I have a windows pc. And unlike a lot of users, I haven't gotten recall, ads, etc. Perhaps it's because I actually paid for my license? Maybe it's that I'm in Europe?

Whichever it is, it plays my games and lets me do my hobbies.

I also have a laptop that runs linux, as a file share and such.

I generally use the OS which fits what I am trying to do. For my desktop PC, I run Arch Linux as it lets me game, run VMs and have a high level of control over what the system is doing. The VMs are mostly Windows for testing stuff and one running Ubuntu as a host for PolarProxy. My server runs Ubuntu, though really just as a platform to host docker containers. That was a decision I made years ago when I knew a lot less about Linux and was looking for something which was more turnkey. My work laptop is Windows, because my work is mostly a Microsoft shop. But, I have WSL running both Ubuntu (for the SANS Sift framework) and Kali.

An Operating System is a tool. Don't get wedded to any one OS.

Like many respondents on this decorporatized FOSS wang-dang-doodle, my answer is some variation on "Linux for desktop/laptop unless I'm forced to use the W-word" and "Whichever mobile OS makes the browser happen while I'm away from Linux, but I'm sad that it's not Linux".

On desktop: Linux since late 1996. It is the only operating system that I can perfectly tune to adhere to my - often weird - ideas, and can run all the software I need. I'm a developer, mostly working on free and open source software, so Linux is right there to assist me with that. When I play games, I play them through Wine/Proton, have been since I started gaming on Linux some two decades ago. If a game does not work under Wine/Proton, that's simply not a game I will be playing.

For portable gaming, I have a Steam Deck. Surprisingly, that also runs Linux.

My phone is running stock Android, and I hate it, because the way I function, and how Android imagines I would are not compatible, and the system does not let me bend it to my will, there isn't enough flexibility built in. Like... I can't uninstall a bunch of applications I'm never going to use, because my phone came preinstalled with it, and they're not removable, unless I jailbreak it. Unfortunately, I can't jailbreak it, because then my bank's application would stop working. Which would be fine, since I don't do banking on the phone. Except the application is required for mandatory 2FA. FML.

Thankfully, I can go days without touching my phone, so I can live with it being a piece of crap.

(The rest of my family is also on Linux: both parents, wife, and eventually the kids too.)

Windows 11

Freebsd for servers

Linux for everything else a user interacts with, including gaming

Trisquel GNU/Linux

https://trisquel.info/en

Because it is a fully free distro, which is important to me.

I use Trisquel because it is the most user friendly I've found in the free distros.

Some hardware drivers are unavailable, but that's fine, just transferred away from non-free hardware.

For compatibility, usually export to PDF.

--//--

Also GrapheneOS on phones and tablet. Has less nags and bloat. Privacy centric mobile OS.

Overall, ignoring the kind of device, it's my preferred linux distro, followed by android, followed by other distros, followed by windows 7.

I wish Linux mobile was ready for what I need, but there just isn't app parity currently.

The learning curve switching from win7 to whichever version Mint Linux was on at the time was acceptable. No harder or easier than picking up android for the first time once installation was finished. Easier than when I've had to dick around on iOS. I can't say what the switch would be like now since only my laptop is running dual boot with 10 right now, and I never open it at all. I kept the windows partition for some of the crap with self publishing that isn't as easy on Linux, but I find there's no motivation to boot to Windows lol.

I really like excels android overall, and I used to run custom roms on everything, and had a ton of fun playing around like that. But Google has made android suckier, if not sucky enough to switch to iOS or put up with the flaws of mobile Linux (though it has been a while since I tested anything in that regard). So, as long as android is essentially controlled by a for profit company, I don't know that it could be my favorite os.

Linux wise, Mint is the tits. Yeah, there's distros that do some things better. But damn, I've thrown mint on all kinds of boxes and then just got to using it for what i want to do, not fiddling around with things. The bullshit canonical pulls isn't an issue, and that's nice. Popos is pretty similar in that regard tbh, but I prefer the default looks of mint better. That's a niggling little thing, but such is life.

Debian GNU/Linux

I like the LTS style, I love the organised way they have for documentation and configuration, is well supported and I like the adaptations they make for a lot of software such as Apache HTTP Server (their custom layout).

Desktops: Linux (Mint)
Laptops: Linux (Mint)
Phones: Linux (Android)
Servers: Linux (Debian)
SBC: Linux (Armbian / Raspberry Pi OS)
ESP32/ESP8266: Arduino (I've never really taken to MicroPython)
ATMega 328P/etc : Arduino

My setup is:

• Arch (BTW) & KDE on my laptop, that's the tinkering machine that only I use.
• Dual boot Pop!_OS & Windows on the desktop, that's the one that other people use too so I'm not allowed to break it.
• I also have a bunch of other OS's in VMs that I mess around with like little specimen jars lol

Arch.

you rebel/rapscallion

It's simpler than that. Arch is dead simple. Everything is documented. If you want to know how to do anything, they tell you how. Where's the config file? Right here, per the wiki.

People pump it up to be this impossible thing but it really is just the most blunt, to the point Linux distro and that's what I enjoy about it. You never have to look two places for anything.

Desktop and phone: macOS and iOS

Smart home, Docker containers, VPS servers: Alpine Linux

Sadly the nanoPi R6S I bought came with OpenWRT preinstalled which is a very annoying OS in my eyes. Wish I had enough time to get Alpine Linux built for it.

And technically I’d use FreeBSD UNIX (huge UNIX fan!) but Docker and a lot of stuff I want in unsupported, which totally blows.

In order:

Android (home)
Windows 11 (work)
Playstation
Xbox
Windows 11 (home)
Steamdeck
iOS (work)
Switch

NixOS is a bear to set up, but it is easy to keep it running for ages since the config is declarative & irons out configuration differences better than other OS since you config will refuse to evaluate.

