MartyMonroe
Authored Comments
At home, I've only ever used Linux. I didn't own a PC until 2001, but having been an Unix sysadmin for 15 years (AIX, HP/UX and SCO) it was the obvious choice. I've never had a problem.
Where I work now, it has always been Windows; 7 and now 10. It never fails to amaze me just how primitive the Windows interface is. Where are the multiple desktops? Where is the ability to login more than once and retain access to the open session? What is this ctrl/c ctrl/v nonsense? (On Linux I highlight text, move mouse, click and it is pasted in.) There are many other annoyances too.
Anyway, my employer has supplied me with a Window box and that's what I have to use. It doesn't mean I have to use M$ software though. I run OpenOffice rather than M$ Office and I have few problems. I run Cygwin, because the W10 find is unreliable (Cygwin gives you grep). I run Chrome & Firefox rather than IE and Edge.
IE/Edge causes us real problems. I work in a sixth form college and the MIS system only works correctly in IE, so when a user logs on, they are presented with IE displaying our Intranet. The problem is many websites the teachers use don't work in IE. Our own Moodle (which is used extensively) doesn't work either. The teachers have accepted that we break 50% of the internet just so the MIS system works for them. They regularly phone to say "Moodle is having problems". I ask "Are you using IE?" and then say "I know, use Chrome" and carry on.
"I'm more productive on Windows/Mac."
I have experience of one case where Linux forced an increase in productivity. A decade ago I worked in a school as IT support, and the science department were using a simulated physics experiment package on Windows 98 machines. The software was very old, but still useful. The machines were very slow, but good enough for this.
There was one experiment which caused the box to BSOD and the students would run it so they could spend 10 minutes chatting to their friend while the box rebooted. For reasons that I can't remember we installed Fedora 9 on the boxes and ran the physics software with Wine. When the students tried to run the BSOD experiment, the program continued to run. That particular experiment didn't display anything but the students could access the menu and run the experiment that the teacher wanted. We in the IT dept were not that popular among students!