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If all games ran equally well on all operating systems, what OS would you be using?

What OS would you use if most games weren't virtually locked to Windows?

  • Linux.

    Votes: 237 24.9%

  • Mac OS X.

    Votes: 252 26.5%

  • Windows 10.

    Votes: 412 43.3%

  • Don't play on PC.

    Votes: 51 5.4%
  • Total voters
    952
nampad

nampad

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,238
Windows just sucks.
I hate using my work Thinkpad so much, it's just unbearable. My GPD Win 2 is ok but the OS is just not enjoyable.

Mac OSX also went downhill, the finder and storage management are just plain bad. At least "it just works" again after there were some issues some years ago.

Lately, I wanted to try Linux but I won't bother with dual boot and I don't want to change the OS on both of my private devices.

In the end, I would chose Mac OSX.
 
Zaimokuza

Zaimokuza

Member
May 14, 2020
955
Still Windows 10. W10 will be a great OS in the future, once all the legacy code in the OS is killed and the dark mode is finally decently implemented. Mac OS has the great advantage (for Apple) that is "killing everything that we can't bother to support" but they mostly use shitty overpriced hardware in their laptops and they don't allow third parties to use MacOS, so I'd never have something like my MSI Prestige 15. I must say, however, that if I didn't play videogames I'd be super excited for arm-64 Apple laptops, since arm is clearly the superior architecture and Apple has a reputation for handling these types of transitions well

I study Computer Engineering and this means I need to have some Linux distro installed at all times, but I hate it nearly as much as it hates me. It's an OS for people with too much free time that breaks without reason and where nothing works without tweaks, I really don't understand why people like it that much.
 
Midas

Midas

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,535
OS X, of course. Anyone picking Windows is crazy. Look how ugly that system is. I really don't understand how Microsoft cant' make an OS that looks good.
 
Crayon

Crayon

Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,580
New it team might take away my ubuntu gnome at work and make me use w10. Trash.
 
ClearMetal

ClearMetal

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,312
the Netherlands
Couleurs said:
OS X

I've been using it for about 10 years and my only complaint is how terrible gaming support is. If this was no longer an issue, it would meet all of my needs.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Same.

That said, unless all PC games will magically become available on MacOS in the near future, I do plan on going back to PC gaming eventually. But even then I will definitely keep a Mac around for everyday use.
 
QuixoticNeutral

QuixoticNeutral

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,644
I already play natively on Mac whenever I'm able, even at the cost of performance. I used to do a Boot Camp dual-boot like everyone else, but now I can't be bothered to have a Windows partition on that machine: just too inconvenient for me when literally everything else I do is on the Mac side, and I want to multitask without rebooting.

Sadly, the software support has slipped badly in the last few years, both with the back catalogue stuck at 32-bit and the dwindling of native ports. And the result is just that more and more of the games I'd ordinarily play on PC have migrated to Switch. Not going to fight with Windows anymore unless the games are exclusive to it—and not happy that I'm gradually being coerced in that direction again. The shambolic entrance of EGS budging into the market is relevant here, and has only compounded the problem.
 
EldarMu

EldarMu

Member
May 7, 2020
50
video games are the only reason I still have windows installed. well that and the onedrive integration
 
inner-G

inner-G

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
14,473
PNW
Can I run macOS and games on my custom PC? Will OSX support nvidia?

How deep does this rabbit hole go?
 
data

data

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,722
Linuxs. Need the development environment that windows makes almost impossible to setup and I prefer not using VM
 
nullref

nullref

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,052
Just in terms of which OS I like the best, it's MacOS. But Apple doesn't make any reasonable Mac gaming hardware, so I'd only be able to choose it if we extend the hypothetical to include equivalent hardware options.
 

Wanchan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
45
Windows 10, if you'd ask me that during old win7 days I would have picked Linux but I only had very minor issues with 10 so far so I'm fine with it. Never used Mac so can't comment on it.
 
bmfrosty

bmfrosty

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,894
SF Bay Area
Currently running pop-os, and sucking up that some games just won't work well, just so I don't have to run Windows. Ended up supplementing with an xbox one s just for borderlands 3.
 
MaxAugust

MaxAugust

Member
Jan 28, 2018
3,149
In a universe where Macs could run anything and also were cheaper, it would be no question. I am always kind of astounded how much sleeker MacOS is compared to its competition.
 
TheChrisGlass

TheChrisGlass

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,606
Los Angeles, CA
Windows.

Apple has shown they continually abandon developers, and tell us to just deal with it. Killing off OpenGL, removing 32-bit support and now moving to ARM CPUs? Fuck that. Fuck them. It's not worth the hassle to continually deal with their bullshit, especially with the need to constantly juggle different versions of Xcode, the worst IDE outside of the original Unity one. Floating windows, what's that?
 

Deleted member 4212

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,872
I like Windows fine but I use a Mac and Linux for work. I don't really care about operating systems that much. They all each have their own headaches.
 
GamerJM

GamerJM

Member
Nov 8, 2017
15,638
I'd willingly give Linux a try in this hypothetical scenario. I don't really think anything I do benefits much from it though.
 
Kthulhu

Kthulhu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,670
Unless all modding, game capture, etc also was on every platform, then I'd stick with Windows. As cool as Linux can be there just isn't enough software for me to use it as my full time OS.
 