I am thinking of moving to SailfishOS next year if my LineageOS phone keeps acting up.

Windows 70. Percent of the time and mint linux 30 percent of the time.

But that ratio is moving in mint linux favor.

Mobile is iphone and ipad

Nobara. Because it makes gaming on Linux very easy. It's based on Fedora, and out of all the operating systems I've tried, Fedora and Nobara are the most stable on my laptop.

Windows, because my pride and joy (Paint Tool Sai) is only compatible with Windows and I love Paint Tool Sai far too much to change operating systems.

Mint.

General pickyness: Linux is a kernel, not an operating system. For example, Android and Mint are both operating systems that use Linux, but the way you interact with Android is dramatically different than the way you interact with Mint.

For desktop I'm a Linux or macOS guy. I use Fedora Workstation on my main laptop because it's been damn stable while also being up-to-date, and I like the workflow of GNOME and the flexibility Linux offers (experimenting with tiling windows managers is a recent example). I have an old MacBook with OCLP for easy access to creative software like Adobe and Ableton etc, but I find macOS takes a lot more configuration to make it comfortable -- it's not a perfect OS and it's no privacy bastion, but it sure beats Windows. I also have a relatively powerful Windows laptop I used for gaming (yes I agree, not the best choice), but I'm using it more rarely since only a few games with anticheat keep Windows necessary. I've just always felt like I have to actively fight Windows to get work done, its automatic updates are way more intrusive than they need to be; it's annoying as hell to be playing a game when suddenly the system decides it wants to download updates right now, tanking my network performance.

In the mobile world I tend to prefer Android of really any variety just because it doesn't pretend it's not a computer: file managers aren't as underpowered here as they were on iOS last I tried. More than ever I'm in the Android camp now that software update guarantees are more reasonable, and the whole texting between iPhones thing is much better after iOS 18. I'm not opposed to an iPhone in the future since they do still have great software support and iOS is somewhat more customizable now, but I'll probably sooner get a solid Android phone to run CalyxOS or GrapheneOS, that's my ideal outcome.

Honestly, aside from Windows 11 and its insanely inconsistent/unpolished UX and awful AI integrations, operating systems have been pretty damn good lately. This opinion mostly coincides with modern desktop Linux being such a joy to use now that I've found what I like, things are stable and modern, and it's just not as annoying as Windows.

Linux Mint on desktop, laptop, and home server. Doesn't hurt to have the full install on the server, and I have a monitor hooked up anyway - but makes maintenance easier with everything the same distro. Batocera on the retro gaming pc.

Android on phone, but if there was a distro for my phone I would use Linux there too. F-droid for apps where possible, but Play store for some essentials.

Desktop = Fedora

Home server = AlmaLinux

Mobile = GrapheneOS

Router = OpenWrt

Linux. I use Pop on my desktop and Arch on my laptop.

BTW, Linux+Proton is great for playing Windows-only games. The time for needing Windows for gaming is mostly past, tbh. You may often find better performance on Linux for many games, too.

Desktop: Debian testing (Linux)
Mobile: The Pixel flavor of Android

I'm simply more comfortable in Linux. It is a hacker's OS. I feel like I have full control over it and it stays out of the way. I find GNOME pretty polished and cohesive. It has come a long way.

On a fateful day years and years ago I sat and deliberated between Android and iOS. I picked Android because it works much better with Linux. I have stuck with it ever since.

I use MacOS at home as I have to support the fam.

Work is windows despite my best efforts to move to Linux, any flavor…

My laptop has macOS and Ubuntu and fedora and win11 (I have a vm problem and I enjoy it)

I wish I could use Fedora full time. I’m really open to whatever gets the work done. I just prefer software were open.

Basic ass Linux mint (xfce desktop) for my desktop. I mostly use it for video games and watching media.

Android for the phone. Gotta have those emulators (though I think you can get them on iPhone now, android is still cheaper).

I should probably do some de-googling though.

Work has us on Macs. They're.... fine. I wouldn't buy one because they're expensive and not great for games.

I tried MacOS on my work machine for a couple of years, because everyone says how easy is. It never clicked for me. It felt like the short cuts all needed another key. It was also unintuitive for me. Of course that could be because I grew up on Windows. Either way, I did not like it.

Linux is crazy easy to install and really cool that you can run a live USB so easily. It's also secure, stable, can run on garbage hardware, and has a thousand cool flavors. Intuitive and easy for (Mint, Ubuntu, etc.) common stuff. An absolute minefield to install soooo many things- if they even can work. I just want to double click shit and then run it. Much of that is on Microsoft for making things a challenge on purpose.

Windows gets more intrusive and obnoxious every year, but it runs almost everything I need.

Never really tried iOS. I don't like the idea of being locked down.

Android can do a lot of cool stuff, but gets more intrusive every year too. So I run that for now.

Some day I'll probably try some other OS on my phone, but I have less patience and time every day.

At home, I run Linux on one machine, Windows on another, hoping to cut ties with Windows entirely, but probably won't ever get there.

Linux for everything, but I've been meaning to try out BSD as well. I like that it's a built by a community with people from around the world contributing to it.

linux

Fedora 41 Workstation on my desktop, Fedora 41 KDE Spin on two old computers connected to TVs for streaming. For mobile I have an iPad (I bought for my mom, but she couldn't figure it out. She was 89 at the time.), iPhone Pro Max and my old Pixel 6 Pro I use as an Android mini tablet.

I have the iPhone because I got tired of hearing people whine about me being on Android. I then realized how much more polished apps are on iOS compared to Android.