A Review of Modern Operating Systems

These days most of us likely use more than one operating system across the devices we use each day. Whether it’s Windows on a PC at work and iOS on a personal iPhone, or Mac OSX Mavericks at home and an Android phone for work, there is more variety out there now than ever before.

Windows 8.1, (and 8 and 7)

While Windows XP is still used by nearly 30% of Microsoft Windows users, Windows 8.1 is the latest and “greatest”. While Windows 7 marked an improvement over Windows Vista, Windows 8 introduced us to a new, touch friendly, “metro” design. Windows 8.1 further improved upon the progress made in 8. Windows 8.1 features the fastest start-up of any previous Windows version. Out of the box, 8.1 includes a lot of apps and utilities that include more windowing options and better help features. The Start button is back in this version and there is more harmony between the tiled Start screen and desktop. Web browsing also gets better in 8.1 with IE11. The Windows app store is impressive, but seems to lacks some big titles. Overall, Windows 8.1 sticks to Microsoft’s strategy of delivering an operating system that’s equally at home on tablets and full-power desktop PCs, while fixing many of the flaws of Windows 8.

Mac OSX Mavericks

Mac OSX Mavericks is the latest OS for Apple Mac laptop and desktop computers. OSX Mavericks features many apps that are better looking than previous versions and lots of performance tweaks. Power users who upgrade to Mavericks can get Timer Coalescing and Energy Optimized Audio Buffers. Mac owners who only pick up their laptop when their iPad battery dies can get iBooks, Maps, the improved iCloud sync with your phone. For the average user – the regular laptop users who uses Office and Chrome and maybe a little Photoshop on the side – not much has changed from previous versions. Overall, the latest Mavericks upgrade is free, it’s faster, it has a few new and improved apps. You’ll probably see your battery life improve after a few days, but don’t expect a radical rethinking of what a desktop computer can or should be — that job seems destined for a future version of iOS.

Linux

If you’re not the biggest Windows fan, you don’t have a Mac, and you want variety, open source applications and greater security, replacing your Windows OS with a Linux OS is a great option. There are many different versions of Linux available and they range from the best looking to the best for enterprise distribution and usage. Bodhi Linux is one of the most beautiful Linux distributions, while Xubuntu and Lubuntu is probably the best performing for desktop and laptops, respectively. SUSE and Red Hat continue to be the best for business and enterprise.

 iOS 7

With Apple’s iOS 7, the latest iOS operating system, iPhones and iPads got a complete “flat” design overhaul and new useful features like automatic updates to make everyday use easier. The new Control Center gives users quick access to most-used features. AirDrop and iTunes Radio are great additions too. Sometimes the flat design concept favors space over information so you might need to do more scrolling to get the info you need. Also, some new features aren’t available for older iPhones like the iPhone 4 and 4S. Overall, iOS 7′s new design makes it a compelling upgrade that completely transforms Apple’s mobile OS.

Android 4.4 “Kit Kat”

Android 4.4 “KitKat” is an important step forward for Android. The UI is refined and elegant, there are improvements to the calling and messaging side of the platform, there is a new focus on productivity, and your favorite digital assistant is brought front and center with Google Now at maturity. There is a real focus on the consumer in this latest version of Android, with several useful new features, a noticeable bump in performance, and some optimization to ensure that budget hardware is not left behind. “KitKat” is easily the best version of the platform to date, and Google has left it up to OEMs’ when it comes to rolling out the upgrades.