Operating systems are a fundamental part of the experience of using a computer. Let me expand on that a little. For most of your tasks, it won't matter too much

Operating systems are a fundamental part of the experience of using a computer. Let me expand on that a little. For most of your tasks, it won't matter too much which OS you are using. The web browser is largely equally well supported on all platforms, as are editors, compilers, etc. Where the operating system becomes a fundamental experience is around the times when things start to go wrong in some way. What happens if you are missing an important tool? What happens if you encounter some bugs or other instabilities? What about when you need security updates? What if you don't like how windows maximize? These error conditions are where operating systems differ so greatly from each other. On one end of the spectrum you have open source operating systems. When you encounter some error condition, you spend your time researching solutions. In the extreme, you modify whatever isn't working to your tastes on your own. On the other end of the spectrum you have fully locked down operating systems like iOS. Here when something goes wrong, you instead decide how to adapt your use of the device to avoid whatever issue you encountered. What happens when things go wrong is what drives me to one OS or another, and is usually what is relevant in these discussions.