Likelihood to Recommend Anyone with an iPhone or iPad would benefit from having a macOS-based computer. Additionally, the learning curve for a new user is much less steep than for a Windows computer. Apple has updated its OS for 20+ years, however, still maintains the same basic functionality (turn on/off, open/close apps, etc), the same cannot be said for Windows (Windows Vista, 8, 8.1, 11).
Read full review If somebody whishes to be an IT professional, learning the basics of Linux is amust. Ubuntu [Linux] is one of the most beginner-friendly, widely supported, easy-to-use-relative-to-the-fact-that-its-still-linux OS on the market. As somebody who learned the basics of UNIX/LINUX on Ubuntu, it was a very good experience. It is customizable, has a lot of improvements over the years, and live up to be a viable alternative to any modern OS in 2021 as well.
Read full review Pros Integrates with other apple devices seamlessly Information passed between those devices is encrypted end to end (understanding that apple has the keys in some cases) Compact design Aesthetically pleasing Read full review PACKAGE MANAGEMENT. You can update everything - OS installed software, you name it with either a few clicks in a GUI or a single command. No bloatware. No need for antivirus software. Certainly the price is right. My 83 year old grandmother has been using it - and because of this I rarely need to provide tech support. But I still visit my grandmother. You can choose from a variety of user interfaces or rock it in the terminal. Generally speaking, Ubuntu is as polished an OS as any you might pay for. Read full review Cons Integration within a windows environment does require more work. Does not play well with PCL based network printers that do not also support PS. Dongles for everything Read full review The repository system could be a little better, as some of the software needed is not easily available there. Ubuntu sometimes does not play nicely or easily with some modern firmwares. Some people report slow responses with newer versions of Ubuntu, although we have not experienced any. Read full review Likelihood to Renew Experience with other Distributions.
Read full review Support Rating We did not use the managed commercial support, but instead relied on community forums and official documentation. Ubuntu is very well documented across both instructional documentation from the developers themselves as well as informal support forums [ServerFault, YCombinator, Reddit]. It's easy enough to find an answer to any question you may have
Read full review Alternatives Considered Windows 10 : Expensive, with more security problems, more difficult to keep updated and less variety of free / open source applications. Its use encourages bad information security practices. OpenSuse Linux : A different distribution at source (Suse Linux), use of rpm packages (with fewer repositories and incompatible with Ubuntu Linux dpkg packages), and whose main objective is to be a "testing ground" for its paid version / professional, SUSE enterprise Linux.
Read full review Return on Investment Apple supports their hardware longer than most manufacturers, which is good. Apple's hardware is more expensive than similar equipment competition, which is bad but offset somewhat by its longevity. Apple in an Apple world works great. Apple in a Windows world has some work to do to get things talking. Read full review Systems administration with Ubuntu is easy with little deep knowledge about it. Docs and community publications are great resources for any task you need to perform on any Ubuntu server and the organization can save several salaries of specialized sys admins in favor of more active roles. Having been an Ubuntu user for many years personally, setting up new Ubuntu servers on my organization came with zero cost for me. I just deployed one instance from my hosting/cloud provider and started working right after it was running, no need to ask support or hire new staff for these tasks. Replacing paid options with Ubuntu have also saved thousands of dollars on Windows Server licenses. I've migrated Windows/SQL Server based systems to Ubuntu/MySQL/PostgreSQL several times during my career and saved about USD 5000/year in licenses to many of them. Read full review ScreenShots