http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/05/technology/apple-bugs/Apple's evidently being very slow and somewhat ineffective at patching security issues in its operating systems, so it no longer has the argument of being more secure.I guess now our only options for secure OSes are various Linux distros. Good news for Linux users, I guess, and ChromeOS and Android as well.

There is no safety on the web; if hackers managed to inject viruses into the mac os, they will do it on linux too, although they are probably not interested in doing so.

I can recall issues with Apple's patching policy going back at least 7 years. This is nothing new

Oh. I just saw it on the news.

Not much of a relationship between Mac and Linux. Linux seems to respond much faster than the article says Mac does, given the enormous number of potential developers. Shellshock was patched (three times for new versions of it) in 13 days after being discovered. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellshock_%28software_bug%29

The main defense Apple products had against malware was that so few people used Apple products that few people bothered to make Apple malware. Now that Apple is becoming popular...

For the most part, the future of operating systems is bleak.

Windows:
8/8.1 were crap and everyone knows it, that's why they're so cheap. There have been rumors that Windows 10 might go to a subscription-based "software as a service" business model. Some of my friends have reported Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 adding nag windows or icons to "upgrade to Windows 10" - that alone should warn people away from Windows 10. If it was any good, they wouldn't need to nag people to upgrade, oops, I meant sidegrade.
IMO, Windows 7 64-bit is the best Windows for modern hardware.

Mac OS:
Best UI, doesn't have a lot of the design problems and headaches of Windows, but you can only run it on a Mac computer and (according to this article) Apple is starting to drop the ball on fixing problems. Antivirus options are limited as well. 2 years ago, I actually did most of my Web browsing on Windows. Firefox browser with Adblock and NoScript, and 2 antivirus/antimalware with real-time protection.

Linux:
It's free, and comes with a wide array of developer tools pre-installed. But that's all the good I can say about Linux. I recently installed Ubuntu 14 LTS (Long Term Support) on a VirtualBox VM for a university class. First, it comes with this Amazon crapware that takes your searches (on the local machine) and searches Amazon with them, and it wouldn't be surprising if it datamines/records searches as well.
I uninstalled the Amazon crapware and it broke the System Settings panel. Click-and-drag works badly in the VM as well. Some video options (that I needed for my project) were improperly implemented/broken.

My previous Ubuntu (version 10) VM didn't have any of these problems. No idea about any of the other Linux distros, but I definitely wouldn't recommend Ubuntu for a while.

ChromeOS:
Mostly designed for netbooks, with most of the apps being cloud/Internet-based. Good if you're on a budget and have plenty of public Wi-Fi nearby, not so good if you want to run anything CPU/GPU heavy or anything that runs on the local disk rather than the cloud.

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And now the mobile operating systems.

iOS:
If you aren't particularly tech savvy, this is definitely the best. All programs are screened by Apple, you get the best (and original) mobile UI, and best software update support. iOS comes standard with a lot of functionality that would require third-party apps on Android. The downsides? You're locked into whatever Apple says you can install.

Android:
The good - you aren't locked into an official "app store" equivalent. The bad - Android is more vulnerable to malware, and various companies keep attacking Android with lawsuits. The ugly - Vast majority of Android apps, particularly "free" apps, have spyware or malware. Most Android phones have no access to regular software updates. The Android "app store" equivalent has a history of dropping the ball when it comes to screening apps, often bouncing out offending apps after the fact (when enough people complain or someone finds something bad in an app). Mobile service providers can also add crapware to Android phones that is near impossible to remove.

Windows Phone:
The disadvantages of iOS and Android combined with none of the advantages. You're locked into Microsoft's "app store" knockoff. On the other hand, you aren't getting something anywhere near as good as iOS. A general lack of apps in Windows Phone all but disqualifies it as a serious contender in the mobile OS market.

Mozilla Phone:
A fresh new concept - open source apps written in HTML5. As far as I know, it's a novelty that hasn't been that widely adopted yet.
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If I had known this would be the future of laptop/desktop/mobile operating systems in 2015, I would have majored in electrical or mechanical engineering instead of computer science.

Most likely just getting the coverage. The article you linked to even mentions one patching snafu from 2012.

Mac OS's main defense was the unix underpinnings and privilege system. The problem is that doesn't protect you when you have known vulnerabilities from unpatched software because Apple takes eons to release a patch.

Microsoft is pushing windows 10 because it keeps users up-to-date. It means better security, longer support, and it makes Microsoft's job a lot easier. in-place upgrades have always been not even a dent in Microsoft's revenue stream so it makes sense to offer it for free (they've always done significant discounts) when it makes their life easier and never impacted their bottom line anyway. They want to keep another Windows XP, where they have to support a legacy OS for too long because of the userbase. It's what all the other OS companies are doing too already.

Oh? Then how come it doesn't support the following modern hardware configurations natively?

• installing on a GPT partition
• USB 3.0
• SSD optimization beyond TRIM
• Secure boot support
• Proper UEFI support

And so on, and so on. Not to say that Windows 7 is an antiquated OS, but it definitely isn't the best Windows for modern hardware, because it doesn't support a decent amount of it.

Probably all problems related to your VM software. Probably didn't properly support the kernel version of Linux you were using. As for the Amazon crapware part: Microsoft forces their cloud offering on their users (bing is integrated into every corner of Windows these days) and same for Apple with their iTunes junk. Also I don't know how you borked your system disabling it. It's literally an on-off slider in the control panel to disable it.

This is complete and utter FUD

And while I'm no Windows phone fan, this is also FUD.

Yes this old news, many people laughed alot when it was announced originally, with Apple always bragging that their OS was secure and it wasnt.

Some of those are VM issues I've had as well (funny mouse behavior is a common one, at least with VirtualBox in my experience). Likewise with graphics issues. Not limited to Ubuntu; I can say for sure I've had similar issues on Arch and Kali.

Ubuntu is definitely a more commercialized OS though, with the Amazon stuff and the like. I don't really like it because with the standard desktop, it's slow, and with KDE, it crashes a lot. I use Linux Mint with KDE as my main OS and it doesn't have any of those issues, nor any kind of money-making software like the Amazon stuff--Mint isn't backed by a company AFAIK so no one's looking to profit. There are also a vast array of other distros without those problems; I believe the majority are fully community-based and hence not looking for profit.

For ChromeOS, most of what your casual user does is cloud-based and not resource-intensive nowadays. Having recently started using a Chromebook myself, all of my day-to-day stuff is easily accomplished, though the 2GB models are pushing it memory-wise.


What I see as a whole is that the future is not bleak, but less bright, for non-Linux OSes. Windows has a good fighting chance still but with Linux distros turning their eyes towards the general population, I suspect its days are numbered--Linux is simply superior for everything I've seen apart from circular-argument strengths (Windows is the main gaming platform, so everyone makes games for Windows, so Windows is the main gaming platform). Mac seems like all the advertised strengths, except the "cool" factor, are done better by Linux. Looking at the OSes which are growing in success just recently, Android and Chrome are both Linux, as well as Ubuntu laptops and the new Ubuntu phone (I'd rather see those last few with some other distro, but for that kind of thing it really has to be a company-produced one).