Windows 7.
It was the peak of windows.
It was slick. It was fast. It was stable, and it was super easy to use. Never had a single problem with it, and unlike past windows OS's it didnt require regular reformats to clean house for stability.
Unfortunately its dead now, and Microsoft abandoned that approach and switched to a slow burn approach at walled gardening.
I use Linux now, have been for years, because I saw where microsoft was going when Win10 was in previews, and there was no way I was going to be part of it.. So I jumped ship as soon as EoL was announced for Win 7
I use EndeavourOS. I like pacman and AUR, as well as the fact that Arch-based distros are well-supported by most software. I'm too much of a noob/too lazy to setup an OS without a GUI installer though, which is why I prefer Endeavour over Arch.
Mac OS. People say it costs more, but I am not paying for a hardware and then some software that tries to make use of it. Instead I’m paying for a well thought out product that just works.
Mac OS
It’s pretty, functional, and has unix underneath so I can use it the way I really like to.
plan 9
I don't actually have the patience to run it, mind you. But it's definitely my favorite in principle.
Qubes OS
The virtual machine workflow has made me completely rethink how I use computers, and there's huge security benefits of compartmentalizing your digital life through Qubes. Qubes OS successfully compartmentalizes your VMs and brings them together under one unified desktop, so even though you have several VMs running, you can see all of them at once because you see their windows as if it was a regular Linux desktop.
There are some issues with it though, such as lack of 3D acceleration for gaming, and its rather picky hardware support. Along with needing hardware that supports Linux drivers, you need a crap ton of RAM (I'm running 20 GBs on my Thinkpad T450s) for all of the VMs you run at one time. It doesn't take as much CPU power as you'd think, though, as it uses Xen's PVH emulation, instead of full-blown virtual machines like you'd see with VirtualBox.
However, if you have the right hardware for it, and you don't mind dual-booting or using another machine for gaming, I urge you to give it a whirl.
Opensuse Tumbleweed after the whole Red Hat situation i started looking for similar distros as i really liked Fedora went to Opensuse Tumbleweed had no issues almost as if i never switched distros (obviously package manager is slightly different but not too hard to get used to honestly) i mean i can even still install Rpms
Mint but replace cinnamon with sway. It just works, is reliable and has minimal bloat
Between Linux Mint for its reliability and ease of use and Gentoo for just being really nice to use overall with a ton of the control linux is well known for.
Arch Linux all the way. I love the AUR, the Arch wiki (though it applies to a lot of distros) and customizable it is.
I’ve had a Mac for a few years, but the Linux « itch » came back and I couldn’t scratch it with macOS.
Now I see just how snappier Linux is compared to Windows or macOS on the same hardware and I really don’t wanna go back.
I use arch btw.
Gives me the flexibility to do what I want and contrary to the internet I haven't managed to break everything. I managed to break Ubuntu through
My answer isn’t unique, but Arch linux is just my favorite to use. I just really love the ability to assemble things exactly the way I like them during the installation process.
I also really like the idea of a rolling release distro, meaning no major upgrades. I just run pacman -Syu once a day and things have been great.
Lastly, almost any piece of software I could want is available in the official repositories or the AUR, and it’s super convenient to be able to install things right away from the command line.
Editing to add: My work laptop is a MacBook Pro and I love it. macOS is really pleasant to use and anyone who says it’s not is a liar. Apple’s user experience game is on point
