I took an old apple which would not boot to an Apple store, where they reloaded the operating system at no cost to me, even when it was out of warranty.  Im unaware of "Microsoft stores", but Windows are sold often in places like Best Buy, Walmart, as well as computer specialty stores.  Many stores offer both Windows and Apple.  

Apple is generally the most expensive of the 3.  At least a portion of this is Apple generally does not offer "low end products", such as Windows computers which have "intel Celeron" processors.  Celeron processors are the "low end".  Since a lot of the cost of a computer is in the processor, complete computers can be sold for $200 or less sometimes.  They are often sold as "children's" computers.  Businesses, or professionals rarely use low end computers, which tend to be less reliable, slow, and generally low graphics quality and have few special features, such as a finger print login.  

Its my opinion that my Mac's (Apple) last longer than Windows.  ONE reason:  Windows discontinues updates on older operating systems, and that means that they are vulnerable to hackers.  Apple may stop supporting very old systems, too, but not after 3 or 4 years, Apple computers can continue to run and be productive for 10 or more years.  

An example is cell phones.  My son has an Iphone 6..he continues to use it.  I have an Iphone 12, and I bought my wife an Iphone 13 last year.  The newest versions are Iphone 14.  

Windows entered, then exited the cell phone market.  The windows phones were a joke.  Android phones has overtaken Windows.  Companies like Samsung modify the android software and sell phones with their software.  So, Samsung phones are different than LG, or the others, in software and hardware.  

An Iphone 5, 6, 8 or even 10 or more years old often continues working.  While Android phones can still work, they are far behind in technology and most fail well before 10 years.  Typically android phones are replaced in 3 years or less.  

This suits my wife..she hates to learn a new phone, and she has to do that far less often with Apple, because they last "about twice as long" as Android.  That is my opinion, of course, but it is an opinion shared by millions.  

 

[Rattler]

I remember the command line Linux. (uh I hated it and Windows command line) I started out doing MS-DOS and you kind of had to do command Line.  I think I agree with everything you said above. 

Heras a good Windows story. I would pick up side gigs. One of them was an attorney who was running a program called Needles. It was a law  management software. The version he had ran on a very old Windows 3.51 server. (The version I trained on) When everyone was forced to upgrade to Win 10 it would not see the Win 3.51 server but would work with a Win 2000 server if you edited the registry. I was looking for an up graded peace of software  that was in 3.51 but a lower version.  Well Microsoft said there is no way you can make 3.51 work with Win 10.  So I took the registry hack and edited the line that looked at that program and changed it to look for the older version. (It had to do with the local network  not the Wan.) Bingo it started working like it would on the Win 2000 version. The system worked until he retired 5 years latter. 

The moral of the story is NEVER beleave what Microsoft tells you. There is always a hack. 

[retiredat44]

I think you left out one thing about Mac, vs Windows. originally, Mac processor architecture were totally different from Windows OS architecture. One works better with running some types of software and machines than the other. Hence why the MAC software could not be flat out ran on a windows machine. Without code changes, and Vice Versa. Each is great in their own way.