Preferably BSD, but between only windows or mac, probably Mac. The terminal is the main reason, coding without a good one is annoying

One thing I disliked about the linux subreddit (and here too, I guess) is the hostility toward other operating systems. I just don’t get it. This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I’ve never actually had an OS interfere with my work, and I’m generally a fan of all 3 major options. Every modern operating system is frankly a marvel of human accomplishment. If there is a task that you can’t achieve on a specific computer, it’s probably because you don’t know how yet. That said, macOS isn’t good for gaming, linux isn’t good for proprietary software like Office or Adobe, and Windows is inefficient with all of its bloat/spyware. None of them are perfect, but none of them are deal-breakers for me.

Every day I work on a 7 year old Windows PC that is locked down like crazy, but I still manage to make it do everything I need it to, including programming, image editing, collaboration, live YouTube streams, and much more. I also use an iPad at work and it, too, runs on an amazing OS, despite all of the things it is not designed to do. At home I have a Windows gaming PC and a linux server running several dozen containers, both of which are constantly being modified and never cease to impress me. When I was a kid I had Macs and learned how edit videos and use the Adobe suite, and OSX propped up the software beautifully. I also learned how to program and use the command line there. If I had the money I would love to get an M2 laptop - that thing is a beast by any metric, and if there’s a task that you can’t make that thing do, well, shame on you.

I guess my point is that while Linux is an amazing kernel, and freedom from major coporations is incredibly important, but writing off other operating systems is naiive, and I think is generally a toxic point of view.

I used macOS and holy shit, I desire never to touch this shit again. Everything is tied and you cant do shit.

BSD or ReactOS

Yeah, I think from my current point of view, I would also be looking at BSD. Not sure if anything could make me go back to Windows, unless Proton and Wine suddenly went the way of the dodo as well.

Heck, maybe I would even consider spending the premium to switch to macOS. That one at least still has the Unix base with terminal access.

linux

I wouldn’t use any of them, if not for Linux, I’d go BSD, if not I’d go Haiku OS

FreeBSD probably.

If I really had to make a choice between Windows and macOS, it would without a doubt be in favor of macOS. Windows really gets into your way when you try to do anything, and macOS at least has a nice ecosystem. macOS is also (kind of) part of the Unix family, which makes it easier to transition to.

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FreeBSD > other *BSD > Hackintosh > Windows > Mac OS in a Mac hardware. In this order.

MacOS itself is fine but only runs on apple hardware which makes it a costly proposition of the bat as you’re throwing away all your hardware and buying apple hardware, which pretty much will lock you in to their ecosystem.

Then there’s apple hardware lockdown and their fast deprecation policy which breaks old but still working software and hardware. Apple dropped support for my 2008 macbook in 2012 because they didn’t care to develop graphical drivers for it, which meant I was forced to swap it to Windows 10/linux to continue using it.

Because of that, realistic only Windows would be a viable option for me, which was also my main OS up until recently.

Other smaller OS like BSD or Haiku could be interesting, but lack of mainstream support would probably prove too much work and limiting for daily use.

To be honest, if Linux magically disappeared I’d just lean more heavily on using my Android devices.

At least for now, there’s more capacity to have primarily FOSS on Android than on Windows or Mac.

I expect that will change with time and Google wearing away at the systems, but right now you can install a FOSS rom and have the majority of your apps from F-Droid, and the equivalent isn’t possible on x86 devices.

Watching the various Linux for ARM projects with great interest to hopefully take over when Google eventually ruins Android too.

ReactOS

Well if we think about the chronology, If GNU/Linux never existed I’d be using Windows still.

If however tomorrow it somehow became impossible to run Linux then I would probably switch to one of the BSD’s, as well as Risc OS Open. However, the method it becomes impossible to run Linux is important:

If it is merely illegal, I’ll just run GNU/Linux. If it is blocked by the TPM, I’ll just use old hardware which has no TPM or one that can be disabled. If it’s just the Linux kernel that the TPM stops running, I’ll finally install GNU/Hurd, or use the older hardware (seeing as my laptops were made in 2014 and my PC was built in 2016 I’m already there).

If I absolutely had to I would have no problems using much older hardware. I started on a 486 and can easily build that again, I have a few pentiums too. Obviously these systems won’t be doing web browsing but they can do everything else, document writing, email, IRC, and of course programming.

If I’m pushed hard enough I’d revert back to using my Risc PC and 8 bit computers.

So as far as your question is concerned, I was converted to the Free Software ideals when I found this “Linux thing” back in 1997. Nothing is stopping me from computing that way. Mac OS is obviously out of the question, even if I hadn’t discovered Linux it’s (MacOS) interface is terrible, the company is terrible, the hardware is overpriced and underpowered and unreliable. I also wouldn’t go back to windows for anything other than gaming which I do once in a while.