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Replicant

Replicant

Attempted to circumvent a ban with an alt
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,380
MN
Chrome OS. It's the fastest OS out there and it's super easy and simple. If it ran all games, it wouldn't even be a question.
 
sweetmini

sweetmini

Member
Jun 12, 2019
3,921
Windows 7.
I really dislike windows 10, for the length of its updates, for its visuals/design and for its out of the box practices with bing and cortana data sharing your privacy with the outside world, and trying to remove power to the user (i think it changed, but at one point some group policies were locked behind the subscription paywall).
Anyway, that's not the purpose here, 7 was fast, and very stable for me (months of uptime would not be unusual).
I wish MS ceased the 8.1 support instead of 7.

Sadly, linux lacks many tools i use alongside games, to reverse engineer and mod them, so it would mean abandoning what i like to do.
 
Gabbo

Gabbo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,567
Would miss having visual studio proper in linux, but I could find another ide to work with. It'd be linux if that was the case.
 
Ocean

Ocean

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,691
MacOS. I was a Windows-only user through ME, XP, Vista, and got my first Mac around the time Windows 7 came out.

Since then I've used Macs almost exclusively, other than dabbling in Bootcamp every once in a while to run some software I need.

I'm not gonna get into better vs worse but I *like* MacOS a lot more.
 
turbobrick

turbobrick

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,084
Phoenix, AZ
Windows. Possibly because I'm already used to everything as its the OS I've used the most over the years.

Linux is nice for some things, but I really don't need it for the majority of what I do. I'm fine with dual booting for when I want to use it.

MacOS is fine, but I don't really miss any of its features now that I no longer have a machine that runs it.
 
SxP

SxP

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,867
Definitely Windows. I don't have the time to deal with Linux issues that inevitable pop up every time. And am now stuck with just macOS these past couple of months, which really, really, makes me miss Windows...
 
pksu

pksu

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,240
Finland
I think the current state of Windows isn't that bad. WSL was a great addition for us who care about *nix command line and now MS is even developing official package manager for Windows apps. The worst part is non-technical bits like data collection and sometimes surprisingly poor UI (control panel is still a mess).

macOS would be great in many ways (unix side, good overall UX & design) but HW support is very poor compared to others

The biggest advantage of Linux, customizability, can be a downside. There aren't many polished and carefully designed desktop environments around so you either pick one of the existing ones and live with its problems or assemble your own desktop. Assembling desktop environment is something you really can't even do on Win/macOS but it takes effort to gather and configure all the tiny apps like volume controls, clocks, input device switchers, background photo apps etc.

Another way is to pilfer all accessories from a full environment like Xfce or Gnome but then again things are not very consistent and they often expect you to use various other parts of the desktop too. Linux makes it's possible to craft the best desktop for a particular use case but nowadays I'm too lazy to write 200 lines of configs for window managers and just prefer boring compromises like how macOS handles UX.

Packages in Linux are also a neat way to manage software and update things compared to typical Windows installations. Linux also offers a lot of interesting technical bits like ability to use a proper snapshotting COW-filesystem, higher performance I/O, and multicore scalability (not that it really matters often). For developers it's also great to be able to simply just see inside certain system components while debugging or profiling.
 
Why would you do that?

Why would you do that?

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,801
New York City
Definitely Windows. It's what I'm most used to, and I really like its interface. Linux is also fine, though I'm not as comfortable with it.

Jegriva said:
If life was fair, I would use Windows 7 / Os X Snow Leopard all my life.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I would probably be using Windows 98 today if I could run all the software I wanted on it. I stayed on 98 for an extremely long time...

Though to be fair, what I liked most about it was DOS games, all of which either have Windows ports, or can be emulated with DOSBox or PCEm.
 
Trisc

Trisc

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,488
I don't dislike Windows at all, but I've always found Linux to be a lot more appealing from a security and aesthetic standpoint, especially in regards to how modular Linux is.
 
iceblade

iceblade

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,217
Linux. I prefer the OS as a whole, and find it more fun and convenient to use despite the drawbacks in hardware/software support vs Windows. It's easier to update/maintain, doesn't consume as much in terms of resources, and I also like that the default apps wind up getting updated regularly and also continue to add features, vs Windows which typically focuses mainly on security updates. The simple example for this would be LibreOffice vs Office. LibreOffice comes preinstalled on multiple distros and regularly adds features. Office on the other hand, isn't preinstalled, and while more fully featured, needs you to subscribe to Office 365 to get features added - else you'll do "buy once pay once" and only get security updates.
 

firstseeker

Member
Dec 4, 2019
266
Windows is all I know. I've dabbled with Linux in the past but then I asked my what's the point?

I've used Windows for so long I can't honestly see how learning another OS will improve my user experience. I browse the internet, run Plex, occasionally edit pictures and videos and play my games.

Windows has pretty much been stable for the since I started using it during the XP era and that's saying a lot since I'm always buying parts from Ebay to tryout for my computers. I'm absolutely certain MacOS or linux would have way more problems from the no name parts I'm always experimenting with.
 
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Soundchaser

Soundchaser

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,613
No "Other" option? Maybe there are FreeBSD and Haiku fans here.

I would definitely run Linux exclusively if I could. No spyware, total customization, the platform is essentially eternal (not tied to a single corporation) and can easily adapt to any future new hardware.
 
Hoa

Hoa

Member
Jun 6, 2018
4,304
I've never had much issues with Windows, so Windows. Just gotta avoid the newer OS for a year or two and it seems fine after that.
 
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