| PARAMETER
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| COST
| $99.99-$300 depending on edition, or Free with a new PC ($200-3400)
| Free with the purchase of an iMac/MacBook/Mac computer - so around $900-3400
| Free - $0.00
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| VERSIONS/EDITIONS/DISTRIBUTIONS
| Student, Home, Pro, Enterprise, Server, System Builder
| The same edition distributed named after a theme
| Seemingly endless and confusing: Ubuntu, Debian, RedHat, CentOS, Slackware, Tiny, Mint, Pinguy, Gentoo, Arch, and the list goes on and on....
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| LINEAGE
| IBM Intel x86 Based Hardware running MS-DOS originally. First released in 1985, then Caught on with business and with the help of the dawn of the internet with version 3.1x, and became the industry standard operating system for all computers starting around 1995 with Windows 95. Began loosing it's grip on the market starting around Windows 8.0 and Windows 11 has been proving to be quite alienating leading to a growing group of Linux adopters in 2024. Is currently trying to move more towars and Apple-like model rather than innovate by strongarming the customer into things the customer may not want.
| Apple's operating system has been through many hardware platforms including "Old World" when it was called System Software and ran on a Motorola 68000 series computer, then the "NuBUS" Macs in the early 90's running IBM PowerPC CPU, later switching to Intel by the mid 2000's making it basically a really restricted PC, and changing to Apple Silicon around 2022 or so. Well known for it's heavy restrictiveness of usability due to limited software, huge cost of software through their sanctioned store they strongarm you to use, and the elimination of the ability to execute a 32-bit executable - including emulated windows apps.
| Linux was created in the image of AT&T/SCO Unix in 1989 by Linux Torvaldes. Initially command-line only, sharing the roost with actual Unix and with MS-DOS, it later became somewhat of a "geek exclusive" O/S from about 1996 till sometime in the 2010's where it started picking up favor with home users bothered by Apple and Microsoft's decisions with their products. Currently the most popular distributions are based on Ubuntu such as Linux Mint and Ubunto 20.04 proper.
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| BUNDLED WEB BROWSER
| Microsoft Edge - basically Microsoft's version of Google Chrome as it's based on the "Chromium" Browser engine, the latter of which is fully Open Source. They also included pices of Microsoft internet Exploder (MSIE) - a kludge from the past so ancient even Links for DOS laughs at it!
| Safari - An elegant, if a bit clunky to use web browser provided with MacOS.
| Mozilla Firefox is the usual bundled browser in GUI-based Linux installations, with Lynx being popular on "core" installs (command-line only)
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| POPULAR OFFICE SUITE
| Microsoft Office 365 - a SaaS (Software as a Service) Industry Standard Office Suite you have to pay now a montly fee to use since they eliminated any form of Office that you can purchase in a physical box or as digital download and pay once for it. Price varies depending on capabilities, licenses, and of course, how much Cloud Data you want to use.
| Microsoft Office 365 - Because that's the standard for what people use
| Libre Office or OpenOffice usually - and usually Pre-Installed, again Free, though it f***s with M$ Office Formatting - so a lot of us just continue to use Office 365 free online via Firefox to appease any corporate overlords that require filenames ending in "x"
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| BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY
| It will run older Windows Apps natively, though no longer old Win16 (Windows 3.1 and older) applications due to a limitation imposed on the O/S when it made the transistion to 64-bit in the mid 2000s. So if you really want to run that old copy of Reversi, you might have to hack it or do some "geeky" thigns to make it happen, or download Oracle VirtualBox.
| Forget about it. Apple wants to kill the past, and focus on the future, with the industry's common argument - Security. so no more 32-bit Apple applications anymore on your modern Mac. You have to buy the new ones, or master some tedium to install OpenSource Alternatives if they even compiled it for the platform.
| Linux will run darned near anything old without much fiddling. It really does not give a crap, just as long as it's dependencies are there, or if it can FIND the dependencies. However, the Linux community seems really really good at following the KISS principle - Keep It Simple Stupid - as old standbys like The GiMP or even Firefox in their modern versions, run on darned near anything that will run linux, and are quite stable, mitigating the need for backports.
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| CROSS PLATFORM COMPATIBILITY
| Windows relies heavily on proper Windows-created ports for any soprt of cross-platform compatibility. However, there is no compatibility layer for running Mac on Windows - you'd need to purchase a Macintosh and install "Parallels" or "Bootcamp" instead to literally run Windows on a special sub-partition on the Mac to do it. It also won't run Linux apps without some form of Virtual Machine, which can affect performance.
| Apple can run Windows through Parallels or Bootcamp, with a proper windows Lincense mind you, but it's basically the same experience as a virtual machine. Linux however, also has to be somewhat ported, and cannot run 32-bit code - it MUST be 64-bit for ALL applications run on a Mac, even those for other platforms.
| Linux seems to have application layers for darned near everything: Windows (WINE), it can run Mac OS in a virtual Machine, as well as older Mac Emulated (Basilisk or MiniVMAC), ARM platforms like Android, While at times it can be a bit convoluted and difficult, it IS doable far more easily than it can be on other platforms without a proper port to those platforms.
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| STABILITY
| Windows has gotten considerably better since "the good old days" in stability, but at what cost?
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